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Flat Panel Display

The PowerBook computer has a built-in color flat panel display that is 14.1 inches across, measured diagonally. The display contains 1024 by 768 pixels and can work with up to millions of colors. The display is backlit by a cold cathode fluorescent lamp (CCFL). The display uses TFT (thin-film transistor) technology for high contrast and fast response.

The display also supports 640 by 480 and 800 by 600 resolutions. The graphics controller IC includes a scaling function that expands displays with those smaller resolutions to fill the screen. Scaling up of smaller displays also reduces the pixel resolution of the display, as shown in Table 3-10.

The scaling function is available only when the internal flat panel is the only active display. When the internal display and an external monitor are both operating and mirror mode is selected, both displays show full-sized images only when the display resolution for the external monitor is set to the standard resolution: 1024 by 768. Both displays can operate with other resolution settings, but in mirror mode, one of them will have a display that is smaller than the full screen and has a black border around it. With the resolution for the external monitor set to 640 by 480 or 800 by 600, the image on the internal display is smaller than the screen. For resolution settings larger than 1024 by 768, the image on the external monitor is smaller than the screen.

When the flat panel display and an external video monitor are operating at the same time, less video memory is available for each, so the maximum pixel depth at the largest image sizes is less. These modes and restrictions are summarized in Table 3-10.