Texas Instruments is known for its computers and semiconductors. You probably don't think of movies when you think of the longtime Dallas-based business, but the company's DLP (Digital Light Projection) technology helped change movie-going.
"This is the digital cinema DMD," DLP Cinema Senior Systems Architect Tim Ryan said holding a small square chip. "A Digital Micromirror Device."
The technology developed 25 years ago at Texas Instruments DLP takes light projected onto the chip packed with tiny mirrors, and reflects brighter, crisper images. It helped take movies from film to digital.
"The very first movie that was shown digitally was Star Wars Episode 1 in 1999," Ryan said proudly. "We fundamentally changed an entire industry, a global industry, that had been producing, distributing, and exhibiting films on celluloid for 100 years!"
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Today, nine of every 10 movie theaters in the world use Texas Instruments DLP Cinema.
"It was a game changer in terms of the quality of the environment. You had so much more vivid colors, crisper images," DLP Products Business Manager and Texas Instruments Vice President Jeffrey Marsh said. "We say the magic is in the mirrors."
On Thursday, employees celebrated the 25th anniversary with a costume contest and gathering at a theater on the Texas Instruments campus.
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"We're celebrating 25 years of magic for our cinema technology," Product & Test Manager Griselda Hermosillo said wearing a Star Wars 'Rey' costume. "So we're dressed as some of our favorite movie characters."
At Texas Instruments, a "galaxy far, far away" is close to home.
