Toshiba and Matsushita Electric Industrial are to begin manufacturing next-generation displays for use in mobile phones and devices, at their joint plant by the second half of 2009.

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co, the Japanese electronics makers’ joint venture set up in 2002, plans to invest about 15 billion yen ($140 million US Dollars) to make small and medium-size organic light-emitting diode, or OLED displays.

OLEDs use light-emitting organic compounds similar to those found in fireflies. TVs using OLED panels don’t require a backlight, and can be made thinner than those based on liquid crystal or plasma displays.

Company spokesman, Toshiyuki Yoshida, said that the investment is in anticipation of a move to the new technology from the now more common liquid crystal displays. He added that the investment was an estimate, and stressed that the details had not yet been decided.

AMD has launched the Phenom™ X3 8000 series triple-core processors are designed to improve multi-threaded application performance over dual-core processors at the same clock speed.

“In 2007, AMD committed to delivering AMD Phenom triple-core processors in Q1 2008 and today the company makes good on that promise,” said Bob Brewer, corporate vice president, strategic marketing, AMD.

“AMD understands that today’s PC applications are best accelerated with a range of multi-core products from quad- to triple- to dual-core processors, and that’s why we now deliver the broadest multi-core desktop lineup in the industry.”