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Just imagine if you could have this for your home theater system: IBM announced last week the T220, which the company is calling the world's highest-resolution flat panel monitor. Unfortunately for us, IBM says that the new display will enable "photograph-quality" imaging for science, banking, engineering, publishing, medicine, and business-critical visualization tasks, and is not likely to appear in consumer living rooms anytime soon.

But home theater fans can dream: IBM says that the T220 uses a screen that shows 12 times more detail than current normal resolution monitors, with 200 pixels per inch and more than 9 million pixels in total on its 22.2-inch screen. As the company puts it, "The T220 monitor displays photographs with a degree of realism not previously possible."

IBM's Bob Artemenko says, "The T220 monitor will promote groundbreaking new applications. It enhances the exchange of all types of visual data between machine and the end user, making it possible to see levels of clarity and resolution in electronic images previously attained only in the highest resolution printed media." Applications initially seen by IBM include medicine, weather forecasting, publishing and graphic design, banking, product development, satellite mapping, and more.

And, IBM says, the T220 has the ability to show several of the highest definition HDTV channels simultaneously, without any loss of detail. The company also says that the new technology could eventually make its way into displays for laptops, desktops, handhelds, and other computing devices, "making the viewing of video and digital photos a completely new and more realistic experience."

It all comes at a price: The SRP for the new monitor is $22,000 and the T220 will initially be available only in limited quantities. Full-scale production won't begin for "a couple of months." IBM says that the monitor features an active matrix liquid crystal display, based on research that allowed the developers to use aluminum instead of molybdenum and tungsten, metals traditionally used in displays. IBM says it has also demonstrated the use of copper in experimental displays and plans to use copper in future display technologies. "Aluminum and copper are better conductors and make low-cost, high-resolution possible," claims IBM.