The Plasmatron, or technically plasma addressed liquid crystal (PALC), is a color television display technology developed by Tektronix and Sony in the 1990s. PALC displays combine rows formed from liquid crystals with columns formed from plasma cells, the latter replacing the transistorized switching in a conventional LCD. Although PALC was successfully developed, thin-film transistor based LCD devices were improved which offset PALC's advantages. PALC development has been largely abandoned since the early 2000s.