The IT industry is becoming more mobile as cloud services and mobile computing are increasingly prevalent, while there is a demand for mobile device projection on screens of different sizes anytime and anywhere to enable presentations and video playing. This will be a requirement for any new mobile device.
In order to help developers of mobile applications and manufacturers of mobile devices to grasp the essence of mobile solutions and technologies, Digitimes hosted the "Computex Taipei Digitimes Tech Forum 2012 - Mobile Technology" on June 6 at Taipei International Convention Center, inviting Broadcom, Nvidia, MIPS, SanDisk, Silicon Image, IFA in Berlin, JDC, IPMS, as well as academic and industry representatives to share the latest trends of multi-core processors, wireless networking, storage, video transmission, and touch control.
Prevalence of mobile videos and solutions to faster wireline and wireless transmission solutions driven by HD external output
According to Michael Hurlston from Broadcom, videos amount to 53.6% of the global network traffic, and the devices for viewing online videos are becoming increasingly diverse. Now 2.4GHz Wi-Fi no longer suffices and in 2012, 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) operating on the 5GHz band increases the speed of single-channel transmission by three times for an ordinary gateway with three trans-receiver antennas to concurrently transmit three streaming videos of 1080p at 1.35 Gbps; 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) is also compatible with the existing Wi-Fi.
According to David Kuo from Silicon Image, micro-HDMI (Type D) is suitable for smartphones and the new MHL interface is capable of 1080p output, while HDTV and cell phones can be simultaneously controlled by HDTV remote control or touch control and there is also a rechargeable power supply design for cell phones. Moreover, 60GHz wireless HD transmission features a proprietary unilateral bandwidth of 4Gbps to allow transmission of uncompressed HD videos of 1920 x1080p60 almost without any delay perceived. This is particularly suitable for interactive HD videos and game applications. The existing 2.4GHz band will not be able to continuously transmit video packets.
Multi-core, diverse, and flexible architectures for either Windows RT or Android
According to Rene Hass from Nvidia, ongoing enhancement of mobility for devices is critical to sustaining growth of the IT industry. It is Hass' forecast that a new model that integrates tablet, notebook, and cell phone appearances into one will appear and become a trendsetter. The best solution to PC mobility is the tablets with ARM architecture Tegra 3 in conjunction with Windows RT (RunTime) that supports touch control. Such new generation tablets operate as smoothly as x86 architecture mobile devices when running packaged software, browsing the web, streaming videos, or playing 3D games, but they have a longer battery life than x86 architecture mobile devices and are quiet enough because they do not require fan ventilation.
According to Amit Rohatgi from MIPS, MIPS is the first company in the world that launched the tablet CPU for Android 4.0 ICS, a leader of digital home applications, and enjoys a gradually increasing share in the market of mobile devices. MIPS now provides entry-level microAptive, medium-level interAptive, and high-end ProAptive CPUs for mobile device development based on individual manufacturers' market positioning, pricing, and product functions. Consumers, OEM companies, SoC suppliers, and telecom carriers now have even more choices because of MIPS in addition to Intel and ARM architectures.
Consumer-driven innovations from upstream to downstream of cloud
According to Dan Inbar from SanDisk, signal delay has happened to online video playing, and the issue can be resolved by adding Flash I/O to upstream servers to balance CPU and disk I/O resources; implementing bandwidth allocation transfer as well as smart cache download and smart transfer to Wi-Fi on access networks; and implementing nCache in mobile devices to speed up their operation. Flash memory companies need to simultaneously master controllers, firmware algorithm, and flash memory access to achieve system integration and make good use of the capacity strengths of wafer foundries. By doing so, they will be able to focus on the increasingly higher requirements for the capacity and speed of storage device and have a head start in developing relevant solutions.
According to IFA Director Jens Heithecker, Apple's global leadership is all associated with the company's innovation that grasps consumer needs and wants. IFA, which takes place at the end of every August or the beginning of every September at Messe Berlin, is a major exhibition and gathering for manufacturers and trade companies of consumer electronics from around the world. Heithecker admitted that Europe has to face up to the debt crises in Greek, Ireland, and Spain but such crises do not amount to an economic crisis in the whole Europe. According to Heithecker, Europe is the world's largest market of consumer electronics while IFA is the world's most important place where orders for consumer electronics are placed. The orders placed at IFA 2011 total US$4.8 billion. He invited the Taiwan media and companies to take part in IFA in order to grasp consumer needs and wants.
Demand for HMD and micro protectors brought in by LCoS and OLEDoS
According to Darwin Hu from Jasper Display, by 2015 consumers would become picky about the quality of full HD and start to pursue a better experience such as QHDTV and even UHDTV. Moreover, they would look for HD viewing anytime and anywhere. On-Silicon Microdisplays are applicable to desktops, digital cameras/video cameras and recorders, wavelength selective switches, head-mounted displays (HMD), heads-up display glasses, hologram projectors, pocket projectors, micro projectors for cell phones, projector modules of laptops, office projectors, and home theater projectors.
According to Uwe Vogel from the Fraunhofer IPMS, existing silicon display technologies are for the design of micro displays smaller than 1.3 inch and mobile projection displays, while the Fraunhofer IPMS is studying Hypoled that combines micro display and mobile projection display technologies in one. Therefore, Hypoled means "see-through micro display" and "bi-directional micro display" with camera and recorder functions.
According to Darwin Hu, an LCoS projector is easily capable of 1080p output in a viewing distance of 50-75 cm. Vogel mentioned an iSTAR project at the IPMS. iSTAR is a near-to-eye display device like sun glasses; its bi-direction silicon micro-display chip lens will be applicable to smartphone-based HMD, electronic view finders, head-mounted microscopes for engineering control and medical purposes, and military spec HMD helmets.
Participants are attentive to the trends introduced at "Computex Taipei Digitimes Tech Forum 2012 - Mobile Technology."
A total of 869 people signed up for the forum and 486 of them showed up.
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