Blockchain technology is based on programmed computation and cryptography, and its transactions are both immutable and irrevocable. The technology also makes use of peer-to-peer network (P2P) protocols to ensure that the functionality of the entire network remains highly stable even when any individual node is damaged or lost. When applied to innovative business models such as charging stations in the electric vehicle (EV) market, blockchain technology provides a stable, secure, and large-scale management system for different consumers such as vehicle manufacturers, government regulators, energy providers, banks, and the general public.
In the post-pandemic era, many countries are still facing multiple challenges in production and manufacturing, including labor and material shortages, rise in labor costs, halts in production and manufacturing as anti-pandemic prevention measures, lags in supply chain procurement, among others. The current automated mechanical production lines can no longer keep up with the market's competition, forcing manufacturers to actively seek solutions to tackle the challenges of this ever-changing environment. Through the gradual popularization and development of 5G technology, the integration of edge computing, 5G, and AI will have the greatest impact in the digitization of smart factories. It will also become one of the growth drivers in the servers market.
Smart manufacturing has been the most important trend in the manufacturing industry in recent years. Compared to the focus on individual equipment efficiency in traditional production lines, smart manufacturing focuses more on overall solutions. However, JPC believes that industrial systems are not only complex because of multiple brands coexisting on the market, but also require much higher system stability than other industries. Therefore, when building industrial manufacturing systems, special attention must be paid to the compatibility between communication protocols of different brands and the quality of first-line equipment and components, so that the system can meet the needs of clients.
With the rise of the 5G smart manufacturing trend, the volume of equipment in factories is expanding and processes are continuously being refined, which has led to an increasing demand for power and more complex power system architecture. It is becoming more and more difficult for industrial customers to rely on a single power supplier to meet the diverse power supply needs of their factories in a stable manner, which may pose a potential problem for the progress of factory smartization.
Consumer demand for higher audiovisual quality is driving the evolution of technologies behind LCD displays. Specifically, mini-LEDs, with their superior contrast and color gradation performance, have emerged in the field of display backlights. With a strong R&D foundation in the field of mini-LED technology, Macroblock recently launched a series of mini-LED backlight driver ICs that correspond to various LCD display sizes. According to Chris Chen, Macroblock backlight product manager, the company can help clients create the most suitable products tailored to the needs of different groups in the market.
Although wireless technology has become the communication medium of choice for many types of technology products in recent years, wired communication remains the preferred choice for data transmission, thanks to its stability and bandwidth advantage. Communication standards such as HDMI, PCIe, USB, etc have become essential specifications for all kinds of electronic devices in daily life. Therefore, the compatibility of wired communication standards has become a key focus of product design.
TSMC is gearing up expansion of its capacity in response to strong demand from diverse sectors. According to the foundry's CEO, TSMC will invest a total of US$100 billion in capacity expansion through 2023. In the car industry, Foxconn has made yet another move to expand its reach in the electric vehicle sector. Foxconn and Thailand's PTT have just signed an MoU for forming a JV for the production of EV in Thailand. The importance of Southeast Asia for the global supply chain is growing fast. Austria-based AT&S has just disclosed a plan to set up an ABF substrate production base in Southeast Asia.
With AMD and Nvidia debuting their new gaming GPUs, the DIY PC market particularly the high-end segment is poised to grow in the second half of the year when the latest flagship graphics cards hit market shelves. In the handset market, Apple is keen on pushing 5G mmWave technology. Over 50% of the shipments for the next-generation iPhones to be launched later this year will come with mmWave support. And TSMC has unveiled its tech development in an online symposium.
The amounts of capex set by Korea's top-three telecom operators, SK Telecom (SKT), Korea Telecom (KT) and LG U+, in 2021 and 2022, respectively, will be higher than those seen in 2020, according to Digitimes Research.
The number of Chinese makers in Apple's top-200 supplier list for 2020 is comparable to that of Taiwanese firms. But industry observers believe Taiwanese suppliers' manufacturing flexibility still give them some advantage in the Apple supply chain over their Chinese competitors. GigaDevice, who in 2020 unseated Taiwan's Winbond Electronics as the sole NOR flash supplier for Apple's AirPods, is eyeing a bigger share in the TWS device market. The annual IT tradeshow Computex has kicked off its 2021 edition - a month-long virtual event.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, investors in Thailand have turned their investment targets to enterprises in the stage of growth, resulting in a reduction in number of loans to startups in 2020 to 30 from 2019's 41, but the overall investment amount still went up from US$109 million in 2019 to US$364 million in 2020, according to a report by Techsauce.
