Global car sales may be recovering, but carmakers are deeply concerned about shortages of automotive components. IC foundries are trying to devote more capacity to making automotive chips, but carmakers may have to wait for months before additional foundry capacity comes online to serve them later this year. Foundries have been devoting their capacity mainly to IT and 5G applications, demand for which has been robust. Taiwan's ABF substrate suppliers have seen order visibility extending further to second-half 2021, thanks partly to strong demand from major CPU and GPU vendors. Notebook vendors' growths last year might have been higher had it not been components shortages. Acer reportedly saw its commercial notebook sales more than double in the US in 2020.Foundries building additional capacity for automotive chips: Taiwan-based pure-play foundries will be expanding production capacity for automotive chips at a gradual pace, with additional output to arrive as early as the third quarter of this year, according to industry sources.ABF substrate suppliers see clear order visibility stretch into 2H21: Taiwan-based IC substrate providers including Unimicron Technology, Nan Ya PCB and Kinsus Interconnect Technology have seen the visibility of orders for ABF substrates extend to second-half 2021, promising another lucrative year for them, according to industry sources.Acer notebook sales surge in US: Acer saw its commercial notebook sales hike 119% on year in the US in 2020, according to some market observers citing research figures.

COVID-19 and the US-China trade war have combined to accelerate a split of the global supply chain in two - namely a "G2" pattern with one serving China and the other the rest of the world. Such a scenario has also highlighted Taiwan's importance.Digitimes recently interviewed Frank Yeh, vice chairman of WPG Holdings - a leading IC distributor - as the world entered 2021 with coronavirus still wreaking havoc and the trade tensions between the superpowers raging on. Yeh talked about the future of supply chains and changes to the world.Q: What upgrades to the supply chain will smartization bring?A: I can say that all manufacturing industires are customers of WPG Holdings, but I do not understand manufacturing. I have read Digitimes president Colley Hwang's book "Disconnected ICT Supply Chains" at least three times.The broken supply chains, the US-China trade war that started two years ago, and the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020 - they have combined to deal an enormous blow to the world. All the supply chains are changing. In 2019, everyone was busy running to Southeast Asia, and in 2020 they were not even able to reach there. The situation about broken supply chains will be more serious. Is this a crisis or an opportunity? Depending on how you look at it, it may be a great opportunity.What I want to do is to train myself, to train my mentality and way of thinking. What is really happening when we say the supply chains are broken? It is clear that the world's factory no longer exists. In the past, massive resources concentrated in China, from which products were delievered globally. This is changing. The G2 pattern resulted from the US-China trade war has gradually become the new normal, and the pandemic still seems to be raging on.In the traditional upstream-downstream communincation model, A may pass information directly to B, who then paases it to C. But in platform-style management, everyone shares information with each other, and nowadays with regionalization becoming the trend, digital platform management is becoming more and more important.Q: What are the changes in human lifestyles and industries that are worthy of attention in 2021?A: The concepts of remote work and co-presence will continues to be relevant. For example, online concerts and online inventors conferences. This echoes what I've mentioned before about getting "digital tools" ready to do these things. Taiwan's success in containing the epidemic has allowed study, work and social activities to remain normal without having to switch to the remote mode. But that has ironically limited their awareness of the fact that remote work and co-presence will be the new normal in the future.For companies, it is very important for managers to learn one thing, that is, managing without seeing employees. Do we pay for employees' time or employees' work results? Under the former model, employees might be late for work and get pay deducted. But if they can work from any places, what companies want are the results of their employees' work. This is the biggest change.For example, WPG's operations in the US have yet to allow employees to go into the offices. Of course the warehouses have to remain open, but offices of sales departments remain closed to employees. After the outbreak began, about 2000 WPG employees in China were unable to go into their offices starting February 1, 2020 until the end of March. And we have take note of the demographic changes - both qualitative and quantitative changes.Q: How do you see the impact of demographic changes on the industry?A: In the first half of 2020, Taiwan finally came to the point where the birth rate was lower than the death rate. According to the Ministry of the Interior, if there is no change in Taiwan's future birth plan, it is estimated that by 2049, Taiwan's total population will be less than 17 million. In light of these trends, when we talk about the issue of talent cultivation, the population size is not big enough with the people continuing aging and the number of children shrinking.These so-called digital natives have been accustomed to various digital devices since childhood and are familiar with the digital environment. Do they want to work in the same company for a long time? Or do they want to keep working for themselves? This is what is often referred to as the "slashie life" where one can get any information to do anything through digital platforms.If business leaders realize the importance of results, rather than the time employees spend on work, it is not necessary for employees to travel to Taipei (in nothern Taiwan) if they are in Hualien (in eastern Taiwan), and it is even possible for one person to serve multiple companies, and even for one company to serve multiple companies. As these global demographic changes continue to develop, we need to look at it not just for tomorrow, but for the next 10, 20 or 30 years.Q: What kind of changes will the industry face in the next 30 years and how should we deal with them?A: Since we are not just looking at tomorrow, but the longer-term future, we should also think about what we should do today at this point in time.In the past, industry competition only focused on the opponent, and all we thought about every day was the opponent's "A," and that I could respond with "A+B." But we might be able to defeat the opponent and yet end up a loser in the bigger perspective of an entire era. There have been too many such cases, such as companies focusing too much on dealing with opponents and forgetting the needs of customers. Is the future really all about competition? Are there any opportunities for cooperation? What areas should we compete in and what areas should we cooperate in? The future will be an era of coopetition. It is impossible for every company to be the industry leader, but there are still ways for others.In my opinion, companies should think about the vertical and horizontal aspects. For example, business and manufacturing areas are considered matters of vertical aspects. What is the horizontal aspects? We can think about the future era of big data. If a company hosts the main server on its own premises, then 10,000 companies means employing 10,000 server engineers? This is the horizontal aspect. I think for future logistics, we may consider the "sharing" approach, undergoing transformation to digital platforms.With the advent of the era of coopetition, coupled with the future demographic changes and new thinking, we must change in order to keep up with the times. A company is only a particular point; we must look at the bigger picture, namely how to operate an industry. WPG Holdings has been undergoing digital transformation for five years. I also think I am operating an industry.Q: How can we proceed from the perspective of electronics-related sectors?A: As an IC distributor, I have been thinking about how to help customer succeed. The core is the supply chain. There are four groups and 53 companies under WPG Holdings, and under the digital transformation strategy, we have been carrying out group optimization. We embrace the collective optimization of the value chain, all for the sake of the success of customers.Take the notebook industry as an example. There are at least 400-500 suppliers, and only through collective optimization can we have the opportunity to become a worldwide ecosystem. Through the collective optimization of the notebook industry, all relevant supply chains in Taiwan can have a grasp of the global notenook market. Just like the machinery tool industry: through multiple "lines" of several sectors the "surface" will be formed and eventually become an "ecosystem". In my opinion, underlying co-production, co-prosperity and co-creation is sharing.In the past, people sacrificed their holidays for work, or some people chose to sacrifice their jobs in order to retire early. Work and life were opposites. But if co-presence is enacted in the future, life and work can be mixed flexibly through the digital platform management. This is the so-called "workation." Even if we are in a beautiful mountain, we can still work as long as we have connection to the Internet. With networks and the clouds, everyone could work till 85 years old.Q: How can IC distributors face issues concerning regionalized supply chains and how can LaaS (logistics as a service) bring new values into play?A: The smart manufacturing supply chain is concerned with only one thing, that is, the cost resulting from time. If the time required is close to zero, the cost is also close to zero. For example, if the days of inventory are 30, they must be kept in the warehouse, and this is the cost. The semiconductor industry is committed to introducing intelligent factory automation to reduce time. These have gradually emerged as successful cases.But whether we can be of further help in the future, we always have to zero in on whether we can bring the successful experience to the next 30 years, and boldly dream about the next 30 years. For example, my personal dream is to continue working at 85, so what do I have to learn? This includes maintaining health and embracing the concept of workation.In 2020, for example, despite the challenges of the pandemic, many industries were still doing very well. For WPG, business has bene robust despite the pandemic, so what else do you need to think about? Of course, if we just look at tomorrow, it seems that we do not need to think much. But if it is 2030 or 2040 we are looking at, there will be surprisingly a lot.With the new business model of LaaS proposed by WPG, we can think of two things: first, whether the cost of transaction time can be close to zero; second, what the channel operators have to do, so that customers' transaction time can be close to zero, which may further be translated into energy savings and carbon reductions. In terms of transportation, materials are sent from WPG's warehouses to customers' warehouses, which is the traditional way. But in the future, they will be sent directly from WPG's warehouses to customers' assembly lines. Even blockchain and other technologies can be introduced.WPG distributes products from about 250 companies. Its warehouses receive shipments from around the world every day. They have to check the items and label them before storing them. After receiving orders, the warehouses need to prepare the items and ship them to clients, who, after receiving the shipments, will have to spend three days unloading and checking them. They will have to spend another three days moving the items to the assembly lines, where the items have to be checked and confirmed again.The warehouses and production lines belong to different departments, and every time you place an order, it necessarily involves time costs. It doesn't matter whether you employ manual labor or automated assembly lines; it's the same. It's particularly difficult to do inventory accounting for ICs that are so small. This is the current situation.But if the transaction time is shortened to zero, customers can reduce costs. IC distributors will not need to carry out the process of putting items into cartons and so on; they can send the items directly to the assembly lines. Are there big customers doing so? So far, we've only reached "particular points," so to speak. The key is how we can convince others to come on board, so we will continue promote the concept of coopetition.The chief operating officer of a client company pointed out that the LaaS model seems "too crazy to be possible." It is a very difficult approach, but the clients admits that it could be beneficial for clients.WPG Holdings vice chairman Frank YehPhoto: Michael Lee, Digitimes, January 2021

Demand for notebooks remains robust, thanks to the stay-at-home economy. Notebook ODMs expect orders to be stable in first-half 2021, and their order visibility for the second half of the year is getting clearer. In the handset sector, demand for 5G smartphones is also picking up. To enhance its competitiveness, MediaTek is expected to upgrade two of its mobile processors for the entry level to midrange segments later this year. Vietnam is a fast growign economy. Digitimes recently interviewed Tien Nguyen, founder of Vietnam-based investment platform Wiziin trying to understand what opportunities the Southeast Asian country offers.ODMs see notebook order visibility extending in 2H21: Thanks to the stay-at-home economy driven by the coronavirus pandemic, notebook shipments are expected to stay robust in 2021, with ODMs see stable orders for the first half of the year and visibility for the second half is also becoming clearer, according to sources from the notebook upstream supply chain.MediaTek to roll out upgraded 5G chips in 1H21: Judging from MediaTek's product roadmap, the chipmaker is expected to unveil the upgraded versions of its Dimensity 800 and 700 5G SoC lineups in second-quarter 2021, according to industry sources.Vietnam investment opportunities: Q&A with Wiziin CEO Tien Nguyen: Many startups are confused about how to find angel investors, while investors are discouraged by the lack of transparency of information about startup investments. Nguyen Ngoc Tien (aka Tien Nguyen), founder and CEO of Wiziin Vietnam, saw this pain point and created a platform to connect investors with startups and quality SMEs, using artificial intelligence (AI) to help startups manage investor relationships and find potential investors, while giving investors real-time and accurate information of startups to help manage their portfolio.

True wireless stereo (TWS) devices were highlighted at the recently concluded online CES 2021, as many handset brands, acoustic device suppliers and startups showcased their latest products at the event.Most TWS devices presented at the fair emphasized their respective ANC (active noise cancellation) capabilities, improved call noise reduction functionality and power efficiency, Digitimes Research has found.The increasing application of ANC technology has increased the number of microphones used by each monaural earphone to over three from 1-2 used previously, improving communication quality and transparency mode.Thanks to increasing competition, prices of ANC-enabled TWS have been lowered to the US$150-segment, enabling more consumers to access ANC experiences, which in turn helps expand TWS market share.Smartphone vendors are launching TWS devices to expand their handset ecosystem, emphasizing that their TWS products deliver a consistent experience with their handsets in terms of outer appearances, colors and designs.Traditional acoustic device makers, including JBL and Bose, are developing TWS devices to expand their portfolios by optimizing their prowess for acoustic products with integrated functionalities such as voice assistance.Most startups focus on target customer groups rolling out TWS products with enhanced performance, such as high water-proof and head-motion sensing capabilities.

Many startups are confused about how to find angel investors, while investors are discouraged by the lack of transparency of information about startup investments. Nguyen Ngoc Tien (aka Tien Nguyen), founder and CEO of Wiziin Vietnam, saw this pain point and created a platform to connect investors with startups and quality SMEs, using artificial intelligence (AI) to help startups manage investor relationships and find potential investors, while giving investors real-time and accurate information of startups to help manage their portfolio.In a recent online interview, Digitimes talked to Nguyen to understand what value this new platform may create for the new venture ecosystem.Q: Could you briefly introduce your background? And what brought you to start your entrepreneurial journey?A: My background is business strategy. And in 2010, I started my first project in e-learning. And we provide the Mass Open Online Courses (MOOC) services for universities. After that startup, I created a new one in Hong Kong, offering cards for loyalty programs for, say, members of Chamber of Commerce. At that point of time, that businesses was very promising, because people used physical cards, but we offered them digital cards with which they could redeem their loyalty rewards. We then exited from this business to a Japanese investor.And then I created my third venture, an outsource platform for software. The Vietnamese engineers of that platform were excellent, and we offered good prices. The outsourcing industry bloom at that point of time allowed us to expand and invest more in other projects in Internet of Things (IoT) and social network.And in 2016, I got a scholarship from the Irish government to study in Ireland in strategy. Therefore, my main academic background is business strategy and military strategy. After that master's program, I went to Beijing, and did a project as a strategic researcher. At the same time, I remained an entrepreneur, I opened companies in Ireland and in England, respectively, both focusing on artificial intelligence and big data.At that point of time, by doing projects with my professors in University College Dublin and the Silicon Dock in Ireland, I realized the real roles and interactions of innovation-based startups and VCs. So I joined Act Venture Capital, which managed a fund of EUR500 million, backed by the European Central Bank. We invested in renewable energy projects, in biotech, and tech companies. I managed that for four years. And then I came back here in Vietnam, but I remain a limited partner (LP) of the firm.I realized that there is a gap in investment in the Asia Pacific region. It is also very difficult to do due-diligence because information sometimes is not very transparent, and not accurate. However, as an investor, we need to release the money. Keeping the money in our pocket is a waste. So that's why we try to narrow the gap by creating Wiziin. Wiziin is an investment platform where we try to collect transparent and accurate information from startups and investors and make them available real-time. And we not only have the matching services to provide for both, we also provide the tools. It costs startups a lot of time to maintain investor relationships to raise funds. Wiziin helps them maintain investor relations on the platform. Startups can focus on their daily operation activities, but when they need to raise funds, they can use Wiziin to find appropriate investors. And for the investors, by using the investor dashboard, they can keep track of whichever startups in their portfolio.I believe that we can create more options for both - not just for investors but also for entrepreneurs.Q: How does AI come to play at Wiziin? How do you make AI work for your platform?A: After years of experience working in big data and AI projects, as an investor, I understand that the first stage of AI should be data. When we try to find one good enough startup, we scan through thousands of startups, and do tons of work just to find the right ones. I realized that some of our analysts, sometimes they get lost in the job, and sometimes they are a little bit biased, when they try to do the initial screening for the startup.So, first, we gather data big enough for analysis. We have got more than 60,000 Vietnamese SMEs data ready for the platform. I believe in the future there will be more because we will expand coverage to entire Asia Pacific region. Why SME? Because in the region the number of SMEs is huge. And with that data, we need to calculate and analyze everything, but it is impossible to do so much work. So, we developed an AI bot that can program themselves. So, the bot programs itself every day by gathering data. When SMEs upload their data to us, such as financial data, operational data and founders' data, we collect everything with high level of privacy standards in order to fuel the investment decision making process.We collect four kinds of data: first, the background of the founding team. The second one is the technology that they use. Do they have patents, licenses? Anything like that. The third thing is market data, about the market and their market share. And the fourth is financial data: revenues, earnings, how much money the founders are putting into the company, etc. We also try our best to collect and analyze data from reliable third parties, like the government.After some analysis, our AI bot will generate an evaluation. So, through time we believe that our valuation will be as close as the valuation that happens in real life. And we try to introduce a kind of machine learning method so that the bot can program itself every day to keep it accurate. That transparent information can assist the decision-making efficiency for investors, because sometimes the investors do not really know what they like. Sometimes they got some policy or criteria to screen investments, but when they make a decision, sometimes it's very intuitive. So, we need a tool to take care of the SMEs and startups and also the buyer side and learn about their behavior. Only behaviour reflects investment decisions.Q: Can you explain more about learning the behavior? Also, do you let investors set up their own preferences?A: The backbone of our platform is that we learn from behavior. So we collect the historical behavior of the investor. For example, I got a case study, which is a local investor. We analyzed hundreds of cases that she already invested, and we realized that 80% of her portfolio has had something to do with sustainable environment or helping women in society.We learn from that, and then we can see she is a social-impact investor. She never told us about it, she probably had never realized that she wanted to invest in impact investment. But now we learn from that behavior. And then we suggest a list of companies heavy with social enterprises. We also have the features that investor can customize. But at the end of the day with the tons of data, it's better to let the AI bot do the job. Investors can set their customization, but that may not be necessary. But it's also the options they may choose.Q: So right now, your focus is still on Vietnam. Do you have plans for future expansions?A: Yes, we have focused on Vietnam. And our next strategy is to open this platgofrm for European investors. We also have plans for expansions in Southeast Asia by the end of 2021, so we can pull in more investors in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Now we have some Indonesian SMEs on our platform and some from India. In 2022, if it goes smoothly, we hope to introduce the financial market, where we can introduce more options for investors. For example, investors currently can only invest in equity, like they can buy equity from SMEs, but in 2022 we hope that we can offer convertible notes, which means they can give loans to the SMEs and can convert to equity if the KPI do not match. Or we can create a kind of lending services from investors for SMEs with a suitable interest rate. But for that we will focus on Asia Pacific, because the SMEs in Vietnam may be not as many as those in the whole region; it's true also in terms of the number of investors. Especially the investors in Vietnam mainly are the government and some big corporate venture capital funds; there aren't many real investors with huge amounts here yet. The startup ecosystem here is: within more than 110 active funds, Vietnamese investors contribute 25%, another 25% from Singapore, and 17% from the US. In the future the numbers of European, Korean and Chinese VC will rise.On the other hand, we also see the importance of converting the individual traditional investor to venture investment, so that they can have more investment options with more risks and more rewards. This market helps us to scale, especially when we focus on Asia Pacific. So we must focus more on Asia Pacific in the next three to five years for enough volume of the market.Q: I see. So the SMEs you're referring to is not only the startups, you mean they can also be on the investor side?A: Yes, the SMEs mean those we connect from both sides and we work with as a platform - we work with stakeholders and investors. SMEs do not mean only startups. Startups are just a portion of it. We also aim at SMEs that can or want to integrate innovations into what they do, and SMEs that need funding. Even though they are traditional, they know that they want to have new ways of business, which we can help. So, the whole system is for small and medium enterprises, not only startups.Q: I suppose there are many hidden champions - which may be family businesses, but are very competitive in their technologies - that could be discovered by your platform. Is that your purpose of including SMEs which are not startups into your platform?A: Yes. Because for an economy like Vietnam, we don't have many tech firms yet, and we have more traditional enterprises. We need kind of synergies of both. It's not enough to have startups only; we have SMEs that know how to do business with a brand, have know-how, or need funds to grow their businesses. Many startups are good at technology, know about innovation, young, strong, but do not have enough experience in the market. So we want the whole ecosystem that can create synergies for themselves.Q: What is Vietnam's startup landscape right now? And how can both sides create synergy to optimize the value of collaboration?A: The Vietnamese startup ecosystem is quite young and has a lot of potential. Back in 2008, American firms like IDG venture invested in Vietnamese ICT companies, but they invested in software companies mostly. But now Samsung and Philips have set up factories here, and later this year Apple will also be investing here. I must say that this is the time of doing technology business. The government has encouraged this a lot; they put it into the Five-Year Economic Plan. And what Vietnam has now is the capability to make software, and capability of using some designs for hardware and mass production. But in the next 10 to 15 years, I would say that Vietnam will have the ability to design the hardware, semiconductor, and similar stuff. So, invest now; we know these businesses will bear fruit in the next five or 10 years. And the startup ecosystem will be crowded very soon, because after Vietnam and EU signed the Free Trade Agreement, European VCs are now aware of this market and will want to jump on the bandwagon here, like Japan. The Japanese also have VCs around here. They have some tractions in this market. So, as I will say this is the right time for investors to get into the market. And as an investor, we can consider Vietnam as a player with the ability of creating high value products, not just a market with a huge population. A population of more than 90 million is remarkable, so there is great potential that will materialize in the next five or 10 years.Q: Can you talk more about Vietnam's design capability?A: We're talking about the next 10 to 15 years. In the case of eSilicon (which designs and manufactures digital CMOS and finFET ASICs chips), they are based in Silicon Valley, but 80% of their engineers are Vietnamese. And they have managed to sell the company at US$216 million to Inphi. They hire Vietnamese engineers for design work and then they send those engineers to Silicon Valley to work for the mother company. I believe that in the next 10 to 15 years, when these engineers want to return and contribute to Vietnam, that is the right time for a wave of hardware creation and production.And there's a company that we work with - Akselos.About 90% of their engineers are Vietnamese. It is an Internet of Things (IoT) company that creates the world's fastest and most advanced engineering simulation technology. So normally, if you have a failed wind turbine in the sea, it will take more than three weeks to send the engineer up, take it down, and then fix it.Akselos has a solution, which takes just three hours: they can detect everything that happened via sensor data, and send the engineers up to fix it. So Akselos has US$10 million from Shell as a grant. And that's a very interesting case about a Vietnamese engineers that can work for a global firm. So I believe in the human resources and entrepreneurial spirit, especially in the ability and the ambition of the founders. We can find good talent here. We don't have advanced technology yet, but we will in a very near future.Q: How can Taiwan and Vietnam work together to create synergy?A: In my opinion, let's have a look at the strengths and weaknesses. We must say that Taiwanese technology is remarkable in the world, everybody knows that. But there are limitations of the island. I seem similarities between Ireland, where I lived several years, and Taiwan. In Ireland, they just have five million people. But Ireland has great industry, so we invested in the technology companies located in the Silicon Dock in Dublin, continental Europe and America.And investment will be the key for Taiwan, to reach new markets, to create more value and create more jobs. So I believe that investment in a growing country is what Taiwanese companies should have a look at. I believe that Taiwanese firms can invest in technology in Vietnam, Indonesia, in the ASEAN region. So people can see the value that Taiwanese company can add to those economies. The Taiwanese companies then can own some pieces of the bigger pie. Not limited to the Taiwanese pie but enjoy the pie of the whole region. What is Taiwan's advantage? I believe that is the advanced technology, especially hardware, and stable financial resources.This can be suitable for the ecosystem in Southeast Asia. The key is investment in technology around this region. And also, in the next five or 10 years, I believe that we can be a place to mobilize investments to other countries. Because the FTA that we have signed with other countries, there are hot money chasing after technology, so we can also mobilize the investments from Vietnam to some companies in Taiwan and create more jobs. For Taiwan, investing overseas is the key.Wiziin CEO Tien NguyenPhoto: Company

Weaker-than-expected sales for the iPhone 12 mini in the US and Europe reportedly has prompted Apple to have its manufacturing partner, Pegatron, reduce production for the smartphone model. Competition in the handset remains as intense as ever, and processor vendors are keen to secure orders from smartphine vendors on the one hand, and capacity support from the upstream, particularly from the semiconductor sector. Qualcomm reportedly has reached an agreement with TSMC for the foundry house's next-generation manufacturing processes. Many companies in the semiconductor supply chain have been running at full or tight capacity, including foundry house PSMC.Pegatron sees slowdown in orders for iPhone 12 mini: Pegatron has seen a slowdown in orders for the iPhone 12 mini as sales of the model in the US and Europe are affected negatively by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to industry sources.Nvidia, Qualcomm reportedly seeking TSMC support for next-generation manufacturing processes: Nvidia and Qualcomm reportedly have already reached agreements with TSMC for capacity support from its next-generation manufacturing processes, and with orders from Intel, Apple and AMD, the Taiwanese foundry house is expected to enjoy growth from 2021 to 2025, according to sources from the semiconductor industry.Powerchip runs 12- and 8-inch fabs at nearly full utilization: Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing (PSMC) has run its 12- and 8-inch wafer fabs at nearly full capacity utilization, according to the Taiwan-based foundry.

Strong demand from various product sectors and tight supply from chip vendors, DRAM pricing is expected to stay robust through third-quarter 2021 before correction occurs in th elast quarter of the year. Tight capacity is troubling the semiconductor ecosystem across different sectors. GaAs foundry AWSC is looking to raise quotes for its 6-inch fab quotes to reflect strong demand amid tight supply. Meanwhile, Apple reportedly will upgrade the camera specs for its next-generation iPhones to be launched this year. All new iPhone models for 2021 are said to be coming with sensor-shift stabilization technology.DRAM prices to rise through 3Q21: DRAM prices are expected to rise through the third quarter of 2021 before heading for a correction in the fourth quarter, according to industry sources.GaAs foundry AWSC raises quotes: GaAs foundry Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Company (AWSC) has notified its clients about an around 10% hike in its 6-inch foundry quotes, according to industry sources.Next-gen iPhones to all feature sensor-shift stabilization technology: Apple's next-generation iPhones slated for launch in the second half of 2021 will all come with sensor-shift stabilization technology, according to industry sources.

Digital transformation of the manufacturing sector driven by Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and autonomous driving enabled by Internet of Vehicles (IoV) are key focus areas of today's industrial development and they offer tremendous business opportunities. In particular, with 5G commercialization kicking off, vendors have high hopes for the explosive market potential to be ignited by 5G, featuring low latency and high-speed data transmission.However, flourishing market developments also introduce rising cybersecurity risks to the diversity of connected devices. There have been frequent reports about manufacturers under cyberattacks. It is foreseeable that cybersecurity risks will only multiply when the Internet of Everything (IoE) era is here. Accordingly, both suppliers that look to capture preemptive IoT opportunities and manufacturers that want to undertake digital transformation cannot afford to overlook the importance of how to meet the latest cybersecurity requirements.During a recent interview, TUV NORD management gave an in-depth look into IEC 62443, a series of standards aimed to address the security of industrial automation and control systems (IACS), Automotive Software Performance Improvement and Capability Etermination (ASPICE), which provides the framework for software development and capability test in the automotive industry, and ISO/SAE 21434, which provides standardized cybersecurity engineering elements for vehicles. TUV NORD hopes to keep vendors abreast of the latest standards and enable them to begin early preparation and to foster a cybersecurity culture so that they can capture rising opportunities and ensure sustainable success.Becoming the target of cyberattacks, manufacturers must deal with IACS cybersecurity threatsAccording to David Lin, Senior Technical Manager, Industrial Service, TUV NORD, manufacturers have always focused on safety, making efforts to prevent equipment failure from causing harm to human safety. However, when factory machines now become connected to networks, manufacturers have to start taking into consideration how security will affect safety. IEC 62443 was established with an aim to address this issue. It provides a set of standards for IoT applications that complement what was missing from operational technology (OT) security frameworks in the past. The IEC 62443 standard is different from the Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (referred to as Common Criteria or CC), which the IT industry has long been practicing.Jack Liao, Senior Manager, Product Certification, Industrial Service, TUV NORD, added IEC 62443 makes it clear that it is aimed to ensure the availability of critical infrastructure such as harbors, power plants, docks and airports and prevent cybersecurity breaches from disrupting services. It is not the same as ISO 27001, which is a specification for an information security management system that highlights data confidentiality.This is also why the EU is strongly promoting IEC 62443 as IACS standards. When cyberattacks are launched against a country, it is imperative that infrastructure services maintain continuous operation without interruption. The same is true in the case of Taiwan, nicknamed Silicon Island. Should the semiconductor supply chain that Taiwan takes great pride in fall under cyberattacks, the global market will feel the impact.This sheds light on the importance of IEC 62443 and the challenges it is intended to address. Within the vast scope of IACS cybersecurity, IEC 62443 highlights "defense in depth," a multi-layered defense mechanism with several levels of security requirements distributed throughout the system from the outer layer management to the core product technology. More specifically, taking network devices for example, IEC 62443 specifies requirements for each of the seven layers of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, enabling all-round protection against any potential cybersecurity threat.IEC 62443 includes four parts - General, Policy and Procedure, system and Component. Taiwan-based manufacturers have to pay attention to establishing a management system that guarantees the security of the connected devices and minimizes the risks of cyberattacks. With global IACS manufacturers taking the lead in obtaining IEC 62443 compliance certification, Taiwan-based IACS manufacturers have to follow suit so as to be able to enter the global market and capture the next wave of opportunities. In the meantime, they also need to build up IEC 62443 compliant development processes and create IEC 62443 compliant products.David Lin noted that although parts of the IEC 62443 standard are still under development, the quantity of certificates issued worldwide has increased from three in 2019 to more than 50 in 2020, indicating the new standard is growingly accepted. With EU mandating IEC 62443 compliance for all infrastructure equipment by year-end 2023, IEC 62443 will become widespread and vendors should take early action and get a closer look at IACS cybersecurity.Three main automotive electronics standards ensure information security and functional safetyAmong automotive network security standards, the Cyber Security Management System (CSMS) and ISO/SAE 21434 are two new sets of standards. According to Jack Liao, CSMS and ISO/SAE 21434 can be considered as extensions of IEC 62443. CSMS focuses on the management system while ISO/SAE 21434 addresses the technology and development process.In line with the spirit of IEC 62443, CSMS and ISO/SAE 21434 also highlight availability and defense in depth with an aim to ensure cybersecurity for automotive networks. CSMS is set to go into effect in January 2021. EU will mandate a certified CSMS for approval of new vehicle types from 2022 and for first registrations of all existing vehicle types by 2024.As to ISO/SAE 21434, which looks at cybersecurity engineering and the entire development process, there is currently only a draft version as IEC 62443 is still under development. The finished version is not expected until the first half of 2021. Nevertheless, with automakers strongly promoting ISO/SAE 21434, all automotive electronics component suppliers will have to get ready to meet their customers' requirements.Apart from automotive network security, automotive electronics suppliers also need to take functional safety standard ISO 26262 and ASPICE into consideration.David Lin thinks ISO/SAE 21434, ISO 26262 and ASPICE are the three indispensable elements to Taiwan-based suppliers looking to foray into the automotive electronics market.In practice, ISO/SAE 21434 and ISO 26262 focus more on the methodology while ASPICE provides a framework that connects the development process. As such, suppliers are advised to first incorporate the ASPICE process and then based on that, introduce the ISO/SAE 21434 and ISO 26262 frameworks to reap the biggest benefit.Jack Liao added that ISO/SAE 21434 and ISO 26262 are similar in that they are both based on a V-model as a reference process model for the different phases of product development. The difference is that the former targets information security and the latter functional safety. As software will play a critical role in autonomous driving in the future, if suppliers develop software using the ASPICE process, they will be able to ensure robust security for the entire automotive electronics system. Taiwan-based automotive electronics suppliers including developers of IC chips, software, modules and subsystems all need to follow ISO/SAE 21434, ISO 26262 and ASPICE to build their products in accordance with their product's characteristics.In conclusion, Jack Liao emphasized that IEC 62443, ISO/SAE 21434 and ISO 26262 are all established with an aim to drive security policy formation and foster security culture. This has to be a full-scale effort by every level of the corporation from top to bottom. Only by doing so can a corporation internalize cybersecurity awareness instead of just using the security certification to penetrate into the market.As a wide variety of IoT applications reach maturity over the next few years, cybersecurity incidents will skyrocket. It should be noted that all these cybersecurity standards will go into effect by 2024. It is essential that suppliers take early action and actively build up a cybersecurity culture to enable themselves to overcome future security challenges and capture rising opportunities.Jack Liao (right), senior manager of Product Certification and David Lin (left), senior technical manager, Industrial Service, TUV NORD

As shortages of components continue to haunt the semiconductor industry, LED chipmakers are now looking to raise their product quotes, which will drive downstream LED lighting product vendors to also increase their prices to reflect the costs. Meanwhile, Taiwanese IC design houses have seen their supply being seriously constrained by foundries' insufficient capacity, while backend houses extending their delivery time will also have some effect. Server shipments, however, are expected to enjoy double-digit on-year increases in 2021 thanks to robust demand for cloud computing services.LED chipmakers, downstream vendors raising prices: LED chipmakers in Taiwan and China have seen their delivery lead times extend, and have raised quotes for some of their products particularly non-blue light LED chips, which in turn has also driven downstream LED lamp vendors or illumination solutions providers to hike sales prices to reflect increased materials costs, according to industry sources.Taiwan IC design houses see supply constrained: Taiwan-based IC design houses have seen their supply constrained by tight foundry capacity, as well as longer delivery times at backend houses, according to industry sources.Taiwan server makers eyeing double-digit increases for 2021 shipments: Taiwan-based server makers including Quanta Computer, Inventec, Wiwynn, Mitac Computing Technology and Foxconn Technology are optimistic about their business prospects this year with expectations that their 2021 cloud server shipments will see double-digit on-year increases, according to industry sources.

Because of Apple's promotion of UWB (ultra-wide band)-enabled devices, applications based on UWB technology have increased and have a broader coverage, according to Digitimes Research.Apple has adopted the UWB technology for iPhone 11 and 12 series, Apple Watch 6 and HomePod mini, while Samsung Electronics has launched UWB-enabled smartphones including the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra and the Galaxy Flip 2 and China-based Xiaomi has also offered a UWB-enabled smartphone model, Digitimes Research indicated.However, Apple seems to be uninterested in joining UWB Alliance or FiRa (fine ranging) Consortium but prefers Car Connectivity Consortium in which it is expected to promote addition of UWB technology to digital car keys.Other China-based smartphone vendors including Oppo and Vivo are expected to adopt UWB technology for their flagship models.NXP Semiconductors, at its NXP Connects 2020 taking place in the Netherlands in October, presented scenarios of applying UWB technology and urged standardization of UWB specifications.STMicroelectronics and US-based semiconductor maker Qorvo have obtained UWB patented technologies via merger acquisition.