Taiwan General Textile Technology (TGTT) has developed Frontier cloud computing platform that helps shorten time taken in the entire process from design, production to launch of clothing items, according to company CEO Victor Chao.The process usually takes several months and quite often products are already out of fashion when they are launched, with 40-80% of the items ending up in the inventory, Chao noted.Frontier, leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) functions, enables exchange of digital textile data among all parties in the process to form a complete textile ecosystem, Chao indicated.Frontier allows suppliers to scan fabrics for cloud-based display instead of manually setting up fabric files.Frontier enables real-time communication and data exchange between textile supply chain makers, Chao said.Taiwan General Textile Technology CEO Victor ChaoPhoto: Annie Chen, Digitimes, September 2020

Taiwan Advanced Instrumentation Project (TAIP) is a project in the digital infrastructure category of the government's Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program. It aims at promoting Taiwan's R&D, manufacture and utilization of advanced instruments. According to the program's first principal investigator and Academia Sinica academician Chung-Hsuan Chen, Taiwan imports more than NT$170 billion (US$5.86 billion) worth of analytical instruments every year. In view of the enormous market sizes both at home and abroad, the Taiwan government looks to consolidate domestic research efforts to help instrumentation industry and hopes to become Asia's No. 2 exporter of advanced instruments, second to Japan.Chen pointed out two unique advantages of Taiwan's instrument industry - flourishing developments of machinery, electronics and semiconductor industries and continuing government investments into infrastructure build-up. These will provide a solid foundation for TAIP. For example, as semiconductor manufacturing moves forward into advanced process technologies, such as the 3nm node, the production efficiency heavily relies on advanced analytical instruments to conduct high-precision tests and measurements of ultra-low level impurity materials to improve yield. Such instruments that are fundamental to process technology advances may not all be readily available on the market. This is where Taiwan's advanced instrument development teams come into play. It is also the goal that the teams are striving for. This team aims to develop novel instruments taking into account both functionality and cost advantage while enabling portability to achieve on-time and on-spot analysis for expanding world market share for Taiwan's instrument industry.TAIP: Measurement technology IP protection and control software developmentYi-Sheng Wang, researcher, Genomic Research Center, Academia Sinica, currently heads TAIP. According to Wang, the program focuses on facilitating development of advanced analytical instruments including mass spectrometers, electro-optical analytical instruments and biomedical analytical instruments. It is aimed at accelerating and broadening industrial applications of research results. The category of biomedical analytical instruments generally encompasses all testing equipment used at medical institutions. Electro-optical analytical instruments are often used for illegal drug, environmental pollutant and food safety testing. Mass spectrometry is seeing important technological breakthroughs and enjoying rapid growth in application market in recent years, making mass spectrometers indispensable for scientific tests and measurements.Wang noted that the development of advanced analytical instruments hinges on technological know-how. For example, to develop an innovative and competitive product requires a group of machinery, electronics and software experts to work in collaboration, so that the protection of intellectual property is crucial. Global advanced instrument manufacturers generally develop their products by way of system integration. They protect their core products with strong patent planning or obtaining licensing from research organizations to maintain their competitive edge. Another key point is the ability to design software that performs robust and fast data analytics. As to brand name that consumers attach great importance to, it usually cannot be built overnight but can only be crafted over time.The program has generated impressive results with multiple startup firms being formed. For example, for illegal drug testing, a National Taiwan University (NTU) team has developed a portable rapid screening device and an Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) team has developed a terahertz imaging system to help the government crack down on substance abuse. For biomedical applications, an Academia Sinica team has presented a solution combining photochemistry and microscopic imaging technology to precisely capture images of specific cells, which is of great significance to biomedical and pharmaceutical researches. Moreover, an IRTI team has created an AI-enabled infrared camera system for patient care, which can actively issue alerts to reduce the chance of accidents and help boost long-term care institutions' capacity and quality. Additional research achievements include chemical analysis instruments and public safety devices, for which Academia Sinica teams are working on early-stage development and commercialization can be expected when manufacturers or brand vendors take over.Easing of regulations will invigorate the industry with resources for sustainable developmentExecuters of TAIP are making plans to enable continuing development as the program is set to complete its short-term objectives and conclude by year-end 2020. As most investors want to see a quick return on their investment, the instrument industry usually needs sustainable development. Chen suggests that the government start by easing regulations as what was done with the Act for The Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry to allow more flexible use of investors' funds and diverse sources of funding for the industry. Efforts should also be made to bridge venture capital funds with Taiwan's high-tech industries and build up connections that will bring bigger opportunities for Taiwan's instrumentation industry.Chung-Hsuan Chen, Academia Sinica academician (left), and Yi-Sheng Wang, researcher, Genomic Research Center, Academia Sinica (right)Photo: Sandy Du, Digitimes, September 2020

Following the announcement of an investment of NT$4.5 billion in Taiwan Tech Arena (TTA) in northern Taiwan for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation, Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) is also set to give a boost to emerging industries in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.Kaohsiung has been keen on developments in artificial intelligence (AI), IoT and 5G, and economics minister Mei-Hua Wang has promised to provide assistance for them to obtain resources from investors worldwide and establish experiment fields locally to help them try out their solutions.In the long run, the MOEA is looking to turn Kaohsiung into a demonstration site for services such as smart retailing, smart manufacturing, smart medical care and AR/VR, Wang said.So far, Kaohsiung has a total of 15 startup incubators, five innovation parks and 10 co-working spaces established specifically for startups. One of the parks has already recruited 30 startups that are devoted to the development of AI, IoT, blockchain and FinTech.In the next two years, the ministry will host more matchmaking activities for startups in Kaohsiung, and from 2023-2027, it will focus more on helping the startups find international investments, Wang added.

EMS giant Foxconn and leading passive components vendor Yageo have teamed up eyeing emerging applications segments, such as digital healthcare and EV. The Foxconn-Yageo alliance will seek to incoporate the two companies' resources, as well as those of their end customers. Reports about the US set to impose trade sanctions on China's biggest pure play foundry SMIC have sent the notebook ecosystem bracing for more impacts on components supply, which has already been tight due to insufficient foundry capacity in the market. And Taikwan's 8-inch foundries are expected to raise quotes in order to reflect the tight supply.Foxconn, Yageo form strategic alliance: Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) has formed a strategic alliance with passive component supplier Yageo, combining their resources to develop solutions and services for digital healthcare, electric vehicles (EV) and other emerging device applications.US sanctions on SMIC could further disrupt notebook components supply: If the US imposes trade sanctions against SMIC - the largest China-based pure-play foundry - the already tight global supply of notebook components could worsen, according to industry sources.Taiwan foundries to hike quotes for 8-inch capacity: Taiwab-based pure-play foundries will raise their 8-inch foundry quotes by more than 15% starting the first quarter of 2021, according to industry sources.

Taiwan-based Gogolook, the developer of Whoscall app that instantly identifies phone callers to prevent frauds, has cooperated with six local banks to launch a platform for users to compare personal credit loans offered by these banks, according to company co-founder and CEO Jeff Kuo.For Whoscall, Gogolook has succeeded in using AI, machine learning and big data analysis technologies to recognize phone callers, and has extended the application to the loan platform in a bid to prevent financial frauds, Kuo noted.With users providing information including desired amounts and terms of personal credit loans, personal credit conditions, the platform can quickly display information on alternative loans based on the information, including interest rates, minimum monthly repayment, handling charges, for each bank for comparison. In addition, the platform provides online person-to-person consulting services.The six collaborative banks are Cathay United Bank, KGI Bank, HSBC Bank (Taiwan), Citibank Taiwan, Standard Chartered and O-Bank.The platform has been in trial operation for over five months, during which applicants have successfully obtained over 2,000 personal credit loans exceeding NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) in total.Whoscall has accumulated over 80 million downloads, according to Gogolook. Besides Taiwan, Whoscall is available in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Brazil, Gogolook noted.Gogolook co-founder and CEO Jeff Kuo (center)Photo: Sammi Huang, Digitimes, September 2020

As remote work activities are expected to continue in 2021, notebook brand vendors are now considering adopting a dual-lenses design for their commercial models because of growing need of online meetings and presentations of products. TSMC's procurement of EUV litho equipment is expected to reach a total of 55 sets before the end of 2021 as the foundry is expanding related capacity. Meanwhile prices of LCD driver ICs and MOSFET chips may increase as a result of tight capacity at 8- and 12-inch wafer fabs.Vendors may adopt dual lenses for new commercial notebooks in 2021: Notebook brand vendors are expected to adopt twin lenses for their new commercial models in 2021 to better cash in on strong demand for work-from-home applications that are expected to linger even in the post-pandemic era, according to industry sources.TSMC EUV litho equipment purchases to top 50 sets: TSMC is expected to cumulatively purchase about 55 sets of EUV lithography equipment by the end of 2021, as the foundry is stepping up its EUV process manufacturing development, according to industry sources.Driver IC, MOSFET prices to go up amid tight foundry capacity: Taiwan's vendors of LCD driver ICs and MOSFET chips are mulling raising their quotes to reflect increased costs resulting from tight capacity at 8-inch or even 12-inch wafer fabs, according to industry sources.

A total of three sets of new video coding technologies that are being formulated by related international standards setting organizations are likely to be rolled out in 2020 that will be conducive for addressing the two shortcomings related to unsatisfied compression rates and unfair licensing mechanism of current HEVC (high efficiency video coding) technology for coding and decoding of ultra-high 8K video images, according to Digitimes Research.The new video coding standards include VVC (Versatile Video Coding) initiated by JVET and MPEG-5 EVC (Essential Video Coding) and MPEG-5 LCVEC (Low Complexity Enhancement Video Coding) prepared by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).EVC has a compression efficiency rate that is 50% higher than that of HEVE, and it allows developers to use related tools free of charge to develop EVC solutions or EVC encoders under a friendly patent authorization mechanism.Meanwhile, LCEVC utilizes not traditional encoding methods to reduce the complexity of existing encoding techniques and improve image quality. This technology enables service providers carry out software updates on existing encoding and decoding hardware architecture.Digitimes Research believes that VVC is likely to replace HEVC for 8K encoding and decoding and will be incorporated into the next generation of 8K TV video processing solutions. Since EVC and LCEVC can solve part of the licensing issue and the compatibility of related equipment, video service providers are likely to upgrade their related services optimized these two technologies.

Demand for TSMC's advanced process support has been strong. The foundry is set to move the 3nm node to volume production in 2022, with monthly output expected to reach 100,000 wafers in 2023. It remains to be seen whether Huawei - banished by the US from large parts of the IT world - could receive capacity support from TSMC again. Handset retailers in China are raising prices for Huawei smartphones that are powered by the vendor's in-house-developed, TSMC-made Kirin chips, expecting them to be out of stock soon. Meanwhile, memory module firms expect demand to pick up during fourth-quarter shopping season, but falling DRAM and NAND prices will continue to heap pressure on their profitability. TSMC to ramp up 3nm chip production starting 2H22: TSMC is on track to enter 3nm chip production with monthly output set to reach 55,000 wafers in the second half of 2022, according to sources familiar with the matter. The 3nm process output will climb further to 100,000 units in 2023.Huawei Kirin-powered smartphone prices hiking in China: Retail channel operators for Huawei's smartphones in China are hiking prices of the vendor's models powered by HiSilicon's Kirin chips that are expected to become obsolete in the wake of the US sanctions against the Chinese tech giant, according to industry sources.Memory module firms expect demand to pick up in 4Q20: Memory module makers expect end-market demand to pick up substantially in the fourth quarter of 2020, driven by e-commerce operators' year-end promotions.

TSMC is fast advancing its manufacturing processes, and it has already disclosed a plan to build a 2nm fab in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan. And if demand is strong, it may have to expand a central Taiwan fab to house more 2nm capacity, according to the foundry house's chairman. TSMC is also fast expanding its IC packaging capacity, with plans to opne two new packaging fabs in the next two years. The semiconductor is embracing opportunities in the era of 5G and AI, which Micron believes will drive memory market growth in the next decade.TSMC may expand factory site in central Taiwan for 2nm process: TSMC may expand its factory site in Taichung, central Taiwan for additional 2nm process capacity, according to company chairman Mark Liu.TSMC to open new packaging fabs in 2021-22 using 3D Fabric platform: TSMC has been stepping up the development of its advanced packaging business, with plans to open in 2021-2022 two new fabs dedicated to advanced packaging incorporating its newly unveiled 3D Fabric wafer level system integration technology platform, according to industry sources.AI and 5G to drive memory market growth over next decade, says Micron: The emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G technologies are set to generate unprecedented opportunities and productivity, which will be driving the memory market growth over the next 10 years, according to Micron Technology EVP of global operations Manish Bhatia.

Acer has disclosed it has worked with National Taiwan University Hospital to develop AI-based software to help doctors diagnose diabetic retinopathy, with the software becoming the first ophthalmological intellectual property licensed by Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration.Acer has worked with the hospital's departments of ophthalmology and internal medicine to develop the software since 2017, using 50,000 retinal images from abroad to train an AI-based diagnostic model for interpreting retinopathy. The model has then been adjusted for improvement using 10,000 retinal images of diabetes patients treated by the hospital. Interpretation by the model can reach an accuracy rate of 95%, the same level as interpretation by ophthalmologist.A major complication of diabetes, retinopathy is likely to cause blindness, according to a physician with the hospital. There are an estimated 2.2 million diabetics in Taiwan currently, and as the number of doctors is insufficient as compared with that of diabetics, the AI-based software is expected to greatly help doctors screen out retinopathy from diabetics.The hospital established in February 2020 a smart medical center, which is developing AI-based diagnostic models for interpreting mammary tumors and aortic calcification, said the hospital's superintendent Wu Ming-shiang.The AI-based software will soon be introduced to hospitals and clinics in Taiwan for clinical trials.Smart medical care is a key to transformation of Taiwan's ITC industries, Acer founder Stan Shih indicated, adding the AI-based software will be promoted in overseas markets.