Demand for servers and notebooks has been fueled by stay-at-home needs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which neverthess is disrupting production, logistics support, and labor supply, preventing components and chip suppliers from catching up with the pace of orders. Asustek says chips and components supply for notebooks remain tight. Asustek co-CEO Samson Hu notes that the stay-at-home economy has been significantly boosting sales for notebooks, but whether the momentum will continue in the third quarter remains questionable. Rigid PCB makers have the same worry about the notebook maket in the second half of the year.Components and labor shortages continue to haunt server supply chain: Despite clients' strong short lead-time orders, the server supply chain is currently facing shortages of both components and labor, hindering their shipments in the second quarter, according to industry sources.Asustek sees tight supply of notebook components: Coronavirus lockdowns in several Southeast Asian countries have disrupted supply of chips and components for notebooks and although the shortages have significantly improved recently with the countries beginning to ease some of the restrictions, related supply is still rather tight at the moment, according to Asustek Computer.Rigid PCB makers may see weak momentum from notebooks in 2H20: Despite a ramp-up in short lead-time orders for notebook applications, most Taiwan-based rigid PCB manufacturers are expected to see their annual revenues decline in 2020 as notebook-related shipment momentum may weaken significantly in the second half of the year, according to industry sources.

Electric bus maker Tron-e Technology will begin to ship electric bus chassis to Indonesia at the end of May 2020 and then India after the country lifts lockdown restrictions, according to the company.Tron-e said it has cooperated with electric bus dealers and/or assemblers in Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore to cope with local regulations concerning electric bus operations. It will first obtain certification for its electric buses in a client's market before the client places orders for models on demand, Tron-e noted.Based on conditions of electric buses running in China, as temperatures rise by 10 degrees Celsius, service lives of battery packs will decrease by 50%, Tron-e indicated. To cope with high temperatures in Taiwan, Tron-e has developed battery packs with a liquid cooling system to prolong their service lives, Tron-e said, adding such battery packs can handle high-temperature environments in Southeast Asia.An electric bus chassis (front) made by Tron-e TechnologyPhoto: Company

Having made its debut in the Taiwan market in mid-2019, Singapore-based digital-based telecom service provider Circles.Life is ready to offer new mobile tariff plans and new services to local clients including digital finance, according to company sources.The MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) also aims to achieve its goal of securing a total of three million subscribers for its tailor-made and non-contractual mobile services in the local market in three years.As compared to the similar services it launched in Singapore at the initial stage, the number of subscribers Circles.Life has secured over the past 10 months in Taiwan was 25% higher than that it had in Singapore, and the number of Taiwanese patrons who have already visited its website has exceeded four million, according to Dick Lin, president of Circles.Life North East Asia.Circles.Life currently has nearly 88% of its users in Taiwan subscribe to an unlimited data tariff plan and it has also achieved a high point for its NPS (net promotor score) and customer satisfaction rate that are both higher than the industry's average in Taiwan, Lin said.For the next stage of its development in Taiwan, Circles.Life is to extend its mobile services to include digital finance, gaming, and recommendation of exclusive events related to telecom services, Lin said, noting that it is now in talks for possible cooperation with two major financial service firms in Taiwan.

Taiwan plays an increasingly important role for Micron Technology, which is ramping up production for its DDR4 DRAM chips built using 1znm process technology at its fab in Taichung. Meanwhile, robust demand for enterprise-use notebkks in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has given notebook chip suppliers clear order visibility through third-quarter 2020. And despite the pandemic creating pains for the handset market, VCSEL chip demand for 5G applications and smartphones is believed to be heading towards stable growth in the long term.Micron ramping 1znm DRAM chip output in Taiwan: Micron Technology has gradually scaled up production of DDR4 DRAM chips built using 1z-nanometer process technology at its factory site in central Taiwan, according to sources familiar with the matter.Commercial notebook chips order visibility clear through 3Q20: Taiwan-based IC design houses continue to see an influx of additional orders from major brand vendors, with clear order visibility for diverse niche and peripheral chips extending to late third-quarter 2020, according to industry sources.VCSEL chips demand on track for stable expansion: Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser chip demand for 5G base station equipment, networking devices and even optical communications applications has got on track for stable expansion, serving as long-term revenue support for the supply chain, according to industry sources.

Taiwanese researchers have developed an explainable AI module that can explain reasons behind results of facial recognition.MOST Joint Research Center for AI Technology and All Vista Health Care at National Taiwan University (NTU), an AI research center established at NTU and sponsored by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), on May 11 unveiled its explainable AI module xCos.Currently for AI-based recognition, data input and results are known, but the criteria for and process of judgment leading to the recognition results are unknown, said NTU professor Winston Hsu, leader of the xCos project sponsored by MOST.xCos can explain reasons behind results of AI facial recognition and can help developers of AI-based recognition technologies inspect mechanisms of recognition systems to see whether the judgment is reasonable and thus improve the systems, Hsu noted.xCos can be generally matched with AI-based facial recognition systems, Hsu said, adding the AI research center is also promoting application of xCos to AI-based decision making other than facial recognition. For example, when AI-based decision making predicts that a power plant will increase power generation in the next hour, xCos can explain that this because the weather conditions have changed or there will be festivities.Hsu won first place at Disguised Faces in the Wild competition at a 2018 conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition taking place in Salt Lake, Utah, with overall accuracy of over 90%.MOST minister Chen Liang-gee in disguise testing AI-based facial recognitionPhoto: MOST

Notebook demand may be robust at this moment to support stay-at-home needs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which nevertheless is casting a shadow over third-quarter 2020 outlook for notebook ODMs. The pandemic has worsened Washington-Beijing relations with the Trump administration now reportedly increasing pressure on TSMC to build wafer fabs in the US, but the Taiwan-based foundry house has maintained it has no plans to build one in the US. For PCB maker Unimicron, order visibility for ABF substrates is clear through at least the third quarter, but thee is still a chance that clients may postpone product launches due to the pandemic.Notebook ODMs see clouded 3Q20: Notebook ODMs Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Inventec and Wistron are all expected to enjoy strong shipments in the second quarter, but prolonged impacts from the coronavirus pandemic have cast a shadow over their shipments in the following quarter, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.No specific plans yet for US fab, says TSMC: TSMC has always been evaluating potential locations for an advanced wafer fab overseas, including the US, but no specific plans have been put in place yet, according to the pure-play foundry.Unimicron embraces brisk orders for ABF substrates: Unimicron Technology has seen clear order visibility for ABF substrates at least through the third quarter, with the orders mainly for 5G infrastructure, networking and HPC chips applications, according to the Taiwan-based IC substrate and PCB maker.

Asustek is a clear market leader in gaming smartphones, but it is seeing growing competition from others. Lenovo reportedly has headhunted a key executie from Asustek' ROG Phone team, in a bid to accelerate its development of gaming smartphones. In the PCB market, Taiwan-based Zhen Ding and Unimicron have been keen to extend their leaderships over competitors by planning to spend big on technology R&D and production capacity expansions, despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has deterred others from making major investments. But the pandemic is expected to affect sales at Taiwan's three major pure-play foundry houses in the second half of 2020. Digitimes Research has cut its full-year forecast for Taiwan's foundry sector.Lenovo fast tracks gaming smartphone biz by headhunting talent from Asustek: Lenovo is set to unveil a new gaming smartphone later in May as the company has recently headhunted a key executive from Asustek Computer's ROG Phone team and seen its R&D capability of gaming smartphones significantly enhanced, according to sources from the upstream supply chain.Zhen Ding, Unimicron looking to extend lead over peers via bold capex injection: The coronavirus pandemic may force many Taiwan-based PCB makers to slow down their capacity expansion plans in the short term due to uncertain market prospects, but Zhen Ding Technology and Unimicron seem unaffected and will see their capital expenses hit new highs again in 2020 seeking to further strengthen their market and technology leaderships over peers in the longer term, according to industry sources.Digitimes Research cuts Taiwan foundry output value forecast for 2020: Digitimes Research has revised downward its Taiwan foundry output value forecast this year, as end-market demand is likely to disappoint due to the prolonged pandemic.

Notebook demand has been so strong in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns that related IC suppliers have not been able to catch up due to insufficient foundry support. Delivery for a host of notebook-use ICs has extended by 2-3 months. Such robust demand has also shored up revenues for notebook ODMs. Inventec has reported its April revenues grew almost 26% on year. Meanwhile, TSMC has reported its April sales dropped over 15% sequentially but rose more than 28% on year. TSMC's revenues for the first four months of 2020 surged almost 39%. Lead time for notebook chips extended on tight foundry capacity: Delivery lead time for notebook-related chips including power management ICs, Type-C chips and other peripheral ICs have been extended by 2-3 months, due mainly to tight 8-inch foundry capacity, according to industry sources.Inventec enjoys double-digit revenue growth in April: Inventec has reported revenues for April 2020 climbed 17.6% sequentially and 25.7% on year to NT$49.29 billion (US$1.64 billion), as its shipments for notebooks and servers grew robustly.TSMC posts decreased April revenue: TSMC has reported April consolidated revenue fell 15.4% sequentially to NT$96 billion (US$3.21 billion).

Taiwan's shipments of small- to medium-size LCD panels will continue drifting downward in the second quarter of 2020 in the wake of coronavirus pandemic, with a-Si feature phone applications to be affected the most, according to Digitimes Research.Shipments of small- to medium-size panels by Taiwan's makers fell 28.4% sequentially and 8.8%% on year to 168 million unit in the first quarter 2020, as China-based handset makers were unable to fulfill their shipments due to the outbreak, cutting panel demand.As a result, Taiwan's shipments of handset applications decreased 34.4% sequentially in the first quarter, while those for other medium-size (including smart speakers) and tablet applications sank 14.1% and 14.6%, respectively.Although the outbreak has eased in China and its handset makers have resumed their operations mostly, shipments of handsets, particularly entry-level and mid-tier features phones, to India and other emerging markets remain difficult in the second quarter due to an escalation of the pandemic in these areas.With panel demand from Chinese handset makers likely to remain conservative, Taiwan's panel suppliers are expected to see their shipments of small- to medium-size panels drop another 4.4% on quarter and 10.4% on year in the second quarter, Digitimes Research estimates.Handset panels alone will sink 12.4% sequentially to below 100 million units in the second quarter, but those for tablet applications are likely to shoot up 36.8% amid rising tablet demand supporting remote study.

AI startup business Ubestream has launched AIchatin SaaS (software as a service) cloud computing platform for providing AI-based dialog robot services on a subscription basis.Using semantic deep learning and machine learning technologies available at Microsoft Azure, AIchatin is an engine that allows subscribers, via opening accounts at an AIaaS (AI as a service) provider, to introduce its AI-based automatic dialog functions to their websites, Facebook Messenger or Line to operate question & answer customer services, the startup firm said.This enables enterprises, retail operators, e-commerce operators, government organizations and schools to provide web-based voice inquiry services without establishing their own AI-based automatic dialog systems, Ubestream indicated.