Taiwan's Cathay Financial Holdings (CFH) has disclosed its technology center is developing an electric vehicle (EV) IoT blockchain financing platform through cooperation with EV charging service provider ChargeSmith and blockchain startup BSOS.The platform is based on Hyperledger Fabric, a modular blockchain framework for enterprises to develop blockchain-based solutions or application products, CFH said.Hyperledger Fabric is a permission blockchain infrastructure that allows designated nodes to participate in operation and maintenance of a blockchain and enables efficient execution of consensus algorithms to enhance applicability and reliability of enterprise-use blockchains, CFH noted.Hyperledger Fabric will be used to obtain EV owners' permission to collect data on their driving behavior including time intervals of driving, speeds, running distance and braking, CFH said. Such data will be encrypted and immediately transferred to the platform for CFH's property insurance and banking business units to provide real-time personalized financial services, CFH indicated.The platform is in PoC (proof of concept) process and expected to come into operation at the end of 2020.Besides CFH, CTBC Financial Holding has been in R&D of blockchain since 2016 and become a member of an international ecosystem led by US-based enterprise blockchain company R3. CTBC's subsidiaries, including Taiwan Life Insurance, CTBC Bank and CTBC Securities, have applied in-house-developed blockchain technology to business operation.

China-based NAND flash maker YMTC reportedly is looking to cross into brand SSD business in the third quarter and will focus on supplying the devices to PC makers. Meanwhile, Apple's new iPhones using OLED panels for 2021 may adopt LTPO backplane in order to reduce their power consumption. With Huawei under the US' new sanctions, Taiwan's IC substrate makers have begun turning to strife for more orders from other clients particularly those in the US.YMTC may unveil own-brand SSDs in 3Q20: China-based Yangtze Memory Technologies (YMTC) reportedly will in third-quarter 2020 launch its own-brand SSDs adopting in-house-developed 64-layer 3D NAND flash, with target outlets including PC OEMs, according to industry sources.OLED screens of iPhones may adopt LTPO backplanes in 2021, say sources: Apple has yet to introduce its 5G iPhones for 2020, but its supply chain is already developing OLED screens using LTPO (low temperature polycrystalline oxide) backplane technology for next year's premium iPhone models, according industry sources.IC substrate makers shifting focus to US clients from Huawei: Taiwan-based IC substrate makers including Unimicron Technology and Na Ya PCB are gearing up to strengthen business ties with US clients seeking to offset expected losses of orders from China's Huawei/Hisilicon subject to tougher US trade sanctions starting September, according to industry sources.

As most schools worldwide have begun adopting online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, demand for mobile computing devices from many countries' K-12 education sectors has been rising with Chromebooks currently seeing the highest shipments, according to Digitimes Research.The Japan government has recently launched the GIGA School program for its education sector with the program expected to significantly boosting shipments of the program's designated 11.6-inch touchscreen Chromebooks in 2020.As schools in North America, Japan and Europe were shut down to prevent the spreading of the coronavirus, most schools had distributed their procured notebooks to students for them to learn from home. Meanwhile, they also asked for emergency budget from governments to procure more notebooks in a bid to fulfill the insufficiency.Such demand is expected to drive up mobile computing device shipments to the worldwide K-12 education sector in 2020 by 32.3% on year to reach 42.1 million units.The US that is undermined significantly by the pandemic, and Japan that has rather limited online learning resources, are both treating Chromebooks as the key device for the one-student-with-one-machine projects for their K-12 education sectors. Such a strategy will allow shipments of Chrome OS-based computing device to surpass those of Windows-based one in the global education sector in 2020.Japan's GIGA School program, which offers a subsidy for each machine that is nearly US$120 higher than the average quote of the US' procurement orders, and provides total volumes over seven million units, has attracted a large number of brands to participate at the bidding. Device specifications of a 11.6-inch touchscreen Chromebook recommended by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is currently the most popular choice in Japan's education procurement market.In 2020, shipments of Chromebooks with 11.6-inch touchscreen functionality are expected to approach seven million units with Hewlett-Packard (HP) to have the highest shipments and Quanta Computer to obtain over 60% of related orders.

As more server makers and brands are relocating production lines from China to Taiwan or establishing new manufacturing facilities in the market, Taiwan's role in the server industry has grown more important. Meanwhile, the uprising demand for datacenter servers will continue benefiting Taiwan-based PCB makers in the second half of 2020 despite the upstream supply chain rumor about witnessing datacenter clients decelerating their order pull-ins. Memory ASPs have been declining throughout the second quarter and may have a chance to resume growth in the fourth quarter.Taiwan emerging as new server manufacturing hub: Taiwan is set to become a new manufacturing hub for servers, as Supermicro, Quanta Computer, Wiwynn and others as well as related components makers are fast expanding production capacity to meet growing demand from datacenters and enterprises, according to supply chain sources.PCB orders for datacenter servers to stay robust in 3Q20: In response to the upstream supply chain rumor claimed that several key datacenter players have slowed down the pull-ins of their server component order recently, sources from PCB makers said that they have not seen any deceleration in orders from datacenter clients for the third quarter of 2020.Memory ASPs falling in 2Q20, likely to rebound in 4Q20: Overall ASPs for memory are trending downwards in the second quarter of 2020 along with spot market price falls despite rises in contract prices, but they are expected to resume growth momentum in the fourth quarter of the year, according to Gerry Chen, general manager of memory modules maker Team Group.

Samsung Display and LG Display remained the global top-two panel makers in the first quarter of 2020 in terms of sales value, although the Korean makers have begun to scale down their LCD panel capacities, Digitimes Research has found.Samsung Display alone posted revenues of US$5.4 billion in the first quarter, greater than the combined amount of Taiwan's top-two makers, AU Optronics (AUO) and Innolux.Since the second quarter, however, China-based BOE Technology has been ramping up its panels for notebook, tablet and monitor applications, narrowing its shipment gap against LG Display, which is expected to see its LCD TV panel shipments slash by 10% sequentially in the quarter due to decreased output and demand. Thereby, BOE is likely to outrace LG Display to become the world's second largest panel vendor in the second or third quarter of 2020 at the earliest.China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) experienced the sharpest increases in revenues and area shipments for the world's top-6 panel makers in the first quarter, owing to its capability to wage up the monthly output of its 11G line to its designed capacity of 90,000 substrates in the quarter from an average of 10,000 pieces a year earlier.Digitimes Research estimates CSOT's capacity for large-size panels to grow by a CAGR of 18.6% in 2019-2023 compared to an industry's average of 0.6% for the same segment during the same period.

Global shipments of AR/VR headsets are expected to surge 29% on year in 2020, driven by rapidly growing demand for such gears for consumer and commercial applications to support remote work and study activities in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Digitimes Research.The pandemic has prompted consumers to experience more VR applications when staying at home amid lockdowns, leading to shortages of budget VR headsets and hot sales of VR Apps for fitness and social purposes. This, coupled with games, has significantly bolstered the growth of consumer markets so far this year, Digitimes Research said.Meanwhile, enterprises in the auto, national defense, manufacturing and other sectors have massively adopted AR/VR headsets as part of remote production tools to develop new products and render services to clients during the lockdowns.Digitimes research believes that enterprises will be increasingly reliant on AR/VR gears to reduce errand-based travel expenses and cut operating costs even after the pandemic ebbs, which will further drive shipment momentum for such gears.

Sony has postponed the launch of PS5, but makers in its supply chain remain busy preparing shipments for the client's next-generation games console. Backend partners say SoC shipments for PS5 will start next week before peaking in third-quarter 2020. PCB and IC substrate suppliers expect PS5 to be a major growth driver of the sales this year. Meanwhile, cloud server suppliers expect demand to remain robust throughout 2020, probably lasting into 2021, thanks to growing stay-at-home economy in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns.PS5 processor shipments to kick off in June, peak in 3Q20: Backend IC packaging and testing service providers will begin shipments of the customized SoCs designed by AMD specifically for PlayStation 5 (PS5) to their downstream partners in the week of June 7 with the momentum to ramp up steadily before peaking in late third quarter, according to supply chain sources.PS5 online launch delay little affects upstream PCB shipments: Taiwan PCB and IC substrate makers in the supply chain of PlayStation 5 (PS5) will see their shipments remain unaffected despite Sony announcing a delay in a planned June 4 online launch of its next-generation home video game console, and are all actively preparing for related shipments, according to PCB supply chain sources.Cloud server shipments to remain in high gear in 2H20 and 2021: Cloud server orders are expected to remain robust throughout 2020 with demand likely to stay strong also in 2021, according to sources from server manufacturers.

The US sanctions against Huawei will not affect only the Chinese tech giant. Its supply chain partners, particularly TSMC, will also take a hit from trade restrictions taking effect in September on tech support for Huawei. The Chinese smartphone and telecom equipment vendor knows well that the US will not let it off the hook easily, and it has geared up chip purchases from Taiwan-based MediaTek. Meanwhile, Taiwan's backend houses have seen increases in testing orders from IDMs whose in-house production has been affected by COVID-19 lockdowns.Fresh US ban on Huawei to impact TSMC and more starting late September: TSMC and other Taiwanese suppliers of Huawei are expected to see their revenues start to suffer in late September from fresh US sanctions blocking companies around the world from using American-made machinery and software to design or produce chips for Huawei and its affiliates, according to industry sources.Huawei to procure more chips from MediaTek: Mobile SoC specialist MediaTek is expected to see orders placed by Huawei surge by as much as 300% in 2020 due to the US government's fresh trade ban on the Chinese vendor, according to industry sources.Taiwan IC testing houses see RF chips orders spike from IDMs: Taiwan-based IC testing houses including King Yuan Electronics (KYEC), Sigurd Microelectronics and Ardentec have seen orders for RF chips ramp up recently from Taiwanese IC designers and US IDMs, with the orders set to drive up their revenues for the third quarter of the year, according to industry sources.

Compal Electronics has established a 5G lab for its clients and partners to showcase their innovations, according to Sheng-Hua Peng, Compal's executive vice president of smart device business.The lab has begun operation since the end of May. It has already installed several solutions including prevention systems for agriculture, industrial remote maintenance, remote medical care and VR streaming of gaming, and the company is looking to showcase different solutions from different partners each quarter.Compal's 5G lab is currently targeting four major fields: smart agriculture, smart medical care, smart manufacturing and gaming, and is cooperating with different partners to deploy their 5G solutions.For smart agriculture, Compal's partner is looking to use 4K or 8K Ultra HD cameras to catch fall armyworms and will need 5G transmissions to send video to backend system for analysis.For medical care, Compal is looking to connect hospital services with 5G networks to allow doctors and medical care staff to have real-time information on patients.For smart manufacturing, Compal is partnering with Adat Technology, which will provide AI algorithm and software to pair with Compal's AR glasses and 5G network to establish a remote maintenance platform that support multi-user functionality.The platform can be used in airline or semiconductor companies to real-time resolve complicated mechanical issues.For gaming, Compal is collaborating with VR Jump, a VR startup.Compal promoting innovations at its 5G labPhoto: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, June 2020

Global shipments of automotive CID (central information display) panels (including those for aftermarket but excluding white-box models) are forecast to fall 9.9% on year to 80 million units in 2020 amid weakening demand for automobiles in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and high penetration rates for cars in developed countries, Digitimes Research estimates.The decline will widen to 14.2%, or 66.4 million units, this year if CID panels shipped to the aftermarket are excluded.While global CID panel shipments fell 5.8% in 2019, affected largely by the US-China trade disputes, such shipments are set to continue tumbling due to supply chain disruptions forcing some automakers to suspend production and crippling consumer demand.While manufacturing activities in China have gradually recovered and CID devices have almost become standards for new automobile models, whether the end-market demand could return to normal following the easing of lockdown measures in various countries will be crucial for reaching stabilization in global CID panel shipments.CID panels sized in 7.x- to 8.x-inch will remain the mainstream in 2020, with the proportion of above 9-inch ones to go up gradually. The ratio of mid-sized CID panels against total shipments will decrease to 66.4% in 2020, while the ratio for 9-inch above models will move up to 18.6%.