Computex, which had been gradually losing its luster along with the rise of e-commerce and the slowdown of the PC industry in recent years, seems to start showing signs of revival during its 2018 edition, mainly driven by AI (artificial intelligence) and gaming applications, which stole the spotlights at the just-concluded event.Its predecessor Taipei Computer Show was inaugurated in 1981, and was was renamed Computex Taipei in 1984 based on the proposal by Stan Shih, founder of Acer Group and then chairman of Taipei Computer Association, to better publicize Taiwan's PC R&D and manufacturing prowess.But the rise of Internet and consequent popularity of e-commerce have undermined the importance of large-size physical electronics shows, with globally renowned CeBIT, CES and Computex all impacted. In recent years, thanks to the slowdown of PC devices and the rapid development of mobile devices, the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) has been emerging as the most shinning stage for consumer electronics, outshining the Computex B2B platform.But the ever-expanding gaming market scale and the rampant development of AI applications have injected fresh momentum into Computex as a crucial platform again for global buyers seeking to source a variety of gaming and AI application solutions from Taiwan makers and foreign exhibitors.2.3 billion gamers worldwideA study by Newzoo showed that there will be around 2.3 billion gamers worldwide in 2018, spending a whopping US$137.9 billion on games. Of the total, mobile games will account for 51% or US$70.3 billion, followed by 25% or US$34.6 billion for PC games and 24% or US$32.9 billion for games played on host computers.Newzoo also predicted the annual global game market revenues to grow to US$180.1 billion by 2021, with a CAGR of 10.3% for 2017-2021. And the gaming sector is experiencing a deeper and wider development, with e-sports to be incorporated as a demonstration event at the upcoming Asian Games 2018 in mid-August in Jakarta, Indonesia.The encouraging development has inspired the Taiwan IT industry to focus more on the development of diverse gaming solutions. This can be seen from a wide range of gaming exhibits at Computex 2018, ranging from gaming host computers and notebooks, game training software, and multiple parts and components such as chassis, power supplies, memory, display cards, SSD, screens, keyboards, mice, earphones and speakers, to gaming chairs and streaming equipment.AI was another focus of attention from visitors to Computex, with many exhibitors showcasing or launching a variety of processors, software, servers, and storage solutions involving AI technologies and applications. The upcoming 5G era is expected to trigger the proliferation of ever-more AI applications, all requiring the support of PC algorithms.All the gaming and AI-related devices, technologies and applications displayed at Computex are expected to keep fermenting in the markets to drive demand for PCs with high performance computing and storage capabilities, thus further injecting new momentum to Computex.

Google has been pushing sales of its Google Home devices to more markets and has also incorporated Google Assistant into the smart speaker as it is gearing up efforts to compete against Amazon in the smart home market, according to Digitimes Research.Google announced recently that it will make its Google Home smart speaker series available in seven more markets in 2018 compared to the availability of Amazon's lineup of Echo speakers in at least 36 countries. However, Google's plans to enable Google Assistant to support up to 30 languages, leveraging its deep research in multi-language and semantic, by year-end 2018, will make Google Home a strong contender to Echo, which supports only three language via Alexa.Google is also actively soliciting cooperation from hardware manufacturers, not only to enrich the product portfolio supporting Google Assistant, but also aim to simplify user's operation processes for smart household appliances, or efficiently integrate support for smart products, while also addressing the security issue faced by IoT devices currently.Digitimes Research believes that more market-niche applications such as medical and smart healthcare are likely to emerge as smart home devices have continued to evolve to become mainstream. Granted that the need for smart healthcare may eventually spur up demand for smart home devices, and single-person households are also likely to increase the purchase of smart home products, the smart home device market is expected to grow exponentially in 2018.

Demand for automotive memory is showing explosive growth in recent years as a result of maturing ADAS technology, increasing demand for in-vehicle infotainment systems and automotive display as well as instrument cluster display gradually upgrading from conventional 4.5-inch panels to 12.3-inch smart panels.Take automotive display for example. In-vehicle displays are growing in bulk and dimensions to meet a range of demands arising from infotainment, safety and telematics. According to IHS, worldwide shipments of components for automotive displays will enjoy a CAGR of 6% through year-end 2021, totaling 176 million units. It is estimated the number of 7-inch and larger automotive displays will top 33.5 million units, representing a CAGR of nearly 10% through 2021.The changes in these in-vehicle systems will spur considerable growth of automotive data, and the required memory capacity, data transfer rate, reliability level and safety features must make advances as well. IC Insights reported that consumer demand for safer driving systems and government mandates are expected to raise the automotive IC market by 22% to a market value of US$28 billion in 2018. Rising DRAM and memory prices will further boost growth of the automotive IC market, with product costs expected to increase 22.4% in 2018.Reliability is a top concern for automotive electronics componentsReliability remains a top concern when manufacturers select the automotive components they use. As an integral part of the automotive industry chain, the design and manufacture of automotive electronics has to take a wide range of possible use scenarios into consideration to ensure safety. Although automotive memory does not directly enforce safety protection, its performance may have an influence on road safety. Aside from safety features, data retention is also among automakers' considerations when choosing automotive memory. SPI NOR flash has long dominated the automotive memory market mainly because of its superior data retention characteristics, which is also the reason for its widespread use by the automotive industry.However, the automotive memory market has started to show some changes since 2017. In the present automotive market, ADAS and instrument cluster applications have been driving fast growth in demand for automotive memory, and new requirements have also been constantly emerging. There are particularly immense needs for features such as high density and instant boot.For example, automakers generally require electronics systems be able to load the operating system, transmit data and boot up into normal operation within one second. If some of the tasks, such as data transmission, can be optimized, the system will be able to boot up faster.In view of this, William Chen, deputy director, flash product marketing center, Winbond, thinks NOR flash is suitable for applications with a small memory footprint. However, for use scenarios where a large amount of data needs to be sent to DRAM instantly, such as automotive applications, and where error-correcting code (ECC) is required, automotive grade NAND flash solutions are a new trend.High performance, optimal reliability and low cost: Winbond's new Serial NAND is gaining traction in the automotive marketAutomotive applications such as instrument cluster and center information display (CID) will growingly require memory solutions with high density, large capacity and instant data transfer in line with booming developments in the automotive market. Automotive memory needs have grown from NOR flash with densities ranging from 64Mb to 512Mb that were able to support most cars in the past, to 1-2Gbit today and the costs will increase accordingly as well, commented William.In response, automakers can use embedded multimedia card (eMMC) as an alternative but it is more suitable for high-end instrument clusters. To meet the memory needs by entry-level and mid-range automotive applications, Winbond has introduced a High Performance Serial NAND product family ranging in density from 1Gb to 2Gb with a 4Gb product on the roadmap.Serial NAND in 8-pin packages offers cost advantages compared to the previous generation parallel flash products with the smallest package offered in 48-pin packages. It also offers higher performance than Parallel NAND as it uses Winbond's proprietary Continuous Read technology to achieve a data read and transfer rate surpassing earlier-generation products.As a matter of fact, 70% of Serial NAND used to be integrated in network communication equipment (ADSL, XDSL and G-PON) and 30% was used in industrial (safety and protection) applications. With respect to memory use in automotive platforms, manufacturers placed more emphasis on NOR flash in the past but have begun to make some changes. Starting from 2017, many tier-1 automotive system vendors have been evaluating the adoption of Serial NAND, according to Winbond."This is because the new High Performance Serial NAND enables a data transfer rate four times faster than Parallel NAND and other Serial NAND currently on the market," said Wilson Huang, manager, electronics product marketing division I, Winbond. In terms of hardware specifications, the company's solution is housed in the same package as conventional NOR flash on the market, so compatibility will not be an issue.Transferring data at 80MB/s, which far exceeds competing NAND flash on the market, Winbond's new solution accelerates instrument cluster boot-up time. It also supports dual-quad I/O interface to accommodate higher storage density or data transfer rate up to 160 MB/s. The selection allowing for single, dual and quad I/O means customers can enjoy more flexibility compared to what competitors can offer.In the past when the industry could provide memory mostly with single I/O, Winbond was already capable of offering quad I/O solutions. Now, staying committed to bringing new innovations, Winbond further boosts data transfer rate through architecture design ingenuities to meet customers' applications requirements.According to William, SoCs are streaming data on the data bus of the next-generation ADAS and instrument cluster at a maximum of about 200 MB/s. Winbond's solution through dual-quad I/O interface can support 80% of the data flow.Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND is an SLC NAND and is more reliable and cost-effective than automotive eMMC solutions on the market. Compared to NOR flash, Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND has a superior cost-performance ratio.Furthermore, Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND is an AEC-Q100 compliant NAND flash with an operating temperature range between -40 degree C and 105 degree C. In terms of data retention characteristics, Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND can support 10 years of data retention at 85 degree C after 1,000 cycles, whereas eMMC can only support data retention for a fraction of that time under the same conditions even when used in pSLC mode."Winbond looks to replace high density NOR flash with high quality automotive grade NAND flash," said William. The current automotive display, ADAS and other automotive applications still largely use high density NOR flash, ranging from 256 Mbit to 1Gbit. Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND offers both cost and performance advantages and stands a chance of taking over a share of the high density NOR flash market. In addition, Winbond, with its in-house fabrication capacity, has full control over the manufacturing process and therefore can guarantee long-term steady supply to customers.As more cars become connected, the demand for data storage is expected to reach 1TB by 2020. Many world-leading memory suppliers have been expanding into the automotive industry. Winbond's High Performance Serial NAND, leveraging its Continuous Read technology and lower packaging cost, will be able to meet the automotive industry's stringent requirements for high performance, high reliability and low cost components.Winbond's serial NAND

Following a business re-organization in the second half of 2017, Gigabyte Technology is now looking to unifying all its products under the Aorus gaming brand, seeking to bring a consistent user experience, according to Gigabyte's Sales and Marketing Center vice president, Eddie Lin.To expand Aorus' penetration, Gigabyte also recently entered several new component and product business segments and will release a series of devices for each of them to answer customers' demand. Digitimes recently had a chance to chat with Lin about the company's operation, the company's plans for the gaming businesses, and the cryptocurrency business opportunity.Q: What is the latest status of Gigabyte's Aorus gaming product lineup?A: Although Gigabyte has just gone through a business re-organization, the company actually has not changed much in terms of the basic business structure. Most of the changes are in the business culture.In the past, Gigabyte's product development strategy focused on individual projects: we would complete one project before moving on to the next. We identified features and technologies our gaming customers would want and implemented them into our devices.Now, the new strategy is to think how our products can echo one another all under our Aorus gaming brand. For example, our motherboards, graphics cards, mice and keyboards should all have a unified industrial design to build up the feel they belong to the same series, and the same concept also applies to our software user interfaces and user experience.Most importantly, this feel of a unified series should also echo what our customers are seeking in their gaming products. Simply put, we want to let our customers feel that their positive experiences using Gigabyte's products are consistent, so whatever values they are seeking in any of Gigabyte's devices can also be found in any of our other products.Since Gigabyte has already merged the desktop and all its component businesses into a unified gaming business group, we expect the process of synchronizing our product lines to be much easier than before.For Aorus, in addition to our existing product lines including notebooks, motherboards, graphics cards, keyboards, mice and other peripherals, we have expanded the brand's product portfolio to include new devices such as monitors, solid state drives (SSD) and DRAM.As for the desktop, Gigabyte continues focusing on developing its Brix series mini-PCs.Q: What are the company's goals for Aorus gaming products in 2018?A: The year 2017 was the beginning year of our Aorus gaming brand and for the second year, Gigabyte's main targets are to further refine the series by listening to and understanding the needs of our customers; to work with the customers to enrich the gaming ecosystem; and to expand the series both horizontally and vertically.For the vertical expansion, we have been strengthening our marketing resources and approaches to improve related contents and materials. We also have created a mascot to represent the Aorus spirit.For the horizontal expansion, cultivating deeper into each region is Gigabyte's main focus. For example, the company has opened several Gigabyte flagship stores in China for demonstrating and selling Gigabyte's hardware. We are also partnering with Internet cafes in China, decorating them with Aorus themes as a form of promotion.Meanwhile, Gigabyte continues taking aggressive approaches to supporting e-sport events and is scheduled to host Aorus Open PUBG Tournament 2018 in June and July with gaming competitions to take place in several major regions including China, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, the US and France.The company is also increasing its resources for sponsoring e-sport activities in 2018. Gigabyte sponsored a total of nine major gaming events in 2017 and the number will rise to 12 this year.In addition to sponsorships for downstream e-sport players, Gigabyte also has new partnerships with Intel and Nvidia. Gigabyte is currently working with Intel to push Core i+ series motherboards that natively support Optane Memory. These motherboards all come with 32GB of Optane Memory for enhanced CPU performance.Customers will also continue seeing Gigabyte's exclusive technologies including RGB Fusion with Digital LEDs, ESS Sabre reference DAC music chip with audiophile Grade capacitors and Ultra Durable components in their favorite Gigabyte motherboards.However, we are not satisfied by simply adopting the best components into our products. Our target is to study customers' usage habits and improve our components to meet the habits.Despite the business re-organization and the management changes, Gigabyte is still the same Gigabyte and our user-oriented business culture and emphasis on product quality remain the same.We have also been forming partnerships with other enterprises for some interesting gaming-related projects. Apart from Arous Open PUBG Tournament 2018, which has helped us established partnerships with several enterprises, we have also collaborated with Electronic Arts (EA) to release an energy drink in Germany with Aorus and EA product images on the can.We also have been in talks over many other projects, but it is not yet time to reveal the details about them.In addition to physical products, we have many cooperation cases with game streamers worldwide for product promotions and are also investing resources to launch marketing campaigns with upstream and downstream partners.In the past, Gigabyte's promotion activities focused mainly on traditional channels, but since 2017, we have started to use more diverse types of marketing in different channels. With Gigabyte having integrated all its gaming-related businesses under the Aorus brand and the fact that we have shown our determination of running the Aorus brand, we have earned many invitations from worldwide businesses and gamers for gaming-related cooperation.Q: What innovations or technologies will be unveiled or showcased at Computex 2018?A: We do not have any new products for Computex 2018 as our upstream platform partners have not prepared any new products for the show.However, we are showcasing our extended peripheral product lines under the Aorus brand including SSDs and memory and are displaying the full series of our existing Aorus brand products at our Computex booth.Q: What is Gigabyte's thought on cryptocurrencies? Will ASICs have some impact on graphics card demand from the cryptocurrency industry?A: Cryptocurrencies are one of the applications of the blockchain technology and the technology is becoming a popular topic in the IT industry. To fairly distribute the cryptocurrencies to users, mining has become one of the main methods for the system to give out the digital currencies.However, mining is not the only way as there are also cryptocurrencies that have adopted other type of distributing methods.In my personal view, blockchain actually has a lot potential and because of the technology's characteristic of creating records in multiple terminals. It is able to significantly limit a trading system's dependence on a center machine and eliminate many of the recording flaws seen on traditional systems. Compared to blockchain business in general, opportunities from cryptocurrencies are not as stable.As for the rise in demand for cryptocurrency ASICs, I believe the growing popularity of ASICs will have some impacts on the cryptocurrency industry's demand for graphics cards, but the problem will not be as serious as many market watchers expect.As I said before, cryptocurrencies are a rather unstable business. Each ASIC is created specifically for the calculation of one particular type of cryptocurrency and cannot be switched to support other cryptocurrency mining. This will give advantages to graphics cards, which can widely support any kind of cryptocurrency mining process. Most miners will be wary of the risks of switching all its machines to ASICs.Eddie Lin, Gigabyte's Sales and Marketing Center vice presidentPhoto: Joseph Tsai, Digitimes, May 2018

Shipments of handsets by Taiwan's brand vendors and ODMs totaled 17.8 million units in the first quarter of 2018, down 27.8% on quarter but up 17.5% on year, according to Digitimes Research.The Foxconn Group led all brand vendors and ODMs in unit shipments in the first quarter despite a cutback in both smartphone and feature phone orders from HMD Global (Nokia). Asustek Computer and HTC managed to retain their second and third rankings in the quarter although both saw their shipments decrease.ODMs Compal Electronics and Arima Communications took the fourth and fifth positions, respectively, in unit shipments.Digitimes Research expects combined handset shipments by Taiwan's brand vendors and ODMs to expand 24.2% sequentially in the second quarter, as Foxconn is set to ramp up its shipments thanks to a rebound in orders from HMD Global, and Asustek will see a significant shipment growth in the quarter amid the increasing availability of its new models.

In 2010, the China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially selected Wuxi National Hi-Tech Industry Development Zone as a national electronic information industry (sensor network) demonstration base, setting off a global IoT trend that has extended into 2018. Although explosive growth has yet to happen, applications continue to roll out and high-tech developments continue to advance, especially communication technologies.Aside from existing WLAN and Bluetooth, additional networking standards designed for IoT applications have been burgeoning over recent years. According to Eric Yu, Assistant Vice President, signal integrity business unit, Integrated Service Technology (iST), IoT applications are diverse and so are their use scenarios, so they impose wide-ranging requirements on communication technologies. This is also the biggest challenge to be addressed during the development phase of IoT products.Communication technologies for IoT applications can be categorized based on the distance over which signals are transmitted into near-field, short-range and long-range. Near-field communication protocols such as NFC and EMVCo enable two devices to communicate with each other within a 10cm distance. Short-range protocols allow communication over a distance between 10cm and 5km and include WPAN (Bluetooth and Zigbee) and WLAN (IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac) respectively for closer and farther ranges. Long-range protocols are for communication across a more than 5km distance over networks include free LPWAN (LoRa) and license-based cellular networks (LTE, 3GPP, GSM, WCDMA, etc). These are main standards currently used by IoT applications. Communication is essential to IoT system operation and stability is a crucial consideration in product design. Although there are no mandated IoT testing standards regarding to performance at present, experienced laboratory test procedures can help manufacturers ensure their product quality. Furthermore, professional labs with extensive experiences can also help discover blind spots that may have been overlooked during the design phase and solve problems that occur when a product is put to use under special circumstances, said Yu.Current lab tests include basic tests, performance tests, special function tests and certification tests. Basic tests check safety, regularity, energy consumption and reliability. Performance tests measure connectivity, desense and transmission capacity. Special function tests validate system integration and information security. Certification tests verify compliance with special requirements set by government institutions or industry alliances.Among the four types of tests, certification tests are usually mandatory while basic tests on safety, regularity and energy consumption are required by national or regional regulations and reliability tests are conducted on manufacturer's own initiative. Although not all of these tests are obligatory, manufacturers regard them as necessary and make it a habit to send products to tests in view of market demand on product quality. In comparison to certification tests and basic tests, performance tests and special function tests are not mandatory and are generally self-initiated by manufacturers. However, due to IoT's special characteristics, Yu thinks the two will play an influential role to IoT product design and market competition.IoT products make use of not one but multiple technologies. Yu draws on smart home devices for example. Smart lighting in a future home will likely use Zigbee or Bluetooth and smart meters will likely use NB-IoT to send signals to a relay device such as a hub or gateway which then forwards the signals via WLAN networks. The market has begun to see such a mixed use of multiple communication technologies. However, certifications of wireless communication standards are still implemented on a one-by-one basis. Only Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) subsidiary Converged Wireless Group (CWG) has proposed specifications on device performance when operating concurrently with cell phone signal and Wi-Fi signal. Other countries or regions have yet to engage in such practices.Yu thinks when multiple communication standards are engaged by IoT systems, testing will be more important than when a single standard is used. Take smart lighting again for example. The lighting market is dominated by a few leaders such as Philips and Samsung. They not only have their own products but also their own standards. They have also incorporated communication mechanisms in their product design. But the market still lacks established standards that support interoperability among communication technologies developed by different manufacturers.Furthermore, there is the problem of desense. Wireless communication uses a very concentrated range of frequencies, mostly on 2.4GHz and 5GHz now. Communication technologies operating within the same range of frequencies can use different demodulation techniques so that the receiving end can make accurate detection of the signals but interference is still unavoidable, particularly in the 2.4GHz band, which already has Bluetooth and WiFi. Furthermore USB 3.0 operates on 5GHz data rate could also have strong interference to 2.4GHz signals. There have been reports of such interferences occurring in TV, for example.Test items for TV used to typically focus on the quality of HDMI, video performance, and tuner. However, as the media industry began to undergo some changes in 2016, people getting use to watch video signals stream over Ethernet rather than over cable networks. The way it works is that signals coming to the home via external Ethernet are then sent to TV using Wi-Fi through an Access Point (AP). As such, Wi-Fi has become the fourth main test item for TV. For a home theater systems with standalone speakers, signal transmission between the TV and speakers is via Bluetooth connection. Accordingly, the TV sends video signals via both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth in the same 2.4GHz range, which makes it susceptible to interference. The situation is bad enough for TV. Just think how much worse it will be when a future home is deployed with a complete IoT system and all devices are operating simultaneously.Customized testing is the solution to such a problem, proposed Yu. To test smart home devices, a common current practice is to set up a mockup home environment such as a living room, bathroom, kitchen or bedroom and then install IoT devices there to check how well the devices operate together and gain an understanding on their communication and operation status in the environment. This only checks one particular indoor setting but not able to cover different types of indoor environment which cannot be considered as a quick and effective initial test. In real-world application, IoT systems have to cope with different home settings and decorations and their functions may also vary based on home owner needs. As such, the test practice using a mockup home environment to check interoperability and performance provides little help to manufacturers.For now, emulator testing will be a cost-effective approach, said Yu. A software-based emulator environment is built wherein throughput capacity, roaming and desense tests are conducted. However, this must be backed by robust technologies. Take iST for example. Its chose the emulator base on correct theory and trustworthy. It is no easy to build a test environment using a emulator. With respect to throughput capacity testing, the tester has to know the signal strength and the influence of home decoration materials and arrangements on signals. iST's emulator developed with theory and field trial results taken into consideration produces a model of a real environment. First, a far field test environment is defined according to CTIA' test specifications and then correct parameters are input to the emulator to create a channel model of the indoor environment.Communication issues of IoT devices can be resolved in no time using the emulator. For example, iST helped a TV manufacturer work out a product glitch, said Yu. The TV manufacturer's products sold to the U.S. were returned by residents of an entire community because of poor Wi-Fi signal quality so the manufacturer came to iST for assistance. As the problem occurred in the U.S., it would be inefficient to dispatch engineers to conduct on-site tests. iST therefore chose to use the emulator to create a model of the scenario where the TV was put to use. It was able to discover that the root cause affecting Wi-Fi sensitivity field pattern. Knowing the root cause, the manufacturer then came up with a solution and used the emulator to test the feasibility of the solution, thereby solving the issue.Yu comments that connectivity is the biggest challenge for IoT system operation. On a system level, performance tests not only can help boost system performance from 80% to 90% but of more critical importance, they can help a system jump from 0% to 80%. After all, only when signals can be transmitted without error and glitch will system deployment be meaningful. Yu also reiterates with IoT developments picking up speed over recent years, different types of applications will begin to emerge. Mixed use of multiple technologies will be the only way to go. Testing is an essential step in guaranteeing system reliability, and customized testing tailored to fit different use scenarios will also be instrumental to product R&D in the future. The use of emulator to create modeled test environments will help manufacturers quickly get to the root of the problem and establish a strong foothold in the IoT market.Eric Yu, assistant vice president, signal integrity business unit, Integrated Service Technology (iST)

Google is now actively soliciting support for its ARCore and Google Lens platforms from handset vendors as it has taken the lesson from the ill-fated Tango platform which was discontinued due to increasing challenge from Apple's ARKit after it managed only to secure support from two handset makers and failed to entice significant inputs from application developers and to reach end consumers in scale, according to Digitimes Research.As of May 2018, the number of handset makers, excluding Google Pixel, which have decided to have their gadgets supporting ARCore and Google Lens has reached 10, respectively. Those who will support the ARCore include Samsung Electronics, Huawei, Xiaomi Technology, while China-based Transsion Holdings, a leading handset provider in Africa, will join the Google Lens club.To enhance the functionality of the two AR platforms, Googel announced ARCore 1.2 at the Google I/O 2018 developer's conference held in early May. The latest version of ARCore introduces three major new features: Sceneform, Augmented Images, and Cloud Anchors. Among them, the Augmented Images and Cloud Anchors are designed to enhance the liveliness and shared interactivity of virtual objects, Digitimes Research says.Meanwhile, the functionality of Google Lens was also expanded to support Google Camera, in addition to the previous support of Google Photo and Google Assistant.

Clientron, a world-leading provider of thin clients and embedded systems, established its industrial PC (IPC) team in 2017, demonstrating its determination to penetrate deep into the IPC market. Clientron has always been able to provide product designs that precisely match customer needs and now riding on burgeoning IoT and Industry 4.0 trends, Clientron is ramping up efforts toward IPC product development and market expansion.Kelly Wu, president & CEO, Clientron, states, "Taiwan-based manufacturers have been active in the IPC market for many years. IPC firms are characterized by being small but exquisite. Clientron, with years of product R&D experiences, is capable of providing high-end industrial-grade products with wide temperature and voltage ranges, waterproof and dustproof as well as ability to maintain long-term operation under extreme circumstances." Clientron has introduced embedded single board computers (SBC), embedded systems and industrial panel PC to accommodate different customer needs.Expanding vertical industrial applicationsIPC has always targeted niche market segments. Clientron's endeavors in this field began with the food processing industry and smart transportation applications. Clientron's Pike-AL-1500SP, crafted specifically for the food processing industry, is an industrial panel PC that can withstand special cleaning or a steaming environment. It offers IP69K protection against high temperature, dust and water and long-term submersion under water. The Pike-AL-1500SP has passed spray test with steam pressure of 100bar (1450 psi) at a temperature of 80°C. It is built with grade 304 stainless steel casing to enable protection against heat and corrosion and prevent hazardous substances from leaching due to heat or acid, thereby guaranteeing safe and sanitary operation in a food processing plant.For smart transportation, Clientron custom-built its IT900 embedded system for intelligent traffic decision making. It co-worked with customers to design applications such as smart intersection and smart parking solutions. With aluminum alloy casing, fanless & ventless design and IP40 dust-proof protection, the IT900 is suitable for murky outdoor environments with a reduced probability of failure or repair. It supports dual display ports and dual LAN ports and is powered by an Intel high-performance energy-efficient quad-core or dual-core platform. Its modular I/O box can quickly and flexibly accommodate customer's I/O design based on actual needs. The innovative drawer-type casing also allows easier hardware installation and expansion by its user friendly designClientron drew naming inspiration from cold weapons for its industrial-use products to represent symbolic meaning of simplicity, user friendly and combat strength. For example, its industrial panel PC is named as "Pike," innovative box type embedded systems as "Mace" and SBC as "Saber." Its Mace-AL-200 embedded system provides "Tsuba Kits" with a flexible modular design for customers to easily add I/O modules and build systems tailored to their specific needs. On top of that, the removable back cover makes maintenance work a breeze.Clientron keeps turning innovative designs into realityFor point-of-sale (POS) terminals, Clientron presents PST650 all-in-one POS suited for the food service industry. PST650 features streamline, compact and lightweight design and built-in integration with a thermal printer supporting multiple well-known brands, so customers do not need to install an additional printer, thereby saving counter footprint and cost.Among Clientron's most renowned thin client product line, the R800 was recently recognized with the 26th Taiwan Excellence Award. It comes with an innovative rotatable port-on-foot design with I/O expansion ports, enabling both space saving and I/O expandability advantages. Its high-durability capacitive-touch power button provides convenient on/off switch and reduces mechanical failure. Featuring support for triple 4K ultra-high-definition (UHD) displays, energy-efficiency design translating to savings on electricity bills and a three-year standard warranty, the R800 is especially suitable for virtual desktop solutions in banking, healthcare, government and education sectors.Clientron is making leaping advances in automotive electronicsLooking forward, Wu speaks about Clientron's achievements in the automotive electronics market: "Clientron has been dedicating its time and efforts in this segment for many years and actually obtained ISO/ TS16949 certification as early as 2004. With a focus on Car Informatic Device (CID), we leveraged nearly 20 years of design and manufacturing experiences in automotive video and audio systems and worked with customers to jointly craft ' Interactive in three displays, one instrument with ADAS' software and hardware integrated solutions. This is a big step forward for us in the factory-installed equipment market." Three displays here refer to the CID system, driver instrument cluster and digital insole cluster. One instrument refers to the car recorder. They work in conjunction with the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) in the vehicle.Furthermore, it should be noted that a major customer of Clientron has engaged in large-scale expansion in the American market, which is expected to fuel Clientron's revenue growth in the region this year. With the inauguration of a new factory in Nangang, Clientron will be able to fully meet growing market demand.Clientron plans to showcase its latest thin client series, POS systems and embedded IPC solutions at Computex 2018. Visitors to Clientron's booth K0427a in Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center will be able to see Clientron products being put to use in different scenarios, including an embedded IPC in food processing industry, thin clients in banking scenario and a POS system in a restaurant setting.Kelly Wu, president & CEO, Clientron, states that the company will keep ramping up efforts toward IPC products in 2018.

The output value of China's IC design industry sector is expected to exceed US$35 billion in 2018, driven by a combination of positive factors including continued growth in shipments of China-based smartphone vendors, rising demand for consumer electronics devices amid rampant IoT applications, and the appreciation of the Chinese currency, according to Digitimes Research.HiSilicon Technologies, Unigroup Spreadtrum RDA and Sanechips Technology (formerly ZTE Microelectronics Technology), which specialize in the design and development of smartphone SoCs and other communications chips, were China's top-3 fabless IC firms in 2015-2017 when OmniVision was excluded, said Digitimes Research. OmniVision Technologies became a China company in 2017 after being acquired by a group of China-based investors led by Hua Capital Investment.With demand for fingerprint sensors and IoT-related chips rising, Huada Semiconductor, which was ranked fifth in 2017, is expected to narrow its gap with its nearest competitor among China's top-5 IC design houses, Digitimes Research indicated.In 2017, revenues generated from the communications chip sector came to nearly CNY90 billion (US$13.3 billion), becoming the largest market for China's IC design industry. Nevertheless, consumer electronics ICs will be another major driver of China's IC design industry output value growth in 2018, Digitimes Research said.In addition, the output value of China's IC design industry surpassed that of Taiwan's IC design sector by over US$10 billion in 2017, Digitimes Research said. China's IC design industry output value already surpassed Taiwan's in 2015.

Worldwide top-5 notebook brands saw their combined shipments drop around 30% sequentially in April primarily due to seasonal factors, but compared to the same month in 2017, the volumes went up 3%. Digitimes Research believes that the on-year increase was not a result of market recovery, but market uncertainties that had sent vendors' shipments fluctuating much more strongly than usual.Hewlett-Packard's (HP) April shipments slipped dramatically from a month ago, but the US-based vendor still achieved a double-digit percentage growth on year. Dell surpassed Lenovo to second position for the second time in 2018 in April. Lenovo was undermined by the US-China trade tensions and its business re-organization, slipping to third place in April, said Jim Hsiao, senior analyst at Digitimes ResearchThe top-3 ODMs' combined shipments decreased 27% on month in April. Compal Electronics leapfrogged last month's top maker Quanta Computer to become the largest ODM in April, as its orders from US-based clients had a smaller drop than Quanta's.