The miscellaneous applications of the Internet of Vehicles (IoV) and autonomous-driving systems in the automotive market range from in-vehicle entertainment, mobile office and navigation, to name a few. This has lifted the curtain on the surging growth of this area, as well as the rapid emergence of secure automotive memory to satisfy the storage needs for low-level code, data and parameters. Moreover, it plays a key role in several segments, such as advanced driver-assistance system (ADAS), heads-up display (HUD), electronic dashboard, navigation, infotainment, and transmission systems. Behind such prospecting smart vehicle solutions, a very real concern is information protection and cybersecurity under the hood.To guard drivers' and passengers' rights and promote the awareness of cybersecurity in car manufacturers and supply chains, beginning July 2022 car manufacturers must comply with regulations before engaging in the design of new models in Europe, Japan and Korea. The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) further specified, in Regulation No. R155 and No. R156, the rules governing the automotive cybersecurity management system in the car manufacturing supply chain. From July 2024, all new cars in the world should be compliant with this new cybersecurity regulation. International car brands therefore require automotive semiconductor sectors to deliver products that meet the International Organization of Standards' ISO/SAE 21434 framework.In the North American market, the launch of the ISO/SAE 21434 standard is in full swing. Vehicle information protection and cybersecurity standards will dominate the automotive electronics and semiconductor sectors. In future smart vehicles, whose electronic devices are connected to a network, a semiconductor embedded will be mandated to be equipped with cybersecurity. Information protection and cybersecurity, therefore, have become a fundamentally vital element in automotive electronics.ArmorFlash series of secure flash memory expands its touch with ISO/SAE 21434 certificationDr. Donald Huang, director of product marketing at Macronix International, pointed out in a recent interview the pressing need for memory security to achieve confidentiality, integrity and availability of automotive electronic data. Macronix has developed a family of secure flash memory solutions: the ArmorFlash portfolio, with features that include building keys, encryption, decryption, authentication, and anti-tempering. In addition, the memories have "unpredictable" physical properties that cannot be copied, which enables high-level encryption and various applications related to confidential information.Many leading technologies have leaned towards using biometric sensors in chips as the foundation of coding. Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) are employed to program and generate "fingerprints" for chips. An essential secure component is added to the memory chip as a secure ID or key that applies to an array of identity authentication or mechanisms, such as crypto keys or security boot. Highly favored by international graphics processor unit (GPU) and automotive microprocessor (MPU) foundries, these functionalities lead their way to the supply chain of automotive market seamlessly.The ISO/SAE 21434 standard, announced in August 2021, covers the complete life cycle of a vehicle and emphasizes the requirements for cybersecurity risk management. Macronix immediately formed a project team to gear up for intensive planning to adhere to the standard. ISO/SAE 21434 includes 15 clauses, detailing engineering requirements for cybersecurity risk management. Among those 15 requirements, conducting a threat analysis and risk assessment (TARA) is of particular significance for compliance.TARA compliance report for ArmorFlash accelerates the certification of ISO/SAE 21434Macronix initiated a verification activity of ArmorFlash for ISO/SAE 21434 at the end of 2021. In May 2022, the company accomplished TARA and received a report, showcasing plenty of scenarios where threats and attacks could happen. The verification of TARA is needed at the development phase of automotive design to identify underlying threats and vulnerabilities. Meanwhile, a common framework would be defined to support the requirements of cybersecurity and risk management from the fundamentals.Attaining the TARA compliance report for ArmorFlash has marked a new milestone for Macronix and its secure memory for automotive applications. The company is conducting ISO/SAE 21434 process certification, followed by the ISO/SAE 21434 product certification specifically for the ArmorFlash™ MX78 flash memory series. The goal is to provide secure flash memory solutions compliant with international information security standards to fulfill the requirements of the automotive industry.The ArmorFlash portfolio has already achieved various industry safety certifications, including "functional safety" steered by ISO 26262, CAVP of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), FIPS 140-2 Level 2 under CMVP, and Arm PSA Level 1. With each step, the Macronix memory portfolio has served as a shining example in the collaboration with international GPU and automotive MCU chip foundries. Their offerings have been adopted by top-tier car manufacturers and automotive electronics manufacturers, helping them produce phenomenal revenue.Dr. Huang stated that Macronix memory solutions have been widely used in major brands worldwide across computers, communications, consumer electronics, 5G, medical, automotive, and various industrial-control sectors. As the needs for information protection and cybersecurity in IoV and smart vehicles escalate, a strong memory demand is inevitably soaring in the automotive market. ArmorFlash can help Macronix win top-tier car manufacturers' continuous trust to address broad applications, and as a result, bolster its global reach.Macronix ArmorFlash completed ISO/SAE 21434 TARA

Synopsys today announced its collaboration with Saigon High-Tech Park (SHTP) to advance IC design talent in Vietnam, with Synopsys supporting SHTP's establishment of a chip design center through donations from its University Software Program. The collaboration aims to cultivate advanced IC design talent and facilitate semiconductor development in Vietnam.Dr Robert Li, Synopsys Sales Vice President of Taiwan and South Asia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on August 26 with Dr Nguyen Anh Thi, President of SHTP in Vietnam. Through Synopsys Academic & Research Alliances (SARA), Synopsys will provide its University Software Program, which includes curriculum, educational resources, and "Train the Trainers" program to the SHTP for setting up its chip design center. SHTP will invest in the IT infrastructure of setting up the design center in the next three years."Synopsys is known for its industry-leading semiconductor design software, IP and software security solutions," said Nguyen Anh Thi. "The collaboration for SHTP chip design center in Vietnam can benefit from the company's world-class design technology by cultivating our future chip designers with the latest industry trends while they are still in school. The cooperation can also help facilitate the development of Vietnam's semiconductor industry.""SHTP is the innovation hub of Vietnam's high-tech industry and we are happy to support SHTP's establishment of chip design center with Synopsys advanced technology and University program initiatives," said Robert Li. "Throughout recent years, Synopsys has introduced many innovative technologies to our Vietnam partners to help them strengthen IC design capability and shorten time-to-market. We hope the collaboration with SHTP will not only bring new technologies to our partners in Vietnam, but also cultivate young talent and help thrust the development of Vietnam semiconductor industry."SHTP has become the economic, technological, and intellectual base of Ho Chi Minh City and the Southern Economic Region of Vietnam in recent years. SHTP chip design center is authorized to welcome lectures from three universities belonging to Vietnam National University at HCM City, including HCM City University of Technology, University of Science and University of Information Technology, to attend the Synopsys train the trainers program and also do the training at SHTP chip design center, according to the MoU.Synopsys is committed to helping the Vietnam semiconductor industry cultivate its IC design talent through ongoing cooperation with both academia and business. Li added that "The successful development of the semiconductor industry requires teamwork among government, research universities and entrepreneurs collaborating together. Synopsys will work closely with the SHTP to help fortify semiconductor industry development and further its leadership in the region."Dr Robert Li (frond left), Synopsys Sales Vice President of Taiwan and South Asia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on August 26 with Dr Nguyen Anh Thi (front right), President of SHTP in Vietnam.

AEWIN Technologies Co, Ltd (doing business as AEWIN), founded in 2000, has over 20-year experience in designing and manufacturing High-Performance Network Appliance. The wide range of product portfolio includes Network Appliance, Servers, and expansion cards such as NIC (Network Interface Card) and Accelerator cards. AEWIN provides the support of customized design and technical supports to satisfy diverse demands from various industries. The reliable systems have been trusted by some of the top Network Security experts as the foundation of their network solutions.AEWIN joined Qisda group in 2019 becoming one of the hardware providers in Qisda BSA (Business Solutions Alliance) and worked with software provider of AI application to build Edge AI innovative solutions and integrated with 5G/CPE provider under Qisda to offer complete Open RAN solutions. The support of verification and optimization of GPU computing resources help to accomplish multiple smart solutions."AEWIN offers products featuring the full range of Intel and AMD processors from ultra-compact desktop platform to high-performance rack-mount servers. Integrated with AEWIN self-design network interface modules ranging from 1G to 100G, customers' individual requirements can be satisfied with excellent efficiency," says Tiana Shao, Product Marketing Manager at AEWIN. "In addition, AEWIN provides services of customization, software verification, and configuration optimization. As a response to the market demands, AEWIN expands the product lines to General Purpose Server and Edge AI Server. We commit to be the reliable all-round partners in Networking, IoT, Cloud/Fog Computing, and more."The maturity of technologies of 5G, AI, and Edge Computing brings the rapid development of Metaverse and further digital innovation applications. All of these require efficient CPU and GPU resources. AEWIN cooperates with InfinitiesSoft Solution Inc. (doing business as InfinitiesSoft) to provide the ultimate development environment to assist industry to create more valuable applications through the integration of AEWIN Edge AI Server and the AI-stack of InfinitiesSoft, the Machine Learning Development and Operations Management Platform.As InfinitiesSoft has cumulated countless experience in supporting the collaboration on GPU management and AI model and application development, the integration of its AI-Stack with AEWIN Edge Server allow the GPU resources be used in a more efficient way and make AI development/management easier and more efficient through web-based platform. It helps enterprises to speed up the whole process of AI implementation from AI model building to the edge applications. In Smart City Intelligent Medical applications, AEWIN Edge AI Server with AI-Stack platform enables the management of multiple servers to strengthen the overall resources for high-efficient operation and build up win-win solution for customers.AEWIN Edge AI Server with InfinitiesSoft AI-stack enables efficient development and management of intelligent applications in various industries.Shao also mentioned that there are many success stories of AEWIN Edge AI Server and MEC (Multi-access Edge Computing) in addition to the popularity of Network Appliances from global Network Security Experts. One of the hottest applications is the traffic management in Smart City. The enormous data requires extremely high computing power to handle with. AEWIN Edge AI Server allows the machine learning and re-training of AI model to be completed simultaneously.The real-time analysis of the streaming of traffic flow, pedestrian flow, traffic signals and parking information can assist the city manager to build a better plan/strategy with advanced AI recognition, predictive abnormal alarm, intelligent decision-making, etc. AEWIN products such as SCB-1739, SCB-1826, SCB-1932, SCB-1937 include Intel/AMD platforms with single or dual CPUs, providing outstanding performance for real-time inference and model training.AEWIN Edge AI Servers with INFINITIES AI-Stack accelerates AI adoption in diverse vertical markets.Regarding one of the hot topics, Intelligent Medical Management, in recent years, AEWIN offers high-performance Edge AI Server with short-depth design to implement great computing power of CPU/GPU to the Edge to achieve real-time intelligent recognition/analysis and AI model training. Taking the application of cancer inspection as an example, the Edge AI helps to scan and analyze hundreds of CT rapidly and provides inference results as a reference to further save doctors' valuable time. Moreover, the AI models can continuously evolve with the latest big data and further push the developments of the Smart Medical to the next-level applications."Every touch point of IoT can be the target of cyber-attack. AEWIN offers reliable solutions of Network Appliance/NIC/Accelerator cards featuring rapid encryption, high throughput network transmission, and extraordinary performance of computing to fulfill the demands in cybersecurity. Responding to the explosion of the data growth, deploying the high-speed analyzing power at the edge can accomplish the low-latency innovative applications. Furthermore, processing the data at edge can filter the critical information before uploading the data to the cloud to ensure the overall maintenance of cyber security," Tiana Shao reminds.

Inventory cycles swing from "just-in-case" to "just-in-time," but recent trends are pushing manufacturers to amass unnecessarily large inventories. Stockpiling can seem like a beneficial safeguarding measure, but experience has shown that it can backfire and create instability while furthering inflation.There is a viable substitute for both the just-in-case and just-in-time methods. Instead of hoarding to safeguard resources, manufacturers should leverage vendor and supplier relationships to find stability when the scales of supply and demand invert.Buffers Become BarricadesAs demand outpaces supply within the semiconductor industry, the disparity has driven up prices and lead times - a costly consequence for those who cannot afford to wait for product.Buying buffer stock is a key part of the just-in-case management model. It entails carrying larger inventories in case supply chains fail. However, over-ordering further depletes market supply, which subsequently increases prices and extends lead times.In such scenarios, carrying costs are high and buyers may utilize 3rd-party warehouses for storage. This turns buffer stock from a benefit into a liability, as it constricts cashflow and causes logistical complications.Restored Supply Means Trouble for StockpilersWhen supply chain disruptions start to dissipate, companies realize the downfalls of the stockpiling strategy. In today's market, demand is softening. Inflation and events like the Russia-Ukraine conflict have driven commodity prices higher and consequently reduced consumer spending. Consumer electronics are likely to suffer the most, as these purchases tend to trend downward first. This shift is hurting manufacturers, particularly after they experienced heightened demand during the peak of the pandemic.The impact is reflected in reduced business outlooks. Micron, which produces DRAM chips for technology like personal computers and smart phones, announced a drastic cut in production after projections showed a 3-8% price drop for DRAM chips.Although Micron will need to hold the already produced chips, this production slowdown preserves Micron's control over supply, mitigating excess and ensuring better prices.How to Build a Healthy InventoryPreemptively planning a holistic inventory strategy builds a foundation for success. Work closely with strategic suppliers to strengthen the supply chain and make securing allocation easier. Engage strategic supplier relationships during periods of inflation to ensure proper budget investment, as a dependable supplier relationship reduces costs by committing to orders in advance.Plus, providing transparency on component lists helps suppliers better understand your needs and proactively offer supply. Buyers should limit excess supply to a 1-2-month period to avoid disruptions and additional carrying costs.Price changes and shortages are unpredictable, but it is important to pay attention to consumer behavior and market movements. Independent distributors with market intelligence teams are especially valuable, as they can be your eyes and ears on the market and give recommendations.Maintain Balance StrategicallyNavigating between supply and demand is a balancing act; be sure to use every tool available to you to stabilize inventories. A company's best resource is its supply source, so work closely with strategic partners to control your inventory, instead of having it control you.

Germany-based Beckhoff Automation, an automation solution specialist founded in 1980 and headquartered in Verl, has been operating in the field of industrial automation for over 40 years. Its experience built and technologies developed during these years have earned the company partnerships and trust from the industrial big names such as Canadian machinery supplier Husky, Switzerland-based Georg Fischer and German robot manufacturer Kuka Robotics.Beckhoff Automation's engineering team and experience also enabled the company to invent technologies such as EtherCAT and innovations based on the communication fieldbus that are being broadly used among machine builders and IPC companies.Hans Beckhoff, owner and managing director of Beckhoff Automation, pointed out during an interview that Beckhoff Automation is an automation company that delivers the intelligence, power and anything that is needed to control a machine, a building, a windmill or others.He founded Beckhoff Automation in 1980 and started the business with microprocessor-based controlled systems in the early period of the company's operation, but in 1986, the company turned specifically to PC-based control technologies - implementing real-time software onto hardware of an industrial PC to enable typical automation functionalities like PLC and motion.With the PC-based control technologies, Beckhoff Automation managed to gain the ability to control machines via PCs in very early days and this allowed the company to bring a lot of unique features of machine control to its customers.Today, with all the communication, data handling and analytics features, and modern control needs, Beckhoff Automation's technologies over PC-based control have further advanced. Beckhoff Automation's clients can now simply download programs from the company website and install onto their PCs to transform their PCs into a high-end machine control while maintaining all the features of a standard PC.The software TwinCAT is the heart of Beckhoff Automation's business philosophy - to become a software-oriented company, but the software still needs a lot of supporting hardware to be able to perform its control ability on clients' high-quality machinery hardware. Therefore Beckhoff Automation has started expanding the development and production of its own-brand industrial PCs, I/O and fieldbus components, drive technology as well as control cabinet-free automation.Beckhoff Automation is a company with deep technologies. What that means is that Beckhoff Automation is fully capable of developing motherboards for its industrial PCs by itself. It is producing the motherboards at its plants in Germany and has its own BIOS software and a team of operating system experts and engineers that are able to cut down the reaction times of its IPCs to only 100 microseconds. Beckhoff also has specialists for automation software as well as specialists for applications such as packaging, milling and assembly.However, Beckhoff Automation does not only want to sell hardware and software to its customers; the company also wants to sell trust to them. Automation is a high-end technology, making it rather complicated and requiring close collaboration between its supplier and user.The supplier and user have to work together and develop a close relationship in order to make most advanced projects to work. In Taiwan, Beckhoff Automation also has high-end supporting engineers that are ready to provide any assistance to its customers.Beckhoff Automation's business strategy and structure helps it go through the difficult time during COVIDDespite the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on different industries over the past months, Beckhoff Automation still managed to achieve revenue growth in 2020 and further growth in 2021.Commenting on Beckhoff Automation's excellent performance in 2021, the founder Beckhoff said that the company currently has around 5,000 employees worldwide and more than 2,000 of them are engineers. It also has 24 sales offices spreading around Germany, as the company hopes to be as near to its customers as possible, and many subsidiaries in 40 other markets outside Germany, including Taiwan.Beckhoff Automation also has distributors and channel partners in more than 75 countries around the world to handle its product distribution and marketing. The company's sales increased to EUR1.182 billion (US$1.18 billion) in 2021, a record high with an on-year growth rate of 28% thanks to its employees' and partners' hard work.Over the more than 40 years of operation, Beckhoff Automation enjoyed annual revenue growth for most of the years, but there are still some years when "we experienced a drop from or stay on par with the previous year's numbers because of a major financial crisis around the world," said Beckhoff. On average, the company still saw a revenue growth of 15% a year since 2000.Beckhoff Automation has also been pushing to keep all its existing customers, and continue to win over new ones. Over the past 20-30 years, Beckhoff Automation has seen an increasing number of customers choose to stay with the company as they have great confident over the quality and pricing provided by Beckhoff Automation's solutions.In Germany, Beckhoff Automation has stable teams of engineers and workers, which allow the company to develop and build innovative technologies and products. The company's structure as a family-owned business also provides many benefits in its operation. Beckhoff Automation is completely self-financed and does not need to face pressure from investors or banks.With complete control of the company's business direction, the company can follow through its inventory strategy of maintaining four to six months of raw materials at its warehouses during the worst moment of the COVID-19 pandemic, while most other enterprises are instead trying to lose as much inventory as possible. In the end, the decision paid off and helped Beckhoff Automation through the crisis.Another advantage the company has as a privately-owned company is that the management team does not treat the results as the ultimate goal as it is also looking for long-term developments to maintain its technological leadership.The company's target each year is to launch new products with evolutionary features and to create something revolutionary every 5-7 years. Beckhoff Automation has already been doing so for many years and the strategy helped the company to create the principle of the PC-based control, the invention of bus terminals, linear motor and magnetic levitate movement technologies.Another revolution is the new MX-System, which was introduced in November 2021. The system offers a flexible, space-optimized and intelligent system solution and sets a new level in industrial automation by completely replacing the conventional control cabinet.This is also a duty for Beckhoff Automation: to bring new ideas to customers and to fulfill their needs and expectations. The development also helped the company to attract more new clients.The warehouse policy helped Beckhoff Automation during the crisis, but the company is now also gradually seeing longer lead times for its shipments due to insufficient production capacity. For that, Beckhoff Automation already started an expansion project with the new capacity set to be online by the first quarter of 2022 and volumes doubled compared to the beginning of 2020, to allow the company to delivery more products.With the increase in capacity, the lead time for orders is expected to return to normal in the second half of 2022. Clients' orders placed with Beckhoff Automation increased more than 60% on year in 2021, while its capacity only picked up 25%, but the gap will be narrowed in 2022.Since automation is a technology that can be applied in a lot of industries such as healthcare, water treatment and entertainment, automation companies are expected to enjoy a bright future because of enormous demand from all over the places.Beckhoff Automation offers one-of-a-kind solutions to satisfy increasing demandTaking the COP26 event for an example, the discussion in Glasgow was about how "engineers have to save the world," says Beckhoff. "We need to invent new technologies that can make machines and manufacturing processes more effective and use less energy and raw material, and all the companies have to do this on a steady basis."With the goal, more electric vehicles (EV) are expected to appear, which will require more semiconductors for production and relatively benefit the semiconductor and automation industries. Beckhoff Automation is delivering a lot of control systems to the semiconductor industry and also the assembly industry, because of the new manufacturing architecture coming to the market.With Beckhoff Automation's powerful IPCs, the customers are able to correlate over 100 axes together, build complicated machinery and run the axes in very short cycle time of 100 microseconds.This means that the machine can react faster and has higher production efficiency. The system also features IoT functionality that can collect data and store them to backend platforms for analysis.Beckhoff Automation also has a lot of built-in measurement technology that the company believes should be integrated into the control and not as an extra machine. The company is offering packages with variety of choices customer can choose that suit them better.Beckhoff Taiwan sees many business opportunities in the marketFor the business in Taiwan, managing director of Beckhoff Automation Taiwan Phylex Ong talked about the branch office's status, successful cases, as well as the key factors hindering Taiwanese enterprises from adopting smart manufacturing applications and the company's solutions to help resolve the problem.Ong noted that Beckhoff Taiwan was founded in 2018. The office is located in central Taiwan as he believes the place is the best to help cover all its clients in the market.At the moment, Beckhoff Taiwan has around 19 employees with six of them being engineers and five salespeople. Apart from their own sales team, the company is mainly working with one distributor, which had partnership with Beckhoff Automation long before the branch office was established in Taiwan. The distributor has a total of five sales offices throughout the major cities of Taiwan.Beckhoff Taiwan has also achieved many successful cases during its operation since 2018. It has partnered with Shieh Yih Machinery Industry (Seyi), one of the major servo press machine builders in Taiwan. In one of its machines, the company used Beckhoff's CX5140 embedded PC with a 15-inch Control Panel CP6902, supporting EtherCAT with TwinSAFE terminals within the same fieldbus. It has also acquired Beckhoff Automation's TwinCAT licenses that cover the HMI and TwinSAFE for the machine.Since Seyi's machine requires huge servo model and drive that run up to 165KW, which is beyond Beckhoff's current portfolio, the company has sought a third-party servo machine that is running on EtherCAT to fulfill client's demand.EtherCAT is one of the major inventions Beckhoff introduced to the market in 2003 and is the abbreviation for Ethernet for Control Automation Technology. It is based on standard Ethernet technology, but with intelligence, which makes it perfect for performing machine I/O. It is also widely recognized by worldwide IPC and machinery communities.Beckhoff Taiwan also assisted Seyi in conquering many technical challenges such as deploying more sensors on its production lines to collect data for analysis, improving performance of its machines to meet safety standards and making its platform compatible with worldwide standard to satisfy clients in Europe, the US and Japan.However, Beckhoff Taiwan itself still faces many challenges in the market. When the company first started in the market in 2018, the brand awareness of Beckhoff Automation was not very high in Taiwan's automation machine market, which has been dominated by Japanese and local brands.To break through, the company decided to invest primarily in marketing in order to create differentiation from its competitors. Another key factor that slows down the company's expansion in Taiwan is that most automation users in Taiwan are more familiar with the PLC platform and it will require some time for them to learn more about Beckhoff Automation's PC-based control systems.Therefore, Beckhoff Taiwan has been hosting bi-weekly TwinCAT workshops for local engineers and customers and is now seeing more of them turning to embrace TwinCAT thanks to the technology's advantages and benefits.Pricing is another key challenge Beckhoff Taiwan is facing at the moment. Many Taiwanese and Japanese IPC players in Taiwan are usually offering rather competitive pricing for their products as compared to European players in the industry.The machine building clients that procure cheap IPC solutions are often those who wish to compete against competitors in China who offer extremely cheap products, but these clients' cost cutting would usually turn out to erode their own profitability instead in the long term with their prices still being outmatched by the Chinese competitors.For Beckhoff Taiwan, helping these clients to advance from competing in the low-end sector to the midrange and high-end ones is one of the key tasks. Since the proportion of Taiwanese machine builders who primarily focus on the high-end sector is still rather low, this means that the company still has a lot of room for growth.The method is also how Beckhoff Automation was able to gradually grow its share in Germany's automation IPC industry. With Beckhoff Automation's technology breakthrough, the company believes its clients will choose to stay and continue to grow along with Beckhoff Automation.Beckhoff Automation's technologies and innovationsBeckhoff Automation's various technologies can assist Taiwanese machine builders to accomplish their automation demand. Many companies have already joined EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG) to use EtherCAT, which has released up to 1Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s, up from the standard 100Mbit/s, for their machines.Meanwhile, Beckhoff Automation is also offering many types of motors such as rotary and linear ones. A few of the innovations Beckhoff Automation has introduced are the XTS transport system (2012) and the XPlanar (2018) planar motion system with stationary coils and moving magnets. The XPlanar is a new way to perform intellectual conveyor functionality inside a machine as the system can control each mover individually by controlling the magnetic fields, which are generated by the stationary coils.Users can perform interesting moving patterns with the technology that can be applied to food and drug packaging. Beckhoff Automation will also demonstrate the system at an upcoming show to present its leadership in automation innovations.For Taiwan's semiconductor industry, EtherCAT has already become the standard communication terminal for the industry and the XPlanar will also be a perfect solution for semiconductor manufacturing because of dust-free requirement.Beckhoff MX-System for control cabinet-free automationPhylex Ong, managing director of Beckhoff Automation Taiwan

According to the semiconductor research company IC Insights, the global MCU revenue in 2022 will reach US$21.5 billion and the growth of automotive MCUs will outpace the growth of other MCU applications. The automotive industry has also seen an increase in the demand for better smart driving and improved safety which also increased the popularity of RISC-V architecture-based chips. The RISC-V Taiwan Alliance stated that the use of RISC-V based processor IP in smart and automotive electronic system solutions has grown dramatically in the year 2022.Large companies around the world from international giants such as Intel and Renesas to Taiwanese CPU manufacturers such as Andes Technology have introduced CPU IP or MCU chips based on RISC-V architecture for their smart and electric vehicle (EV) systems. Many manufacturers today have adopted RISC-V architecture to design MCU chips with high frequency, high performance, and low power consumption for smart and electric vehicles.RISC-V architecture introduction to smart and electric vehicles improves MCU development and efficiencyDuring CES 2022, Intel launched the new Mobileye EyeQ Ultra, a chip designed for Level 4 autonomous driving. It features 12 RISC-V cores, Arm GPU, and DSP with the aim to bring Level 4 autonomous driving to cars thanks notably to a 176 TOPS AI accelerator. Announced in February 2022, Andes Technology was the first RISC-V vendor to pass the SGS-TUV Saar assessment and certified to be compliant to the requirements of ISO 26262 standards for the development of automotive functional safety processor cores. An international MCU leader, Renesas announced in March and April 2022 that it will partner with Andes Technology and SiFive to develop the next generation of high-end RISC-V solutions for automotive applications.This rise in adoption of RISC-V based architecture in automotive systems is because it is suitable for various important functions, including the ASIL-D rated controller and secure coprocessor, AI accelerators, automotive instruments, low power radar, automotive ECU (electric control unit), automotive touch panels, high-speed EV charger, and GaN based advanced electric vehicle battery charger controller, motor drive controller, etc. As the popularity of electric and smart vehicles grows, automotive chips have grown to be one of the most sought-after types of chips.2022 RISC-V Taipei Day invites speakers from industry leaders to discuss the application and development of electronic modules in electric and smart vehiclesAccording to IC Insights, worldwide microcontroller sales is expected to increase 10% in 2022 to reach an all-time high of US$21.5 billion, with automotive MCU growth outpacing most other end-use categories this year. This overall growth of the MCU market will also expand the potential market for RISC-V in automotive applications.Leveraging this growth, the 2022 RISC-V Taipei Day will be held on September 15, 2022 and will focus on the topics of EVs and smart vehicles. The event will invite speakers from leading companies including RISC-V International, Intel, Andes Technology, SiFive, Imagination, Microchip, DIGITIMES and other companies from around the world in the RISC-V ecosystem. The speakers will discuss the innovative designs of RISC-V architecture in automotive applications. With the rapid development and flexibility of RISC-V architecture, the event aims to also accelerate the development of innovative and diverse RISC-V applications in automotive electronics.2022 RISC-V Taipei Day: Drive Into the Future with RISC-V InsideEvent date: September 15, 2022 8:30am-12:30pm (GMT+8)Event format: Hybrid (onsite meeting and exhibition+online livestreamingEvent organizers: RISC-V Taiwan Alliance (RVTA), RISC-V International, Taiwan IoT Technology and Industry Association (TwIoTA), SEMICON TaiwanLanguage: On-site Chinese, online EnglishEvent website�G http://www.twiota.org/RISC-V/RISC-V-TAIPEI-DAY/2022/index_en.htmlEvent agendaTimeTopicSpeaker08:30-09:00Registration09:00-09:05Opening RemarksAlex WangPresident, Powerchip TechnologyChairman of RISC-V Taiwan Alliance09:05-09:10Welcome RemarksTerry TsaoGlobal Chief Marketing Officer and President, SEMI Taiwan09:10-09:20Keynote: RISC-V EverywhereCalista RedmondCEO, RISC-V International09:20-09:35Keynote: RISC-V Trend is UnbeatableFrankwell LinChairman and CEO, Andes TechnologyBoard of Director, RISC-V International09:35-09:50Intel Investments in the RISC-V EcosystemGary MartzSr. Director, Intel Foundry Services, RISC-V Enablement, Intel09:50-10:00Group Photo10:00-10:20Taking RISC-V to All Computing DevicesCharlie SuPresident and CTO, Andes Technology10:20-10:40RISC-V Processors for Automotive and Safety Critical ApplicationsTommy LinSenior Manager, Product Marketing, SiFive10:40-10:55Break10:55-11:10IMG RTXM-2200: Imagination's first Licensable RISC-V Catapult CPUJames SyuSenior Principal and Application Engineer, Imagination Technologies11:10-11:25Creating Power-Efficient Embedded Solutions with POLARFIRE® SoC FPGAVishakh RayapetaSenior Technical Staff Engineer, FPGA Applications, Microchip Technology Inc.11:25-11:40From DIGITIMES Asia Perspective of IC 50 : China Speeds Up through RISC-V AdvancementTom LoAnalyst and Research Manager, DIGITIMES11:40-12:20Panel Discussion12:20-12:30Q&A*The organizers reserve the rights to change the agenda of the event without prior notice. Please pay attention to the agenda on the day of the forum.Media Contact:David Liu, Taiwan IoT Technology and Industry Association (TwIoTA)TEL: 02-25762034 / 0933-850-000Email: david_liu@twiota.org

As Taiwan enters the "dog days of summer," its electricity consumption has repeatedly hit new highs, and the importance of energy conservation and green energy has become ever more prominent. MEAN WELL, the world's leading brand of standard power supplies, has long been committed to improving product performance to assist all sectors in efforts of energy conservation and carbon reduction; especially in recent years, various industries have faced the impact of ESG, and the demand for energy-conserving and green energy products is even more intense. MEAN WELL's diversified products, through flexible combination of 3+N System Solutions, can help customers quickly achieve energy-conservation goals."3" here refers to Rack Power, Modular Power and System Power and "N" represents the infinite possibilities of MEAN WELL's product combination and flexibility. Under the 3+N System Solutions framework, MEAN WELL's new generation of industrial-grade chargers and inverters, bidirectional power supplies, and energy-saving burn-in system solutions have become energy-saving tools for all fields.MEAN WELL 3+N system solutionsEris Wu, Chief Technical Service Officer at MEAN WELL: "If an enterprise wants to reduce electricity bills while taking into account power stability and net-zero carbon emissions, peak-shaving and valley-filling of the energy storage system and bidirectional power conversion can store energy during off-peak hours and discharge during peak hours, so as to maximally allow for no distinct peaks or lows. Only by reducing stress on the power system can further save electricity costs, save energy, and reduce carbon." When electricity bills are about to rise, companies must step up and take countermeasures.Redundant, Portable Power Products are Becoming Readily AvailableMEAN WELL's new generation of industrial-grade chargers and inverters have complete specifications, ranging from low to high wattage, thus fully meeting requirements for battery charging, green energy storage, power backup, mobile device charging, mobile power supply, and stationary energy storage.Generally speaking, in places where there is no alternating current, electricity mostly relies on fuel generators to generate alternating current to meet demand. However, generators are not only noisy and polluting, they are also not in line with environmental protection; also, DC-AC inverters play an important role in green energy applications. In response to such needs, MEAN WELL's NTS/NTU series of inverters and NPB series of chargers are paired with customer battery systems, which can solve power supply problems in various places without AC power, and can also be used as battery-based UPS backup power sources."As long as customers select products from MEAN WELL's website according to charging current and load required for the application; and with the support of the global technical service team, they can quickly find the system solutions that they need," said Tony Hsieh, Section Manager of MEAN WELL's Technical Service Center.MEAN WELL continues to develop miniaturized products and increase the freedom of product installation to expand the scope of application further. For example, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals have primarily adopted many mobile disinfection lights; MEAN WELL's miniaturized products can be directly integrated with the main body of these mobile systems to provide mobile charging functions and improve the mobility of devices. Similarly, medical carts, floor scrubbing robots, and other devices can also benefit from the convenience of MEAN WELL power supplies. In addition, through the combination of software, applications such as burners can quickly set voltage and current, making them more convenient.Bidirectional Power Supplies Convert + Recycle PowerMEAN WELL bidirectional power supplies are mainly used in battery R&D and testing. In recent years, with the development of green energy and sustainable development, battery consumption has grown rapidly. Thus, a good battery can help save energy and reduce carbon. From battery manufacture to shipment, charging and discharging processes of the battery must be repeated to maintain the level of function and performance of the battery.In the past, a charger and an inverter had to be used separately to perform charging and discharging. The heat energy generated by the discharge through resistance would dissipate into the air, causing the temperature of the working environment to rise. As the name suggests, MEAN WELL's bidirectional power supply combines those two devices—a charger and an inverter. In addition to charging the DC battery through AC, it can discharge seamlessly in the reverse direction within 1ms. The battery or the load terminal recovers the DC energy and is then converted into AC power, which is directly fed to the mains grid."In this way, the 1ms seamless switching function can graph the complete charge and discharge curve. The cost of charging and discharging equipment can be reduced, space can be reduced, and the maintenance work can be simplified as well. Furthermore, heat dissipation is greatly reduced, meaning the temperature rise of the working environment will be limited and the amount of air-conditioning can be reduced, all resulting in lower power consumption," said Simon Kuo, Product Manager of the Product Strategy Center.MEAN WELL's BIC-2200 series of Bidirectional Power Supplies has been top-rated since its launch. In addition to the above advantages, complete safety certification is another reason why MEAN WELL products are so well-received by both domestic and foreign customers. It is reported that many world-renowned automatic test equipment (ATE) manufacturers have adopted MEAN WELL's bidirectional power supplies to meet the high requirements of standard battery testing of European, American, and Japanese vehicle manufacturers.Example of a lithium battery manufacturing process using BIC-2200 seriesEnergy saving rate of the energy-saving burn-in system is as high as 80%MEAN WELL provides various energy-conserving products to its customers and strives to save electricity as a company internally. For example, for the burn-in process, MEAN WELL has developed and designed its Energy Recovery System (ERS) ERG-5000, which recycles and reuses the power used initially for burn-in testing.A small part of the insufficient electric energy is provided by the mains AC, giving an energy-saving rate as high as 81%. ERS saves electricity and reduces emissions of GHGs and harmful gases.The adoption of this energy-conserving burn-in system has earned MEAN WELL recognition in the "3rd Enterprises Environmental Protection Award" held by the Environmental Protection Administration. Now, MEAN WELL not only uses the ERS internally, but has also promoted it to industry partners, helping everyone save energy and reduce carbon.

MEAN WELL, the world's leading brand in standard power supplies, has recently been actively promoting its 3+N System Solutions. "3" here refers to Rack Power, Modular Power and System Power and "N" represents the infinite possibilities of MEAN WELL's product combination and flexibility. Eris Wu, Chief Technical Service Officer at MEAN WELL, states: "We mainly recommend the CMU2 Multi-Industry General-Purpose Smart Controller with a wide range of choices for system power supply, high-voltage centralized power supply, high-peak power supply, and energy-saving burn-in system, which can quickly satisfy the requirements of customers for equipment system applications."CMU2 multi-industry general-purpose smart controllerThe CMU2 controller combines digitization and intelligenceCMU2 is MEAN WELL's latest generation Multi-Industry General-Purpose Smart Controller. Different from the previous generation LCD display interface, the CMU2 uses a full-color touch screen. "In an era when a device is in each person's hands, this is the most intuitive operation method, which is very user-friendly. In the future, it can be directly modified for different appearances and uses through software and firmware, and it's extremely scalable," said Simon Kuo, Product Manager of the Product Strategy Center. Therefore, even if there are dozens of power supplies to be controlled, the user can still handle them all, with just one finger.The CMU2 system power controller can control up to 64 3200W power supplies. The system power supply is composed of several separate power supplies. For example, MEAN WELL's DRP-3200 series Rack Mount Power Supplies is one of customers' most commonly used power supply options.Taiwan Photon Source (TPS) synchrotron high-power light sourceCMU2 has earned the approval of national research centers MEAN WELL's CMU2 and system power supply combination is suitable for applications with high power consumption, including: industrial applications, water treatment, electric vehicle EV charging, electronic product aging operating systems, UV curing equipment, horticultural lighting, lasers, etc. Tony Hsieh, Section Manager of MEAN WELL's Technical Service Center, emphasized: "In these applications, digital and smart management of centralized power configuration can save a lot of trouble." CMU2 has built-in firmware and software for different applications, such as voltage and current adjustment required for power management, power monitoring, or burn-in time and load setting required for burn-in devices.The stability, intelligence, and cost-effectiveness of MEAN WELL power supply systems have always been very well-received. The recent successful introduction into national research centers is one more testament to MEAN WELL system power supplies being ready for the global stage. Solution components provided by MEAN WELL to research centers include: DRP-3200 series Rack Mount Power Supplies, DHP-1UT-A 1U Rack Mountable Power Supply Case, CMU2 Multi-Industry General-Purpose Smart Controller and 19-inch 15U Standard Case; output power of the parallel solution can reach up to 128kW.This system power solution will be used as a high-frequency system power supply for research centers, and will provide the RF amplifier with the energy needed to amplify tiny signals into the system.DC high-voltage centralized power supply enters the field of lightingDC high-voltage centralized power supply is an emerging power supply option for the 3+N system solutions. This is especially true considering that the energy issue has not diminished over the past two years. From power outages in China in 2021 and the reduction in natural gas supply caused by the Russo-Ukrainian War this year; hydrogen energy has even attracted attention again recently. These phenomena have drawn the market into paying increasingly more attention to DC high-voltage centralized power supplies.Tony Hsieh said, "The conversion efficiency of a DC centralized power supply in the system is higher as compared to AC power; this can reduce loss and is a good choice for environmental protection and energy conservation. In addition, it is easy to integrate in various power grids, which also makes DC centralized power supply promising for applications such as green energy power generation and energy storage systems."MEAN WELL is committed to implementing ESG, and believes it is responsible for promoting energy conservation and green energy. As the world's second-largest LED lighting driver power solutions manufacturer, MEAN WELL decided to enter the lighting field and provide a complete solution for DC high-voltage centralized power supply lighting. Market acceptance is expected to increase rapidly after power supply specifications become clearer.It is worth mentioning that the New Suzhou Intelligent Campus, which will be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, will use DC 380V wiring to supply the power needed for plant lighting and various machinery and equipment using a DC centralized power supply. It is undoubtedly the best demonstration field for DC centralized power supply.High-peak power supply saves cost and sizeMEAN WELL always tries its best to meet the needs of various customers. It is necessary to provide several times the rated current energy for many applications that use DC motors or capacitive loads to start the equipment instantly. MEAN WELL also launched the HRP-N3 series Peak Power Solution with built-in power factor correction AC-DC power supply. This series of power supplies has three power models: 150W/300W/600W.Take the industrial robot arm as an example: this device uses a DC motor as the driver for its movement and displacement to complete various actions. MEAN WELL's HRP-N3 series Peak Power Solution can provide a maximum of 350% peak power for 5 seconds, which is enough to supply DC motors with the power needed to complete instantaneous actions reliably and quickly.In general, when more power is required, common practices include: Replacing power supplies with higher power specifications, connecting more power supplies in parallel, and optimizing the system. However, these methods have the disadvantages of greatly increasing cost and taking up precious space. In contrast, HRP-N3, which can instantly provide peak power to equipment, reduce costs, reduce volume, and facilitate the installation of user-end equipment, making it the best solution.

STAr Technologies, a provider of semiconductor test solutions, releases a new Sagittarius-WLR integrated platform for advanced Wafer-Level Reliability (WLR) tests. Sagittarius-WLR is developed to address new device reliability qualification needs for advanced nanometer node technologies. More than 30 test algorithms are newly developed or revised to meet advanced reliability qualifications including ultra-fast NBTI/PBTI, HCI, GOI/TDDB, isothermal electromigration, etc. Sagittarius-WLR is one of the most comprehensive all-encompassing software for fast, predictive, and qualified solutions for advanced technology nodes semiconductor devices with reliability qualifications.The Sagittarius-WLR covers most of the critical reliability test requirements and features parallel multi-device and multi-tester operations to reduce qualification time. With dynamic parallel execution mode, users can concurrently run multiple devices to reduce qualification time by stressing and testing devices in parallel. At the same time, the multi-tester operation mode allows independent and a maximum of 32 virtual testers running tests in parallel under one hardware configuration. This flexibility will enable all kinds of test splits and dynamic test selection with parallel automated test operations.Furthermore, Sagittarius-WLR is designed with functions that allow users to have efficient reliability with real-time display of Pass/Fail judgment and test data. This test system can further be applied for electrical process-control monitoring (PCM), reliability monitoring, and reliability qualification. The system data will simultaneously be stored in the file management system as raw data in office CSV or any user-defined format locally or in the cloud for online data analysis with software tools provided. Hundreds of copies of Sagittarius-WLR have been installed and all can be upgraded with the new capabilities and can successfully improve reliability qualification efficiency and increases throughput.Yu-Ming Chien, President of STAr Technologies test business group, comments on this high-value test system, "STAr is devoted to the development of semiconductor reliability test for decades and continues to provide solutions that enhance measurement efficiency and accuracy. Sagittarius-WLR is the best-integrated test platform and indeed improves reliability qualification efficiency and proven track records with installations covering all the top foundries."

In response to the serious global issues of energy conservation and carbon reduction, brushless DC motors (BLDC Motors) are playing a significant role and forming an important industry trend due to their improved energy efficiency. BLDC motors have the advantages of a simple structure, high efficiency, long life, low noise and smaller size. The research institute, Grand View Research, has predicted that during the period 2021 to 2028, the BLDC motor global market size will expand to US$26.3 billion, with a CAGR of 5.7%.Holtek Semiconductor (HOLTEK) has been deeply embedded into the BLDC motor drive industry chain for many years, retaining a focus on motor drive MCU development as well as algorithm technology. The company has strict control over the full process from design, research and development to production, enabling Holtek to provide its customers with a range of high-quality motor control MCUs as well as providing stable product delivery. Holtek's already released 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ HT32F65xxx series of BLDC MCUs have passed the UL/IEC 60730-1 Class B motor control software safety certification. When combined with Holtek's HT32 BLDC Motor Workshop motor development platform, customers have the ability to easily import BLDC motor control solutions, thus greatly reducing the development effort and technical threshold required for the design of related BLDC motor applications.BLDC motor microcontroller research and development1. FOC (field-oriented control) control requires accurate motor current information, a robust digital circuit MCU internal control mechanism and improved analog IP performance2. For cost-sensitive 2-shunt and 1-shunt current sampling technology, Holtek released the HT32F652xx series. By using its internal high-speed 2Msps 12-bit ADC and OPA together with a flexible digital trigger mechanism, it is able to offer solutions for increasingly complex motor control requirements.3. Have an excellent understanding of the key high-voltage and high-current technologies to develop a series of SoC MCUs which include an integrated Gate-driver and Driver. These are suitable for small scale highly integrated products which have limited driver board space, such as electric assisted bicycles, electric scooters, power tools, vacuum cleaners and low-voltage motor modules, etc.Reliable and stable BLDC motor drive algorithm developmentHOLTEK has accumulated many years of BLDC drive technology experience and is able to provide appropriate algorithms for different product application.1. Square Wave Sensorless: the high torque characteristics of square wave technology still retain an important market presence. Holtek provides special back-EMF filtering technology which is able to provide reliable startup, low speed stability and commutation accuracy.2. FOC Sensorless:-Patented rotor initial position detection technology (IPD): This is able to detect the rotor initial position when the motor is stationary to resolve the rotor pulsating when using the positioning method.-Zero failure rate adaptive start-up technology: In situations where IPD is unable to be used, this will reduce mechanical vibration during motor startup. This technology can be adapted for various fan blades to allow a stable motor start.-A maximum speed of 150,000 rpm can be obtained.3. Multiple Stability Compensation-Hall sensor compensation is used to improve the Hall sensor angle deviation which can result in unstable estimated angle values.-Dead time compensation can improve current distortion, reduce harmonics and decrease audible noise.-Capacitor voltage ripple compensation will increase torque stability.-Current loop voltage compensation can control current surges and improves current control response.4. Increase the speed range-Weak field control to reach speeds exceeding the rated speed.-Over modulation technology used where weak field control cannot be used to increase speed.5. Automatic control parameter identification-Automatic identification of motor parameters within seconds.-Current loop PID gain without trial and error.BLDC motor control scheme foremost choice1. In addition to conforming to the complete UL 60730 standard self-inspection procedure, the HT32F65xxx series of MCUs also conform to the UL/IEC 60730-1 Class B motor control software safety certification. Here a complete program library and manufacturing inspection platform are provided, reducing both customer cost and time to achieve UL certification.2. The HT32 BLDC Motor Workshop motor development platform provides customers with an intelligent tool to assist with parameter configuration. This user-friendly platform includes a real-time monitoring debugging interface, ensuring that customers have an easy to use means to import BLDC motor drive technology into their product applications.3. Provides innovative remote services, where remote assistance can be provided to make adjustments without being in the same location or having the same equipment as the customer. This greatly reduces required time and travel thus greatly improving service efficiencies.HOLTEK provides complete BLDC motor solutions and high-quality technical services, which assist customers to reduce their development learning threshold resulting in much reduced development times. Refer to the HOLTEK official website for a more complete BLDC Motor MCU selection table and reference solutions.HOLTEK can supply complete BLDC motor drive solutions