Foxconn Technology Group founder Terry Gou, SoftBank Group chairman Masayoshi Son, and Katerra CEO Michael E Marks gathered together at a Taipei forum on June 22 to dissect the importance of Taiwan in the global IT supply chain, as a new world order is being shaped by the arm-wrestling between the US and China.The "G2 and Beyond" forum was organized by Digitimes to examine the opportunities and challenges presented by the arrival of an era characterized by AI, 8K, 5G and other cross-sector applications that promise a new wave of huge growth despite the dramatic twist in the relations between the world's two biggest economies.Son, speaking in public in Taiwan for the first time, presented his views at the forum about his Japan-based conglomerate's vision for the future. He noted that artificial intelligence (AI) represents the biggest paradigm shift in human history.Over the past 25 years, the Internet has brought revolutionary changes to advertising and retail businesses, but AI will be the revolution of the next stage, redefining all industries, Son said.Son said SoftBank is responding to the paradigm shift with a "Cluster of No. 1 Strategy." The SoftBank Group's companies and venture capital firms will make full use of AI, which promises to solve many of the world's problems, he stressed.Marks, with experiences across many different sectors, has played leadership roles at SanDisk, Flextronics, Tesla and venture capital firms. He was also the first to introduce advanced IT into the conventional construction business.Marks noted in his presentation that he has had a long standing relationship with Taiwan's IT industry. In fact, as chairman of Flextronics, he led the EMS provider in a fierce competition with Taiwan and Gou's Foxconn, but they have become good friends now.Marks said Taiwan owns several key technologies that can attract global investments and enable partnerships with internationally top-notch firms. He also noted that in the US these days, technology companies are either unable or unwilling to accept Chinese investment, so it is a perfect opportunity for Taiwan to invest in the US, and thereby develop long-term technology partnerships.Digitimes president Colley Hwang pointed out in his presentation that a new order in the global industry is being formed under the G2 framework.Hwang said that the first island chain formed by Japan, Korea and Taiwan during the Cold War is now an IT island chain that has strong influence in the US-China arm-wrestling, thanks to their prowess in the semiconductor sector. He hopes Taiwan can establish an authoritative voice at this critical moment.Hwang later also had a dialogue at the event with Gou discussing whether the current situation facing Taiwan is a crisis or a turning point.Gou asserted that a "G2 leading the world in a one world, two systems" scenario will be the future norm. The US-China trade conflict is changing the global supply chain, sending clients shifting orders and manufacturers relocating production lines.Taiwan must work out strategies for maintaining good relationships with all sides. He said the economy is a major concern for all of the people in Taiwan, which has long relied heavily on exports. But Taiwan must produce a new economic strategy to cope with the arrival of the IoT age that has revolutionized the industry, he said.Over 50% of Taiwan's GDP is contributed by domestic consumption, but the local market has never received the attention it deserves, and become one flooded with low-quality products, he remarked.Gou proposes that Taiwan turn itself into a "Smart IT Island." In fact, Taiwan can be a good test bed: its high-quality education, high penetration for handsets and high population density - together with its advantages in AI, 5G, 8K and semiconductor technologies - make it a perfect environment for integrating the virtual and the real, according to Gou.As long as the test bed can be well maintained, the people's digital livelihood can be enhanced, he said.(From left to right) Katerra CEO Michael E Marks, Foxconn founder Terry Gou, SoftBank chairman Masayoshi Son, and Digitimes president Colley Hwang at the G2 and Beyond forum organized by Digitimes.Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes, June 2019

Gorilla Technology Inc. IVAR has emerged as a Grand Prix winner at this year's Interop Tokyo event. Gorilla and its partner Marubun, a leading electronics distributor in Japan, teamed up in the category of Edge Computing to showcase Gorilla IVAR and intelligent video analytics to snatch the top prize at Japan's biggest ICT (Information and Communications Technology) show. In a crowded field with thousands of solutions from more than 300 companies, Gorilla's IVAR beat out Huawei to win the coveted Best of Show Award.Interop's Best of Show Committee stated Gorilla's win, "We took many factors into account when deciding the winner. In the end, Gorilla IVAR edged out the competition by effectively managing multiple cameras with its platform's fully scalable architecture, operating deep learning-based real-time video analytics on edge devices. IVAR intelligently applies people, vehicle, object, and behavior video analytic algorithms to various business environments, and optimizing the computing power on CPU with Intel OpenVINO and Movidius for maximized cost efficiency."IVAR can simultaneously analyze multiple IVAs (Intelligent Video Analytic) from up to 16 cameras on Intel Core i7-based edge devices. Getting actionable insight from dozens of different video analytic types through scheduling, alerts, and notifications according to user requirements is all managed from IVAR's dashboard. As such, IVAR is a complete AI solution with multiple applications in public, private, and government fields. Deploying and benefitting from intelligent video surveillance in smart and safe cities is available today through monitoring and controlling access of vehicles entering or exiting company facilities. Applying IVAR in Smart Retail and Enterprise Security situations can provide in-store analysis of foot traffic, anti-theft, and targeted marketing services to name a few. As the applications of edge AI have expanded, Gorilla expressed interest in solutions for the medical, agricultural and industrial fields.Gorilla Technology was the first software company in the world to adopt Intel's OpenVINO optimization toolkit and obtain the Intel IoT MRS (Market-Ready Solution) Certification. They are currently working with Intel to promote edge computing solutions around the world and have been an important partner in developing Europe, America, Japan, and Asia. Many manufacturers are currently in the product integration phase with IVAR and they expect to see more growth in the second half of the year. Additionally, Gorilla Technology provides online education and certification which global partners can complete remotely. These specially designed installation and deployment courses are shown to significantly shorten integration timelines and accelerate deployment of Gorilla Technology solutions around the world.More information about Gorilla Technology and their solutions can be found on their website: https://www.gorilla-technology.comGorilla IVAR edge AI wins Best of Show at Interop 2019 in Tokyo

The mobile devices with eye-catching design always have a place in our hearts. With the stylish looks, new smartphone and other shinny mobile devices are breathtaking. Most mobile devices are battery-powered. In addition to smarter features and larger batteries, innovative charging solutions allow us to do more with our mobile devices. Users expect to have a quality charging experience, especially when the new fast charging technology enables a superior user experience.Following this trend, USB power delivery technology becomes one of the major technologies for charging devices through USB Type-C interface. With the widespread of the USB Type-C plugs and its innovative features such as data transmission, video transmission and fast charging, Type-C is getting increasingly popular. Either Apple or Android phones support this standard. Users can deliver power, data and video through the USB-C cable. But there is still common frustration with the standard varied by different power ratings to setup for different requirements of charging various devices. Furthermore, being charged by different chargers, even of the same current and voltage ratings, often does not have the same charging speeds. That's why the safety regulation and product certification are the most concerns when end customers purchase the fast charging products.In a recent interview, KK Yang, president of Energear, introduced the full product lines based on USB-C PD technologies. Energear presents three major product lines including wall chargers, car chargers and power banks. The power range is from 15 to 85 Watts. Wall charger series have the following wattage, 15, 27, 30, 46, 65 and 85 Watts. Yang highlights the 45W Power Bank that has two-way fast charging features for fast charging and recharging. There is few power bank with this feature in the market that has got the certification. Yang also mentions the 45W car charger, which can charge laptop, tablet and phones. All Energear products have certifications from USB-IF, UL, CE, RoHS and so on. They are compatible to most global brands of smartphone, tablet and laptops.Energear worked with GRL, NAC and SGS testing labs for more reliabilityThe uniqueness of Energear product series is that Energear are granted multiple product certifications from world-famous third-party testing laboratories. This is a huge investment before brands to establish a strong foothold in the market. When Energear started the cooperation with those testing labs two years ago, there were very few labs that knew how to test those USB-C PD products. This was because there were only a few USB-C PD products in the market at that time. Energear selected GRL (Granite River Labs) as the first testing partner to do the product testing. For some testing items, Energear even needed to provide the testing fixtures to GRL so that GRL could complete all the tests. It was a very time-consuming task for these testing projects, Yang adds.Through close working with the testing labs, the Energear engineering team gained more experience to refine the products before launch in the market. After passing the product certification, there is another big challenge for mass production because there are five ratings to test and debug. Although those stages are very time-consuming, it is very rewarding because quality and product performance are the priority, Yang points out.In addition to work with GRL (Granite River Labs) and NAC (National Analysis Center) lab, Energear builds an in-house test lab for compatibility and verification tests. This is an important step to help end users trust Energear products' quality and performance. Energear not only provides chargers with PD2.0 and PD3.0, but also chargers with PPS.Distributing Energear products in Japan and North AmericaAfter getting all the related product certifications, Energear selected Japan to debut. Japan has a highly competitive retail market. Energear started its first entry into the Japanese market through I-O Data Device, Inc., a leading Japanese manufacturer and provider of high-quality computer peripheral products.The market promotion activities initiated with the product roadshow across major cities in Japan. The promotion activities included product demonstration and introduction of PD technology. Yang mentions that one special promotion program getting attentions was a bundle kit of Energear 65-Watt PD charger and Panasonic Notebook PC. The promotion program went very successful. Then Energear products showcased in the market and had very good sales. The successful products of Energear in Japan market are 46W and 65W Wall Chargers. Both chargers sell very well. Customers can recognize this brand and appreciate the premium quality of the product.Regarding the North American market, Energear has different strategy to launch its products. Energear selects Amazon, the e-commerce giant in North America, to sell products to end customers directly. Energear works with a professional marketing company to promote and advertise on Amazon. Energear products can be purchased now at Amazon USA. It is expected that Energear this brand will be well-known soon and the chain stores will start to carry.Energear showcased a full range of PD products at Computex 2019 in Nangang Exhibition Hall 1. Many visitors came to the booth and they were amazed by the complete line of PD products and the certifications Energear has. If you are interested in getting to know more about Energear and PD products, please visit https://www.Energear.com.twEnergear 45W USB-C PD2.0 Power Bank with two-way fast charging feature. It can be fully recharged in 90 minutes. It can charge laptop, tablet and phone.Energear 85W USB-C PD3.0 Wall Charger with interchangeable plugs. It can charge laptop, tablet and phone. With PFC (Power Factor Correction) design, this wall charger is more efficient, more stable and has more saving in power bill.Energear 45W USB-C PD3.0 with PPS car charger. With PPS (Programmable Power Supply), this car charger is more compatible and more efficient. It can charge laptop, tablet and phone.Energear attended Computex 2019

This year, the big technical development of the USB technology is USB4. This upcoming standard promises to integrate the high-bandwidth Thunderbolt 3 specification and along with it the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) will simplify the USB branding scheme. With USB4 serving as both an upgrade to the feature set and a physical layer tweak to provide more data bandwidth, the specification will be made available in 2019 according to the USB-IF.USB4 promises 40Gbps speed, cuts the confusionThe USB4 specification will be based on the Thunderbolt 3 protocol that Intel has contributed to the USB Promoter Group. The new interface will use USB Type-C connectors and will maintain backwards compatibility with USB 2.0, USB 3.2, and Thunderbolt 3 interfaces. The maximum data transfer rate supported by the new USB4 interface is 40 Gbps over 40 Gbps-certified cables. Also, USB4 will support various display protocols and USB Power Delivery 3.0.USB4's underlying Thunderbolt 3 protocol also means the specification can support two 4K displays or even future 8K TV over a single cable. This new specification is trying to unify the Thunderbolt and USB protocols as part of Intel's goal to make Thunderbolt available on a royalty-free basis, which should result in broader adoption and lower cost availability of Thunderbolt accessories in the future. The USB4 standard will be officially published in the middle of 2019. At present, several global companies are actively participating in the final stages of development of the draft USB4 specification. After the specification is officially released, it is estimated that it will take 12 to 18 months before products will be available in the market, Ravencraft highlights.USB Type-C is a reversible, highly reliable connector. It is a great thing, not just for smartphones, but for pretty much everything with the idea of one cable and one port that can do it all. To address the immense demands of digital video, audio, data transfer and power charging requirements, USB-IF saw the need for a new, robust cable and connector. This new cable and connector scheme is generating significant buzz from the global consumer market and is making its way into high-volume shipments of mobile devices, PCs, tablets, multimedia devices and even applications across automotive. Ecosystem partners have also come up with various protocols to run over the USB Type-C cable and connector such as Thunderbolt, HDMI, and DisplayPort.The global market penetration of USB Type-C is forecasted to reach 5 billion units per year in 2021, according to IHS reports, showing a massive ramp for the period 2016 to 2021. There are four major markets driving the adoption of this standard, including consumer electronics, PC & peripherals, networking and automotive solutions.Fast USB charging with PPS improving user experienceBesides high data rate updates, consumers are looking for improvements to the battery charging experience. USB Power Delivery (USB PD) adoption continues to expand the USB ecosystem. The current USB PD 3.0 specification provides developers multiple voltage ranges to consider when designing their USB solution. USB PD 3.0 chipsets can supply up to 100W of continuous power flow, enough to power all kinds of desktop and mobile devices. Meanwhile, the USB PD 3.0 specification supports the Programmable Power Supply (PPS) feature, which is being widely adopted by global smartphone brands to enable fast charging over USB based on an open industry standard. This feature creates new use cases for managing the amount of electrical current to optimize the battery's charge speed and long-term health considering sensitive thermal control requirements for smartphone batteries.Together with the three significant benefits of fast data rates, fast charging and usability with fully reversible plug orientation and cable direction, USB Type-C has the potential to become the connector of choice for all next-generation products. With the USB4 specification, there are new business opportunities coming for silicon IP providers, chip makers, testing laboratories and equipment vendors. Ravencraft feels very optimistic about USB Type-C future development.Clear up the confusion of USB Type-CAlthough many USB standards have been released to the market over the past few years, there is technical terminology confusion regarding what capabilities are included in each device or cable. For instance, some system makers improperly use specification names to describe their USB solutions to consumers, such as USB 3.2 Gen 2x2. But consumers do not seem to understand nor care what the specification names mean as long as their USB products work without posing a risk to the functionality and interoperability of their existing products.To cut the confusion, USB-IF hopes to educate end consumers to look for the certified logos awarded to products that have passed USB-IF's Compliance Program. The current logo system includes High-Speed USB, SuperSpeed USB, SuperSpeed USB 10Gbps, SuperSpeed USB 20Gbps, Certified USB Chargers and Certified USB Fast Chargers. Once a product successfully achieves USB-IF certification, the company can a sign logo license agreement and then use the certified logos for clearly identifying the supported performance and charging capabilities.USB authentication enabling a secured connectionEcosystem partners spend resources to build compliant products and submit them for testing to the USB-IF Compliance Program in order to feature logos on their products. At the same time, USB-IF is engaged with international organizations like the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC) and the China Communications Standards Association (CCSA) to expand international standards cooperation to include support for the USB Type-C and USB Power Delivery specifications as well as the other USB protocol specifications. This approach for ongoing standardization work is driven by the worldwide regulation organization goals of minimizing e-waste in landfills, increasing external power supply reusability, supporting consumer convenience, maintaining product reliability and safety. In addition, widespread adoption of the resulting international standards will help to reduce the poorly designed or manufactured aftermarket substitutes, which may affect the operation of electronic devices in compliance with regulatory requirements.Further, USB-IF released the USB Type-C Authentication Specification using a cryptographic-based authentication protocol for USB Type-C chargers and devices. Using this protocol, host systems can confirm the authenticity of any USB cable or device, including capabilities and certification status. This verification process occurs immediately when a USB cable or device is plugged into a host port and before compromising power or data can be transferred. The authentication protocol empowers host systems to protect against non-compliant USB devices and to mitigate risks from maliciously embedded hardware or software in USB devices attempting to exploit a USB connection. The USB Type-C standard supports this authentication protocol for building solutions to enable secure connection and power charging scheme between notebook PCs, smartphones, storage devices and chargers.Ravencraft added that there are several chip makers producing controller ICs to communicate with devices to deliver optimum power. These chips include built-in security safeguards and are able to communicate with devices that meet the USB PD 3.0 specification to deliver the optimum power for fast charging the device. Host and device manufactures will be deploying this unique authentication feature, including some first-tier Japanese and Korean brands are expected to announce new products to prevent the non-complaint cables or power adaptors from harming their products. It is very optimistic that more chip makers are starting to look at these requirements and positively enable enterprise cybersecurity solution providers to build dedicated solutions to secure the data transfer process between USB devices and USB host in the future.Ravencraft continues, through the efforts to promote the Certified USB Logo & Compliance Program, USB-IF supports the evolving device and computing markets as more products adopt USB4, USB Type-C and Certified USB Charging. The use of the USB Type-C standard is expected to increase, as it's simply the most robust and ubiquitous interface that provides product manufacturers and end users with the greatest flexibility for use and expansion. And most of all, USB Type-C is continuing to create versatile use cases to satisfy various customers' needs. It is exciting to see the growth and continued adoption of USB Type-C technology increasing around the world.USB-IF's President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Jeff Ravencraft discusses the trends of development of USB technology at Computex 2019. The global ecosystem partners showcased new product development at the USB Community pavilion booth.

The past few years have been a critical point in time for the IoT industry. The IoT ecosystem became an incredibly diverse and complex environment. Manufacturers for IoT service providers and brand makers were unable to deliver turnkey solutions to meet consumers' needs for an intuitive cross-product functionality, hindering the market to achieve true interoperability between devices.In response to the new market demand for data transmission services, ThroughTek, an IoT platform solutions provider based in Taiwan, recently upgraded its core product, the Kalay Platform. The release of the Kalay Platform features a more secure and efficient way of delivering both wide and narrowband data transmission services for a wide range of sensors and security devices. The platform enables implementation of comprehensive solutions for smart devices and expansion of IoT applications across various industries.Enhanced data security with end-to-end encryptionIoT security challenges have been questioned by the public for many years. Most recently, California passed a bill to impose regulations on the security of IoT devices sold in the state. The law stipulates that by the year 2020, any manufacturer must provide reasonable security measures for networked devices. ThroughTek's narrowband solution is smartly designed with data security in mind. Instead of using the traditional approach of uploading data to a cloud server or host where data is most vulnerable and at risk, the Kalay Platform adopts a decentralized architecture and uses end-to-end encryption technology to ensure data stored and transmitted is protected. The new solution effectively improves data security, while allowing users to easily manage sensor devices by creating custom scenarios to automate tasks, make commands, and collect data.Technology delivering cross-platform connectivityIoT applications have gradually progressed from a single device to comprehensive system-wide solutions. Enterprises and service providers need to address challenges such as being able to quickly integrate and deploy various connected devices with the flexibility to scale in the future. In the past, the implementation of smart factories requires complete functional planning in advance. System expansion comes at a high-price with the involvement of system integrators or manufacturers to build and install the equipment, resulting in a significant increase in construction time and labor costs. ThroughTek's new transmission solution enables rapid deployment of various IoT devices across industries and brands. It is suitable for remote large-scale settings used for shopping malls, buildings, offices, agriculture, or farms. It also supports IFTTT (short for IF This Then That), which allows operators to easily expand and manage systems to carry out complex tasks to deliver more flexibility and increase productivity for large-scale outdoor IoT applications.The Kalay Platform features a more secure and efficient way of delivering both wide and narrowband data transmission services.

STAr Technologies Inc. received orders from Korea major semiconductor manufacturer for automatic test system - Sagittarius-SPT (Silicon Photonic Test, SPT) to manufacture its future fiber optic devices. The order reflects STAr successful approached to silicon photonic wafer/devices test. Silicon photonics is a disruptive technology and integrated mix of several technical blocks - lasers, optics, MEMs, high-speed digital and RF SOCs.Sagittarius-SPT is an electro-optics/silicon-photonics wafer-level test solution and provides semi-automated for full automation wafer-level test system for characterization and acceptance tests of silicon-photonics devices. This automatic test system enables advanced instruments controls and test methodologies developed for the fiber optic manufacturer and adapted to test demands with a key aspect of wafer-level testing to fast reproduce optical coupling, including probe-position optimization and polarizations alignment.Sagittarius-SPT has also brought about several breakthroughs, including the provision of an automatic test platforms for testing of wafers and components prior to wafer dicing, with capability of wafer probing for conventional DC and RF electrical test integrated to testing in the optical domain. STAr has included multiple instrument drivers for light wave component analyzer (LCA), optical switch, tunable laser source, optical power meter, etc. enabling tests for variable optical attenuator (VOA), optical modulator, laser photo diode, etc."We are very pleased by the Korea key customer's choice of STAr Technologies to supply its critical wafer-level testing as it towards fiber optics devices manufacturing," said Choon-Leong Lou, CEO of STAr Technologies, Inc. "Sagittarius-SPT is developed to meet electro-optical industry manufacturers' needs, and we believe the system will enhance the efficiency and throughput at customer's end."Overview of STAr Sagittarius-SPT

Multi-protocol wireless connectivity support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices is an important trend for developing Smart Building and Home Automation, Lighting and Smart Metering applications. These technologies address the connectivity needs of IoT adoption in industrial deployments. The integration of multiple wireless protocols within a single system-on-a-chip (SoC) chip not only provides an outstanding value for cost but also improves consumer experience and enhances functionality by removing complex co-existence issues present in wireless communication.Silicon Labs, one of the leading wireless SoC and silicon solution providers announced new SoC platform for responding the fast demands of IoT market. And this new platform is also strong signals an effort to scale its IoT business.Matt Saunders, Vice President, IoT of Marketing and Applications, Silicon Labs, talks about how the new platform of Wireless Gecko Series 2 boosting IoT product offerings to develop Smart Home and Automation market to expand the further growth and deal with the radically changing semiconductor landscape. Silicon Labs select Computex 2019 to do the press conference and product demonstration of a wide range of its wireless connectivity product offerings.The current IoT applications have the constraints of power, size, cost, wireless range and security. Saunders takes a look at the significant electronics device specification for next few years. There are several important operational requirements including power consumption of micro-Watt level to support a Li-ion battery life for 10 to 15 years normal usage. And the total device cost (not the component only) will cut down to US$ 10. This target is pushing to be the driving force in the IoT for scale up, Saunders explains.The Wireless Gecko Series 2 maintains leadership in IoT connectivityThe Wireless Gecko Series 2 product portfolio simplifies IoT product design with highly-integrated SoC options and robust software that make RF communication more dependable and energy efficient. Series 2 helps developers optimize system cost and performance for a wide range of smart building and home automation, commercial and industrial IoT applications. The important features of Series 2 are aiming to provide major advancing for IoT including flexible, reliable, long lifetime and to extend wireless range.The Series 2 wireless connectivity portfolio will include Zigbee, Thread, Bluetooth LE, Z-wave and Wi-Fi with multi-protocol and multi-band support. The products include small-form-factor SoC chips with a dedicated security core and an on-chip radio delivering 2.5X the wireless range of other competing solutions. Furthermore, Series 2 improves multiple design elements, including wireless performance, software reuse, RF communication reliability and enhanced security to speed development, deployment and adoption of the IoT.From the feature-wise, the Series 2 platform provides IoT developers with system design advantages include RF performance with +20 dBm output power and up to +124.5 dB link budget. It also provides robust wireless radio with improved blocking performance for resolving the problem with a weak signal and strengthened sensitivity while using the popular 2.4GHz bands. Moreover, the powerful 80 MHz ARM Cortex-M33 core with TrustZone technology enhance the computing performance and security. The clock speed is two time faster than the previous generation chips.Talking about power efficiency, Series 2 platform uses low active current of 50.9 µA/MHz. And the Rx/Tx current is matching 426µA/meter. This low power feature helps Silicon Labs ecosystem partners to response the immense requirements of battery-powered applications such as smart metering solutions with prolonged battery life.Despite the continued growth of connected devices, consumers are still concerned about the security of those devices. Saunders describes more details and highlights of the security features. The Series 2 platform equipped with dedicated security core for faster, lower-power encryption operations, plus true random number generator (TRNG) strengthening device cryptography. And the secure boot loading ensures authenticity of firmware images and over-the-air updates.All these new enhanced security features enable developers to implement robust security in connected products and help to increase consumer trust and drive mass IoT adoption. The reasons for providing multiple security hardware features in Series 2, Saunders explains the fundamental strategies to help improve network security. And offering customers a multi-layered security approach will help end customer to feel safer than ever before.First EFR32xG21 Series 2 SoCs available nowThe first products in the Series 2 portfolio include EFR32MG21 SoCs supporting multiprotocol, Zigbee, Thread and Bluetooth mesh networking, and EFR32BG21 SoCs dedicated to Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth mesh. These SoCs are QFN package in a 4 mm x 4 mm, ideal for space-sensitive IoT designs, targeting ideal solutions for line-powered IoT products including gateways, sensor hubs, lights, voice assistant speakers and smart electric meters.The company is also offering the Wireless Starter Kit with support for Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread and Multi-protocol Zigbee/Bluetooth software stacks in order to get started as quick as possible. With Series 2, developers can bring secure, next-generation IoT products to market by taking advantage of Silicon Labs' Simplicity Studio integrated development environment (IDE). The Simplicity Studio IDE accelerates time-to-market with a suite of tools, including a unified wireless development kit, SDKs, energy profiler, patented network analysis, application demos and mobile apps.The samples and production quantities of the EFR32xG21 SoCs are available. The current product support for ecosystem partners includes sample silicon chips, PCBs and wireless modules with radio boards. Considering the partners with constrain resources for developing RF certified products, Silicon Labs also provide the pre-certified Series 2 modules for helping wireless adaption and fast time-to-market.The first smart lighting commercial products leveraging Wireless Gecko Series 2 products will be launched in October 2019. Silicon Labs is working with customers and external partners through an effective ecosystem to create powerful use cases. Meanwhile, in the life product demonstration session, Silicon Labs showcases Zigbee and Bluetooth Low Energy smart home applications with Mighty Gecko SoCs, low power Wi-Fi solutions with Blue Gecko SoCs, smart door lock solutions with Z-Wave 700 chips and versatile applications.Matt Saunders, Vice President, IoT Marketing and Applications, Silicon Labs

With consumer electronics trending toward lower power consumption, more diverse features, higher price sensitivity, to keep up with market demand, semiconductor manufacturers not only keep on refining process technologies but also are beginning to bring production closer to where their customers are in an attempt to speed up shipment while lowering fabrication costs. This has become an essential strategy for the semiconductor industry. Acting in correspondence, MSScorps is also initiating efforts toward expanding its market footprint.According to MSScorps chairman Gino Leou, MSScorps is making big strides and the year 2019 marks a major milestone for the company. Going forward, MSScorps will be able to more closely support customers with high-quality analytics services through its five operation centers across Taiwan and China.Leou co-founded MSScorps with CTO Dr. JC Chen and COO Yung-Shun Liao in July 2005 at a location on Pu-ding Road in Hsinchu. Through years of building up its task force and technological strength, the MSScorps team has grown from 10 to 280 people and is now highly regarded in the industry for its premium-quality services. In March 2019, MSScorps initiated a round of fundraising and received NT$530 million in investments from several large financial firms and venture capital funds in Taiwan. With technology, talent and capital all in place, MSScorps has begun to expand its operation by purchasing additional equipment for its Hsinchu and Tainan branches and setting up a new Nanjing subsidiary, which will be up and running in June 2019 to provide comprehensive material analysis (MA), failure analysis (FA) and surface analysis (SA) services.Establishing a Nanjing subsidiary, MSScorps targets the China market in full forceAccording to Liao, TSMC establishing fabrication facilities in Nanjing spurred an industry clustering effect. MSScorps has been planning to begin a subsidiary operation in the city for two years. After two years of efforts training a workforce and searching for a suitable location, MSScorps finally set its heart on a site only 1.5km from the TSMC Nanjing fab, enabling it to provide prompt services with zero delays.In addition to local services, MSScorps brings to Nanjing its highly-praised professional talent and equipment. MSScorps executives have relocated with a team of Taiwanese engineers and sales specialists to the Nanjing office, where a complete range of advanced equipment is also in place. Liao notes material analysis is a confidential part of the semiconductor fabrication process. To ensure information security and consistent service quality, MSScorps chooses to run a centralized operation in the Nanjing office, where all material analysis work for the China market will be conducted. The Shanghai subsidiary and other regional offices will focus on market development and sales services. Due to the country's vast territory, customers in China are more understanding that delivery takes some time. Also with China's complete logistics system, same-day shipping is common so delivery schedule is no problem at all.Chen notes MSScorps has advantages over its competitors in China in both technology and service quality. The Taiwan semiconductor industry has built up solid technological strength and extensive hands-on experiences through years of development. With its leading market position worldwide, the Taiwan semiconductor industry has unparalleled advantages, adds Chen. With respect to material analysis, China's massive demand for semiconductor production capacity imposes big challenges on material analysis service providers. China's local service providers have a hard time meeting the demand and their service quality also causes concern. They will not be able to win favors from leading foundries. This is what drives MSScorps to foray into China.Professional talent will play a critical role influencing the outcome of market competition in China, says Liao. MSScorps has always conducted in-house training and education for its employees and has established a complete talent incubation system, which it will replicate in China. As to revenue outlook, it may be too early to give a precise projection, according to Liao. The machinery that has been put in place in the Nanjing office represents about 10% of MSScorps' total equipment so the Nanjing operation is expected to make a comparable contribution to the company's revenue in the initial stage. With China's state support for IC and LED industry developments, Liao is optimistic about MSScorps' future growth. There will be plans to purchase additional equipment, which Liao expects to contribute more than 30% of MSScorps' total revenue within the next three years. In general, he does not think it will be a problem to expand customer base as MSScorps is known for matching customer needs and he envisions a promising future for MSScorps.With respect to technology, MSScorps has developed a myriad of industry-leading MA and FA techniques. According to Chen, MSScorps' independently developed Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) technology, instrument development and special sample preparation procedures are all examples of its unrivaled achievements. In particular, ALD is mainly used for sample preparation for MA and FA to keep samples intact for testing and prevent additional defects resulting from human errors. It is essential to semiconductor development as manufacturers drive process technologies toward miniaturization.As to EUV photoresist and low-k dielectric materials that are critical to the most advanced 5nm and 3nm process technologies, their natural characteristics make them susceptible to man-made problems such as deformation and collapse when observed under an electronic microscope to check their microstructure and constitution. This could lead process technology researchers to misinterpret the problem and take a wrong approach. MSScorps' independently developed ALD technique is the only one in the industry to provide an armor-like coating, protecting samples from mishandling and enabling an insight into their true microstructure and constitution. This technique is widely used in MA and FA services, fully demonstrating the compelling MSScorps advantages.Providing premium-quality analytics services and fostering a positive work environmentBeing a "hidden champion" of the semiconductor sector, MSScorps not only is highly regarded for its technologies and services but also fosters a positive work environment with a people-oriented management paradigm, which is why MSScorps is able to maintain a low turnover rate. Material analysis is a knowledge-based business and professional talent is the fundamental element, notes Leou. MSScorps' vigorous team of professionals is the reason why MSScorps is able to stay on the leading edge. Furthermore, MSScorps also implements e-management and production line scheduling, which is highly praised by its foundry customers. Few MA service providers adopt a complete e-management system like what MSScorps has put to use. It has significantly enhanced operation efficiency for MSScorps. For scheduling, MSScorps follows the same high-standard procedures as leading foundries by giving test samples check codes according to manufacturers and engineers for customers to access the MA records of their products in real time.Leou emphasizes the year 2019 marks a major milestone for MSScorps as the company presses forward. With capital and talent in position, MSScorps is ready to recreate itself as a provider of premium-quality MA services and an enabler of a people-oriented corporate culture.MSS COO Yung-Shun Liao, Chairman Gino Leou, CTO Dr. JC Chen (left to right)

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies have struggled to gain footholds in other niches to the world of cloud computing, but Nvidia is aiming to take it to the next level and rapidly change the face of businesses over the next few years. A new trend of AI based enterprise applications is on the rise, and it is one that creates a new market from the cloud to the edge. Today, the AI inference is used in search engines, streaming video services like Netflix and by AI assistants such as Alexa. Nvidia has announced both mainstream servers designed to enable AI computing in data center and edge servers designed to enable AI at the edge powered by Nvidia GPUs and software.In this interview during Computex 2019 with Paresh Kharya, Nvidia's director of Product Marketing, talks about Nvidia solutions in the cloud and new development in the edge. He is working with customers and partners to deliver the end-to-end solutions powered by Nvidia AI and deep learning technologies. Meanwhile, Nvidia, Amazon and Microsoft will team up to implement the technology into its software stacks for developers looking to take advantage of accelerated machine learning tasks both in the cloud and the edge.Nvidia T4 GPU enabled mainstream servers dealing with scaling problemsThe new servers are equipped with Nvidia's T4 GPUs running on the company's Turing architecture; this powerful hardware combined with Nvidia's CUDA-X AI libraries enables businesses and enterprises to more efficiently handle AI-based tasks, machine learning, data analytics, and virtual desktops. Designed for the data center, the Tesla T4 GPUs draw only 70 watts of power during operation. Companies offering the new servers include several big server brands in the beginning and now there are more than 30 server OEM/ODMs building the systems in the market.The Nvidia T4 is a new product based on the latest Turing architecture, delivering increased efficiency on any mainstream enterprise server. However, it is not a replacement for the previous bigger and more powerful GPUs like Nvidia V100 which are designed for specialized scale-up servers for AI training and HPC. Instead, it offers good performance while consuming very little power and has a lower price tag. This approach will help rapid deployment of popular AI-enabled applications like speech AI-based customer support, cyber security, smart retail, smart manufacturing among others using previously trained machine learning models .Nvidia EGX platform to bring low latency AI on the edgeOn the other hand, with billions of IoT sensors being used by enterprises and generating huge volumes of data, there is a strong demand to process the data for business insights. Kharya mentioned that to be most useful for decision making the data needs to be processed with AI in real-time. The edge computing technology allows data produced by sensor devices to be processed closer to where it is created instead of sending it across long routes to the clouds. Edge computing complements the cloud and enables customers to do AI computing for automation even when network connection is weak or lost. Nvidia announced a scalable platform named EGX that allows enterprises to easily deploy systems to meet their AI computing needs on premises in the edge. Kharya highlights that the edge servers like those in the EGX platform will be distributed throughout the world to process data in real time from these sensors.EGX servers start with Nvidia Jetson Nano-based micro servers, which consume only a few watts and can provide one-half trillion operations per second (TOPS) of processing for tasks such as image recognition. Kharya showcased the system board for accommodating eight camera devices in the smart traffic management solutions. For more powerful performance, EGX spans all the way to a full rack of Nvidia T4 servers, delivering more than 10,000 TOPS for real-time speech recognition and other real-time AI tasks.To simplify management of AI applications on distributed servers with enterprise-grade software, Nvidia released Edge Stack software suite. Nvidia Edge Stack is optimized software that provides container-based application management and includes Nvidia drivers, a CUDA Kubernetes plugin, a CUDA container runtime, CUDA-X libraries and containerized AI frameworks and applications, including TensorRT, TensorRT Inference Server and DeepStream. Meanwhile, Nvidia has partnered with Red Hat to integrate and optimize Edge Stack with OpenShift.The NGC-ready Validation programFeaturing Nvidia T4 or V100 GPUs and fine-tuned to run Nvidia CUDA-X AI acceleration libraries, these servers create a new class of enterprise servers for AI and data analytics with greater utility and versatility. For expanding the places users of powerful systems with Nvidia GPUs can deploy GPU-accelerated software with confidence, Nvidia setup NGC-Ready server validation program. It includes AI and HPC software tested as part of the NGC-Ready validation process. Nvidia NGC provides a bunch of GPU-accelerated software, pre-trained AI models, model training for data analytics, machine learning, deep learning and high-performance computing accelerated by CUDA-X AI.The NGC-Ready program features a select set of systems powered by Nvidia GPUs with Tensor Cores that are ideal for a wide range of AI workloads. The same approach will apply to the edge computing solutions. Nvidia Edge Stack is optimized for certified servers and downloadable from the Nvidia NGC registry. For businesses interested in the deployment of applications from edge to the cloud, customers will be able to connect to AWS Greengrass or Microsoft Azure IoT cloud platforms, allowing for easy scalability depending on the required tasks.Nvidia EGX edge stackNvidia EGX computing platform from Nano to T4

Colorful has recently announced the new 2019 addition to its gaming motherboard product family, iGame Z390 Vulcan X, powered by the Intel Z390 chipset. The flagship motherboard features 14-Phase iGame Pure Power and full tantalum capacitors with longer service life compared to conventional capacitors, high temperature resistance, high precision and superb high-frequency filter performance to better guarantee the overclocking stability of the 9th generation Intel processor.On the CPU power supply module, Colorful uses the Silver Shark 2.0 Cooling Armor with a whole new "Shark Bionics" look. The designs of "Branchial cleft" and metal lamination on the cooling armor enables air flow in the sealed case for better heat dissipation.Memory slots on the motherboard are protected with 15μ gold-plated slot design. It ensures integrity of slot contacts and prevents arc wounding, adhesion, oxidation contacts and other problems caused by electric shocks during power-on or power-off. It also supports XMP memory automatic overclocking technology.With their unique GamerVoice recently upgraded to version 3.0, the iGame series motherboards use Realtek ALC 1220 sound cards and Japanese HIFI audio capacitors as well as an audio cut-off line design on the audio section of the motherboard. The signal IO interface uses gold-plated non-magnetic jacks to reduce signal loss during transmission, achieving a 120dB signal-to-noise ratio to drive 600-ohmage impedance headphones.The iGame Z390 Vulcan X motherboard is geared with Intel's latest 219 network adapter to ease the CPU workload as well as Intel's premium CVNi AC9560 wireless network interface controller, which supports 2x2 MU-MIMO and the 160MHz frequency band. The theoretical bandwidth of 5Hz frequency band can reach 1.733Gbps. Bluetooth 5.0 is also supported.iGame Z390 Vulcan X