OpenStack Day Taiwan 2018 - a major annual event for the Taiwan open source community - took on a whole new look with OpenStack renamed OpenInfra. Carrying on with the same OpenStack spirit and architecture, OpenInfra will engage more partners specializing in open source technologies and continue to flourish in the world of cloud computing.Themed on the ingenuity of open source platforms and innovations combining different technologies, OpenInfra Day Taiwan 2018 highlighted topics including multicloud architecture and its deployment, container development, distributed data storage and software-defined everything. The event also presented use case examples in applications such as artificial intelligence (AI), edge computing and 5G IoT.Delivering an opening speech at the event, OpenInfra Day Taiwan 2018 organizing committee chairman Brian Chen remarked that this year's event gathered influential leaders to share their views on the latest OpenInfra trends. The change in the organization's name allowed it to expand the discussion topics and engage more industry ecosystem partners. Providers of private, public and hybrid cloud IT infrastructure and services were invited for discussions on multicloud architecture and its deployment. For Infra, 5G and IoT, the participants looked into use case examples of edge computing, combination of 5G and IoT, as well as developments of IoT devices and application services. The discussions related to software-defined everything focused on the trends of software-defined storage, network and infrastructure. Popular AI topics including deep learning and machine learning were also highlighted at the event this year. In closing, Chen hoped the event would load participants full of inspirations and help advance Taiwan's IT and open source developments.A close look at current developments of OpenStack with a market value of US$6.1 billionJonathan Bryce, OpenStack Foundation executive director, gave an account of OpenStack's development history and the reason for the name change to OpenInfra. With user groups consolidating and open source software growingly used in vertical applications, open source infrastructure actually encompasses a wider scope than OpenStack, so the name change to OpenInfra represents open source code, open source design, open source development and open source community, making open source software infrastructure available to more businesses.Bryce continued to present some important data. According to the results of the foundation's user survey, OpenStack is supporting infrastructure running across more than 10 million CPU cores around the world. Among OpenStack users worldwide, 71% are corporate users deploying OpenStack in production environments or are preparing to do so within the next 12 months. Lastly but most importantly, the OpenStack market size is estimated to top US$6.1 billion in 2018.Applications today have different requirements for OpenStack, cloud and infrastructure than before. They need AI machine learning, container, ML and serverless technologies more than ever before, which drives rising demand for open source software for use outside of datacenters by edge computing, added Bryce.According to Bryce, OpenStack Foundation has realized open source is not just transitioning from open source code to open source infrastructure but more importantly, it should build an open infrastructure community, where humans are the most critical element. As such, the migration from OpenStack to OpenInfra represents a change from the perspective of infrastructure to the perspective of community.The foundation is transcending the open source spirit to a higher level with the transition from OpenStack to OpenInfra. Open source software will become not only omnipresent but also part of people's daily life in the future, summarized Bryce.Continuing cloud native computing development focuses on openness, ecosystem collaborations and innovationsCloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) was established for the purpose of promoting fast-growing open source projects on Github. CNCF China director Keith Chan shed light on the current development of cloud native computing and CNCF's achievements with respect to openness, ecosystem collaborations and innovations.Chan pointed out the open source model has played an important role in global trade and business models. The next step to promoting the open source model is for businesses to form an ecosystem.In regard to innovations, Chan introduced CNCF's organizational structure and functions: Technical Oversight Committee mainly approves new projects; End User Community serves to help CNCF gain a closer understanding of user needs and make open source development more in line with market applications; Marketing Committee aims to match promotion efforts, for example, for Kubernetes, closely with market dynamics. CNCF is also offering conformance certification for software based on Kubernetes, with which software vendors can display or make flexible use of the Certified Kubernetes logo. CNCF will continue to engage contributions from cloud native computing experts worldwide.Current development of Kata container and comparison to gVisorXu Wang, CTO and co-founder of HyperHQ, introduced the company's open source Hyper, which can run Docker Image directly on Hypervisor, as well as Kata container, an open source container infrastructure project managed by the OpenStack Foundation.According to Wang, Kata container was developed with the goal to make it independent of hardware architectures, so it not only is compatible with the OCI runtime specification but also supports the Kubernetes Container Runtime Interface (CRI).Wang also shared his observation on a special development – information security concern about Kata container becoming the focus of attention. Then, he gave a comparison between Kata container and gVisor. gVisor is a new sandboxed container runtime authored by Google, which provides secure isolation for containers while being less resource intensive than a full virtual machine. In comparison to Kata container, gVisor supports most Linux system calls and is designed with different trade-offs than existing container technology. Wang wrapped up his talk with a few key characteristics about Kata container. Like runC containers, Kata containers deliver the security of virtual machines while supporting other VM accelerating technologies. Despite using virtualization, Kata containers are light, fast and easy to integrate into many different application workflows. It supports multiple architectures including x86_64, arm64 and ppc64le.Large-scale AI cloud platform architecture and service, and NCHC's five major strategies for AI developmentDr. Feng-Yi Chao of National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) gave a talk, themed on large-scale AI cloud platform architecture and service, about how NCHC helps Taiwan establish five major strategies for national level AI development.NCHC's Taiwan GPU Cloud currently serves 66 projects undertaken by five major AI research centers and 13 subprojects under the Semiconductor Moonshot Project by providing users a single container platform with single authorization. For the long-term objective, Chao said NCHC aims to offer enterprises SLA-based AI-HPC services, build a demo project with NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) in Taiwan and provide Data Mart services, social media hosting services as well as Learn to Learn AI services.In summary, Chao shed light on NCHC's role at the international level. Focusing on AI-HPC cloud services, the goal is to provide a selection of flexible service models where CPU, GPU and other public-cloud-based computing services are consolidated through cloud resource management software. It not only effectively increases the usage rate of domestic AI computing platforms but also combines public and private clouds to carry out computation for researchers on cloud platforms worldwide through a single management interface with uniform features in one implementation.As the Taiwan government is devoting tremendous resources to fostering AI developments, spurring burgeoning innovations, now is a good time for AI undertakings. Keeping a clear vision of the goal and the strategy to find partners, build teams and make alliances, NCHC endeavors to build hardware and software platforms for use by the industry, government, research institutions and academia.Innovative AIoT applications are the popular trend, spurring edge computing developments and opportunitiesAIoT innovations are grabbing market attention in recent years. During early development in 2013, IoT applications mostly targeted smart grid and home surveillance with low-volume data collection. Today's IoT applications process large amounts of data. Their software and hardware are growingly incorporating AI capabilities, giving rise to widespread implementations of edge computing. According to Norr Wei, industry analyst, Industry, Science and Technology International Strategy Center (ISTI) at Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the rise of edge computing has much to do with AI + IoT applications. In some AI use scenarios, cloud computing architectures are beginning to encounter challenges – limited bandwidth, communication latency, data security and confidentiality concerns, and inadequate network coverage among others.For its low data latency and high transmission frequency, edge computing will enjoy rapidly rising demand particularly from IoV, AR and VR applications. It is estimated 75% of data will be processed and even stored at the edge by 2022.According to ISTI, solutions targeting vertical applications will present better opportunities for vendors to penetrate into the edge computing market. As to the business models, B2B IoT applications are generating rapidly growing values while the B2C segment will focus on smart home applications with service providers like Apple, Amazon and Xiaomi dominating the market. The competitiveness of edge computing will hinge on whether it can achieve economies of scale. Cloud service providers are betting on increasing their volume of connected platforms. IT hardware suppliers are looking to expand the deployment of their products through vertical applications and cross-sector collaborations.To Taiwan-based vendors expanding into edge computing, Wei suggested two development strategies. First, they should form strategic alliances with international platform operators to jointly develop solutions integrating software and hardware or make their way into the supply chain. Second, they can focus efforts on applications with tremendous potential.Four separate sessions focusing respectively on multicloud, IoT, software and AIThe afternoon sessions of OpenStack Day Taiwan, respectively themed on diverse topics including multicloud architecture and its deployment; Infra, 5G & IoT; software-defined everything; AI, presented real use cases and advanced technologies, fully demonstrating the OpenInfra spirit.OpenInfra Day Taiwan 2018

The emergence and convergence of AI, IoT, cloud, and autonomous driving technologies have brought tremendous opportunities to the semiconductor industry. However, as the process technology moves towards 7nm/5nm nodes, heterogeneous integration, and 3D structures, there are many challenges in the industry to be resolved.At this year's Semicon Taiwan, Akihisa Sekiguchi, deputy division general manager of Corporate Innovation Division at Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL), a leading semiconductor equipment company, gave a speech on the topic of "Semiconductor Equipment in the Era of Internet of Cognitive Entities," sharing his views on the latest trend. He stressed that TEL will strengthen cooperation with customers to overcome various technical challenges, so that the industry can continue to enjoy the cost reduction benefits at advanced nodes and to realize the vision of smart life in the AI era.Opportunities and challenges coexist in the semiconductor industryWith the spread of IoT technology, the age of AI/big data has begun. A large amount of data generated by each node needs to be stored, processed, transmitted and analyzed, therefore pushing up the demand for various semiconductor devices, including memory, logic, sensors, and the emerging AI chips. It is expected that the trend will drive the long-term growth of the overall industry, and for this year, the semiconductor production equipment market has set a new record of US$60 billion."From the computer to the mobile era, by process scaling, the industry has been able to keep growing and meet consumers' demands for smaller, cheaper, and better products," Sekiguchi said. "But now we are at a turning point. If we want to continue this successful model in the AI era, we need new breakthroughs in both chip design and process technology."First of all, in terms of chip design, so far the AI function is mainly used in the cloud. But the long-term growth brought by AI cannot be made possible if the deep learning/inference functions are not prevalent across every IoT nodes.At present, many companies are investing in GPU, FPGA, and ASIC chips for this. In addition, a brand new kind of neuromorphic chip, which adopts non-Von Neumann architecture, has been actively developed. This is a new revolution for the existing CMOS circuits and CPU architectures, in a bid to accelerate the realization of AI applications by providing several orders of magnitude enhancement of performance, cost and power efficiency.This is because different AI algorithms require different hardware solutions, and the traditional way of making processors faster is no longer enough. New architecture, integration and system optimization are required to meet the different needs of cloud and edge devices. Therefore, a variety of new AI-optimized chips/devices will show up in the market. And TEL is working with multiple partners to address the AI development needs.In addition, in terms of process technology, DRAM, NAND and logic devices are all facing the increasingly difficult challenge of process scaling, which must be solved by adopting new materials and moving to 3D architecture.For DRAM, scaling has become increasingly difficult as the capacitor aspect ratio increases to be over 50 at D16 node. As for NAND, the implementation of 3D structure has enabled continued scaling. "But we are now talking about over 100 layers of different materials stacking. How to keep dimension consistency from the top to the bottom, it's a daunting task," said he."For logic scaling, thanks to the progress of lithographic technology, we are able to keep scaling as EUV is ready to be used at 7nm node. But in terms of process complexity, we have to deal with the problems from planar to FinFET, high-K, and to nanowire and nanosheet at 5nm below."When fabricating these tiny 3D structures, maintaining the uniformity and consistency of operation is very important. From the capability side of equipment, atomic level control of processing is a must at leading edge technology nodes.Winners are those who can keep driving down the costScaling capability limitation and growing demand for devices occurring at the same time means the cost is an issue. Though the industry can always get the performance required by utilizing innovative technologies and new materials. But now the question is that is it the end of cost scaling?Sekiguchi is optimistic about this, saying, "We don't believe that it is the end of cost scaling but it is true that cost is a big factor. FinFET is a performance requirement and as we have progressed through several nodes of its development, production issues are being ironed out. If anything, the introduction of EUV can have a positive effect in terms of reducing the manufacturing cost by making EUV plus dual patterning the solution for patterning instead of SAQP for example. To some effect, the dependence is on EUV throughput and cost effectiveness. Of course, for 3D NAND, the dependence is not on lithography, rather it is on how many device layers we can stack. There it is deposition and etch productivity that will determine cost scaling.""Though it's hard, the problems can be solved, provided that the industry as a whole works together to solve it systematically. And the winners in the future will be those who can still enjoy the benefits of cost-effectiveness at advanced nodes, who are the end users of our products," he stressed."As process technologies get increasingly complicated, every customer may have different requirements. We need to collaborate with each customer to provide the specialized solution they need, and the commodity tools can't fit anymore. In particular, new materials and its chemistry play an important role in creating these tiny structures. From the front-end process of devices build all the way to contact, wiring, to the back-end packaging, the considerations for processes are all different. Therefore, equipment vendors should understand all these issues. And for that we need to understand integration better, just like our customer needs to understand our tools' capability better as well."On the other hand, tool efficiency is also a key factor to the cost scaling. In order to improve equipment productivity, it's an inevitable trend to migrate to smart manufacturing by adopting AI and data analytics. "The ability to analyze vast amounts of data is important and critical. By implementing smart analysis of information, scheduling of events within the semiconductor device fabrication factory can be optimized and production performance improved. On the equipment side, the concept of tool health monitoring and predictive maintenance coordination are fairly well known, and we continue to work on these solutions on a customer-by-customer basis to meet their specific requirements."Finally, he stressed that the competition in the semiconductor production equipment market is very fierce. "We need to help customers reduce the cost of operations. Therefore, we aim to keep competitiveness in the market by responding to diversity, constantly pursuing higher efficiency, and deepening cooperation with customers."Akihisa Sekiguchi, deputy division general manager of Corporate Innovation Division, TELPhoto: Grace Lee, Digitimes, September 2018

Technology has always played an important role in improving the quality of people's lives. However, not all technological advances are needed. A study on the human history will tell us what people are mainly pursuing is freedom and security. In a recent interview, Jiu-Fan Lin, sales vice president, AMobile Intelligent, gave his fresh point of view - NB-IoT is a new technology shaped to human needs."We want young people to live harder and embrace endless possibilities enabled by technology," noted Lin as he thinks many technological innovations were created because people started to think about how to build safer and more livable cities after being hit by devastating natural disasters. After years of refinement, NB-IoT is not only an enabler of smart cities but more importantly a new hope for higher quality of life.NB-IoT brings people closer to their surroundingsTaiwan has experienced major natural disasters, such as the 921 earthquake and Typhoon Nari. "If there had been a system to warn the Taipei City authorities that the flood gates were left open, maybe we could have prevented Typhoon Nari from causing the widespread flooding in Taipei," indicated Lin. If we had been able to use IoT sensors for early warning at the time of Typhoon Nari, we might have avoided the extensive damage.NB-IoT communication technology can be used in wide-ranging applications not only for early warning purposes but also for keeping track of the changes in the city's natural environment, for example, monitoring water levels and river flows. Such types of natural environment monitoring do not need to collect data at the rate of hundred times per second as the natural environment generally does not change at a rapid pace and the monitoring system can be configured to collect and report data at an interval of a few times per month or per year. According to Lin, using NB-IoT for effective wide-area management and monitoring in city administration helps people achieve the desired quality of life and prevent disasters.AMobile Intelligent and MediaTek have combined forces to develop NB-IoT modules, which are powered by MediaTek's NB-IoT chips purposed-built for AMobile Intelligent's products, including water monitoring, water meter, traffic and smart home solutions. In particular, its NB-IoT solution has been put to use to monitor India's Ganges River and Thailand's Mekong River.Built on top of 3GPP standards, NB-IoT has deployment cost advantagesMajor cities around the globe are endeavoring to become smart cities by actively deploying IoT devices citywide. However, with a wide variety of devices being put to use for different applications and cloud infrastructure for collecting and analyzing data being in place, equipment enabling the connection of massive devices, long-range and low-power data transfer and low deployment cost is not yet available, so full-scale IoT realization still has "one last mile" to go.NB-IoT is what it takes to complete the last mile. NB-IoT enables low-power wide-area communication and can operate with the cellular network structure of most telecom operators' base stations. In other words, manufacturers of NB-IoT solutions only need to focus on the designs and functions of their products without having to worry about infrastructure issues.Based on 3GPP standards, NB-IoT can make use of most existing base stations and upgrade them to serve as media for data transfer. Compared to LoRa and Sigfox using unlicensed frequency bands, NB-IoT has superior advantages.However, compared to LTE-M, also transmitting signals through telecom operators' base stations, NB-IoT is more favored because NB-IoT chips have lower cost and higher performance and support over-the-air (OTA) upgrade, according to market research reports. These benefits have allowed NB-IoT to surpass LTE-M in a short time and likely to outperform Sigfox and LoRa in five years in terms of market demand.According to Lin, NB-IoT sends data through 4G networks and will use 5G networks in the future. Take the current 4G networks for example. NB-IoT uses fragmented 4G frequency bands for data transfer, so service providers or general users pay smaller fees than mobile subscription charges. For advanced technologies to become widespread in people's lives, they have to enable access by everyone. If businesses can reduce their operating costs, they will be able to pass the savings to their customers.Current applications of AMobile Intelligent's NB-IoT modulesJiu-Fan Lin, sales vice president, AMobile Intelligent

According to Accenture, 95% of manufacturing firms worldwide intend to initiate IIoT-based operations in the next three years, in hopes of automating production monitoring to replace conventional process and implement preventive maintenance. 73% of the companies polled, however, admit that their IIoT plans have yet to make any progress.Commonly, once a manufacturer has managed to allot a budget, accommodate physical installation demands, overcome wiring and other fitting issues, deploy ready-made equipment monitoring systems (comprising IPC and DAQ modules and signal conditioning circuits), and eventually start acquiring data, the absence of resources and capability to follow up with meaningful data analysis and visualization actually prevents development of a prototype for evaluation.According to Zake Lin, ADLINK IST's Product Manager for Connected Equipment, even the best-planned IIoT implementations often end up languishing, since operators, even after struggling to meet significant requirements or investment in labor, resources, technology, and operating capital, find themselves stuck in a long unproductive evaluation period, unable to make any further progress.ADLINK DXS IoT Digital Experiments as-a-Service enables smooth transition to IIoT function and valuable data access with minimum upfront investmentUnlike most available solutions pieced together from disparate standalone elements, ADLINK's MCM-100 provides an all-in-one solution that can directly connect with an accelerometer or other sensor to acquire machine status data, perform real-time analysis of the gathered data, upload the results to data centers, and connect to upper level ERP/MES systems for further data management. Moreover, ADLINK provides cloud-based solutions enabling web dashboard, warning issuance, information security, and OT/IT conversion capabilities cooperating with the MCM-100 to take complete advantage of valuable data.As well, to break through bottlenecks and fully achieve IIoT-based objectives, ADLINK has evolved beyond conventional product sales models by, first, attaining a clear understanding of user needs and then combining system integrator (SI) resources in concert with the MCM-100, defining implementation details and expected results. Next, an ADLINK DXS package is formulated and a pilot run launched to establish the MCM-100's efficient acquisition of equipment behavior data and machining parameters, for real-time analysis. Generation of warnings and other notifications can also be configured. Once the evaluation results are available, the user can precisely calculate ROI, and work with ADLINK to assemble the ideal solution and inaugurate large-scale deployment.ADLINK's planning expertise enables machine makers and factory equipment management and service operators to reap the full benefits of the MCM-100. In one example, a major electronics assembler relies heavily on CNC cutting tools for production. Consequently, any failure of the tools represents considerable downtime with accompanying drop in throughput., The assembler wished to incorporate ADLINK's MCM-100 solution to prevent unexpected cutting tool failure from generating machining defects. A DXS-based pilot run was implemented, with an accelerometer delivering detailed machine behavior data, in this case vibration measurement, to the system. The MCM-100 performed detailed analysis of the acquired data, and was able to, based on the results, predict upcoming tool failure. The operator was then able to perform preventative maintenance, replacing the CNC cutters before costly downtime occurred. The test system was thus able to obtain effective, meaningful results with a minimum of expense and risk. Upon evaluation of the results, large-scale deployment was undertaken, and the operator was able to successfully build up its cutting tool monitoring system. As a final confirmation of effectiveness, zero machining defects have arisen since the system has been up and running.Five key approaches to perfect IIoT project implementationIn sum, Lin concluded that for an IIoT project to achieve success, five key elements are necessary.- Think big: Manufacturers can start by considering problems to be solved, then ramp up to determining processes to be changed and the benefits they hope to achieve, in order to generate the maximum business value possible.- Start small: Operators can, with minimal up-front investment, take advantage of digital experimentation to verify that valuable information can be obtained by collecting and analyzing data and whether the projected outcomes, such as improved production quality and reduced labor costs, can actually be achieved.- Keep trying: Users should become comfortable with the idea of making mistakes, get accustomed to learning from them, and develop the resilience to keep trying.- Build an ecosystem: The IIoT value chain encompasses protocols and connections, security, data streaming, equipment management, power control, data transfer, machine learning/deep learning, edge analysis, cloud computing and many other complex links. Without a complete ecosystem, an individual supplier will not be able to manage everything on its own.- Recognize the facts: The ultimate goal of IIoT implementation is to explore data and identify valuable information, rather than simply perform technological experiments.ADLINK DXS IoT Digital Experiments as-a-Service enables smooth transition to IIoT function

Indium Corporation will feature Indium11.8HF-SPR solder paste - a new no-clean, Pb-free solder paste designed to meet the current and future fine feature printing requirements of mobile manufacturers - at Productronica India 2018, Sept. 26-28 in Bengaluru, India.Indium11.8HF-SPR specifically addresses customers' needs for a high performance solder paste with Type 5 powder. This new solder paste delivers unprecedented stencil print transfer efficiency on the broadest range of processes, while maintaining industry-leading reflow performance.Indium11.8HF-SPR benefits:*Halogen-free per IEC 61249-2-21 test method EN14582*High-transfer efficiency through small apertures (≤ 0.66AR)*Long stencil life (>12 hours)*Eliminates hot and cold slump to inhibit bridging and solder beading defects*Avoids the potential for HIP and graping defects with a unique oxidation barrier*Reflows in both air and nitrogenIndium Corporation and MEL Systems and Services Ltd (MELSS) will share a booth in Hall 3, Booth PA15.For more information about Indium Corporation, visit www.indium.com or email abrown@indium.com. You can also follow our experts, From One Engineer To Another® (#FOETA), at www.facebook.com/indium or @IndiumCorp.

Indium Corporation will feature its suite of void-reducing, no-clean solder pastes to help customers Avoid the Void at SMTA International from October 14-18 in Rosemont, Illinois.Indium Corporation's suite of solder pastes, including Indium8.9HF and Indium10.1, are specially formulated to deliver ultra low-voiding, plus enhanced benefits such as improved response-to-pause, stability, head-in-pillow (HIP) minimization, reliable in-circuit testing, and enhanced SIR performance.Indium Corporation's versatile high-performance solder pastes are designed to accommodate a variety of processing temperatures and industry requirements with lead-free, halogen-free, no-clean options.For more information about Indium Corporation's suite of low-voiding solder pastes, visit www.indium.com/avoidthevoid or find us at booth #523.Indium Corporation is a premier materials manufacturer and supplier to the global electronics, semiconductor, thin-film, and thermal management markets. Products include solders and fluxes; brazes; thermal interface materials; sputtering targets; indium, gallium, germanium, and tin metals and inorganic compounds; and NanoFoil. Founded in 1934, the company has global technical support and factories located in China, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the USA.Indium Corporation to showcase low-voiding solder pastes at SMTA International 2018

Clientron Corp., a world-leading provider of thin client, POS and embedded systems, unveils its brand new economic thin client S-Cube Pi 3 B+, running on the latest Raspberry Pi 3 B+ platform, specifically designed for high performance and economic desktop virtualization solution for the education, SMB, finance, healthcare and enterprise markets.Optimized for major virtualization software brokersThe S-Cube Pi3 B+ is designed to run virtual sessions from various workspace environments. It supports virtualization software brokers including Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft RDS, and VMware Horizon with secure Linux operating system.High performance 64-bit Quad-Core processorPowered by the Cortex-A53 (ARMv8) Quad-Core 1.4GHz processor, it provides an economic solution for most demanding functions including WiFi & Bluetooth 4.2 wireless connection, one Gigabit LAN, one HDMI display output and one internal micro SD card expansion.Power-efficient and cost-effective benefitsWith power-efficient and cost-effective benefits, it features ultra-compact credit card size form factor, and offers cost effective endpoints of desktop virtualization solution for customers. Featuring PC-like working experience, it can be used in different market segments to optimize your working environments.Key Features of the S-Cube Pi 3 B+ including:- Only 0.18L credit card size- Energy-efficient design with integrated power board for true power on/off function- Fanless and noise-free design- 4 x USB 2.0 high-speed ports- Built-in 1Gigabit Ethernet, 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n/ac) and Bluetooth 4.2- Support 1GB RAM and internal Micro SD- Less than 5W power consumption- Support most demanding VDI protocols- Support Kensington lock- Optional VESA mount kitThe S-Cube Pi 3 B+ is not only for thin client solutions, but also could be used for digital signage and smart retail applications. The S-Cube Pi 3 B+ thin client is available now. For more details, please visit our website www.clientron.comClientron debuts its first cost-effective thin client with Raspberry Pi 3 B+ platform

Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation will showcase three of its advanced test systems, have technologists in its booth to address leading-edge testing topics, and sponsor two major events at Semicon Taiwan 2018 on September 5-7 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center."In our inaugural exhibit at Semicon Taiwan, we will present our latest test solutions for the Taiwanese market, including the debut of our new MPT3000 system for testing advanced solid-state drives," said Judy Davies, Advantest's vice president of global marketing communications. "Advantest has all of the products and technologies needed to help chip makers, foundries and OSATs (outsourced semiconductor assembly and test suppliers) meet their customers' needs."Product ExhibitsIn booth #K2682 in the Testing Pavilion, Advantest will display its MPT3000 platform for system-level testing of SATA, SAS, and PCIe solid-state drives (SSDs); its small-footprint M4171 handler, designed to boost the efficiency of product development labs while offering the capability of remote operation from anywhere around the globe; and its EVA100 measurement system for high-volume testing of digital, analog and mixed-signal ICs.In addition, the booth will feature kiosks staffed by company experts to answer questions covering all high-growth technology areas including power-supply solutions for charging, automotive and industrial applications; optimizing test-floor intelligence; and scalable testing for the Internet of Things (IoT), 5G communications, next-generation memories, display drivers and integrated power devices.Event SponsorshipsThis year, Advantest is a gold sponsor of the annual Smart Automotive Summit in the Grande Luxe Banquet Hall on September 4, the day before exhibits open. The day-long conference will feature technical and business presentations addressing automotive components and systems shaping the future of mobile connectivity and smart vehicles.Advantest also is a silver sponsor of the show's leadership gala dinner on September 5 at the Grand Hyatt Taipei.Social MediaKeep up to date on the very latest information from the leader in test equipment on Twitter @Advantest_ATE. More information about Advantest is available at www.advantest.com.

Sudden power failure or unstable electricity supply, even just for one minute, can result in damage to expensive production machinery. As such, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) have become standard industrial equipment. In response to the need, Arbor, a leader in industrial PC (IPC) and industrial IoT (IIoT) solutions, has recently introduced SCP CUBE - a UPS system that uses supercapacitors and does a lot more than ensuring reliable power supply.Integrated with LoRa communication technology and sensors, SCP CUBE serves not only as a UPS but also as an IIoT sensor node. It can further wok with central gateways and cloud servers to form a total IIoT solution.Supercapacitors provide compelling safety featuresCompared to bulky battery-powered UPS that can supply electricity for hours, Arbor's supercapacitor-based UPS - SCP CUBE - provides backup power for three to five minutes. Its main purpose is to allow the system to have enough time for a standard shutdown so as to guard against damage to hardware and software of built-in equipment.UPS using supercapacitors have multiple advantages, including higher conversion efficiency and shorter charging time. Furthermore, conventional batteries are prone to failure in high or low temperature environments while supercapacitors can maintain normal operation under a wide temperature range (-20 degrees C to 70 degrees C), outperforming lead-acid batteries and lithium-ion batteries. Moreover, supercapacitors can last for unlimited charge-discharge cycles in theory and are essentially maintenance-free. These are all supercapacitors' advantages that conventional batteries cannot match."It should be noted that we cannot overlook the risk of battery explosion especially in operating environments where there may be oil and gas. Supercapacitors pose no safety risk so they don't need to get certified for air transport," said Lin Yang-cheng, associate manager, industry automation division, Arbor. As a matter of fact, an international chemical company based in Italy has chosen to use Arbor SCP CUBE mainly for its explosion-proof and safety features.Supercapacitors are environmentally friendly and safe and operate in a wide temperature range. Exploiting their inherent advantages, Arbor has designed SCP CUBE, which not only guarantees uninterruptible power supply but also enables customizable editing, data monitoring and data analysis. For example, customers can configure a shutdown timer based on the number of software programs running on their IPC.Total solution for IIoT deploymentArbor SCP CUBE further combines the company's internally-developed LoRa communication module, enabling it to collect data from sensor nodes deployed on production machinery, such as CPU load, temperature, current, voltage and power input, and send the data to the central gateway. This way, one central gateway can monitor data sent from hundreds of sensor nodes and respond to abnormality by initiating a system reset or other actions.Lin remarked, "For manufacturers looking to migrate to smart factories, SCP CUBE's innovative design truly enables the connection of everything. Manufacturers will be able to implement all-round IIoT monitoring and control with an extremely cost-effective approach." Furthermore, the gateway can forward the collected data to cloud servers via Wi-Fi/3G/4G network connection for more advanced data management and analysis. Arbor also provides internally-developed apps allowing users to stay on top of machinery conditions at all times and receive alert messages in the case of any abnormality on their smartphones through the cloud so that they can make timely responses. "Arbor is building up cloud servers and planning to offer customers machinery monitoring and data analysis services on a month-to-month subscription basis." In addition, as a modular standalone device, SCP CUBE is compatible with all types and brands of production machinery, enabling quick and easy IIoT deployment.According to industry sources, there are only two suppliers of supercapacitor-based UPS in the world - Arbor and a foreign firm. But, Arbor is the world's first and only supplier to introduce an all-in-one device combining a supercapacitor board, charging board, UPS, LoRa, sensors and user interface (UI). ‎SCP CUBE with NB-IoT technology will be next on Arbor's product roadmap.NB-IoT modules coming up to flexibly accommodate customer needsIn addition to long-range transmission, LoRa also achieves low-power, low-cost and bi-directional communication. Arbor thinks LoRa is a particularly suitable LPWAN technology for IIoT deployment so it began its LoRa product R&D two years ago. By providing communication modules, Arbor aims to eliminate network communication problems for manufacturers looking to incorporate IIoT platforms. Another IoT network communication technology that Arbor is actively working on is NB-IoT, which can also be integrated with SCP CUBE through a modular design to more flexibly accommodate customers' specific IIoT needs.SCP CUBE serves as a fundamental element in Arbor's IIoT roadmap. By introducing SCP CUBE, combining supercapacitor-based UPS, LoRa, sensors and edge computing and working in connection with central gateway and cloud server, Arbor helps customers deploy IIoT platforms at a faster pace and lower cost and thereby contributes to the advances of smart manufacturing and Industry 4.0.SCP Cube: The industry's first 2-in-1 supercapacitor power and environmental monitoring solution

Indium Corporation will feature its flip-chip flux WS-446HF and ball attach flux WS-823 at Semicon Taiwan 2018 from September 5-7.Indium Corporation's WS-446HF is a water-soluble, halogen-free flip-chip dipping flux with an activator system powerful enough to promote wetting on the most demanding surfaces; from solder-on-pad (SoP) to standard and embedded trace substrates (ETS) and flip-chip on leadframe applications. WS-446HF provides uniform dipping performance over extended periods of time. It also exhibits tackiness that is suitable for holding large die in place during assembly.WS-823 is a water-soluble, halogen-free ball-attach flux designed for use in pin transfer and printing applications for ball attachment to substrates (BGA manufacturing). WS-823 has an activator system powerful enough to promote wetting on the most demanding substrate metallizations, such as copper OSP. WS-823 is cleanable with just DI water only.From water-soluble and ultra-low/near-zero residue no-clean flip-chip fluxes to system-in-package (SiP) water-soluble and no-clean solder pastes, Indium Corporation has an industry-proven portfolio of products that meet the current and evolving challenges encountered in fine-pitch SiP and Heterogeneous Integration applications.For more information on Indium Corporation's materials for SiP, visit www.indium.com/SiP or visit Indium Corporation's booth J2240.Indium to feature WS-446HF flip-chip and WS-823 ball-attach fluxes at Semicon Taiwan