U-Reach's NVMe (M.2) SSD duplicators adopt a standalone system, which eliminates any risk of computer virus infection. Even when the duplicator is fully loaded it can still maintain a consistent duplication speed. Unique hot swap capabilities allow the next round of duplication to begin without having to wait or restarting the machine.U-Reach has developed five NVMe (M.2) SSD duplicators. The modularized port design of U-Reach's NVMe (M.2) SSD duplicators allows the user to simply replace the adaptor to make the duplication of M.2(NGFF), mini PCIe, U.2(SF-8639), BGA PCIe SSD, and others possible.U-Reach's NVMe SSD duplication solutions

The fifth generation (5G) mobile network communication and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies continue to grab the public's attention, and will do so into the next year and beyond. Particularly for 5G, the marketing hype is here. 3GPP has officially signed off on the first 5G draft specification in December 2017. This global standard, named Non-Standalone 5G New Radio specification (5G NR NSA), will form the basis of commercial 5G products and is an important step to bring standard-compliant trials to maket. This will enable early commercialization for industry collaborations aiming to accelerate 5G NR for commercial networks by 2019.While it's been in development for some time, 5G networks are starting to become a technical reality in 2018, and will certainly be the words on everyone's lips. In 2018, there are two major events to showcase 5G applications. They are the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in February and Multi-City Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) rollout in the second half. The primary focus for the completed 3GPP 5G NR NSA specification is enabling enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) services, as well as establishing the foundation for the 5G NR design to support the future evolution. Indeed, FWA is gaining momentum in the industry for semiconductor chip makers, equipment vendors, mobile device manufacturers and residential applications. With 5G due to provide 10 to 100 times more capacity than 4G LTE, it has the potential to enable cost-efficient FWA solutions on a massive scale.When people talk about 5G, they're actually talking about a collection of wireless communication technologies and use cases. So 5G is a simple, umbrella term for multiple technology advancements still under development. It is largely based on the emergence and promotion of various new wireless applications leveraging 3G, 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 802.11 series, LoRa, NB-IoT and a variety of air interfaces, protocols, and frequency bands. This is why 5G device test is becoming so critical in Electronics OEM/ODMs, especially in the product design and development process, such as design verification testing (DVT) phase. LitePoint hosted a series of technology forums across China and Taiwan in the search for innovative thinking on 5G testing technologies and offers complete test solutions. On April 17th and April 19th respectively in Taipei and Hsinchu, the forum titled "Unlocking 5G potential, the next generation of wireless networks brings new test challenges."LitePoint helps customers to embrace and overcome test challenges"By offering complete test solutions helping early rollout of 5G systems, at LitePoint we are ready to help our Asia customers by providing a smooth and fast transition to 5G mobile communication standards," said LitePoint President Brad Robbins at his opening session welcome speech. As the Asia region continues to contribute strong growth, he strongly delivers the message by attending the outreach events organized and run by LitePoint teams in Taipei.Meanwhile, Richard Hsieh, VP of LitePoint talks about 5G technologies. 5G delivers the next generation of mainstream wireless networks. Smart devices enabled with AI and 5G technologies will dominate the trends in wireless design. The core value of LitePoint is wireless test solutions, and LitePoint systems are designed from the ground up for high-volume production. The product portfolio is used in development, high-volume manufacturing, providing customers with time-to-market, time-to-value and time-to-volume without sacrificing test quality.He added, LitePoint test solutions range from wireless modules, to PCB-level calibration and verification, and extended to satisfy the needs of complete system level design, manufacturing and volume production. Taking Internet of Things (IoT) products as an example, the cost structure of IoT devices is very sensitive. Helping OEM/ODM customers to get the production cost down is one of the essential requirements from LitePoint test solutions.Meanwhile, in the higher-end wireless product sectors such as millimeter wave (mmWave) frequency band systems, when dealing with the product test of Antenna in Package (AiP) chips, the new technical challenge is the Over-The- Air (OTA) testing methodology. Furthermore, the more RF modules added into 5G systems, the test solutions will take a different approach to solve the challenges. The engineering teams of LitePoint help OEM/ODM partners to do integration across supply chains and ecosystem partners to improve yield rates, shorten time-to-market, and deliver the high profit margin.The value of key use cases relying on the complete testing of 5G technologiesYuka Muto, LitePoint Product manager, presents her keynote speech titled "What does 5G mean to you?" In 2018, the 5G network made its worldwide debut at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. She highlights use cases of 5G with good user experience as follows, (1) High speed mobile internet connection with maximum speeds up to 100 times faster than 4G LTE. Demonstrated at the Olympics, 3.5 Gbps mobile data streaming is impressive. (2) 5G Virtual reality (or mixed reality) headsets bring amazing immersive experiences. (3) 5G combined withAI enables real-time translation conversations in seven languages for athletes and visitors. (4) 5G is a key to enable autonomous vehicles. (5) UIYAJI, a wind village above PyeongChang, demonstrated 5G applications in smart agricultural use cases for rural services leveraging FWA technology. The system can detect animals using dispersed embedded sensors. The devices such as radar and CCTV are used to detect pests such as wild pigs and take appropriate actions to reduce or prevent crop destruction. These examples showcase how farmers can use an automated system to help to prevent potential disasters or risks.Some of the Pyeongchang demonstrations show that more work is needed to improve. Some examples of that were uneven internet speed and service quality with distance. Additionally, the drawbacks include miniaturization and power consumption of mmWave devices. Some users described the 5G tablets as heavy and felt quite hot when running. The VR headsets can't keep up with higher frame rates and display resolution, which can cause the user to experience dizziness and discomfort.The second part of her speech aimed to introduce the 5G deployment cases and figure out how to test these 5G devices. The first one is enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) usage. For Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), she reminds us that those devices need to provide carrier grade quality of service. The test and quality requirements are high.The second deployment case is mobile wireless devices in eMBB networks. This is talking about 5G handsets and other client side devices. Mobile 5G is primarily planned for deployment in sub-6GHz bands initially, due to the unique challenges of mmWave radio communications. They require sophisticated, high-precision testing solutions to thoroughly validate device-level radio performance and ensure time-to-market for new 5G network rollouts. LitePoint presented information on mmWave OTA Test Chambers to evaluated antenna performance and perform verification for 5G millimeter wave devices.The 3rd and 4th deployment cases are autonomous car and IoT devices. Both cases involved various wireless protocol and sensor technologies. For testing those devices, there are many reference designs to be verified in the system. It will count on versatile test solutions to play a more progressive role to meet the new challenges of testing in 5G era. Now, LitePoint offers its complete Test Solutions for wireless testing that meets the needs of industry tests.LitePoint single box mmWave test solution fits DVT and production needsAlex Hsieh, LitePoint Director of the Asia Application Engineering department, discussed specifics of the mmWave test solutions. The focus of his presentation is testing RF modules that will be integrated in 5G devices. In addition toexisting 3G/4G features, the coming 5G RF modules will include Sub-6GHz and mmWave bands. Taking Sub-6GHz bands as an example, there are at least 4 antennas required for supporting 4X4 MIMO features in mobile phones. For the mmWave bands, there will be at least two extra RF modules needed. The mixture of these antennas will raise the difficulty for the overall test. The engineering challenge is obviously becoming very tough.In the PCB-level test, it will require both traditional conducted tests as well as OTA tests. Hsieh presented a test setup based on 4 PCBs as one standard test scenario. In the low frequency bands, he setup IQxstream-5G with 8 RF ports, with an option to expand to 16 RF ports to scale up the capacity. In the intermediate-frequency (IF) bands, LitePoint provides IQgig-IF to support the frequency range from 5 to 19GHz with switching options for RF port expansion.For mmWave OTA testing, the test setup combines all the control signals of the IF and base band frequency and LO signals to an independent IF module. The OTA tests based on IQgig-5G and IQgig-IF measure both horizontal and vertical polarization signals in a single test configuration. LitePoint demonstrates the mmWave OTA Test Chambers for the requirement to test antenna arrays in the far-field. For small arrays, of the far-field can be as short as 6 to 8 centimeters for measuring antenna performance. This can enable the size of the chamber to be made smaller than the traditional anechoic chambers, which is easily installed in the lab or manufacturing environment.LitePoint also provides an integrated, motorized positioner for rotating the test devices while conducting the OTA test. This will benefit to measure antenna design parameters and verify the design specification. When designing the OTA test chambers, LitePoint considered the different needs for engineering verification and mass production.In the high frequency mmWave bands, the IQgig-5G provides test coverage for the 28 GHz to 39 GHz licensed bands. In the Sub-6GHz bands, the IQxstream-5G provides high-performance support for multi-antenna 5G designs. These test solutions enable full coverage to fit the test requirements of chipset vendors. Addressing these challenges requires appropriate test and measurement solutions for simulation, signal generation and signal analysis, to address all stages of the product lifecycle, from design to validation and all the way through to manufacturing.Following TR38.810 testing methods, TRC presents its own design Flying CATR test chambersFrank Tsai, President of Training Research Co. (TRC), gives his keynote for the dedicated design of Flying Compact Antenna Test Range (CATR) solutions. The design follows the 3GPP TR38.810 test method for mmWave OTA test. The OTA testing covers a large portion of the testing needed for 5G products. Testing of multi-antenna devices will further require a more advanced test method. In his demonstration, the frequency bands range from 24GHz to 120GHz. The 3D measurement is performed based on horizontal and vertical fine pitch movements. Tsai highlights that this solution has passed the TR38.810 test criteria. TRC has leveraged LitePoint's IQgig-5G to measure parameters and perform the tests.TRC's Flying CATR solution provides test coverage including wafer level (Antenna On Chip), chip packaging, antenna module and system engineering verification including EVT/DVT test. The product addresses 5G, IEEE 802.11ad devices and LiDAR or radar used in autonomous vehicle systems. Tsai pointed out that the uncertainty of 5G directional antenna arrays increases the difficulty of test. In the high frequency band, the wavelength to be measured is getting shorter, and the phase shifting is also getting worse. This effect will increase interconnection issues when housing screws are tightened. For accommodating the 3D measurement criteria, TRC uses a robotic arm to assist the measurement to follow TR38.810 test method.The mmWave spectrum has become more important. Several developments have been witnessed in the design and implementation of efficient and miniaturized antennas for mobile phones and CPE equipment. There is an increased demand for efficient RF circuits and antennas to support the rapid advancements in the advanced millimeter wave systems and applications. TRC's Flying CATR solution will help system vendors deal with the tough challenges of new test criteria.5G FWA starting to provide commercial services, IQxstream-5G takes on the challenges of testing.Weihua Tang, Field Application Engineering manager of LitePoint Shanghai, speaks about the development of upcoming 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) services. The FWA services provides internet access to homes using 5G network technology with Gigabit rate data transmission, delivering a rich user experience. Two major benefits of 5G FWA are cost and performance. The mobile operators and technology vendors alike are expecting that 5G FWA could be used as a stepping stone to full 5G network deployments.FWA services will utilize 5G network technology, such as MU-MIMO, beam-forming and mmWave spectrum to provide a considerable performance boost to wireless broadband services. It enables the establishment of a quick and cheap broadband service, even in areas that don't have readily-available access to fixed line home broadband. 5G FWA could reduce the initial cost of establishing last-mile connectivity compared to a physical fiber line approach.5G FWA lower barriers to entry by reducing the CAPEX investments required, and can often prove more convenient to set up and offer as a competing service to fixed home broadband in cities or highly populated areas. More competition, of course, means improved wireless services for the end customers. New 5G devices are expected, including 5G mobile phones and so-called Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), Small Cell or wireless access point routers.Meanwhile, RF measurement methods are very much top of mind with system makers and test solution providers tasked with developing next-generation test solutions tailored for 5G wireless systems. Most 5G devices will also be equipped with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth technologies as well. Test intensity for 5G end-products will likely vary depending on the type of product. For example, the test time to verify one 5G mobile phone could take 360 seconds to test 3/4/5G features, and an additional 30 seconds to test Wi-Fi/BT features. On the other hand, measuring CPE devices could spend most of the time for calibrating and verifying the Wi-Fi .LitePoint's IQxstream-5G test solutions provide an important tool to test 5G phones in Sub-6GHz bands. In his slides, Tang demonstrated the configuration of IQxstream-5G with 8 RF ports to provide 200MHz bandwidth for the test, with an option to expand to 16 RF ports. It is ideally suited for massive volume test requirements of 5G mobile phones.Speed up 802.11ax device test to win the competitionThere are dozens of heated debates within the technology of IEEE 802.11ax vs 5G standards, and the two technologies will continue on their separate tracks at least for another generation. 802.11ax has the challenging goal of improving the average throughput in dense user environments, especially for high-density public environments such as trains, stadiums and airports.Chris Chao, LitePoint Field Application Manager, talks the topics of 802.11ax testing. The key focus of his talking agenda covers the methods of OFDMA and MU-MIMO testing criteria. Like all emerging standards, 802.11ax standard increases design complexity and creates a number of new test challenges for the engineer. Some of those challenges arise when it comes to basic measurements from new test requirements. LitePoint's test solution is aiming to provide effective methods for lowering the testing barriers.As an increasing number of Access Points (APs) is being deployed, the AP router test methods become critical. APs control data transmission between mobile devices with handling the synchronization of signals. One potential impairment in this communication is that an OFDMA Resource Unit (RU) leakage can affect the data transfer efficiency. Chao presented several test scenarios to simulate multiple users, RUs and MIMO data streams when testing APs. These examples also provide simulation tools to enable the Power Boost features in the 802.11ax specification.Another key topic of his speech is LitePoint IQfact+. This is a turnkey software solution for customized testing of leading Wi-Fi chipsets, enabling rapid volume manufacturing with a minimum of engineering effort. Chao highlights Sequence Mode to simplify the test procedures and save time for product mass production.Taiwan system manufacturers have accumulated experience to test 802.11ax devices for more than a year, Chao explained from his first-hand observation in the working in the field. With IQxel-MW test solutions, LitePoint has helped Taiwan vendors resolve technical issues, such as EVM measurements, RU combination settings, Power Control, and the recently-introduced trigger based Timing Control scenarios. This successful collaboration is creating a strong partnership to grow business. LitePoint test solutions will not only ensure engineers have the tools to test their 802.11ax devices, but also help enable the rapid deployment and industry-wide acceptance of these 802.11ax-based devices.Reducing IoT testing barriers increasing the commercial use of NB-IoTTechnology vendors are understandably excited about the impending global rollout of NB-IoT/Cat-M1 wireless infrastructure. Charles Meng, Field Application Engineering manager of LitePoint Shanghai, speaks of the development of NB-IoT and Cat M1 technologies. More than 60% of IoT devices are installed using a LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) wireless technology, which is a technology connecting low bandwidth, battery-powered devices with low bit rates over long ranges. Both NB-IoT and Cat M1 are two different standards have emerged under the 3GPP specification. China's policy directive is on the LTE Cat NB1 (NB-IoT) standard, that uses 180 kHz system bandwidth for both downlink and uplink.On the other hand, the North America and Europe markets mostly are adopting LTE-M, using bandwidth of 1.08MHz for data transmitting and handling. Additionally, wireless technologies such as Sigfoxand LoRa are also getting more attention for industrial IoT products.To meet these IoT device testing challenges and raise efficiency during production and function verification, LitePoint offers the IQxstream-M to test LTE Cat NB1/CatM1 as an optimized solution. The IQxstream-M has been granted both LTE Cat NB1and Cat M1 chipset vendors' testing approval. LitePoint test solutions will continue to maintain the leadership in wireless testing giving customer's unique perspective on the coming 5G and IEEE 802.11ax challenges.Brad Robbins, President of LitePointRichard Hsieh, Global Sales VP of LitePointYuka Muto, LitePoint Product ManagerAlex Hsieh, LitePoint Director of the Asia Application EngineeringFrank Tsai, President of Training Research Co.Weihua Tang, Field Application Engineering ManagerChris Chao, Manager of ApplicationsCharles Meng, Team Lead of Applications

Malaysian based wafer foundry, SilTerra Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., today unveiled a "Piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasound transducer (PMUT) on CMOS" platform for finger-print sensing and medical imaging applications.This unique process platform offers a truly monolithic solution and integrates the PMUT on the top of the CMOS resulting in a single-chip solution. The PMUT is formed using a CMOS compatible piezoelectric material and surface micro-machining techniques.Designers can choose any of the SilTerra's traditional CMOS/BCD/RF/Ultra low power platforms (180nm or 130nm) and build the PMUT on the top of these platforms.This platform is supported by the relevant CMOS IP and PDK to enable a fully integrated System-On-Chip.The PDK supports a configurable PMUT cell to address different end market applications such as a 20MHz PMUT cell for finger-print sensing or a 5MHz PMUT cell for medical imaging.SilTerra's "PMUT on CMOS" platform is currently available for prototyping."We are very pleased to release this innovative process for prototyping. As this process uses most of the standard CMOS process modules, we are confident to achieve manufacturability and defect density levels similar to the traditional CMOS technologies. By offering a truly monolithic solution, we managed to reduce the parasitics significantly and also offer high fill-factors," quoted Arjun Kumar Kantimahanti, Senior Vice President of MEMS & Sensors BU, SilTerra.To learn more about this platform, please visit: http://www.silterra.com/technologies.html#tab_memsFor additional information on SilTerra or its services, please visit www.silterra.comPMUT Images (Top View)PMUT actual silicon view

At this week's 2018 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, Imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nanoelectronics and digital technology, presented considerable progress in enabling germanium nanowire pFET devices as a practical solution to extend scaling beyond the 5nm node.In a first paper, the research center unveiled an in-depth study of the electrical properties of strained germanium nanowire pFETs. A second paper presents the first demonstration of vertically-stacked gate-all-around highly-strained germanium nanowire pFETs."With a number of scaling boosters, the industry will be able to extend FinFET technology to the 7- or even 5nm node," says An Steegen, EVP at Imec's Semiconductor Technology and Systems division. "Beyond, the gate-all-around (GAA) architecture appears as a practical solution since it reuses most of the FinFET process steps. But one important challenge of using lateral nanowires is the significant decrease of the channel cross-section compared to conventional FinFETs. To improve the drive per footprint, several nanowires have to be stacked, but this comes with a serious penalty of increased parasitic capacitance and resistance. A solution is to replace the silicon nanowires by a high-mobility channel material such as germanium (Ge), providing the necessary current boost per footprint", adds Steegen, "These new studies show that solution is indeed feasible, reaching the cost, area and performance requirements for nodes beyond 5nm."The first study of high-performing strained Ge nanowire pFETs gives insight in the device performance these new devices may offer for high-end analog and high-performance digital solutions. One conclusion is that dedicated optimizations of key process steps make these devices a serious contender for the GAA technology. The second paper reports on Ge GAA FETs with single nanowires, achieving a performance that matches state-of-the-art SiGe and Ge FinFETs. Moreover, for the first time, strained p-type Ge GAA FETs with stacked nanowires were demonstrated on a 14/16nm platform. The GAA nanowire technology appears as a promising high-performance solution for future nodes, provided that the junctions are further optimized."These complimentary studies establish germanium GAA nanowire technology as a valid contender for the sustained scaling that will be required to fulfill the requirements for the data-driven IoT-era requiring huge computational power," concludes Steegen.These results will be presented on June 20 at the VLSI Technology Symposium, in session T8: Advanced FinFET and GAA. This research is performed in cooperation with imec's key program partners including GlobalFoundries, Huawei, Intel, Micron, Qualcomm, Samsung, SK Hynix, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, TOSHIBA Memory, TSMC and Western Digital.Further information on Imec can be found at www.imec-int.com.

APD Group took part in Computex Taipei in June 2018, showcasing many products, including networking power, medical power, to consumer electronics power, alongside many other applications.At the exhibition, APD's customized power solution wowed visitors from abroad. "When a client needs to differentiate, they need customized solutions. APD has benefited from its R&D strength in conducting needs-specific customization, with the help of flexible high efficiency automated production to quickly satisfy the needs of our clients," APD's Power System Business deputy general manager Mark Tang says.On the trending topic of quick charge, APD has demonstrated its light and compact USB PD power that supports the latest PD3.0 and QC 3.0 quick charge standards, with an exceptionally high power of 65W. Size wise, the latest adapter has been reduced by 10-30% compared with its predecessor. APD's diverse design can help clients set their products apart from the rest of the market.As a long-time partner with major international medical brands, APD Group also showcased many of its medical power supplies at this exhibition. Regarding safety requirements and performance, all APD power products comply with EU's latest COC Tier 2 performance regulation. The products also passed the ISO 13485 Certification for Medical Device Quality Management System and IEC60601 standard for medical safety in 2015. Indeed, all APD products meet the market's stringent requirement of "high quality, high stability, and high safety standards".APD's Power System Business deputy general manager Mark Tang (left)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) made its first-ever appearance at the Computex Taipei trade show this year. Its exhibits were a highlight among other AIoT-themed booths. AWS has hosted tech forums, such as AWS Summit Taipei, that were highly-praised and well-attended by high-tech communities and AWS partners in Taiwan. At Computex 2018, AWS presented achievements by its partners in technology developments and the IoT ecosystem and provided opportunities for them to exchange thoughts, making its activities highly anticipated.The AWS team held several important seminars at the event, which not only introduced major AWS platform technologies and features but also shed light on new IoT development trends. The seminars received positive reviews and provided new perspectives on IoT applications and solutions as well as upfront observations on market dynamics.The IoT is a target area where Taiwan has been engaging creative energies from governments, industries and academics over the recent years. Worldwide-leading cloud service providers are keen to bring their technologies and wide-range of solutions to Taiwan. By promoting and demonstrating a myriad of business models, they help give the Taiwan industry a direction for innovative applications. Among them, AWS plays a particularly important driving force to assist startups in Taiwan to burgeon, connect Taiwan with worldwide industries and help Taiwan develop its own IoT ecosystem and supply chain.AWS hosted a four-day exhibit of IoT solutions and a series of IoT-themed seminars at North Lounge, third floor, Taipei International Convention Center (TICC). The company showcased AWS Greengrass, AWS IoT Enterprise Button and usage case examples of Alexa-based voice assistant services. AWS demonstrated its great ambition toward IoT services by giving a detailed introduction on the tools Alexa for Business provides. Furthermore, AWS also jointly presented IoT solutions with partners including ASKEY, CyberLink, LITE-ON, Microchip, QNAP, SMC, Tomofun, wiAdvance, ZYXEL and NETFOUNDRY.A superb collection of solutions were on display, including wiAdvance's smart healthcare solution which uses the AWS platform to realize an AI-based system helping doctors read MRI or CT scan images and make diagnosis on brain or liver tumors.ASKEY's car fleet management system is software-hardware-integrated solution that combines with a LTE communication module, GPS and camera systems to provide management and services for the cars on the road.U Webinar introduced by CyberLink is a live video streaming system for businesses to conduct remote presentations and training sessions. It allows enterprises to easily stream live video using computers, smartphones or tablets anytime anywhere.ZYXEL looks to enhance business operation efficiency from the perspective of network equipment. As enterprises generally have a large number of management reports and information security log files from their network equipment such as firewalls and gateways, it consumes a great amount of time and effort to manage the data. Leveraging AWS technologies to allow businesses to manage the data over the cloud, convenience and efficiency are significantly improved and information security is guaranteed.Focusing on video surveillance systems for use by individuals or small businesses, SMC also aims to enable convenient and easy-to-use cloud-based platforms. The recorded video footages are saved on the cloud side and multiple intuitive control functions and applications for different use scenarios are available.There was also a demonstration combining solutions from LITE-ON and QNAP. LITE-ON brought forward a range of applications combining different sensors with Lora or NB-IoT wireless communication modules. The gathered data including temperature, humidity and other important parameters measured for a factory working environment was sent to QNAP's NAS system, which was integrated with AWS edge computing to deliver data analysis services for automation control or process monitoring.NETFOUNDRY, a subsidiary of India's Tata Group, enables companies building IIoT or industrial applications to tap AWS IoT Analytics services over fast network connection and complete security architecture. Additional AWS-enabled products on display at Computex this year included Astra's face recognition solution, Tomofun's pet camera and Microchip's security ICs.All these solutions and products on exhibit make use of important technologies available on the AWS platform. Built for a variety of applications, they demonstrate a wide range of examples of how the industry can use IoT to create more innovations and business models. With the partnerships, AWS, although is centered on providing platform technologies and services, is still able to observe any new application development in an open mind and this is also serving as a driving force pushing AWS forward. This is the mutually beneficial and win-win IoT business model that people speak commendably of.Engaging partners in Taiwan, AWS creates new IoT opportunities

TheTransferJet Consortium recently announced its next-generation TransferJet X standard at Computex. It is a point-to-point wireless personal area network (WPAN) technology that uses 60GHz band and can achieve a single-channel 13Gbps high-speed transmission at only 2ms. The new standard, whose speed is over twenty times of current TransferJet, can create many new use cases with the unique features that it provides.At present, chips supporting TransferJet X are under development, and the Consortium is actively promoting this new standard and hopes to have more cooperation opportunities with local makers. Hiroyuki Matsumura, chair and representative director of TransferJet Consortium, talked about the recent development of the new standard during an interview.Q: Why does TransferJet Consortium decide to define the new standard and what is its standardization progress?A: TransferJet was originally a short-range wireless technology released by Sony in 2008. Utilizing 4.48GHz frequency band, it can achieve a transmission speed of 560Mbps within a few centimeters, mainly targeting at the file transfer applications for consumer electronic devices. However, this technology has not been widely adopted by the industry.As a result, the Consortium decided to make a new start in 2014, working with four of its promoter member companies, including Sony, NTT, Japan Radio, Toshiba, and ETRI, Korean Research Institute to lead a group at IEEE to successfully develop the IEEE 802.15.3e standard amendment addressing the needs of a high rate, close proximity wireless transfer having speeds in excess of 10 Gbps. ETRI (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) of South Korea has also been an active participant and key contributor of various sections of this standardization effort. The TransferJet Consortium will further build upon this standard and develop the total technology and solution as "TransferJet X".Q: What are the special features of TransferJet X compared with other wireless standards?A: The biggest difference between the TransferJet X and the original standard is that in order to improve the transmission speed, the unlicensed 60GHz frequency band is adopted, and using 256 QAM, it can achieve a maximum data rate of 13.1 Gbps of SISO (single-input, single-output). In addition, the required connection setup time has been reduced to 2 ms or less.There are various wireless communications technologies in the market. 802.15 is a WPAN standard and there are Bluetooth (802.15.1) and Zigbee (802.15.4). However, their transmission distance and speed are different from those of TransferJet X. As for 802.11ad (WiGig), which also uses 60GHz, it is a wireless local area network (WLAN) standard adopting point-to-multipoint architecture, which is completely different from the application scenario of TransferJet X.Q: What are the new use cases that TransferJet X will enable?A: The biggest appeal of TransferJet X is that, only by one touch, it can achieve large file transfer in a very short time. With this unique feature, TransferJet X aims to enable new use cases for enterprises and help them create new service models of higher values.Featuring with high efficiency of channel access based on point-to-point topology to ensure data integrity at MAC layer, its potential use cases may include: instantaneously download content (apps, software) or upload personal files (video and photos) from kiosk stands. So, it can create a service model that passengers can choose the movies they want to watch at the check-in kiosk before boarding, download them immediately to a smartphone or tablet, and watch them on the plane.In addition, consumers can pick up content immediately while walking through the ticket gates, or simultaneously transfer valuable data, such as video, music, book, magazine, map and etc., at payment time. The instant transfer of large 4K definition and VR video files is also possible.Moreover, with different antenna designs, TransferJet X can extend the transmission distance to several meters and transmit the file directly to the receiving device in the fixed area formed by the directional electromagnetic waves through the transmitting device. This can be a solution for intelligent transporting system. In the scenario of future self-driving car, when a car needs to transfer driving and navigation data, it can drive to a fixed area, maybe during stop a traffic signal, to complete the bi-directional data transfer with such a design.Q: What is its progress of productization?A: At present, East Japan Railway Co., Sony Semiconductor Solutions Co. and Japan Radio Co. are collaborating to study new touch-less toll gate system based on TransferJet X technology in Japan. This system does not require smartphone to touch the target of gate. Customers could keep smartphone in bag or trouser pocket when passing through the gate, and receive electronic contents such as maps or tour guide at the same time.We are fully aware that use cases and business models are crucial for the new standard to be widely adopted by the industry, and are now talking with different companies, aiming to help them create services of higher values. The Consortium strives to promote this standard. In addition to the IEEE, we also collaborate with the International Telecommunications Union Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) to establish the standard.In terms of silicon development, HRCP Research and Development Partnership, which was jointly established by Sony Semiconductor Solutions and Japan Radio in 2016, is now developing SoCs supporting TransferJet X standard, which integrate RF, mixed signals and digital circuits into a single chip. The prototype development has been completed. In order to be suitable for mobile devices, the cost, power and area of the SoC have been carefully considered.About TransferJet XTransferJet X is high-speed close proximity point-to-point wireless communication technology, it is based on IEEE802.15.3e. The typical use cases:1. File transfer between device to device2. Tollgate solution3. File transfer during NFC or QR code payment4. Transfer big data to self-driving carTransferJet XHiroyuki Matsumura, TransferJet Consortium chair and representative director, announced the next TransferJet X at Computex 2018.

With high-tech industries focusing on artificial intelligence (AI) developments, businesses across all sectors are eager to use AI to help them raise operational efficiency and to uncover new business models. However, they must overcome high barriers to be able to build, train and optimize their AI models using either cloud-based systems or high-end workstations. Not only is the installation and configuration of hardware and software a cumbersome task but the system also consumes a great amount of power and network bandwidth, squeezing profit margins and hindering widespread AI development.To meet these challenges, QNAP and IEI (with the "speeding into the future" initiative) are committed to developing high-performance, easy-to-use AI deep learning training and inference solutions to provide AI benefits to more people. As part of this initiative, QNAP's pioneering QuAI solution particularly grabs attention. QNAP and IEI demonstrated the ingenuities of QuAI at Computex 2018, showing how it helps with diagnosing macular degeneration as a real-world use case example."The development of an AI application essentially includes building and training models, adjusting parameters and putting them to real use," said Ruei-De Chang, AI Product Manager of QNAP. "QuAI is designed to help data scientists, engineers and even students easily control these processes without having to spend time installing or dealing with drivers, libraries, containers or virtual machines. Nor do they need to worry about data backup, data sharing or network settings," Chang added.QNAP NAS coupled with QuAI delivers a deep learning solution with low TCOQNAP believes the success of deep learning hinges on three critical factors: data, computing power, and algorithms. As NAS has always been ideal for data storage, QNAP leverages its accumulated advantages in this field and adds QTS support for deep-learning accelerator cards to equip NAS with additional computing abilities. QNAP NAS users can now easily tap into GPU accelerated computing to increase the performance of AI model training and inference.QuAI is built with QNAP NAS as the underlying structure and the QTS operating system on top of that. It further includes Container Station, supporting Docker and other container technologies. By making good use of containers, users can freely select AI frameworks and libraries such as TensorFlow, Caffe, MXNet, Neon, the Microsoft Cognitive Toolkit, and Torch for easier development.It's easy to start using QuAI. First, install and activate QuAI from the QTS App Center. Then install a deep learning accelerator card into NAS and the corresponding driver from the QTS App Center. Finally, build the needed containers in Container Station and start developing your AI application. Resources of the deep learning accelerator card can be allocated for use by QTS throughout the execution process.QNAP emphasizes that building, training and optimizing AI models are the first and fundamental steps to AI application development. Deep learning accelerator cards, whether installed on workstations, cloud-based systems or QNAP NAS, are the key component. The important consideration is convenience and ease-of-use. QNAP NAS has the advantage of being close to the data, eliminating the need to move data around. Furthermore, with comprehensive data management features including data compression, deduplication, automated storage tiering, SSD caching, all-round data protection technologies, and quick, deployment, QNAP NAS is an incredibly cost-effective option.QNAP is well aware that QuAI and cost-effective NAS are not quite enough to bring AI implementations to reality. It needs one last push - putting them to practical use in vertical applications. For this purpose, QNAP embraced the healthcare industry and developed a medical diagnosis system for age-related macular degeneration using QNAP NAS coupled with QuAI. The system can significantly shorten the time it takes to read OCT images, providing a successful use case that has impressed the market.QNAP provides a wide range of QuAI solutions that target different applications including data analysis, image classification/object detection, and image segmentation. "IEI also provides bare-metal AI solutions for users to combine with QuAI libraries to meet wide-ranging AI model training needs," added Bo-Hong Yu, Product Management Director of IEI. For inference systems, supported models include the Intel OpenVINO TANK AIoT Dev Kit, RACK-500AI and PAC-400 supporting high-end NVIDIA graphics cards. For training systems, there is the GRAND-C422 with Intel Xeon W. Furthermore, AI accelerator cards for different architectures are also available, including CPU (Intel Kabylake ULT), Intel FPGA and Intel VPU.QNAP presents its latest AI achievements and applications at Computex 2018

Photronics, a worldwide leader in supplying innovative imaging technology solutions for the global electronics industry, was selected by Nanya Technology Corporation as the excellent supplier for its South Asian Branch in 2017."It is an honor to accept this recognition on behalf of everyone at Photronics, including our PDMC joint venture, that has exemplified our commitment to provide great technology solutions and service every day," stated Peter Kirlin, chief executive officer. "Our partnership with Nanya has continued to expand and is now stronger than ever. By working together with them, we are able to combine our regional and global technical strengths and unique memory mask capabilities, enabling Nanya to deliver leading-edge memory solutions to their customers. This is another notable example of how Photronics works across sites and geographies to deliver outstanding value to our customers."Photronics is a leading worldwide manufacturer of photomasks. Photomasks are high precision quartz plates that contain microscopic images of electronic circuits. A key element in the manufacture of semiconductors and flat panel displays, photomasks are used to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers and flat panel display substrates during the fabrication of integrated circuits, a variety of flat panel displays and, to a lesser extent, other types of electrical and optical components. They are produced in accordance with product designs provided by customers at strategically located manufacturing facilities in Asia, Europe, and North America. Additional information on the Company can be accessed at official website.Photronics CEO, Peter Kirlin (left), Nanya President, Pei-Ing Lee (right)

There is no doubt that surface mount technologies (SMT) have been instrumental in the development of the electronics manufacturing industry. Every step carried out during the SMT process, including glue dispensing, coating, solder paste inspection (SPI) and automated optical inspection (AOI), plays a critical role in the successful production of each device. Any machine malfunction or component failure could result in poor performance or even a production halt. In either case, the consequences are unacceptable to equipment suppliers and end users.Each step of the SMT process, from PCB printing, SPI, component mounting, reflow, to AOI, imposes different automation control requirements. During the printing stage, motion control cards are used to precisely control the movement of spray nozzles. Image recognition systems can check if solder paste has been properly coated according to standards during SPI. In the case of any anomalies, an alert in the form of DIO or M2M messages can be sent to data centers for analysis. For component placement, automation equipment is also used to control pre-heating, temperature, and reflow procedures. Image data collected during AOI need to be transmitted at a high speed without errors, which calls for image recognition systems with flexibility. These interconnected steps are all essential for an SMT process to be properly conducted.A well-known machinery supplier based in China that focuses mainly on developing SMT equipment incorporating with industrial PCs (IPC), motion control cards and image control systems from different manufacturers, had encountered serious compatibility problems. Its production line was constantly plagued by minor failures such as machines getting stuck or screens going blank. The production was hit particularly hard by failures during AOI, which demands a high degree of precision. To overcome such reliability issues, the supplier decided to replace the IPC - the brain of industrial automation - and other critical components including motion control cards, image control systems, I/O interface and Fieldbus components all at once.Designed with usability in mind, compatible one-stop SMT solutions satisfy customer requirementsADLINK proposed two solutions that addressed the customer's two major challenges - smooth operation along the production line and high equipment reliability. First, ADLINK recommended the use of the IMB-M43H industrial-grade ATX motherboard, powered by a 6th generation Intel Core processor, supporting Windows 7. This would provide both forward and backward compatibility with current automation software as well as legacy PS/2, COM and VGA I/O ports to enable a painless upgrade process for existing systems. For motion and I/O control, the IMB-M43H has one PCI Express x16 Gen3, one PCI Express x4 Gen2 and five PCI expansion slots for users to flexibly add image capture cards, digitizers, high-resolution dynamic signal acquisition modules or general-purpose modules. Users can therefore easily build a system with the specific configuration required to meet the needs of their automation applications.The second proposed solution was the IMB-M43 industrial-grade ATX motherboard, designed with intelligent PCIe bifurcation to support a wide selection of multi-channel industrial cameras for image detection and meet the needs of various usage scenarios. The IMB-M43 also features a rugged and reliable I/O interface design ideally suited to SMT production lines. ADLINK supports all multi-tasking operations and multi-point connections with its one-stop service to help customers build a complete and compatible SMT production line.Last but not least, to meet SMT process requirements, ADLINK's industrial-grade motherboards are tested to comply with IEC 61000-4-2 to IEC 61000-4-6 (Performance Criterion A) electrostatic discharge immunity standards as well as EN 55032 Class B-EMI standards. Both standards guarantee minimum electromagnetic interference on peripheral equipment and ensure signal stability during the production process. In addition, ADLINK motherboards have a unique power design that provides a stable 5V +/-5% at each USB port to ensure that power supplies of different brands or low-voltage power supplies can still work well with peripheral equipment and power all connected USB devices at full load. They also have edge contacts with 15 microinch gold plating to provide enhanced protection against corrosive gases.ADLINK gets to the root of customer's problem with synergy of premium hardware quality and professional serviceADLINK provides a complete portfolio of IPC automation systems in addition to motion control, data transmission and machine vision solutions that guarantee 100% compatibility so that SMT equipment can maintain smooth operation at all times and meet customer demand for high reliability. Furthermore, ADLINK has built up customer trust with its prompt and high-quality testing and after-sales support services. For example, if a customer encounters a problem with their ADLINK platform, ADLINK technical services will be on hand to help resolve the issue, regardless of whether it is hardware or software related.Designed with usability in mind, compatible one-stop SMT solutions satisfy customer requirements