QSAN, enterprise data storage manufacturer, today announced the launch of the XCubeSAN 3200 series, the product range that meets SMB and Enterprise needs. The XS3200 series is the most advanced QSAN product to date, offering state-of-the-art hardware and the new SANOS 4.0 SAN storage operation system.The XCubeSAN 3200 series products come in a wide range of form factors and host connectivity options, all fully modular and includes redundant feature. The XS3200 range of SAN's includes the world's first 2U 26 bay, small form factor XS3226 in both dual active/active and single controller (upgradeable). QSAN's host interface cards allow the XS3200 range to offer outstanding flexibility with 10Gb ports built in, and additional 16Gb Fibre Channel and 10Gb iSCSI (SFP+ & RJ45)options. The XS3200 allows hybrid interfaces, so can mix any two host connectivity types into a single chassis, allowing for maximum flexibility.QSAN's new SANOS 4.0 is equipped with a refreshingly simple to use web GUI and easily deployableinto any infrastructure. SANOS 4.0 is packed with alarge selection of value-added features, including optional QCache 2.0, QSAN's SSD cache technology. QCache 2.0 is a pool-based read/write cache, allowing for up to 32TB of SSD cache on up to 4 storage pools,resulting in an impressive 128TB of SSD cache capability.QSAN's XS3200 comes with several key features:Sterling performance – The XCubeSAN 3200 series can deliver an astounding 12,000MB/s sequential read and 8,000MB/s sequentialwrite in throughput. Using SAS SSD storage, theXS3200 product is capable of up to 1.1 Million sequential IOPS.Advanced RAID level Technology – SANOS 4.0supports all RAID levels including RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 30, 50, 60, and N-way mirror.QThin – QSAN'sefficient thin provisioning technology is built-in XCubeSAN products, allowinguser to allocate disk storage space in a flexible manner based on the minimum space required.QTiering – QSAN's intelligent automated data tiering technology is now available onXCubeSAN products, allowing users to intelligently assign data to the right disk for the level of access.Backup Features – Snapshot, Local Volume Clone, and Remote Replication are all free of charge with the XCubeSAN XS3200 product range, allowing secure data for less.Integrated Virtualization – The XS3200 is highly integrated with leading hypervisor platforms of VMware VAAI, Windows Hyper-V ODX, and Citrix XenServer. These make the XS3200 an ideal primary storage system for virtualized datacenters to help provision, migration and management of VM storage both faster and more efficiently.Scale-up Solution – The XCubeSAN XS3200 storage capacity can cascade with XCubeDAS XD5300 12Gb SAS expansion enclosures, allowing up to 10 expansion units and support up to 286 drives for future data growth.Super Capacitor M.2 – The XCubeSAN now offers BBM and Super Capacitor cache protection modules to protect dataagainst power loss.Built with interoperability for the most popular operating systems, the XS3200 can be used for datacenter storage, archiving, cold storage, backup, large-scale surveillance, video streaming and editing. The XCubeSAN XS3200 range is thea ffordable and reliable storage solution, starting at only $7,499. Compared to its Tier1 competitors, the XCubeSAN solution can be a more affordable alternative for all primary and secondary storage. Moreover, the XCubeSAN series can provide more than a 50% increase in performance, thanks to QSAN's revolutionary technology and the 24/7 free technical support. Click here for more information on XS3200.AboutQSANQSANTechnology, leading storage technology designer and manufacturer, was founded in July 2004. Building on our vast experience in the industry, QSAN strives tobuild enterprise class storage systems that pride ourselves with outstanding performance, secure data protection and comprehensive data management. QSAN endeavors to provide the industry with high quality data storage systems that are simple, secure, scalable and reliable. For more information, please visit http://www.qsan.com/XCubeSAN XS3226

Synopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) and United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE: UMC; TWSE: 2303) (UMC) today announced that the two companies have worked together to enable Synopsys Custom Compiler and Laker custom design tools to be used with UMC's14-nanometer (nm) FinFET process. The enablement collaboration included creating and validating a UMC 14-nm industry-standard iPDK.This iPDK enables full support of the Custom Compiler visually-assisted layout flow, including groundbreaking features that reduce the time it takes for users to layout and connect FinFETdevices. The Custom Compiler solution integrates with Synopsys circuitsimulation, physical verification and digital implementation tools to provide UMC14-nm process users with a complete custom design solution."We have a long history of working with Synopsys to provide iPDKs for our customers," said T.H. Lin, director of the IP Development and Design Support division at UMC. "This new 14-nanometer iPDK enables layout designers, including our own internal team, to use Synopsys' custom design tools for FinFET layout productivity. We are pleased to offer this resource to help customers streamline their design-in process on our volume-production 14-nanometer technology.""FinFET process technology is becoming very popular with our customers, but FinFET layout can be a challenge," said Bijan Kiani, vice president of product marketing at Synopsys. "We collaborated with UMC to enable Custom Compiler for their 14-nanometer process, so UMC customers can use Custom Compiler's visually-assisted layout to improve FinFET layout productivity."AvailabilityThe 14-nm and other process iPDKsfor Synopsys Laker and Custom Compiler design tools are available on request from UMC.About Custom CompilerCustom Compiler provides anopen environment spanning schematics, simulation analysis and layout. Unified with Synopsys' circuit simulation, physical verification and digital implementation tools, Custom Compiler provides a comprehensive custom design solution. Custom Compiler shortens the time it takes to complete FinFET design tasks from days to hours. Its visually-assisted automation leverages the graphical use model familiar to layout designers while eliminating the need to write complicated code and constraints. With Custom Compiler, routine and repetitive tasks are dealt with automatically without extra setup. Custom Compiler's visually-assisted automation provides four types of assistants: Layout, In-Design, Template and Co-Design. Layout Assistants speed layout with user-guided automation of placement and routing. In-Design Assistants reduce design iterations by catching physical and electrical errors before signoff verification. Template Assistants help designers reuse existing know-how by making it easy to apply previous layout decisions tonew designs. Co-Design Assistants combine the IC Compiler place-and-route solution and Custom Compiler into a unified solution for custom and digital implementation. Custom Compiler is based on the industry standard Open Access database. For more information about Custom Compiler, visit http://www.customcompiler.info/About SynopsysSynopsys, Inc. (Nasdaq: SNPS) is the Silicon to Software partner for innovative companies developing the electronic products and software applications we rely on every day. As the world's 15 largest software company, Synopsys has a long history of being a global leader inelectronic design automation (EDA) and semiconductor IP and is also growing itsleadership in software security and quality solutions. Whether you're a system-on-chip (SoC) designer creating advanced semiconductors, or a software developer writing applications that require the highest security and quality, Synopsys has the solutions needed to deliver innovative, high-quality, secure products. Learn more at http://www.synopsys.com/.About UMCUMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced IC production for applications spanning every major sector of the electronics industry. UMC's robust foundry solutions enable chip designers to leverage the company's sophisticated technology and manufacturing, which include high volume production 28nm gate-last High-K/Metal Gate technology, ultra-low power platform processes specifically engineered for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the automotive industry's highest-rated AEC-Q100 Grade-0 manufacturing capabilities for production of ICsfound in cars. UMC's 11 wafer fabs are strategically located throughout Asia and are able to produce over 500,000 wafers per month. The company employs nearly 19,000 people worldwide, with offices in Taiwan, China, Europe, Japan,Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com/.

Innodisk, the embedded storage and peripheral solution provider, is announcing its vision to bring software and hardware integration to the next level, and is bringing a wide suite of innovative products, including our new 3ME4 SSD series and DDR4 2666 DRAM series, to Embedded World 2017 in Nuremberg. With and a deep knowledge of the needs of the various vertical markets, Innodisk offers tailor-made and cost-efficient solutions for embedded and industrial system integrators.AutomationThe automation industry is characterized by the need for tight-fit and robust solutions. With this in mind, Innodisk offers customizable SSDs on small-sized form factors that can operate in extreme temperatures and are resistant to shock and vibration. Adding on the option of conformal coating and side fill, performance is ensured even during the harshest operating conditions. Recognizing the necessity of data integrity, Innodisk brings together innovative software, firmware and hardware to offer the world's most compact RAID 1 solution. And if the system in an unlikely event were to crash, the iCover system recovery software will ensure a swift restart.The newest addition to the Innodisk SSD roster is the 3ME4 series with an integrated Marvell controller, is the perfect fit automation appliances. Our in-house designed L3 architecture integrates LDPC error correction code which further bolsters product longevity and reliability.For those interested in more information on automation solutions, there will be a live demo at the Innodisk booth.Aerospace and defenseTo ensure the safety of confidential data, Innodisk offers an integrated suite of security features for SSDs, spearheaded by the new iSecurity concept. This package combines software, firmware and hardware to allow operators to easily execute Data Erase, Data Destroy and Physical Data Destroy functions. The SSDs comes in a wide variety of form factors, ensuring a smooth integration in limited-space applications. To address the tough operating conditions, Innodisk's DRAM modules are designed to tolerate wide temperature, and comes with the value-added options of conformal coating and side fill for an even more robust performance.There will be a live demo of Innodisk's aerospace and defense solutions at our booth for those more interested.In-vehicleIn-vehicle applications are often subject to unstable power sources and harsh environments. To address these issues, Innodisk's modules are qualified for wide temperature operation and are resistant to shock and vibration. Taking data integrity a step further, all communication modules are securely isolated, withstanding any surges and other electromagnetic interference. With Innodisk's EMUC-B201 CANBus communication module, the operator can easily expand in-vehicle systems.To satisfy the need for isolated expansion cards, Innodisk's modules are certified and compliant with E-Mark, SAE J1113 and ISO 7637-2 standards.SurveillanceTwo things come to mind when assessing the needs for a surveillance system; ample storage capacity, and system integrity. Large amounts of data needs to be stored quickly, efficiently and often for longer durations of time. Innodisk can provide a comprehensive solution with high memory SSDs, VLP DRAM modules and isolated power over Ethernet (PoE) extension cards. With this package, interference from the environment and other systems are mitigated and system performance is ensured.For more information, please visit http://www.innodisk.comInnodisk at Embedded World 2017:Date: March 14-16Booth: Hall 1, Stand 211Venue: Nuremberg, GermanyAbout InnodiskInnodisk is a service-driven provider of flash memory, DRAM modules and embedded peripheral products for the industrial and enterprise applications. With satisfied customers across the embedded, aerospace and defense, cloud storage markets and more, we have set ourselves apart with a commitment to dependable products and unparalleled service. This has resulted in products, including embedded peripherals, designed to supplement existing industrial solutions and high IOPS flash arrays for industrial and enterprise applications. The expanded business lines are leading our next step in being a comprehensive solution and service provider in the industrial storage industry. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, Innodisk supports clients globally with engineering support and sales teams in mainland China, Europe, Japan, and the United States. With abundant experience and an unrivaled knowledge of the memory industry, Innodisk develops products with excellent quality, remarkable performance, great cost-efficiency, and the highest reliability. For more information about Innodisk, please visit http://www.innodisk.com.

AMD has released the first three models of its next-generation high-performance AMD Ryzen desktop processor. Ryzen is the first processor based on the entirely new AMD Zen core microarchitecture, bringing multi-core performance for PC gamers, creators, and hardware enthusiasts.Three 8-core Ryzen 7 models are available initially. Beginning in the second quarter, AMD expects to launch 6- and 4-core Ryzen 5 processors followed later in 2017 by Ryzen 3, which is designed to bring more performance to mainstream applications. All Ryzen processors support the new AM4 infrastructure, with motherboard designs becoming available from major players.Alongside Ryzen 7 processors, AMD also announced the product specifications for two Ryzen 5 processors, and demonstrated the flagship Ryzen 5 1600X outmatching Intel's flagship Core i5 7600K by more than 60% in multi-threaded CPU testing.In addition to being available to DIY builders and boutique PC vendors, in the coming months, consumers will also be able to purchase Ryzen-based systems from top PC vendors. AMD Ryzen desktop processor lineup: Specifications Product Line Model Cores Threads Base clock Boost clock Cooler TDP On sale Ryzen 7 1800X 8 16 3.6 4.0 N/A 95W Now Ryzen 7 1700X 8 16 3.4 3.8 N/A 95W Now Ryzen 7 1700 8 16 3.0 3.7 Wraith Spire 65W Now Ryzen 5 1600X 6 12 3.6 4.0 Wraith Spire 95W 2Q17 Ryzen 5 1500X 4 8 3.5 3.7 Wraith Spire 65W 2Q17 Source: Company, compiled by Digitimes, March 2017AMD Ryzen CPUPhoto: Monica Chen, Digitimes file photo

Recent product line expansion now makes more than 37,500 Analog Devices products available for shipment from Digi-KeyElectronics, a global electronic components distributor. Digi-Key has increased their ADI stocking portfolio by 20% in the last few months to support engineersworldwide.The newest product additions, including precision signal conditioning solutions, high frequency wideband components, and dataconverters, are easily accessed online at http://www.digikey.com/en/supplier-centers/a/analog-devices?WT.mc_id=PressRelease."As both companies increasingly grow and innovate within our industry,this announcement underscores the strong relationship ADI has with Digi-Key," according to Martin Cotter, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Sales and Digital Marketing at Analog Devices. "We anticipate continuous collaboration throughout the year as we work closely together on new product introductions, design assistance, and providing the newest innovationsand technologies to engineers in our mutual customer base around the world."Analog Devices designs and manufactures semiconductor products and solutions. They enable customers to interpret the world around us by intelligently bridging the physical and digitalwith unmatched technologies that sense, measure and connect."We are committed to fueling innovation which we do by stockingthe broadest selection of cutting-edge components and technologies. We are ableto accomplish that thanks to the remarkable relationships we have with oursupplier partners," says David Stein, VP, Global Semiconductors at Digi-KeyElectronics.Engineers can peruse hundreds of videoson ADI devices housed on Digi-Key's website.About Digi-KeyElectronicsDigi-KeyElectronics, based in Thief River Falls, Minn., is a global, full-service distributor of both prototype/design and production quantities of electronic components, offering more than five million products from over 650 quality name-brandmanufacturers. With over 1.3 million products in stock and an impressiveselection of online resources, Digi-Key is committed to stocking the broadestrange of electronic components in the industry and providing the best servicepossible to its customers. Additionalinformation and access to Digi-Key's broad product offering is available at http://www.digikey.com/?WT.mc_id=PressRelease.

Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857) and W2BI, Inc., an Advantest Group company whose test automation products help customers quickly launch new high-quality smart devices, will showcase their newest test and test automation products for the wireless electronics market at the Mobile World Congress (MWC), running February 27 through March 2 at the Fira Gran Via in Barcelona, Spain."Under the banner of long-time MWC exhibitor W2BI, we will display two of our leading-edge products designed to measure the connected world and everything in it," said Judy Davies, vice president of global marketing communications at Advantest. "Our diverse array of technologies is united behind the common goal of helping our customers to reduce their costs of test and get their products to market faster."Product ExhibitsStand #6K37 in Hall 6 will feature exhibits of Advantest's IC measurement platform as well as the latest test automation product from W2BI.Advantest's EVA100 tester is designed for highly efficient evaluation and measurement of analog/mixed-signal ICs. It uses the same test sequences for both design and production measurements, allowing users to establish a standardized measurement environment throughout their operations. By freeing semiconductor manufacturers from the need to invest time and resources in correlating test data from different systems, the EVA100 helps to achieve much shorter time to market for new IC designs.Also at the stand, W2BI will demonstrate its new capability to support testing of LTE-M devices using the portable MicroLTE system, which leverages cloud technology to test smart devices and IoT-based technologies. The system lowers the cost of testing during the development and production life cycles and provides a high level of scalability. The MicroLTE system supports 4G, 3G/2G, Wi-Fi, BT and NFC test features.About W2BIW2BI, Inc. is an Advantest Group company and a global leader in wireless device test automation products. Serving the world's top wireless operators, suppliers and labs, W2BI's software helps customers to significantly improve their device quality and time-to-market. W2BI remains at the forefront of device test applications, addressing the increased complexities brought by the volume of data services and by rapidly developing technology. W2BI added to its portfolio network emulation hardware and software, bringing to the marketplace complete systems for IoT and smart phone testing, encompassing R&D, conformance, production and device returns applications. For more information, visit http://www.w2bi.com/.About Advantest CorporationA world-class technology company, Advantest is the leading producer of automatic test equipment (ATE) for the semiconductor industry and a premier manufacturer of measuring instruments used in the design and production of electronic instruments and systems. Its leading-edge systems and products are integrated into the most advanced semiconductor production lines in the world. The company also focuses on R&D for emerging markets that benefit from advancements in nanotech and terahertz technologies, and has introduced multi-vision metrology scanning electron microscopes essential to photomask manufacturing, as well as groundbreaking 3D imaging and analysis tools. Founded in Tokyo in 1954, Advantest established its first subsidiary in 1982, in the USA, and now has subsidiaries worldwide. More information is available at http://www.advantest.com/.

From the time computers were first developed to the present when IoT is considered the next big thing in the world of technology and Industry 4.0 is driven by the burgeoning IoT devices, computer systems have all been providing users application services including communication, collaboration and data processing through the help of operating systems. For example, mainframes in the 1960s and PCs in the late 1970s both were driven and managed by hardware-based operating systems so that they could perform computation.Through many years of development, operating systems are generally considered to provide two functions: Managing resources required to carry out computation tasks and furnishing an operating environment. That is, they provide a way for human-machine interactions to help users drive and use the resources needed to complete the tasks.Personal operating systems running on hardware devices provide each user a unique account to build his/her own dedicated and private operating system so every user has his/her own private environment which prevents access by other users. As such, interpersonal communication across personal operating systems can only be achieved through application services.In the 1990s, Internet became a popular and highly efficient way for information exchange. Personal computers also started to have browsers to send and receive information to and from the Internet. Today, Internet application services are becoming more and more mature and widespread.However, the current development of collaborative work has run into a wall. There are only 5% of businesses across all industries capable of developing their own application programs or host their own websites. The other 95% of businesses and 99% of the public have to rely on platforms/application programs made available by third party companies for communication and collaboration.New cloud technology leading into the era of cloud operating systemTo resolve the bottleneck that personal operating systems can only rely on application services for collaboration and communication and the security risk that data is kept at third party platforms, Picowork, a cloud system provider based in Taiwan, introduces collaborative cloud computer (CCC) and collaborative cloud operating system (CCOS) solutions, targeting the demand for all-round collaborations among customers, channels, manufacturers and production chains arising from the development of IoT, Industry 4.0 and Big Data. By providing CCC, Picowork enables operating entities in a wide range of businesses to achieve self-managed security and also freely build a collaborative environment to benefit from common collaborative operations under an open and secure framework.What exactly is collaborative cloud computer (CCC) and collaborative cloud operating system (CCOS)? "CCC is built with CCOS. Install CCOS on a hardware host and deploy it or set it up in your network server room or IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service). Then, you can have your own CCC," explained Jun-Hsiao Lin, Vice President & CTO, Picowork.As to CCOS, Picowork builds the solution as a binary computing environment on the Internet. One implementation is to provide a personal operating environment where each user is given a dedicated account for him/her to set up a personal cross-platform operating environment directly on the Internet. This helps the user access a variety of resources on the Internet and the user can only access his/her own account. The other implementation is to provide a collaborative operating environment where each user in his/her own operating environment can set up a collaborative operating environment specifically for a social activity. Different from a personal operating environment, the initiator of a collaborative operating environment can freely decide who can access the collaborative operating environment, e.g. company employees, industry chain business partners, and current or potential customers. These people can participate in common activities, share resources such as collaborative documents, companies' internal information systems, Web application services, etc. to accomplish collaborative work.IoT use scenarios call for readily available cloud collaborative connectionsFrom the above discussion, we can see that CCOS features the ability to work collaboratively in the boundaryless Internet environment. The entire IoT ecosystem basically seeks to gather Big Data through connected devices and send it to cloud for computation for the purpose of forecasting market trend for the next quarter and thereby providing accurate prediction to improve business operation and raise efficiency. The challenge lies in the lack of a common standard. Even if a common standard is established, businesses will have to make changes to their application programs so that they can negotiate business, which requires data exchange. The fact that the businesses have to spend high costs to exchange data hinders widespread IoT development.In response to major business opportunities, organizations are all looking to find solutions with the highest efficiency, lowest costs, and least changes. Picowork's CCOS is the most effective solution. For businesses to take part in collaborative work and share resources, all they need to do is use their own cloud computer to set up a collaborative operating environment running on the Internet and make use of operations therein to send invitations to employees, enterprises, and supply chain partners via communication channels including email, text messages, messaging software and social media. All the people participating in the collaborative work can congregate in the same operating environment in no time.When a brand vendor needs to conduct transactions with supply chain partners or a government agency is inviting bids for a tender project, they can create a variety of collaborative operating environments by themselves based on the purposes of collaborations (much like a workplace operating various social activities). In the collaborative operating environment, people can engage in one-to-one communication, conduct multipoint video conferences, send all types of text/media files and collaborative documents and can also install application programs owned by the participants directly in the collaborative environment. Each type of content can be configured with access rights. Accordingly, a demand-oriented cloud ecosystem is in the formation, enabling lowest costs and least changes.Four requirements of cloud collaboration environment are mutually supportive, not mutually exclusiveThe collaborative operating environment Picowork is attempting to bring to reality already has applications in collaborative sales, collaborative supply, collaborative service, collaborative education, collaborative manufacturing, collaborative control, and collaborative maintenance. Lin pointed out that the key to the implementation of widespread cross-industry collaborative operations is whether the four basic requirements by businesses engaged in collaborations can be fulfilled.Controllable: The first requirement is an organization can have control over its cloud environment. If an organization with a main network structure can deploy its own CCC in its network server room, then it can have its own cloud computer and therefore control over its cloud environment.Freedom: The second requirement is an organization can freely establish a collaborative relationship. That is, for different social activities, an organization can use its cloud computer to create its own cross-platform collaborative operating environments and can freely invite people engaging in the collaboration (e.g. company employees, industry partners and customers) to join the common operating environment and accomplish the collaborative work. The operating environment supports both freedom and control.Extendable: The third requirement is during the course of collaboration, the initiator and participants of the collaborative operating environment can install, introduce or make use of internal and external resources that are compatible with both parties' network systems, including data, content, tools, applications and services, with the lowest costs and least changes.Analyzable: The fourth requirement is an organization can keep track of all the operations and interactions during the course of collaboration, forming the basis for Big Data analytics for future reference and back-end statistics, generating Big Data benefits.Working on building secure collaborative environments, Picowork establishes a complete patent portfolioTo meet the four requirements, Picowork has spent nearly six years on the R&D and testing of CCOS and CCC. In addition, Picowork began patent planning early in the development stage of its technologies. In the six years, it has filed applications for dozens of invention patents which have already obtained international priority based on PCT patent search results. Sixty percent of the applications have all Category A references cited in the search reports, indicated Lin at Picowork's CCOS and CCC product launch. Applications pertaining to its core technologies have been granted by the patent offices of many different countries, including the US, and Picowork continues with its patent prosecution for other major countries in the world.Four aspects within the scope of Picowork's granted patents are chosen to enable further understanding on its future development goals:1. Global Internet resources can be managed through a system.2. An operating system environment can drive and make use of global Internet resources to accomplish tasks.3. An operating system environment can be cloud-based and run on the Internet.4. An operating system environment running on the Internet can connect people, tasks, things and information systems for collaborative applications (including the collection of Big Data).These four aspects of Picowork's granted patents are indications of its tremendous development potential in the cloud ecosystem industry.In the past, information security mechanisms focused on data encryption because data is transmitted by third party application programs on PC and encryption is needed to protect data from being compromised. In the case of a cloud collaborative operating environment, Picowork uses a Secured Container to execute the operating environment and install application services and content in the cloud operating environment. Therefore, if application programs carry viruses, the viruses will be contained in the Secured Container and will not infect the cloud collaborative operating environment.Lin concluded that Taiwan has a complete hardware industry chain and a growing number of software R&D talent. However, the industry still lacks its own operating environment and therefore has no opportunity to define its own rules. This is why Picowork, seeing that future developments of IoT and Industry 4.0 will require widespread social collaborations, sets eyes on building collaborative operating environments with cross-platform cloud integration connecting different people and things. This will also be an ideal path leading the Taiwan industry to go forward.Picowork CCC

United Microelectronics Corporation (NYSE:UMC;TWSE: 2303) ("UMC"), a leading global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has entered mass production for customer ICs based on the company's self-developed 14nm FinFET technology. The foundry is shipping 14nm wafers to its lead customers and has achieved industry-competitive yields for the highly advanced process, which is being utilized for pioneering new consumer electronic applications.Po-Wen Yen, CEO of UMC said, "This 14nm volume production milestone is the culmination of UMC's close collaboration with its customers, demonstrating the success of our collaborative approach to bringing leading-edge technologies to market. We will continue to refine this process and are working with other customers to bring the full performance, power and gate density benefits of 14nm FinFET to enable next generation silicon in areas such as networking, AI and various consumer products."UMC's 14nm FinFET technology performance is competitive with the semiconductor industry's leading standards, featuring 55% higher speed and twice the gate density over 28nm process technology. The leading-edge 14nm process also consumes approximately 50% less power than 28nm. UMC is producing the 14nm customer ICs at the company's Fab 12A in Tainan, Taiwan and expects to steadily ramp its 14nm manufacturing capacity according to customer demand.About UMCUMC (NYSE: UMC, TWSE: 2303) is a leading global semiconductor foundry that provides advanced IC production for applications spanning every major sector of the electronics industry. UMC's robust foundry solutions enable chip designers to leverage the company's sophisticated technology and manufacturing, which include high volume production 28nm gate-last High-K/Metal Gate technology, ultra-low power platform processes specifically engineered for Internet of Things (IoT) applications and the automotive industry's highest-rated AEC-Q100 Grade-0 manufacturing capabilities for production of ICs found in cars. UMC's 11 wafer fabs are strategically located throughout Asia and are able to produce over 500,000 wafers per month. The company employs nearly 19,000 people worldwide, with offices in Taiwan, China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. UMC can be found on the web at http://www.umc.com/.Note from UMC Concerning Forward-Looking StatementsSome of the statements in the foregoing announcement are forward looking within the meaning of the U.S. Federal Securities laws, including statements about future outsourcing, wafer capacity, technologies, business relationships and market conditions. Investors are cautioned that actual events and results could differ materially from these statements as a result of a variety of factors, including conditions in the overall semiconductor market and economy; acceptance and demand for products from UMC; and technological and development risks. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in UMC's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including its registration statements and reports on Forms F-1, F-3, F-6 and 20-F and 6-K, in each case as amended. UMC does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

Clientron Corp., a global leading provider of POS, Thin Client, and Embedded Systems will display its latest POS solution to the retail market at the world's leading retail show, EuroShop 2017, on the 5th to 9th March 2017 in Dusseldorf, Germany. During this trade show, Clientron will introduce all its new POS terminals and various built-in POS peripherals that are featured with the benefits of Green, Reliability, and Efficiency in order to meet the demands of Retail 4.0 for the Smart Hospitality Industry.At Hall 6, Booth H10, the Clientron Showcase strives to bring visitors into a scenario of being in a Coffee shop and a Retail store. Innovative POS terminal demonstrations will include Clientron Bello series with 12.1" / 15" / 15.6" Touch Display in a solid Aluminum Enclosure; Bello just won the "Taiwan Excellence Award 2017" this year for its innovation and the best quality design, which makes it stand out from numerous products as the best choice for POS applications.And, Clientron will introduce the Butterfly Light-weight POS terminal, the Wing series, with a flexible Dual-hinge Stand design. Besides that, the mainstream Ares650 series is with an Up-to-date Ultra-slim System Enclosure; both Wing and Ares also won the "Taiwan Excellence Award 2016" last year.Furthermore, Clientron will have the most affordable POS terminal – the PT3200, equipped with an Intel power efficient Quad-core processor, offered in a fanless system with long life span support to both entry and mainstream POS market segments. For more information on Clientron or its products, please visit us at Hall 6 Booth H10, EuroShop 2017, or browse Clientron website at http://www.clientron.com/.About ClientronClientron was founded in 1983. The company is dedicated in providing global intelligent solutions to our clients. With design, manufacturing, and service abilities, Clientron offers High-quality and High-performance computing platforms including Thin Client, POS and Intelligent System. We are steadfast in our commitment to develop and to provide even more advanced IoT client solution and services for our partners and customers to build an intelligent e-World. Visit us at http://www.clientron.com/Clientron to showcase its new POS terminals at EuroShop 2107

Entegris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG), a leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials handling solutions for the microelectronics industry, announced today it has introduced a new platform for advanced gas purification that improves wafer yields for semiconductor and LED applications. The new family of GateKeeper Gas Purification Systems (GPS) applies new purification media to provide best-in-class gas purity at a wide range of flow rates with a reduced equipment footprint. With expanded capacity in South Korea, Entegris now manufactures GateKeeper GPS systems in both North America and Asia."Our customers face unprecedented contamination control challenges to efficiently manufacture today's increasingly complex leading-edge-devices. The new Gatekeeper GPS family of systems provide the advanced solutions required to maximize yield in these environments," said Entegris Senior Vice President of Microcontamination Control, Clint Haris. "In conjunction with these new technology introductions, we continue our investments in our North America and Asia facilities to expand our global service and manufacturing capabilities."Semiconductor processes for advanced nodes, as well as LED manufacturing requirements, call for increased purity to remove defect-causing contaminants found in process gases. The GateKeeper GPS family of systems removes a variety of contaminants from gas streams down to the part-per-trillion levels and can be configured to a wide range of flow rates. Gases purified include CDA, N2, H2, H2 for EUV, Ar, NH3. Additionally, manufacturers are looking for tools that require significantly less sub-fab floor space. The reduced footprint allows customers to devote valuable sub-fab floor space to other tool needs or increase purification capacity with additional systems."We collaborated closely with our customers to identify purity requirements to meet their needs to remove new contaminants and increased sensitivity to known contaminants," said Director of Gas Purification Product Management, Jordan Ruple. "As a result, we are proud to be the first to offer this level of purity – in a variety of gases and flow rates – for systems of this size."About EntegrisEntegris is a leader in specialty chemicals and advanced materials solutions for microelectronics industry and other high-tech industries. Entegris is ISO-9001 certified and has manufacturing, customer service and/or research facilities in the United States, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. Additional information may be found at http://www.entegris.com/.