Western China (Sichuan) Import Expo & International Investment Fair ("WCIIF" for short) has held its press release on 12th Oct morning in Chengdu. Sichuan Provincial Government Secretary General Luo Qiang said during his presentation, the exhibition promotion work has nearly been finished.34 countries and regions including countries along "One Belt One Road"are already slated to exhibit.WCIIF will take place during 23rd-27th Oct in Chengdu on theme of "Investment expansion and trade development". The Former French Prime Minister,Former Russian First Deputy Prime Minister,United Nations Procurement Service Deputy Director and other foreign leaders will attend this event. Up to now, 10 foreign delegations, 14 embassies in China and 19 foreign trade and investment promotion agencies, commercial and industrial organization has set their visits to WCIIF. 16 provinces including Guangdong, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Chongqing, Liaoning and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps will send their delegations to the expo. So the total number of attendees is estimated to rise over 20,000.The exhibiting area covers over 80,000 square meters, marking Import Expo "the largest import expo in West China". As center stage for global businesses, it will showcase mainly three fields: Foreign advanced technology equipment and key components, service trade and consumer goods. There are six halls in total: Pavilion of European and American Countries, Pavilion of Japan and RKO, Pavilion of Smart Car, Pavilion of ASEAN and South Asia, Pavilion of Fashion Life. The total area covers 83,800 square meters, of which 58,300 square meters are foreign pavilions. Represented by USA, German, France, Italy, Czech, Japan, South Korea, Israel, India, Malaysia, 34 countries and regions are among the 1500+ exhibitors, including 23 one long "One Belt One Road". Many of the exhibitors are Fortune 500 companies and Multinational Company, for example, Panasonic, Dell, Hyundai, Microsoft, Bosch, Foxconn, Cannon, Haulotte, PPG.Conference Program is another highlight for the expo. 16 conference sessions of distinct theme, rich content, remarkable efficiency will take place: Import Expo Signing Ceremony,2015 EU-Sichuan Investment Cooperation Fair, Sichuan Electronics information Investment and Trade Forum, China (Sichuan) Automobile Investment Cooperation Fair, China-EU Technology and Trade Fair, Sino-French SMEs Cooperation Forum, Western China Imports Purchase & Supply Symposium 2015, The China (Western) International Flat Panel Display Summit, The China Smart Automobile Forum, China (Chengdu) General Aviation Developing Summit, Western E-Commerce Developing Summit, covering finance, investment, trade, technology, e-commerce and other regions.

Information security used to pose little threat to industrial machines due to their inability to internet access. However, with the trend of IP communication and Internet of things (IoT), cyber threats intensify, thus making information security controls unignorable issues."To mitigate increasing information security risks, many industries start paying attention to information security and installing industry firewalls to secure remote access and intercept suspicious data exchanges," said Hadwin Liu, Chief Architect of NEXCOM Network and Communication Solutions Business Group.Still, malicious users keep trying ways to disguise malware to bypass firewalls. To patch this, information security products integrate IDS/IPS and use smart control and correlation engine to filter malicious packets. With industrial protocols and behavior-based pattern matching, they can block suspicious connections to industrial networks and endpoint assets.As protection targets in industrial networks are machinery, network security products should be scattered at exit points of each subdomain for close protection. In case malware-infected machinery in one subdomain tries to infect machinery in other domains, IDS/IPS will drop data packets, cut off connections, and restrict access, containing the infection.NEXCOM's industry firewalls integrate VPN, firewall, and IDS/IPS. "Our IDS/IPS engine has rich signature database. Through log analysis and SIEM, it detects abnormal programs hiding in normal packets. While industrial machines adopt dynamic IP address, VPN helps headquarters remotely monitor production," said Liu.Security breach and consequences in industrial networks can be critical. Integrated industry firewalls shield malware and protect endpoint assets at the bottom layer from risks interrupting operation and from hackers stealing intellectual property and confidential data.For more information about NEXCOM, please visit http://www.nexcom.com/Protecting endpoint assets at the bottom layer of industrial networks requires integrated defense with VPN, firewalls, and IDS/IPS.

Western China (Sichuan) Import Expo & International Investment Fair ("WCIIF" for short) has held its press release on 12th Oct morning in Chengdu. In the replies to the questions of the journalists, the spokesman of Sichuan Bureau of Expo Affairs mentioned that, WCIIF will be more practical, more professional and more international.As reported, organizing displays around the strategy of "One Belt One Road", WCIIF has attracted enterprises, delegations and guests of honor from 23 countries and regions along New Silk Road Economic Belt, which takes up 2/3 of total exhibitors.In the aspect of industry and technology import, Sichuan province has made its overall scheme: develop top 5 fast growing industries and top 5 emerging leading service trades. Under the above guidance, the organizer has arranged world-famous enterprises to exhibit at the WCIIF: Manufacturers: ATLAS (Sweden), Haulotte (France), Schmalz (German), Foxconn……; Electronic information: Microsoft, Dell, Panasonic……; Intelligent automobile: Hyundai, Toyota……; and groups of companies (Exim Bank of China, Utrans, Suning, etc.) from trade service industries like finance, international e-commerce, tourism and culture. The event will draw global businesses to showcase the latest products and technologies entering the West China marketplace.In the Meantime, Western China Imports Purchase & Supply Symposium 2015 will be held during the WCIIF. Over 3800 buyers have registered for this session. Representatives from United Nations Procurement Department, foreign official delegations, Foreign Consulate General in Chengdu, China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing and other organizations will attend the conference. Other 8 concurrent sessions of trade including 2015 China Supply Chain Management Summit, United Nations Procurement Service, Advanced science and technology, analytical and testing instruments, energy conservation and environment protection etc. is ready to open. Attendees (world famous circulation enterprises, import agents, supply chain management, warehousing enterprises) can access the power of WCIIF during face to face discussion with exhibitors.

Apple has updated the entire iMac family, bringing a new Retina Ultra HD display to the 21.5-inch iMac for the first time and the Retina 5K display to every 27-inch iMac. The updated iMacs also feature more powerful processors and graphics, two Thunderbolt 2 ports and new storage options.Apple also introduced a new lineup of wireless accessories including the Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse 2 and Magic Trackpad 2. The Magic devices feature rechargeable batteries that eliminate the need for disposable batteries. The new Magic Trackpad also brings Apple's Force Touch interface to the desktop.The 21.5-inch iMac is available with the all-new Retina Ultra HD display featuring a 4,096 by 2,304 resolution and 9.4 million pixels, 4.5 times more than the standard 21.5-inch iMac display. Every 27-inch iMac features a Retina 5K display, currently the highest resolution all-in-one display with a 14.7 million pixels, 7 times more pixels than an HD display.The new Retina 5K and Ultra HD displays feature a wider P3-based color gamut that provides a 25% larger color space.The new 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display now comes with sixth-generation Intel Core processors and the latest AMD graphics that deliver up to 3.7 teraflops of compute power. The new 21.5-inch iMac with Retina Ultra HD display features a fifth-generation Intel Core processor and enhanced Intel Iris Pro Graphics. Two Thunderbolt 2 ports now come standard on all iMacs and deliver up to 20Gbps data transfer speeds for external drives and high-performance peripherals. And three stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi allows iMac to support up to 1.3Gbps wireless networking.Fusion Drive combines the large storage capacity of a hard drive with the high performance of flash to deliver shorter boot times and faster access to apps and files. Fusion Drive works in conjunction with OS X to adapt to the way consumers use their iMac and automatically moves the files and apps they use most often to flash storage. Fusion Drive pairs a 1TB hard drive with 24GB of fast flash. Fusion Drive is also available with 2TB and 3TB configurations with 128GB of fast flash for more demanding workloads. For the ultimate in storage performance, optional all flash storage is available up to 1TB and is now up to 2.5 times faster.The 27-inch iMac comes in three models starting at US$1,799, US$1,999 and US$2,299, while the 21.5-inch iMac is also available in three models starting at US$1,099 and US$1,299 and with a Retina Ultra HD display starting at US$1,499.Every new iMac comes standard with the new Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2, and customers can order the new Magic Trackpad 2 as an option. Magic Keyboard is available for US$99. Magic Mouse 2 is available for US$79. And the Magic Trackpad 2 is available for US$129.Apple iMac all-in-one PC with new Retina displayPhoto: Company

The development of the IoT industry in recent years from smartphones to wearable devices has accelerated the need for miniaturized components and advanced processing technologies. Through the integration of key manufacturing technologies, Chilisin has been able to dramatically improve inductor performance while downsizing. In the highly competitive environment today, the pursuit of miniaturization has become the trend to success.HEI160808 mini molding choke demonstrates leading innovationThe miniaturization trend of components began with the evolution of smartphones. Increasing functions in smartphones are increasingly demanding higher battery usage and hence, larger battery size. Under such circumstances, aside from batteries, all other components within a smartphone are met with a downsizing requirement. In 2013, Chilisin successfully developed the HEI (High Efficiency Inductor) series molding power choke which received notable industry recognition and approval by large international smartphone makers due to its superior performance characteristics. This year, Chilisin is launching the new HEI160808 in 1.6 x 0.8 x 0.8mm dimensions, an even smaller version of the power choke. This new product has already entered into the mass production stage and has been adopted in some of this year's newly released smartphone models. Customer satisfaction and leading technological capability especially in the smartphone sector strongly reinforces Chilisin's competitive positioning and growth momentum in the coming year.Newly-launched MTF100505 to challenge the limits of thin-film manufacturing process technologyIn the second half of 2015, Chilisin expects to launch the molding thin-film inductor MTF 100505. This product uniquely utilizes tiny film sheets as coils inside a tiny molded case, a process made only possible via advanced thin-film technology in combination with molding technology. The end result is further downsizing from the previous HEI series molding power choke to achieve 1.0 x 0.5 x 0.5 mm dimensions, the smallest possible power inductor for use in smartphones. Chilisin's President Mr. Jack Chung has indicated the Company does not only seek to miniaturize components, but also to achieve a high standard of quality and more importantly to deliver superior performance characteristics in order to build long-term relationships with customers.New highlights of high-frequency wire-wound inductors: CS0201 and CHQ0402For smartphone high-frequency application, Chilisin is unveiling two newly developed miniaturized inductors. Firstly, the CS0201 series, produced using high-precision wire-winding technology, has already entered into mass production stage. On the other hand, the CHQ0402 series, produced using multilayer technology, will be ready for sampling at the start of the fourth quarter. Both of these products are among the smallest of their kind in the industry, so small that it is barely visible to the naked eye. Once again, these products demonstrate Chilisin's success towards product miniaturization in light of the IoT era.Miniaturization trend and growing automotive segment to act as double-engine to drive futureChilisin's innovation and technological leadership in the miniaturization trend lies in having four core process technologies, including thin-film, multilayer, molding and wire-winding production methods. Chilisin's favorable position in the mobile segment began with early-on efforts to penetrate high-end smartphone and other wearable device markets. Efforts to improve fundamental production technologies, build capacity, maintain close industry analysis and supplier relationships have well prepared Chilisin to deliver innovative products to the market on such a key timing and to secure its leading position on the market.Concerns about the strength of the global economy has weighed on the market in the second half of the year as electronic and component makers worldwide struggle to sustain revenue growth. Despite a downbeat atmosphere, Chilisin delivered an impressive 25% YoY growth rate on revenue from January to July. Notably in July, revenue from overseas markets (ex-Greater China region) has, for the first time in Company history, surpassed revenue from the China market. Successful developments of large international customers have attributed to such a rapid growth for overseas divisions, where the revenue target for the full year has already been surpassed in three quarters. In terms of application segment, Chilisin is focusing largely on three of the five main segments, including mobile, automotive and networking to be the growth drivers into 2018. Developments in product innovation will continue to bring Chilisin's product offerings in line with Japanese competitors, with certain product sectors such as the molding power choke series surpassing Japanese peers. Newly established sales offices in the Eastern United States and Southeast Asia will be supporting the rapid growth rate of the Company. To end the note, Chilisin's President Mr. Jack Chung stated that under the moving puzzles of the industry, quality is the constant benchmark that must be upheld in order to guarantee success.

With the rapid emergence of IoT, wearables, automotive electronics, and various smart mobile devices, companies are keen to pursue innovations and to create something truly disruptive. In order to help customers embrace the latest technology trends and to develop differentiated products, Imagination recently held its annual Imagination Summit in Taipei and Hsinchu. With more than one thousand registered attendees and 600 people visiting the events, Imagination has set a record number of attendance since it held the first Hsinchu Summit in 2012.Imagination Summits are day-long events featuring visionary keynotes, technical deep dives and interactive sessions with experts from Imagination and its partners. This year's Summits in Taiwan feature keynotes from MediaTek, the prpl Foundation, Realtek and TSMC, as well as presentations and demonstrations from Imagination and partners including M31, Mentor Graphics and Synopsys.Maxwell Lin, Sales Director of Imagination Taiwan, said at opening remarks, "As market evolves, it's no longer feasible to follow the traditional way to design by simply selecting technical solutions with the highest CP value from PPA comparison. In an effort to develop more competitive products, companies need to have breakthrough thinking, address the security mechanism required by new services, and carefully handle the system integration issues. Thus, under this year's Summit banner "Secure. Integrate. Differentiate", we'll showcase comprehensive design solutions to help companies reach this goal."New Thinking for the Next Wave of InnovationTony King-Smith, EVP marketing of Imagination disclosed the latest development trend of semiconductor industry at the keynote speech. As a leading provider of SoC IP, Imagination not only has in-depth understanding and insights for a wide range of markets, including mobile phone, automobile, networking, enterprise, IoT, and consumer entertainment, but also needs to be able to see the trends for next 5 to 10 years, so that it can take the lead to develop new technologies for future SoCs.As consumer electronics technologies are penetrating into enterprise market and powering everything, everywhere, Tony King-Smith believes that these low-power, high performance technologies will bring profound influences to drive all kinds of applications. Computer vision, security, virtual reality (VR) & augmented reality (AR), connectivity, and application portability will be the major trends in the future.Mega Societal Changes UnderwayOn the other hand, the world that we live in is changing rapidly and dramatically. With the arrival of the emerging world, which includes the most populous countries like China, India, and Brazil, ever more middle-class is rising but also more price competitions. However, in the connected and accessible world, one global market is also forming. Also, the accelerating technological possibilities in many fields, such as IoT, robotics/automation, biomedical, will also change the landscape of hi-tech industry. It is believed that, in the future, the tier-one leading companies will be much different than what we have today.Meanwhile, facing the challenges of global warming, we need to use energy more efficiently, and low-power design will become increasingly important with the widespread usage of IoT and wearable devices. And the era of Industry 4.0 will lead to manufacturing returning to local markets in many sectors, which eventually will transform the existing supply chain. Finally, the advent of aging society, 100+ year human life spans will definitely change demographics. But it is clear that today's infrastructure can't cope with tomorrow's population's needs.Driven by these technical and market trends, the industrial chain is also evolving. As OEMs are seeking for innovation, the importance of IP is getting much higher. IP vendors should focus on the development of key function blocks, and through close collaboration, helping OEMs pursue for differentiation designs. In addition, as more and more consumers switch to online purchasing, the influential factors for buy decisions are also changed.The semiconductor world is changing, too. With the on-going consolidation and OEMs' vertical integration, product development will become more "application-driven". Under this trend, there will be four types of semiconductor players in the future. Among them, two are tradition chip vendors. One is the super-high volume SoC providers supporting large mainstream segments like mobile, and the other is specialized players focusing on smaller and specialized applications such as auto, health, home automation, and industrial.But another two types of new chip vendors will emerge, including the vertical major OEM brands with internal IC design team, such as Amazon and Apple, and the medium to large sized OEMs, which try to replicate vertical model but through partnership with other service providers and brands. In particular, in Taiwan, we will see lots of OEMs of this kind rising rapidly in the coming three to five years, and bring the next-wave of growth momentum.Multi-Domain SecurityTo address the future market requirements, companies need new concepts and solutions. Tony King-Smith talked about what matters for new product development: security, platform solutions, and IoT technologies.Every application has security demands, and it is fundamental to all connected devices, including IoT. But today's simplistic "binary in/out" model is no longer good enough to meet users and application needs. We need universal solutions to ensure security across every process elements in the SoC; therefore, multi-domain, system-wide security will become a must.Current security solutions are CPU centric, which make secure applications all co-exist in one secure area. This is good for products that are defined in the factory and never change, but it can't scale to address the needs of operators and brands delivering portfolios of cloud-based services on open platforms.OmniShield in a multi-domain, heterogeneous, scalable, and hardware-enforced security technology. Imagination is teaming up with prpl Foundation to promote truly open and heterogeneous security platform. Several companies, including Broadcom, Qualcomm, also joined to collaboratively create the next cross-industry security standard.Making use of platform solutionsPowerVR GPU, MIPS CPU, and Ensigma RPU are the three pillars of Imagination's platform solutions. On the basis of this, we can help our customers leverage their know-how to develop SoCs for various applications including mobile, smart home, enterprise, IoT, connected cars, and so on.For customers, integrating different IP blocks is a challenging job, and our mission is to integrate these major function blocks properly in advance, so that customer can focus on differentiating their products. Therefore, for the four types of semiconductor plays, our strategy is to align with and address their different needs by providing them with the comprehensive IP portfolio, reference platform, subsystem IP, and ecosystem supports, and all these IP products will be protected by our OmniShield security technology.These pre-verified solutions can help companies enable the next wave of innovation. Not only SoC IP, software and tools are equally important. For example, strong software tools are one of the key factors to the success of PowerVR GPU. We will continue to take this strategy to expand ecosystems around our market-leading IPs. For example, we already partnered with Microchip, Samsung Artik, and Toshiba in our IoT ecosystem. In addition, we initiated FlowCloud and Creator programs to offer developers early access to new technologies from Imagination.Turning IoT into RealityIoT is the hottest topic today, and it will be a very large but fragmented market. The breadth of applications means no one player will dominate. Perhaps, some tier-one system companies will take "walled garden" strategy to develop smart home related products with their proprietary technologies and services. But for most of the companies that don't have the ability to construct entire services and product portfolios, interoperability is in urgent need. Therefore, service level interoperability and security will be the growth enablers, and ecosystems of many different skills will be essential to create solutions that really work.Though IoT seems promising, it's still in very early stage. We have seen too much re-branding of existing technologies and products as IoT, but they are not really mature ones. At Imagination, we see there are three levels of IoT devices to address major societal issues: application-specific sensor hubs, sensor hubs + audio/voice, and sensor hubs + audio/voice + smart vision.Our silicon IP portfolio addresses the needs of all of these key markets, including real-time, complex processing requirements for connected processor, smart camera, and audio. In order to realize the goal of IoT, as an industry, we need to work together to build truly open standards. IoT standardization focus should be on common connectivity standards, service-level interoperability via standardized protocols and APIs, and not tied to any OS, processor or other capabilities.As for the wearables, it is also a hot new thing. Though some treat it as IoT, we consider it a distinct, separate market. The market will result in multiple segments, such as all-in-one, lifestyle-oriented, in-clothing, and so on. Therefore, wearable devices will vary in capabilities and feature requirements. Also, the future of wearables ad their relationship to mobile and connected home will be increasing profound and how they work together will be key.However, in terms of functionality, user interface, and battery life, current generation of wearables are just smartphone functionality in a watch form factor. To succeed in the market, companies should shift focus from technology to wearability of the products, and address their specific requirements by adopting new SoC architecture. Low power, connectivity, security, user interface, and interoperability will be the five winning factors.Imagination's MIPS CPU, PowerVR GPU, Ensigma RPU, FlowCloud cloud service, and OmniShield security technology can address what really matters to wearables and help our customers create innovation for success.Home Gateway: Enabling Multi-Domain Security RevolutionAccording to Volker Politz, Vice President of Segment Marketing at Imagination, with fast changing consumer demands, home gateway is now in a big transition. Especially, in the cloud and IoT era, home gateway is increasingly important to allow operators to rapidly introduce new services for home surveillance, personal health, energy management, and smart home. But traditional design is no longer able to address these new market requirements.Resiliency, scalability, protection, and service provisioning are the main design challenges for home gateway. For example, in addition to basic routing, switching and networking functions, the new-generation home gateway may be used to provide public Wi-Fi hotspot, or supports various IoT services at home enabled through Zigbee, Bluetooth, or 802.11n/ac standards.These functions require different levels of security and priority. For this, Imagination introduced OmniShield security technology incorporating comprehensive portfolio of technologies, including hardware virtualized CPU, hardware virtualized GPU, secure fabric, trusted hypervisor, virtualized connectivity and offloads, and root of trust. It supports up to 255 secure heterogeneous containers on an SoC, which means that chip designers can partition its SoC into several secure domains based on application demands.Virtualization is a mature and proven technology and has strong software supports. As a result, OmniShield can benefit from this feature to provide hardware firewall level of security and achieve the highest flexibility and performance. In the use case of home gateway, different functions such as broadband and IoT aggregation can be isolated in separate secure domains to ensure security and accelerate time to market.On the other hand, for real-time applications, MIPS multi-thread technology can be used to enable real-time operation of trusted functions with almost zero performance penalty.Total cost of ownership for home gateway will be reduced dramatically by using OmniShield and Imagination's IP and IP platforms, and to provide operators with secure, scalable, and reliable solutions.PowerVR GPU IP from Wearables to Servers"Embedded GPU has been mainly used in mobile phones and tables," Kristof Beets, Director of Business Development at Imagination, said. "As the demands for graphic function grows, it is gradually penetrated into set-up boxes, HD TV, automotive infotainment, and more."The latest trend is to have GPU used in a wide range of applications, including IoT, wearables, enterprise, servers, and laptops. Thus, we can see huge range of opportunities for GPU, and also wide range of performance and feature requirements across markets.For GPU market, the rapid evolution of industry standard APIs can further improve its performance, such as the latest Khronos Vulkan and Khronos OpenVX. Vulkan is a low-level "metal" API, and is not to replace existing OpenGL ES. By matching modern GPU architectures, it provides higher performance with less CPU overhead. OpenVX is high-level API for vision/image processing and fully GPU accelerated. PowerVR GPU will support this new API in H2 2015.Also, due to the increasing fragmentation of the OS landscape, GPU should be able to support wider range of OSes, including Android, Ubuntu, FireOS, WebOS, and Chromium. Another key issue for GPU is that designers must carefully consider optimal system integration. For example, using lossless compression to support 4K tablets, or security and virtualization technology for automotive and server applications.Because of the widespread applications of GPU, we need to provide comprehensive solutions to address both the cost-sensitive applications such digital TV, wearables, entry-level smartphones, or the performance-efficient applications such as high-end tables and automotive.PowerVR is highly competitive and continues extending its market leadership. In terms of architectural performance, by using patented tile-based deferred rendering and PowerGearing power management technologies, PowerVR delivers high sustained performance within power budget. As for power efficiency, third-party data confirms that, compared with other solutions, SoC that is enabled by PowerVR can achieve 3 times better performance at the same power consumption. Imagination will keep improving the performance for each generation PowerVR to ensure better battery life and better user experience.MIPS CPU: Differentiating the Next Wave of Innovation"With comprehensive portfolio from the tiny 32-bit MCU to high performance 32- and 64-bit multi-core solutions, MIPS CPU is a proven, efficient 64/32-bit architecture, with more than 30 years of history and 20 years of full support to 64-bit technology," Mark Throndson, Director of MIPS Business Development at Imagination, introduced.MIPS architecture has been updated for several times in past years, and the latest version is MIPS R6, which incorporates hardware virtualization, SIMD, multi-threading features. MIPS64 is fully compatible with MIPS32. Software runs on MIPS32 doesn't have to switch mode to run on MIPS64, which will bring significant benefits for customers.Also, Imagination provides comprehensive tools for every aspect of development. Codescape tools, which are used for every MIPS-based platform development from entry-level to multi-core SoC, build on the open source GNU compiler and debugger (GCC and GDB) for MIPS, including all of the tools and resources needed to get started with MIPS software development, including bootloaders, linkers, example code, and more.After acquiring MIPS, Imagination continues expanding it ecosystem. One of the key projects is to initiate prpl Foundation, which aims to drive the progress of application portability, virtualization and security, and heterogeneous computing based on MIPS open source.MIPS CPU now supports OmniShield security technology. Based on hardware virtualization, a new privilege level is added in the architecture to support multiple guest domains and realize multi-domain security on CPU. From top to bottom core lineup, including M5100, I6400, and P5600, hardware virtualization is supported, and MIPS is the only company that implements virtualization for embedded MCU.Moreover, MIPS' unique hardware multi-threading and advanced power management technologies can effectively reduce silicon area and optimize dynamic power. MIPS portfolio includes three product lines from entry-level to high performance, Warrior M-class, Warrior I-class, and Warrior P-class, to address various market requirements.Ensigma RPU: The complete wireless solution"Wireless connectivity has become a must for electronic devices, but most of them are designed by using stand-alone wireless chipset," Richard Edgar, Director of Communications Technology at Imagination, said. "In order to achieve higher level of integration, we have seen the trend of integrating wireless communication functions onto SoC. Ensigma RPU (radio processing unit) is designed for this requirement."Ensigma RPU is a complete end-to-end solution and the only complete wireless IP subsystem in the market today. It includes integrated baseband and MAC, "hardened" RF IP, complete host software, and system solution for industry certification testing and RF regulatory testing.Ensigma RPU is unique programmable multi-standard radio processor, supporting more than 30 standards including all 802.11, television, radio, and Bluetooth standards. New 802.11ax and 802.15.4 standards, and GPS and Galileo positioning standards are in development. It is expected that a total of 45 standards will be supported within two years.With superior configurability, Ensigma RPU integrates multi-stand on-chip communication standards onto SoC. For different market segment, two product lines are provided. Ensigma Explorer is featured with ultimate performance and flexibility, and Ensigma Whisper is for ultra-low wireless. With integrated MIPS processor, Whisper removes need for dedicated host to reduce total system cost. It is ideal for emerging wearable devices.Meanwhile, Explorer and Whisper have the same host interface and are based on the same core algorithms. So, software and development tools can be shared to further reduce development efforts and cost.Other sessions in the afternoon included "Wearables: Low-power Design Meets High-power Fashion", "Automotive: Making Autonomous, Multimedia-rich Cars a Reality", "Vision IP: Powering the Smarter Camera", and "Connected Processors and FlowCloud IP: Integrating and Securing end-to-end IoT", showcasing the comprehensive solutions that Imagination provides for next-generation product development.Partners Gathered to Show Great SupportIn addition to the latest trends and technical solutions presented by Imagination's executives, major partners also participated the event to share their market insights as well as the results that they work with Imagination.Siegmund Redl, VP & GM Corporate Marketing of MediaTek Europe explained the rise of the "super-mid" market opportunity resulted from the dramatic increase of middle-class population worldwide, and the brand new industry landscape caused by ubiquitous and unlimited access to information through 5G technology. Therefore, collaboration and joint development among ecosystem partners will become more important than ever before.Keynes Chang, Marketing and Planning Director of Realtek discussed the future trend and requirement of GPU in TV SoC. "As display function gets increasingly important, area of GPU on a TV SoC is now bigger than that of CPU, and both of them account for more than one third of the total die size," he said.GPU is mainly used for user interface. But with the higher resolution of multimedia devices, 3D GPU can bring much better user experience. TV will be able to run multiple high-resolution video games to replace certain functions of game console. In addition, TV will support more functions such as facial recognition and new formats of video decoding in the future.As GPU plays an increasingly important role, new security issues rise. For example, the last thing that content providers would like to see is their premium 4K content is being hacked. Or, video clips will be used as user interface on new-generation products. In the past, there were no security issues for UI, but now the situation is changed because video is handled by GPU.There are multiple ways to address security requirement for GPU. One is to use virtualization technology to have multiple isolated, secure zones on SoC. However, it requires complex memory management unit. Designers should take this account when developing SoC. He concluded that, the more powerful GPU is, the more important the content that it processes. GPU is no longer only a functional IP block, but an integral part of SoC. So its security requirement should be carefully addressed.Simon Wang, Senior Director of IoT Business Development at TSMC, introduced the latest technical solutions for IoT. Though process node shrinkage has almost reached its limitation, advanced process technology is still required to drive the diverse and advanced applications for automotive, industry 4.0, and AR/VR, and to maintain the health growth of semiconductor industry.IoT market will be taking off rapidly, but demands for advanced 16/10 nm will still exist. But it will change from performance-driven concept to low power-driven. In addition to advanced nodes, TSMC is developing low-power 55/40/28 nm process technologies to further reduce leakage and extend battery life.TSMC will also strengthen cooperation with OIP (Open Innovation Platform) partners. TSMC and Imagination have built close and long relationship. Two companies will optimize GPU designs for 28/16 nm processes and provide verified IPs to help accelerate mutual customers' time to market.Cesare Garlati, Chief Security Strategist of prpl Foundation, explored the importance of open standards with open security. Prpl Foundation is an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture-and open to others-with a focus on enabling next-generation datacenter-to-device portable software and virtualized architectures. To address security requirement, the foundation is now working with members to drive end-to-end system security.In the afternoon's sessions, M31 Technology introduced its Power Optimization Solutions for IoT Application. Dolby showcased its Dolby Audio, which is a set of robust technologies that deliver rich, clear, powerful sound in the cinema, at home and on the go. Imagination supports Dolby Audio on MIPS CPU, including support for Dolby TrueHD, Digital Plus, and ProLogic IIz.Mentor Graphics had two technical sessions. One is to discuss the use case of emulation of Imagination IP on Veloce platform. Veloce2 is a market-leading hardware emulator, addressing challenges for large complex SoC verification such as smartphones and ADAS, and Mentor has a long standing partnership with Imagination. The other session is to introduce Mentor's embedded software solutions for wearable Devices. Ineda's MIPS-based wearable process unit is used as an example to discuss how it works with Mentor's Nucleus RTOS.Synopsys also had two sessions. In the "Collaborating to Speed Design and Verification with Optimized PPA" session, Synopsys stressed its more than 10 years of collaboration with Imagination, and can help customers shorten design cycle with its verification and prototyping solutions. Using HAPS-70 platform to accelerate hardware verification and software development for Imagination PowerVR Series 6XT was explained. The other session discussed "Hardening Imagination's 16FF+ PowerVR Series 7 GPU for Performance & Power with DesignWare HPC Design Kit". With these rich and informative speeches and sessions, the full-day technology feast was wrapped up with a perfect end.Imagination recently held its annual Imagination Summits in Hsinchu and Taipei, with more than 1000 registered attendees and 600 people visiting the events.Maxwell Lin, Director of Sales, Taiwan Imagination TechnologyTony King-Smith, EVP Marketing, Imagination TechnologySiegmund Redl VP & GM Corporate Marketing, Europe MediaTekKeynes Chang, Marketing and Planning Director, RealtekSimon Wang, Senior Director, IoT Business Development, TSMCCesare Garlati, Chief Security Strategist, prpl FoundationVolker Politz, VP Segment Marketing, Imagination TechnologyKristof Beets, PowerVR Business Development, Imagination TechnologyMark Throndson, Director of Business Development - MIPS,Imagination TechnologyRichard Edgar Ensigma Communications Technology Marketing, Imagination TechnologyAt 2015 Imagination Summit, Imagination and its partners showcased latest technical solutions, attracting attendees' warm interactions and discussions.

During the typhoon season, strong winds often cause a lot of damages to solar power sites, and the investments are blown away instantly. To overcome extreme weather conditions, considering environmental adaptation and high-efficiency of the PV system should be the first priority instead of reducing its initial capital cost.High Reliability – Resist extreme environmental conditionsInevitably, BIG SUN Group, a Taiwanese solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer, also needs to overcome the typhoon issue; however, the BIG SUN iPV Solar Tracker with its dynamic balancing design of parachute-like (cable-driven) structure enables strong wind resistance. After the super typhoon lashed Taiwan, the structure of iPV Solar Tracker was not broken. If the system only had a single pier which was similar to an umbrella, it would be easy to blow away like other PV mounting systems. The patent design of iPV Solar Tracker is like a seat belt, it protects the PV system to face extreme situations as well as without hitting surroundings.The land choice is also an investment. With H-piling construction, the iPV Solar Tracker can be installed rapidly without extensive land grading and concrete curing; 25 years later, the steel piles can be recycled, the value can be preserved and the environment can be protected.High Profit – Produce valuable PV output to bring overall benefitsWhen investing in solar power plants, the first thing is to evaluate its ROI. If only considering its capital cost but being careless of qualities of modules and other system components, it will be too late to make up for these oversights after disasters. Based on many case studies, combining high-performance iPV Solar Tracker with high-efficiency BIG SUN solar panels, the solar power harvesting is able to be maximized up to 50% more than a fixed-tilt PV system. Therefore, the total profit from iPV solar tracking system is much higher than the initial spending.The other thing that needs to be evaluated is the ability of maintenance. Topper Sun, the subsidiary of BIG SUN, is a top local EPC firm which provides immediate professional maintenance and after-care services. Topper Sun also applies the iPVita monitoring and control system to improve the PV site performance, assure the output of the PV site, and reduce maintenance costs by resolving faults more effectively.One more thing to be aware of is that solar electricity must be generated in the right way. Not all PV systems have the same "value" of electricity. Fixed-tilt systems produce excess energy at noon, but solar tracking systems are able to make power production more constant throughout the day, especially dual-axis tracking systems (DAT). In the morning and late afternoon, when demand is high, the power generation of DAT can meet the need closely. Hence the electricity generated from iPV Solar Tracker, a dual-axis solar tracker, should be more valuable and needed.Summer Luo, chairman of BIG SUN Group, emphasizes, "Follow the sun to get the proper power generation system and make the right investment for best profits. More importantly, we should always have good intentions to produce good energy and respect our mother earth."About BIG SUN GroupBIG SUN was founded in 2006. Its core business is focused on the design, production, and sale of high-quality solar products. BIG SUN's main products include 6" mono-crystalline silicon solar cells, the iPV Solar Tracker and the web-based iPVita monitoring & control system. The current conversion efficiency of BIG SUN's 6" mono-crystalline silicon solar cell is 20.0% (60-cells module with up to 290 watts power). Based on its extensive product lines, BIG SUN can offer vertical integrated PV power system solutions.BIG SUN: http://www.bigsun-energy.com/Topper Sun: http://www.toppersun-energy.com/iPVita: http://www.ipvita.com/For more information, visit BIG SUN at PV Taiwan 2015 booth # K0601.

Entegris, Inc. (NASDAQ: ENTG), a leader in yield-enhancing materials and solutions announced today the release of Torrento X Series 7 nm filters with FlowPlane linear filtration technology. FlowPlane is the semiconductor industry's first scalable, linear, high-flow filtration platform enabling advanced wet cleaning applications for the 10 nm node and beyond. The first in a series of filters based on the linear filtration technology, the FlowPlane S model is designed for point of dispense (POD) applications, enabling improvements in both on-wafer defectivity and yield for critical wet cleaning applications."We've reached an inflection point where filter design must evolve to meet the needs of the most complex semiconductor manufacturing processes," said Entegris Vice-President of the Liquid Microcontamination Control business unit, Clint Haris. "A filter is the last line of defense to prevent defect-causing contaminants from reaching the wafer. Our smaller, more powerful filtration solution will enable our customers to effectively implement their 10 and 7 nm technology nodes."Torrento X series 7 nm filters with FlowPlane linear filtration technology improves retention and increase flow rate performance by 100% compared to similarly sized radial filters. Moreover, FlowPlane users will benefit from the format's smaller device footprint as well as improved wafer defectivity performance.For more information about the Torrento X Series 7 nm filters with FlowPlane linear filtration technology, go to http://www.entegris.com/.FlowPlane linear filtration technology with Torrento X series 7 nm filters improves retention and increase flow rate performance.

Driven by the consumer IC market of emerging applications, such as CMOS Image Sensor (CIS), and 8-bit or 16-bit MCU for the controller of Internet of Things (IoT) in Health Care, Smart Energy System or Intelligent Family field, various product types, reference design and development tools and R&D staff training are needed to provide. To response to the prompt demand, the designers need rapid construction structures to come out new cells in a short time and less or even no trainings for new users, an open environment which can be integrated with third party tools to facilitate all design flow and a custom solution to optimize the layout.Thus, the IC layout designers need a unified, simple but powerful layout solution to design PCell, run simulation, debug and verify in the same environment to deliver time-to-market and high quality products. GOLF is a Schematic-Driven and OpenAccess-based layout solution that provides the full hierarchical manipulation capability to increase layout productivity up to a maximum of 30X+. GOLF provides a complete solution to design and debug PCell, run 3rd party DRC, LVS or LPE tools and generate test key in an integrated development environment (IDE).Benefits- Schematic-Driven Layout (SDL) provides the efficiency of debugging, high layout productivity in an easy-to-use environment- GUI-based, rich PCell primitive types and parameterized IDE environment to convenience the layout design and reduce the learning curve for new users- Test Key Layout Generation reduces product time-to-market by guided and parameterized test structures, automated and efficient methodology. - GOLF's custom layout service completes your layout solution and can increase 10X+~30X+ productivity.Open environment and extensible architectureGOLF is an OpenAccess-based layout solution that provides full hierarchical manipulation capability to increase layout productivity up to a maximum of 30X+. GOLF provides comprehensive methodologies which include powerful layout editing and debugging functions, intuitive GUI, flexible customization and extension with TCL/Perl/Python/C++ to enable layout designers to achieve correct-by-construction results.Intuitively design PCell with parameters in GUIGOLF provides PCell design, preview, testing, debugging, and documentation in a unified environment. Designing Cell in GOLF is parameterized and step-by-step; just entering parameters for a PCell in GUI instead of programming codes, even the engineers without any programming experience can follow the steps to come out PCells directly. It is based on Anaglobe's patented highly flexible and reusable hierarchical parameterized layout generator.More than the types that system-predefined, over 40 primitive PCell objects are provided to ease the use of devices and various operators are also supplied for the convenience of device modification or reuse. Special shapes also can be created easily in GUI as well.Intelligent test key layout generationTest key layout generator is the solution for test vehicle development by creating reusable and parameterized test structure. Designers only need to input parameters, define split table with or without routing constrains, then the test module can be interactively generated and assembled to place test modules into a single top design. With this solution, the conventional test chip development flow can be changed into an efficient, consistent and automated methodology.Schematic-Driven layout solutionAnaglobe's GOLF is the worldwide proven layout solution which enabling users to overcome the challenges of today's demand from the volatile market with little or no learning curve. Schematic-based editing and step-by-step guided layout tasks are just accomplished with easy clicks, parameter inputs or intuitive menu accesses.SDL operates with a hierarchical connectivity model working simultaneously at all levels of the design hierarchy. This capability will alarm connectivity errors as the net is short or open. This makes designers easier to understand the complexity of interactions through the design hierarchy.SDL also supports one-to-many mapping across multiple hierarchy levels. This allows layout designers to view different layout hierarchies at the same time for efficient net tracing or debugging. The cross probing of hierarchy net tracer and short Indicator can easily highlight the problem net without Place-and- Route (P&R), LVS or LPE. It does significantly reduce efforts and speed up the debugging processes.Custom layout solutionThere is always the gap between the solution of the standard layout tool and problems that users have. With GOLF's customization service, complete layout requirements can be satisfied and productivity can be increased up to 10X+~30X+. One example is to unify the test chip layout with customized P&R and parser in GOLF only that you don't need to switch in various tools, spend time in database transformation any more. There are also other reference customization projects as described below:- Dummy pattern insertion- Net checker- Bump cell placer- Web-based analysis and inquiry system - Customized tape-out flow- Defect inspection flowJoin GOLF customization, then you can spend less and get more.ConclusionTo shorten the layout cycle and maximize the productivity, GOLF – provided by AnaGlobe (http://www.anaglobe.com/), does address the problems that deep nanometer layouts meet and provides the highly integrated, multi-vendor tool suite for custom and cell-based design and verification .The leading-edge semiconductor foundries or famous design companies do gain from the adoption of GOLF to layout their analog, mixed-signal, logic, embedded memory or RF designs.Open environment and extensible architecture

Wireless communication technologies play a critical role in the rapid rise of mobile devices. Multi-band configurations have particularly contributed to the launch of 4G smartphones. A general 4G phone for use around the world is expected to support over 40 frequency bands in 2016. To keep up with advancement of the highly complicated technologies, it is essential that IC developers and RF module system assemblers with ambitions to grab a share of the market overcome the technical barriers of RF FrontEnd( RFFE) testing as phone signal reception quality and energy consumption are both closely related to the control of PA characterization.IC design teams have to do additional testing required by signal processing with respect to the PA specs they need to follow. Items including dynamic EVM, ACLR, PAE and RF output power, DC power supply, and channel frequency have to be individually scanned and tested to confirm if the performance of the product that has been designed meets the standard. As IC validation is more challenging than system module testing, IC test engineering teams generally work under tremendous pressure and have to race against time on a daily basis.IC testing generally starts from setting up various testing instruments and machinery, generally including oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer, a few signal generators that can simulate PA-enabled signals, power supplies needed to simulate PA power sources and a variety of measuring equipment. To model a test environment with fixed conditions, operators generally have to use GPIB to connect all the equipment. The preparation work alone is a daily struggle with all the wire connections behind the instruments.Operators can then perform measuring, logging and analyzing, and the data is compiled in an Excel file and turned into graphs and charts which are used to verify against IC design specs to check for incompliances or errors. With every design modification, the entire testing process has to be repeated again. It may take a novice team weeks or even months to master the overall process. Therefore, it is natural for product managers and engineering project leaders to feel concerned.LitePoint has delivered comprehensive automated testing solutions for production in mass quantities, helping manufacturers deliver billions of smartphones to the market every year. Realizing that the extremely demanding testing and verification work in a laboratory can no longer be carried out in the way that it was done before, LitePoint offers zSeries' PA/FEM total design validation solution for optimized testing of PA and FEM modules used in mobile devices.Because of LitePoint's long-term collaboration with mainstream PA chip makers, LitePoint is able to offer zSeries with a complete understanding of PA characterization and a modularized hardware design integrating all the measuring instruments needed to perform testing in a rack mount chassis with 9 or 18 slots for insertion of the hardware modules. zSeries' design frees test engineering teams from complex wire connections so that they can focus on the demanding function verification work.In addition to flexible hardware configurations, zSeries also provides software support by using a language architecture similar to a test script to enable editing and modification of different configuration profiles which are similar to regular .BAT files that engineers are familiar with. The scripting language is well liked as some test engineers of LitePoint's customers have nicknamed it "LitePoint Language."When repeatedly testing PA characterization, test engineers generally have to process a great amount of test data so LitePoint offers IQramp, a data analysis system that makes use of Big Data Analytics and automatically generates reports and charts in PDF format, to help with validation work. Therefore, zSeries is not just a simple tester but a complete solution integrating software, hardware, Big Data analytics, and report creation tools. As Shawn Knapp, LitePoint's product application manager, points out, zSeries not only accelerates the testing process but also offers a flexibly integrated automated testing platform for validation applications in laboratories and during the IC or module manufacturing process. It gives IC designers and RF module makers a flexible approach to enhancing product quality.zSeries impresses Japan market with promising expansion to other Asian countries for its precisionA case about a LitePoint customer using zSeries is worth mentioning. When a system assembler used zSeries to test the PA characterization of an RF module made by an RF module vendor with its internally-developed PA chip, the system assembler was able to discover that the dynamic EVM did not comply with the specs. This was a problem that the original PA design/test team failed to catch in the lab and was found and solved because the system assembler used zSeries, enabling high-precision testing that impressed the Japan industry.With zSeries, system manufacturers can learn about PA characterization and thereby gain knowledge on new technologies including dynamic EVM, Digital Pre-Distortion(DPD), and Envelope Tracking(ET), which will help improve their RF IC design capabilities. The testing and verification processes enabled by zSeries will boost overall quality and enhance differentiating features of next generation RF IC designs and applications. For engineering teams that design systems integrating baseband, power management, application processors, and RF modules, competition is escalating and wireless transmission technologies are advancing by leaps and bounds. But zSeries, with robust function verification and automated testing capabilities, will help IC designers and RF module makers achieve their goals of time-to-market efficiency.zSeries provides tools to generate test data graphs and charts in addition to a Big Data analytics system to enable PA and RF FEM testing