Leading semiconductor test equipment supplier Advantest Corporation (TSE: 6857, NYSE: ATE) has launched its new T6391 system for testing next-generation display driver ICs (DDIs) and their embedded functions that control high-resolution LCD panels. The new tester is designed to address three key trends in the next-generation DDI market - the growing number of pins on display driver devices, the increasing speeds of interfaces and highly integrated multi-functions - all of which contribute to higher resolution displays.The highly integrated nature of advanced DDIs presents several unique testing challenges. For example, because the touch-sensor functions of an LCD are integrated in the DDI, there are a large number of logic/analog circuits to test. In the foreseeable future, power-management IC (PMIC) functions also are likely to be folded into the DDI. Additionally, the growing use of LCD panels in mobile applications including smart phones, tablet computers and notebook PCs is driving market demand for smaller device sizes and more capabilities.Advantest's T6391 is the only test platform able to handle all of these current and projected test requirements. As a member of the established T6300 product family, the new tester leverages the same engineering environment model as the existing base of more than 1,500 previously installed testers in the T6300 series. It uses the same TDL programming language while improving throughput by achieving faster data transfer and calculation."Our pin-card design gives DDI manufacturers the best solution on the market for both engineering and production," said Satoru Nagumo, executive officer of Advantest Corporation. "This new tester provides wide coverage for all types of applications including high-pin-count semiconductors, high-speed interfaces, analog circuits, memories and logic devices."The tester's high-speed bus enables high-throughput testing. With 512 I/O channels, the T6391 is capable of testing multiple chips simultaneously. It can accommodate high-resolution DDIs having as many as 3,584 LCD pins. This is enough to test today's highest pin count LCDs including full high-definition (HD), WXGA and HD720 displays.The T6391 can handle I/O pin frequencies up to 1.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), allowing it to test LCDs that use MIPI (mobile industry process interface), the standard protocol for mobile electronics. An additional measurement module allows the system to test even faster interfaces up to 6.5 Gbps, which will be used in the LCD drivers for the next generation of ultra-high-definition televisions including the 4K (2160p) generation.A 16-channel arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) and a digital capture feature provide the ability to test analog ICs. Scan and memory tests of touch-sensor-enabled DDIs can be conducted using the system's scan pattern generator (SCPG), algorithmic pattern generator (ALPG) and algorithmic failure memory (AFM) module.Production units of the T6391 tester are scheduled to begin shipping to customers by the end of this calendar year.Advantest T6391

EverFocus Elite 2 NVR8004X is a professional standalone network video server designed for small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) and enterprises. Operating on a Linux-based system, the NVR offers quick PC-less configuration, network-based surveillance connection, megapixel recording as well as playback, up to 12 TB storage capacities and more. It also supports industry standard compression codec, such as H.264 and M-JPEG. The device is compatible with all EverFocus IP cameras.Other cutting-edge functions available on EverFocus Elite 2 NVR8004X include multi-channel playback at multiple speed options and easy data search by event date and time. With the newly improved Event Management function, users are now supplied with a much larger range of supported event types and handling options in the database. Suspicious activities and behaviors can be detected and responded to on a much more accurate and timely manner. In addition, EverFocus has further strengthened users' account management for secure access control in vertical markets, such as residential communities, parking lot, retails stores, shopping malls, banks, hospitals, offices, factories and much more. Users may enable and perform the specified functions through the web-based GUI by the Web browser.EverFocus Elite 2 NVR8004X NVR is the best choice for a complete network-based surveillance solution. It is versatile, flexible and well caters to the needs of the industry.About EverFocus Electronics CorporationEverFocus Electronics Corporation (TWSE: 5484) is a leading integrated security solution provider. Our lineup includes CMS, IP, HD-SDI, analog, mobile surveillance solutions, access control systems, as well as surveillance and access control peripherals. EverFocus has offices globally, located in Taiwan, the U.S.A, Germany, China, Japan, and India. For more information, please visit http://www.everfocus.com.tw/Elite 2 NVR8004X UP to 16CH Tower NVR with 4HDD Bays

ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced the launch of its new enterprise-class AS70R series devices, featuring high capacity rackmount network storage servers. The devices in the AS70R series are powered by Intel Core i3 3.5GHz dual-core processors (AS7009RD/AS7012RD) and Intel Xeon E3 3.4GHz quad-core processors (AS7009RDX/AS7012RDX). All models are also compatible with the highest capacity hard disks on the market (6TB), enabling users to create substantial storage spaces of 54TB and 72TB respectively.Furthermore, all models come with 4 gigabit Ethernet ports along with 2 expansion slots for 10GbE network or SAS cards. In addition to the built-in 4GB UDIMM DDR3 RAM (expandable to a maximum of 32GB) all devices also feature 4 SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports and 2 eSATA ports for added expansion possibilities. ASUSTOR has also added a variety of output ports including HDMI and VGA, allowing IT administrators to more conveniently manage the system."When selecting a data storage solution, enterprises have always considered performance and cost as important factors in addition to reliability and simple system maintenance," said Johnny Chen, Product Manager at ASUSTOR. "Taking this into consideration, ASUSTOR has utilized powerful and flexible hardware specifications in its designs, such as redundant power supplies to provide continuous power and smart speed control mechanisms for fans that allow for efficient cooling under high loads in order to allow enterprise users to enjoy a high performance solution at the most economical price point. We believe that the AS70R series' dynamic performance will be able to satisfy the needs of enterprise users around the world."It has always been ASUSTOR's goal to provide the market with NAS devices that feature the highest cost to performance ratio. ASUSTOR's ADM operating system not only provides reliable storage functionality but also features seamless cross-platform file sharing, making it suitable for enterprise environments with a substantial amount of users. All ASUSTOR NAS devices also come with 2-way transfer support for Rsync, FTP, cloud (Amazon S3), and external backups allowing for greater deployment flexibility. The AS70R series devices all come built-in with the latest ADM 2.3 (ASUSTOR Data Master) operating system which features newly refreshed graphics and a variety of new enterprise features such as proxy server connections, TFTP support, Windows ACL support, and SMB 2.0 support which increases Windows networking performance by 30%-50%. Additionally, users can use the free App Central platform to expand functionality. Apps available for download from App Central include Mail Server, VPN Server, Google Drive public cloud storage, Surveillance Center and much more. ASUSTOR NAS devices are an ideal investment for businesses that demand a flexible, high performance and cost-effective storage solution.AS70R series devices are now shipping globally with 3 year warranties. For dealer information, please visit: http://www.asustor.com/service/where_to_buyFor compatibility table, please visit: http://www.asustor.com/service/compatibility?lan=enASUSTOR launches enterprise-class AS70R rackmount NAS models

As the trend of Internet of Things (IoT) is exploding and the market is rapidly evolving, Intel has been aggressive driving this industry transformation and working with partners to grasp huge business opportunities. At the "Intel IoT Asia" Conference held in Taipei recently, Intel teamed up with leading partners, including Chunghwa Telecom, Tatung, and Advantech, to unveil the latest development trends and solutions for IoT.The whole day event, which was packed with rich contents of keynote speech, panel discussion, and Mega session for various vertical applications, has successfully attracted full house of audience.Steen Graham, Director of Embedded Sales Group at Intel Asia Pacific Japan, said at the opening remark, "It is forecasted that there will be 50 billion connected devices by 2020 all over the world. All these devices can provide huge amount of data, which will drive brand new value and opportunities for enterprises through the collecting and analyzing of big data. Intel is excited about the arrival of IoT era, and at the Intel IoT Asia event, Intel and our sponsors will showcase our solutions and how we are bringing together our technologies to make IoT a reality."Imperatives to Realize IoT VisionRick Dwyer, VP & GM of Worldwide Embedded Sales Group at Intel, elaborated Intel's IoT vision and the latest technology trend at the keynote speech. "We have been talking about IoT for a while. As the technology gets ready and the ecosystem is built, it's the time for the market to take off. We can foresee that there will be many exciting advancements to come in the near future.""Taiwan is the powerhouse of IT technology in the world, and will be an important player in driving the IoT market. The continuous technology innovation has accelerated the industry transformation", Dwyer indicated. "According to a recent study, 40% of Fortune Top 500 companies in year 2000 are no longer in the market today. Also, the average lifecycle of companies listed in S&P 500 has been shortened from 67 years to only 15. These facts show that the industry in evolving at an unprecedented speed. Facing the new era of IoT, companies should take bold actions to embrace for the market opportunity."Leading by the consumer mobile devices, such as smart phone, smart watch, and wearables, IoT application has been rapidly expanded to B2B market. According to Dwyer, the top three imperatives to realize IoT vision are: vertical innovation, think end-to-end solutions, and partner for success. "We can solve real problems and enhance business efficiency for customers by applying intelligence and analytic from big data, and then further change people's lifestyle and living quality."He stressed that, in order to monetize IoT technology, companies should take open architecture, connectivity, security, management, and analytics into account when developing end-to-end solutions. As for industry collaboration, it involves the establishment of the whole value chain rather than just board and PC. So, it's a complicated task.In addition to setting up IoT Solutions Alliance, Intel has also worked with leading companies to form Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) and Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) to speed up the deployment of IoT.Strong Supports from PartnersDuring the keynote speech, Dwyer invited guest speakers from Chunghwa Telecom, Tatung, and Advantech to introduce their latest IoT services and solutions. And Intel engineers also demonstrated the real applications of IoT for building management and oil pipeline monitoring.Dr. Lir-Fang Sun, Vice President of Data Communications Business Group at Chunghwa Telecom, introduced how Chunghwa Telecom is teaming up with Intel to drive technology innovations for IoT, cloud computing, and software-defined network (SDN). The two companies will focus on developing smart home, smart energy, and smart transportation services. Wen-yen K. Lin, Chairperson of Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) & President of Tatung, and Chaney Ho, President of Advantech, introduced the energy management system and IoT gateway that they co-developed with Intel."With these real collaboration and use cases, we can see that IoT has become a reality", said Rick Dwyer. "Facing this newindustry shift, Intel will no longer play the role of a chip vendor, but a total solution provider for software and services, and we are making efforts in building up an extensive ecosystem." He also asked companies to think big and to drive the technology advancement for the whole value chain, hoping to work with partners to grasp the unprecedented opportunities.Discussions on the Latest Market TrendsIn order to better explain the impacts and benefits that IoT will bring to the industry, a panel discussion session, which was moderated by Philip Cronin, Director of Regional Sales Organization at Intel Asia Pacific, was arranged and several guest speakers were invited to share their view with the audiences. These speakers included Chaney Ho, President of Advantech, Wen-yen K. Lin, Chairperson of Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) & President of Tatung, Kuen-Rong Lo, Director, Internet of Things Laboratory, Telecommunication Laboratories, Chunghwa Telecom, Dr. KC Chen, Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean of College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Taiwan University, Neil Hickey, Managing Director, Digital and the Mobility Practice Lead in Greater China, Accenture, and Jeffery Paul, VP of Software and Service Sales Organization, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel.Perfect Chance for Taiwan's Industry Transformation"It's time for the IoT market to take off. IoT applications will soon become reality, reshaping the industry landscape and people's lives", Philip Cronin said. "However, as interest and excitement for the IoT continues to grow, developers face significant challenges in security, interoperability, and deployment complexity.""It's exciting to see the emergence of IoT market, with opportunities everywhere in the future", Chaney Ho of Advantech echoed. "With strong foundations in PC industry, it is crucial for Taiwan, as we are in an urgent need to drive industry transformation. IoT offers the best opportunity for us to grasp post-PC era market. Furthermore, IoT involves various aspects from chipsets, middleware, application, to services, and its applications are across different vertical markets. Every company should be able to find a position in the market."Wen-yen K. Lin of Tatung also pointed out, "As technology gets ready, we are now at the important stage of IoT development. It's just like the dawn of IoT."As for Tatung's IoT market strategy, the company will first focus on smart energy area. Its subsidiary, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), has newly developed an intelligent gateway by integrating Intel Quark SoC and I/O board to provide a smart connection between energy management system and other commercial building devices.According to Wen-yen K. Lin, as energy has become a desperate issue all over the world, this new solution will help achieve significant energy and cost saving. More importantly, the concept of smart building can further be applied to other vertical markets, such as home, factory, and school, to enable smart community, smart city, and eventually the smart country."As a leading network operator in Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom is keen to incorporate IT technology to create innovative services for customers", Lo said. "Our plan is to build an IoT platform to further integrate different technologies in the future."Driving InnovationsFrom the viewpoint of academic research, Dr. KC Chen of National Taiwan University said, "While the paradigm shift accelerated, the way that hi-tech industry achieve success 20 years ago is no longer the same. The goal of driving IoT is to bring hi-tech to the society and public, therefore, innovation and research will play an important role."Facing the future challenges, Chen believed that new ways for education, research, and industrial cooperation are required to generate new impacts. In particular universities, being the cradle of talent cultivation, should reinforce their connections with the industry to get bigger benefits.From a leading consulting company, Neil Hickey of Accenture indicated that IoT is extremely hot in the market recently. "The impact that IoT brings to enterprises not only in the improvement of business efficiency, but also the new business models, and even the new game rules and competitors", he said.He pointed out that, facing the strong dynamics and great potentials of IoT market, companies should take bold actions to win the market. Anyone missing this new wave of paradigm shift will lag far behind the competition in the future.Meanwhile, because of the reshape of value chain and the emergence of new types of services and business models, companies should expect that sales channel in the future will also change. When deploying IoT market, companies should seriously consider if they have the right people and right skill sets to keep up with the demands of IoT market."IoT is about the interconnections among data, device, and cloud, and software plays an important key", Jeffery Paul of Intel said. "With products covering embedded platform, security software, API and tools, Intel has kept strengthening our software portfolios in recent years to build up comprehensive solutions to meet customers' requirements."Comprehensive Vertical SolutionsAt IoT Mega Sessions, Intel introduced its extensive solutions for various vertical applications, including retail, smart manufacturing, smart home smart city, big data, software and service.Retail Application"When consumers are seeking for individualized experiences, they also need to make sure that their personal information is safe", Ryan Lester, Director of Retail Market Development at Intel, said. "On the other hand, retailers also need to know their customers better, so they can tailor more effective, unified, and protected customer interactions across channels and touch points."Lester introduced the advanced features of Intel's platforms, which can help retailers to provide personalized, trusted experiences, and allow retailers and brands to add more flexibility to optimize their solutions for various market needs.Smart ManufacturingBob Ferrar, Senior Director of Segment Development and Architecture at Intel said, "In the next 15 years, the world consumption will double creating increased demand of goods. Therefore, higher output and lower cost manufacturing based on smart manufacturing IoT/Industry 4.0 techniques will the norm in the 21st century. And the realization of this goal relies on the integration of information technologies and automation technologies."Bob Ferrar explained Intel's IoT technologies in manufacturing, the steps to enable smart manufacturing and the equipment enabling blue print based on open standards. He emphasized that Smart Industrial extends beyond automating control equipment, but also automating deployment of data ingestion to deliver business intelligence in many verticals such as Smart Grid. He used the implementation at Intel as an example to explain the practical case of smart manufacturing.Smart CityGregg Berkeley, Intel's Global Business Development Director of IoT, said, "By the year 2025, 37 cities worldwide will have a population of greater than 10 million people. Cities already consume 2/3 of the world's energy and the majority of other resources." Therefore, it is crucial to build smart cities with better efficiency and energy saving performance. The top smart city opportunities include transportation, building automation and city sensing, such s pollution monitoring, traffic, and people flow."Smarter buildings are integration of information, security, communications, and energy technologies, and can further create new business models and services", he said. He took the "Automation Demanded-Response" solution of Daikin Applied as an example to explain Intel's technology portfolios for smart city, and called upon companies to work with Intel to make joint efforts to realize the vision of smart city.Larry Cheng, Global Sales Director of Embedded Sales Group at Intel, also pointed out, "Transportation contributes 5-10% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of most countries and plays a key role in inclusive growth, and sustainable development. In 2020, Intelligent Transportation Systems is forecasted to exceed well over USD 30 Billion in global revenue. From the rapid growth of cloud-based fleet management systems to the adoption of clean and connected public transportation systems, the transportation industry is a broad and diverse ecosystem that offers significant opportunity for open standards-based platforms. We are in the midst of a significant transformation of this industry as consumers, companies, and governments demand greater compute and connectivity solutions."Smart HomeDavid Paterson, Global Sales Director of Home Gateways at Intel, said, "Smart home covers various areas including security, automation, entertainment, healthcare, and energy management. There are different challenges for consumers and service providers. For the former, there are complicated point solutions and expensive hardware and services, and for the latter, there are the lengthy installation time, difficult integration, and lack of solution innovations."By adopting open platform, low-cost hardware, and building strong developer ecosystem, Intel aims to address these pain points for both consumers and service providers.He introduced Intel Puma 6, an Atom-based service gateway solution, with security and networking functions inside. In addition, its application processor is embedded with Intel's CPU, the Intel Virtualization Technology, VT-x. By bringing VT-x datacenter/servers technology to home routers, better hardware protection can be ensured.Big Data and IoTKenny Sng, APJ Solution Architect Manager of Intel, said, "IoT and Big Data is driving business transformation across industries. Intel can provide complete Big Data building blocks from device, gateway, network, to datacenter, in order to meet the application demands for analysis, management, connection, and security. Therefore, we can help customers leverage and monetize their infrastructure, assets and capabilities." Intel's partners, SAP and Cloudera, were also invited to introduce their Big Data solutions.Software, Service, and Security SolutionJeffery Paul, Vice President of Software and Services Sales Organization at Intel, said, "SMAC, convergence of social, mobile, analytics and cloud, is driving the rate of business and technology changes. It also creates the demand of new IT platforms. Using API has become crucial for companies to re-construct their business models. And Intel's Mashery API products and services can provide customers with significant strategic advantages. Cisco and Wayne Fueling Systems already adopted our API Management and it is proved that the solution can help them getting ahead from the competition."Troy Smith, Director of Intel IoT Solutions Alliance, said, "Delivering IoT solutions is not without challenges - such as integration, interoperability, and the limitations of legacy systems - and no one company is able to deliver all the necessary ingredients and services for scalable, secure deployments."Therefore, the establishment of Intel IoT Solutions Alliance is aimed to address these challenges through industry collaboration, in an effort to provide complete solutions for IoT. At present, the alliance has more than 250 members, covering over 2500 solutions from hardware, software, firmware, tool, to system integration, in a bid to speed up the deployment of smart devices, systems, and end-to end analytics applications.Rick Dwyer, VP & GM of Worldwide Embedded Sales Group at IntelSteen Graham, Director of Embedded Sales Group at Intel Asia Pacific Japan

The arrival of IoT (Internet of Things) era will bring unprecedented opportunities across industries and create new business models, which may have profound impact on global economics. Eyeing on the huge potentials of the emerging trend, Intel is making efforts to work with the eco-system in delivering comprehensive IoT solutions focusing to provide services that speak value for customers.At the "Intel IoT Asia" event held in Taipei recently, Intel invited important partners and Intel executives to introduce and demonstrate the latest development trends and various solutions for IoT. The event has attracted full house of participants reflecting the heated attention from local industry.At the panel discussion session, which was moderated by Philip Cronin, Director of Regional Sales Organization at Intel Asia Pacific, several guest speakers gathered together to talk about the benefits, challenges and opportunities as the industry is moving towards IoT era. These speakers included Chaney Ho, President of Advantech, Wen-yen K. Lin, Chairperson of Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) & President of Tatung, Kuen-Rong Lo, Director, Internet of Things Laboratory, Telecommunication Laboratories, Chunghwa Telecom, Dr. KC Chen, Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean of College of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, National Taiwan University, Neil Hickey, Managing Director, Digital and the Mobility Practice Lead in Greater China, Accenture, and Jeffery Paul, VP of Software and Service Sales Organization, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel.Opportunities everywhere"It's time for the IoT market to take off. IoT applications will soon become reality, reshaping the industry landscape and people's lives", Philip Cronin said during the opening remarks. "However, as interest and excitement for the IoT continues to grow, developers face significant challenges in security, interoperability, and deployment complexity.""It's exciting to see the emergence of IoT market, with opportunities everywhere in the future", Chaney Ho of Advantech echoed. "With strong foundations in PC industry, it is crucial for Taiwan, as we are in an urgent need to drive industry transformation. IoT offers the best opportunity for us to grasp post-PC era market. Furthermore, IoT involves various aspects from chipsets, middleware, application, to services, and its applications are across different vertical markets. Every company should be able to find a position in the market."Ho emphasized that innovation is the key to drive IoT market. With the diverse demands, no one can really dominate the market; therefore, companies of the whole value chain may have the opportunity.Advantech's IoT products include sensing, interconnect, and intelligent computing, and can offer solutions for different vertical applications. Ho believed that smart city and smart manufacturing, also known as the Industry 4.0, have the greatest potentials. "As Asia being the manufacturing center of the world, we can adopt IoT technology to significantly change the traditional models of production and services. In addition, Advantech has developed robot controller products, which can be used to improve productivity effectively", he said.Smart energy, cloud servicesWen-yen K. Lin of Tatung also pointed out, "As technology gets ready, we are now at the important stage of IoT development. It's just like the dawn of IoT."As for Tatung's IoT market strategy, the company will first focus on smart energy area. Its subsidiary, Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), has newly developed an intelligent gateway by integrating Intel Quark SoC and I/O board to provide a smart connection between energy management system and other commercial building devices.According to Wen-yen K. Lin, as energy has become an important issue all over the world, this new solution will help achieve significant energy and cost saving. More importantly, the concept of smart building can further be applied to other vertical markets, such as home, factory, and school, as to enable the smart community, smart city, and eventually the smart country.Kuen-Rong Lo of Chunghwa Telecom introduced the IoT services that company offers, including ITS intelligent transport service, iEN intelligent energy, smart home, and intelligent health."As a leading network operator in Taiwan, Chunghwa Telecom is keen to incorporate IT technology to create innovative services for customers", Lo said. "We are also the very first member of Cloud Computing Association in Taiwan, making lots of efforts to drive cloud application. Our plan is to build an IoT platform to further integrate different technologies in the future."All-Round innovationsFrom the viewpoint of academic research, Dr. KC Chen of National Taiwan University said, "While the paradigm shift accelerated, the way that hi-tech industry achieved success 20 years ago is no longer the same. The goal of driving IoT is to bring hi-tech to the society and public, therefore, innovation and research will play an important role."Facing the future challenges, Chen believed that new ways for education, research, and industrial cooperation are required to generate new impacts. In particular universities, being the cradle of talent cultivation, should reinforce their connections with the industry to get bigger benefits. He also commended the great results that the innovation research center, which was jointly set up by Intel and Taiwan University, has achieved in M2M area.Dr. Chen also mentioned about the vision of "Intelligence of Taiwan" that Taiwan government came up few years ago, aiming to build Taiwan as a technology island. The abbreviation of Intelligence of Taiwan, IoT, is the exactly same as Internet of Things. Taiwan should make use of the opportunity, transforming our strength in IT technology to embrace for the IoT era. "This should be the common goal for everyone in the industry", he said.From a leading consulting company, Neil Hickey of Accenture indicated that IoT is extremely hot in the market recently. "The impact that IoT brings to enterprises not only in the improvement of business efficiency, but also the new business models, and even the new game rules and competitors", he said. "For example, the unmanned car that Goolge develops is the competition that tradition car makers would never expect."He pointed out that, facing the strong dynamics and great potentials of IoT market, companies should take bold actions to win the market. Anyone missing this new wave of paradigm shift will lag far behind the competition in the future.Hickey echoed other people's opinions, saying, "Partnering will be one of key factors to the success of IoT. In addition, building platform solutions, accelerating the development and deployment of IoT, and transforming the traditional business model from product-centered to service-centered are all the new concepts that companies should have."Because of the reshape of value chain and the emergence of new types of services and business models, companies should expect that sales channel in the future will also change. When deploying IoT market, companies should seriously consider if they have the right people and right skill sets to keep up with the demands of IoT market.On the other hand, according to Hickey, data capture is a key element of IoT. However, until now, we don't have clear regulations to define the data access between connected devices. As the market progresses, he expected that the issue of legal authorization of data capture will become increasingly important in the future."IoT is about the interconnections among data, device, and cloud, and software plays an important key", Jeffery Paul of Intel said. "With products covering embedded platform, security software, API and tools, Intel has kept strengthening our software portfolios in recent years to build up comprehensive solutions to meet customers' requirements."In the end, Philip Cronin wrapped up the session, saying, "The industry is now starting the IoT journey. Though there are challenges ahead, we should work together to really solve customers' problems through strong partnership. By doing so, we will be able to realize the vision of IoT and create long-term prosperity for the industry."Philip Cronin, Director of Regional Sales Organization at Intel Asia PacificAt the "Intel IoT Asia" event held in Taipei recently, Intel invited important partners and Intel executives to introduce and demonstrate the latest development trends and various solutions for IoT.

Demand for miniaturized fuses has been dramatically increasing with the rapid development of handheld devices and various consumer electronics. Following its success as the world's number-one producer of micro fuse products including the MST, MSF, MET, MEF series, this year Conquer Electronics will launch a new MMT series, reducing the dimensions to 60% of the MST/MSF series.Conquer Electronics also leads the industry by adding QR codes to the micro-sized products to enhance traceability of individual products, whereby each product can be traced simply by scanning the QR code. Suitable applications include power supply products with space constraints such as mini-chargers, LED bulbs and light tubes.Features of Conquer Electronics Micro Fuse MST/MSF SeriesConquer Electronics micro fuses are produced with Germany-made automated equipment with the capacity of 900 million units per year, is the highest in the world. Total sales volume in 2013 reached 500 million units, is the number one in the world. Accumulated sales volume over the past five years was up to more than two billion units. The micro fuses have the world's highest breaking capacity to interrupt 100A, 400V, and have passed nine safety certifications around the world. Conquer Electronics adopts high-frequency soldering instead of traditional direct electrical heating soldering so as to deliver consistent high quality and also save energy. With advanced production process and forward-looking product planning, Conquer Electronics is competitive in terms of cost-down efforts, therefore holds the highest share - over 65% - of the power supply market in Taiwan. Its micro fuse products are so cost-efficient that they can be readily plugged in without bending pins or adding heat shrink tubing. Having low resistance and high I2t rating against surge current, these products are the ideal solution to replace 3.6 cartridge fuses.About Conquer Electronics Co., Ltd.: Conquer Electronics is the leading fuse manufacturer in Taiwan. Its fuse components are used in various types of electronic devices, ranging from industrial, automotive, consumer electronics, telecommunications, to healthcare applications. Conquer Electronics is dedicated to process automation and compliance with international environmental protection regulations. Conquer Electronics strives to satisfy customer needs and to strengthen safety of passive components in hopes to become a world-class fuse developer and manufacturer. For more information, please visit http://www.conquer.com.tw/.MMT dimension is only 60% of the original MST. QR code is added for product traceability.

Apple has updated its Mac mini with the latest technologies and a new lower starting price. The Mac mini now features Intel's fourth-generation Core processors, integrated graphics, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Thunderbolt 2.The new Mac mini delivers new levels of graphics performance, expandability and connectivity. New integrated Intel HD Graphics 5000 and Intel Iris graphics deliver up to 90% faster graphics performance than the previous generation. The Mac mini now includes two Thunderbolt 2 ports, each delivering up to 20Gbps of bandwidth to each port, as well as next-generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi that is up to three times faster when connected to an 802.11ac base station, said Apple.The Mac mini comes in three standard models: a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with Turbo Boost speeds up to 2.7GHz, 4GB of memory, Intel HD Graphics 5000 and a 500GB hard drive starting at a suggested retail price of US$499; a 2.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.1GHz, 8GB of memory, Intel Iris graphics and a 1TB hard drive starting at suggested retail price of US$699; and a 2.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.3GHz, 8GB of memory, Intel Iris graphics and a 1TB Fusion Drive starting at a suggested retail price of US$999.Customers can choose to configure their Mac mini with up to a 3.0GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of memory, and up to a 1TB PCIe-based flash drive.Apple Mac mini desktopPhoto: Company

Apple has introduced the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3. The iPad Air 2, which is 6.1mm thin, and the iPad mini 3 both offer Touch ID.Apple said the iPad Air 2 comes with an improved Retina display featuring a fully-laminated design and its custom-designed anti-reflective coating reduces glare by 56%.The iPad Air 2 is powered by the new A8X chip, which Apple said delivers a 40% improvement in CPU performance and 2.5 times the graphics performance of the iPad Air, and still delivers an up to 10-hour battery life. It is equipped with Metal, the new graphics technology in iOS 8. The iPad Air 2 also includes the M8 motion coprocessor that gathers motion data from the accelerometer, gyroscope, compass and a new barometer which senses air pressure to provide relative elevation.The iPad Air 2 comes with an 8-megapixel sensor and advanced optics in the iSight camera to help capture high quality photos and videos. The FaceTime HD camera now captures over 80% more light than iPad Air's camera, and features burst mode as well as HDR stills and video.The iPad Air 2 delivers connectivity with 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology for 2.8 times the Wi-Fi performance of iPad Air at data rates up to 866Mbps. The iPad Air 2 with Wi-Fi + Cellular integrates even more LTE bands and comes with expanded LTE for up to 50% faster cellular connections, plus support for other fast cellular technology around the world (DC-HSDPA, HSPA+).Touch ID can be used as a way to approve purchases from the App Store, iTunes Store or iBooks Store, and with Apple Pay, when paying for physical goods and services within apps.The new iPads come with iOS 8.1 including Continuity features across iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite that enable a user's Apple products to work together. Handoff lets users start an activity on one device and pass it to another, and when a user's iPhone is on the same Wi-Fi network, he/she can make and receive phone calls from his/her iPad.The iPad mini line has been updated to include the iPad mini 3 with Touch ID and the iPad mini with Retina display, now called the iPad mini 2 and starting at just US$299. Both iPads feature a Retina display, A7 chip, 5-megapixel iSight camera and FaceTime HD camera. The iPad mini is also available starting at US$249.The iPad Air 2 with Wi-Fi models will be available for a suggested retail price of US$499 for the 16GB model, US$599 for the 64GB model and US$699 for the 128GB model. The iPad Air 2 with Wi-Fi + Cellular models will be available for a suggested retail price of US$629 for the 16GB model, US$729 for the 64GB model and US$829 for the 128GB model. The iPad mini 3 with Wi-Fi models will be available for a suggested retail price of US$399 for the 16GB model, US$499 for the 64GB model and US$599 for the 128GB model. The iPad mini 3 with Wi-Fi + Cellular models will be available for a suggested retail price of US$529 for the 16GB model, US$629 for the 64GB model and US$729 for the 128GB model.The iPad Air starts at US$399 for the 16GB with Wi-Fi model, the iPad mini 2 starts at US$299 for the 16GB with Wi-Fi model, and the iPad mini starts at US$249 (US) for the 16GB with Wi-Fi model.Apple iPad Air 2 (left) and iPad mini 3 (right) tabletsPhoto: Company

With patented heart spectrum blood pressure monitoring technologies as its core, OSTAR Meditech Corp. has successfully developed a "Smart Cloud Vital Sign Monitoring System", which is adopted by local hospitals and shows significant nursing efficiency improvement. Next, the company will further cooperate with fitness equipment makers to develop wearables, in an effort to drive the widespread use of smart medical devices.Unique Heart Spectrum Monitoring Technology"Preventing myocardial infarction is the ultimate goal of our company", Dr. Steven Chang, CTO of OSTAR, said. Chang was a military technology expert before, but decides to apply hi-tech in developing medical instruments to save more lives.He explained that the company's patented heart spectrum monitoring technology is to directly calculate the heart blood vessel pressure change (not statistics model), and get the important information of the systolic pressure, the diastolic pressure, the pulse, and so on. Also, it can calculate the patient's heart noise using digital signal processor to analyze the frequency of heart zone, the valve zone, and cardiovascular zone."Traditional sphygmomanometer can't find out the changes of blood pressure and heart spectrum clearly. With our product, users can monitor the frequency changes of hearts, in a way to take actions to prevent myocardial infarction or hear attack from taking place", he emphasized.Another unique feature of OSTAR's blood pressure monitor is its self-calibration function. By using special algorithm, the product can guarantees its accuracy throughout its lifecycle, so that users can make measurements at home with a peace of mind.With these unique patented technologies, OSTAR's heart spectrum blood pressure monitors have been accepted by major hospitals in Taiwan and have won many awards in the past years, including National Business Award, International Medical Care Innovation Award, Good Products Designs Prize, Innovation Research Prize, and the latest Invention Award in Japan.Smart Vital Sign Monitor SystemPopulation aging and the shortage of nursing staff are two of major challenges for health institutes all over the world. Aiming to solve this problem, OSTAR has developed a cloud vital sing monitor system, A3, to help improve nursing efficiency."A3 is an integrated and automated monitor system for nursing staff", Chang introduced. "With embedded heart spectrum blood pressure monitoring card, we designed A3 by adding more other functions, including wireless transmission, barcode scanner, database system, as well as vital signs measurement and recording capabilities for blood pressure, blood oxygen, body temperature, respiration rate, uric glucose, blood glucose, and pain degree.""Nurses can use this system to scan patent's barcode first, and then take vital signs measurement. All the data will be transmitted to the hospital's database or cloud system automatically."A3 has been adopted by Taipei Medical University Hospital for one year, and it is proved that, by eliminating the manual labor, the nursing data collection efficiency is improved by more than 30%. Meanwhile, it can help improve data accuracy for reliable patient care and reduce hospital expense by creating a paperless environment.In order to make sure that all the data is transferred accurately, OSTAR has developed a patent of "confirmed transmission of data" to provide 100% reliability of the system.A3 is not only a perfect solution for smart wards, but also is suitable to be used in long-term healthcare centers to address the issues of care quality and staff shortage.The Future Trend of Smart MedicalChang claimed that OSTAR is the first and the only company that develops a smart monitor system like this."With our core heart spectrum blood pressure technology, we integrate other key components to make it a system that can really solve nursing staff's problems, and is also featured with friendly user interface", he said.With years of R&D experiences, Chang emphasized that the company has in-house design and development capabilities, and has secured 27 patents for the smart system."I am sure that we are at the forefront of the market, and has successfully built up a patent barrier to against competitions", Chang said. "It's very clear that adopting smart monitoring systems to take proactive measures for patient care and improve healthcare quality will be the trend in the future. We are well positioned to provide right products to meet these market requirements.For some vital signs measurements, such as blood glucose and body temperature that OSTAR is not specialized in, the company chose to cooperate with other local companies.Chang believes that it's now a inflection point for the healthcare industry to adopting more ICT technologies, and medical instruments will be increasingly penetrated into household and consumer markets in the end."As a powerhouse in global ICT industry, Taiwan has many medical instrument makers specializing in different areas. It's a great opportunity for us to work together to develop a highly differentiated smart system to expand global market through mutual cooperation", he said.Grasp Market Opportunities with Rich PortfoliosOSTAR's A3 system has been adopted by Show Chwan Hospital and Taipei Medical University Hospital in Taiwan. As for overseas market, "There are 6~7 hospitals are now in test stage currently. I am very optimistic that we will be able to expand the market to as many as 100 hospitals in 4 years", Chang indicated.In addition to heart spectrum blood pressure monitor and A3 smart system, OSTAR has also expanded its product portfolios to other related applications, such as telemedicine system, monitor system for discharged patients, and so on.Meanwhile, OSTAR has teamed up with Prohealthcare Pharmacy and Vision Clinic to implement medical cloud systems, as well as work with leading IT brand, Acer, to build corporate cloud of medical systems.Wearable devices will be another focus for OSTAR. At present, the company is working with Dyaco International to develop a sports band that can transmit blood oxygen and blood pressure data to treadmills. "Sports bands are popular gadgets recently. But, without useful medical information, these devices will only be toys", Chang said."At present, most sports bands can only show heart rate, and our product will take the lead to show more important information such as blood oxygen and blood pressure, to make it more valuable."Chang is keen about OSTAR's future development, since he believes that the growth momentum of health industry and related applications will be huge in the future.Dr. Steven Chang, CTO of OSTAR

As the telecom market moves from 3G to 4G, smartphones require more miniature inductors. A 3G smartphone may only need 15-20 miniature high-frequency chip inductors but a 4G one may require 60-90 pcs. It is therefore imperative to find ways to fit more components in the limited space of a phone or provide more space for batteries by down sizing the component size.The mainstream size for high-frequency chip inductors has been reduced from 0402 to 0201. Using the traditional process to make miniaturized components will usually lead to poorer product efficiency; and for products to maintain or even improve its efficiency, changes need to be made to the materials or circuit design. While the multilayer inductor traditional process can no longer support the 0201 design, the multilayer inductor via process has become the mainstream because it can achieve higher production precision and smaller internal circuit design through support of virtual software. Therefore, Chilisin, which is capable of manufacturing using the via process, has a great competitive edge.Chilisin successfully begins volume production using the technologically-demanding via processThe via process is demanding because it uses extremely thin foil. Advanced laser is used to create via holes on the foil and the holes are then mapped onto different positions of the component. Compared to the traditional process, the via process can allow the printing of more varieties of shapes. According to Chilisin's R&D team, different inductor makers may use the same models of equipment, but the difference is how the equipment is tuned, which involves a lot of know-how. The firm spent a lot of energy developing and improving the process and began using it to mass produce inductors in 2008 ahead of its peers.Among all Taiwan-based inductor makers, Chilisin has the most via process production equipment with a monthly capacity for 400 million units of 0201 high-frequency chip inductors. It plans to expand the monthly capacity to 600 million units in first-half 2015 and 800 million in second-half 2015, as order visibility is clear and demand has been up growing. Currently, via processed products account for around 40% of all Chilisin-made multilayer chip inductors, and the proportion is expected to increase to 70% in the near future.Downsizing without sacrificing functionalitiesCurrently Chilisin mainly uses the via process for making multilayer 0201 high-frequency chip inductors (CHQ0603), multilayer power inductors (MPE), and multilayer common mode filters (CMF). Although the size has been reduced, the functions have not been compromised.Chilisin's executives noted normally a decrease in an inductor's size will be accompanied by weakened capabilities. But at Chilisin, the via process is enhanced by high precision control and simulation software, plus the internal pattern design. Chilisin can produce 0201 inductors whose functions are comparable to those of 0402 ones. The 0201 inductors have been a major focus of Chilisin's product portfolio in the past two years. Chilisin's CHQ0603 series 0201 high-frequency chip inductors can provide 0.6nH-22nH tolerance with only +/-0.1nH tolerance. The product also has low setting up DC resistance (RDC) and high rate current (900mA max).Similarly, the MPE series multilayer power inductors produced using the via process has seen a decrease in size, as well as a 30% reduction in RDC with a three-fold increase in saturation current. These meet mobile devices' requirements for smaller-size components with higher efficiency. Chilisin's new multilayer common mode filters have also decreased in size from 2.0mm x 1.2mm to 0.8mm x 0.6mm. In smartphones, common mode filters are used in MIPI interface which can lower transmission noises caused by the screen and camera module. As more and more filters are required in smartphones, miniaturization is inevitable.The above-mentioned products are mainly supplied to handset makers. In fact, Chilisin has seen breakthroughs in the handset market in recent years. The revenues from this market increased from 16% of total revenues in 2013 to around 25% in 2014. The revenue share will continue to increase in the future.In-house powder production and flexible process combinationsChilisin's leadership in via process volume production lies in its capability of making powders of its own. In Taiwan's inductor sector, Chilisin is the only one that has its own powder-making plants and can adjust its powder formulation. The firm can entirely produce its own powders such as nickel zinc (for inductors) and alloys. In addition to being self-sufficient in producing various powders, Chilisin is one of only a few firms that have all the process technologies for producing multilayering, wire-winding molding, one-piece and thin-film inductors.Chilisin's executives stated that originally, these process technologies were applied individually, but as they matured and advanced, Chilisin began integrating them in preparation for the next wave of demand. For example, the result of combining thin-film and multilayer processes is sub-micron level small-size inductors. Also, the modeling array products rely on a combination of the molding and thin-film processes.Chilisin has flexible capabilities to combine processes, which means the firm can fast response to demand from various markets. In particular, Chilisin believes NFC is the next big thing in the market. Chilisin's executives noted the company has developed related products and has been working with handset makers. When the market begins to boom, Chilisin can satisfy demand immediately by using its flexible production processes.0201 and 0402 high frequency chip inductor specifications