GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, announced the winners of its latest overclocking contest, the GIGABYTE 'Feel the Force' Contest. Running from November 1st to December 1st 2013, HWBOT.org members competed on three stages to win GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force motherboards, CORSAIR Graphite Series 230T mid tower cases and Force Series LS 120GB SATA 3 6Gb/s SSDs.The GIGABYTE 'Feel the Force' OC ContestContest StagesStage 1: Highest CPUz CPU FrequencyStage 2: Highest CPUz DDR3 SpeedStage 3: Highest CPUz BCLKContest Winners1st Place Winner: Vivi - South AfricaStage 1: 6899.88 MHz (16 Pts)Stage 2: 1943.1 MHz (16 Pts)Stage 3: 204.5 MHz (25 Pts)Total: 57 Points2nd Place Winner: Hero – ChinaStage 1: 7150.69 MHz (25 Pts)Stage 2: 1867.3 MHz (13 Pts)Stage 3: 203,54 MHz (18 Pts)Total: 56 Points3rd Place Winner: laoshu1919 – ChinaStage 1: 6820.19 MHz (15 Pts)Stage 2: 2027.5 MHz (18 Pts)Stage 3: 200.2 (14 Pts)Total: 47 PointsFor complete contest rules, scoring and more details, please visit the contest page hosted on HWBOT.org: http://hwbot.org/competition/gbt_feelforceGIGABYTE 'Feel the Force' Contest Prizes1st Place Prize:*GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force Motherboard*CORSAIR Force Series LS 120GB SSD*CORSAIR Graphite Series 230T Windowed Mid Tower Case – Rebel Orange2nd Place Prize:*GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force Motherboard*CORSAIR Force Series LS 120GB SSD3rd Place Prize:*GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Motherboard*CORSAIR Graphite Series 230T Windowed Mid Tower Case – Rebel OrangeGIGABYTE Z87X-OC ForceThe GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force delivers a sublime OC experience without compromising on features. Support for maxed-out 4-way SLI and Crossfire graphics configurations is paired with an incredible 16 phase digital VRM for the CPU and memory. The GIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force truly is peerless and utterly ruthless.Learn more about GIGABYTE's exclusive overclocking features here: http://www.gigabyte.com/MicroSite/336/images/oc-features.htmlGIGABYTE Z87X-OC Force

The Internet changed our life enormously. McKinsey Global Institute recently released a report to highlight the number of connected machines has grown by three times over the past five years, due largely to the transformational power of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies and their ability to drive greater efficiency in the business world. The invention of IoT enables a new revolutionary thinking of how we look at those devices to be connected and the things we have to deal with everyday.The first market trend to drive this change is making every device connected, or called "Everything Connected" effects. According to McKinsey Global Institute report, there were two billion devices in 2006, then 15 billion in 2015. And the projection to 2020, it will reach 50 billion units for explosive growth.As more than 35 years Intel provided embedded solutions in the industry, more devices become connected every day, companies face increased challenges because fragmentation, interoperability and security threats. To address this, Intel is trying to deliver integrated hardware and software solutions specifically designed to meet market needs. This is the second market trend called "Compute Economics".Along with the amount of data being generated by the immense connected devices and machines is a 10X growth in the amount of data we produce today by 2016. And most of the data is "unstructured data", meaning the information coming in from a wide variety of sources using different protocols and translations, which doesn't mean a whole lot in the context of other sources of information. It is a big demand to drive huge data process and analysis tasks. And this is the third trend "Big data and analytics".All these three major market trends rely on Internet as an integrated platform to link mobile networking, cloud computing, big data analytics and more new solutions to drive business transformation. The true value of IoT is realized when these connected devices and sensors communicate and share data with each other and the cloud, analyzing information and transferring to applications or systems that can change our way to do the business in the world.Intel forms new Group to accelerate business development of IoT marketThe APAC Internet of Things Day seminar was held on November 11, 2013 in TICC Taipei. During the event, Intel presented several CPU product lines and solutions featuring integrated software from McAfee and Wind River applications, opening up opportunities in IoT industries with a convincing product portfolio.Meanwhile, a new organization accelerates the business development of IoT in Intel. Called the IoT Solutions Group, this new organization will include the Intelligent Systems Group and Wind River organizations, bringing together the intelligent systems hardware, software, services and platform elements together into one organization.Jim Robinson, General Manager of IoT Solutions Group Segments and Broad Market Division, is one of keynote speakers. He highlighted IoT implementations will across several industries including medical care, manufacturing, public transportation, retail, telecommunication, consumer electronics and energy industries in the next decade. Intel will deliver solutions for companies that are investing in technologies to both drive operating efficiencies and create new services by connecting devices to each other and the cloud to transform businesses.Expand roadmap for IoT solutions and devicesAn end-to-end strategy requires making devices more intelligent and secure to reliably filter and manage data effectively. The Intel IoT roadmap provides a scalable product lines to power devices in different network infrastructures, from the energy-efficient Intel Quark SoC to the high-performance Intel Xeon processors.First of all, the new Intel Atom processor E3800 product family features improved media and graphics performance, error-correcting code (ECC), industrial temperature range, integrated security and integrated image signal processing. These features help reduce time-to-market, accelerate data intensive applications and reduce energy consumption. This product family is well suited for digital signage applications such as interactive kiosks, intelligent vending, ATMs and point-of-sale terminals as well as portable medical devices and in-vehicle infotainment systems.The addition of the low-power, small-core Intel Quark SoC X1000 will extend the product lines into new and rapidly growing IoT markets. The new product family features error-correcting code (ECC), industrial temperature range and integrated security. ECC delivers a high level of data integrity, reliability and system uptime for equipment required to run at all times, while industrial temperature range helps meet the requirements for industrial control and automation applications. The Quark processor core is a 32-bit, single core, single-thread, Intel Pentium instruction set architecture (ISA) compatible CPU operating at speeds up to 400MHz. This is extremely important to Taiwan Industrial-PC vendors and automation solution providers because massively reduction of software development cost and timing.For better assistance of engineering development, Intel released Galileo development boards to help design engineers shortening development cycles and time to market.Connecting the old and new devices with gateway solutionsWith more than 85 percent of today's devices based on existing Intel CPUs and systems, a significant need exists for an interim step to address interoperability instead of replacing all existing infrastructure. Working with McAfee and Wind River, Intel solves this question with a new family of gateway solutions that connect old systems and provide common interfaces and seamless communication between devices and the cloud. Targeting industrial, energy and transportation markets, this system of systems helps ensure that the data generated by devices and existing infrastructure can be shared securely between the cloud and devices for analysis.The new family of new gateway solutions from Intel provides integrated and pre-validated hardware and software, including McAfee Embedded Control and the Wind River Intelligent Device Platform, that help develop, prototype and deploy application services faster so companies can focus on creating new, value-added services. With these solutions, users can securely aggregate, filter and share data from the cloud in areas such as monitoring high-value industrial assets, facilitating manufacturing automation, energy grid automation, and commercial fleet monitoring.The first set of gateway solutions will feature versions based on the Intel Quark SoC X1000 and Atom processor E3800 product family and will be available in the first quarter of 2014.Jim Robinson presented Westfalen Weser Energie project as a good example in the seminar to describe the applications of intelligent gateway. Intel is working with this large power and gas distribution grid operator to develop and deploy gateways in its secondary energy substations. As more renewables come online, managing energy flows becomes more complicated and Westfalen Weser Energie is using intelligent gateways to interface with its legacy devices and acquire, analyze and act on data in real-time.Exploring intelligence in data from device to the datacenterIntel is delivering a scalable product lines of hardware and software designed to explore the data intelligence from the device through the network to the cloud to enable new business models and service offerings. By developing horizontal building blocks for vertical end-to-end analytics as well as distributed analytics for user's systems and datacenter, Intel is enabling companies to turn big data into valuable information.Another example of business transformation in the event is the Daikin Applied project. Daikin Applied, one of the world's largest air conditioning, heating, ventilating and refrigeration company, is using the Intel-based intelligent gateway solutions to deploy solutions for commercial HVAC equipment. Daikin Applied connects its existing Rebel rooftop units and delivers data to the cloud that is then aggregated and analyzed. By using intelligent gateway solution, Daikin Applied is able to focus on rapidly deploying differentiated value-added services such as real-time HVAC unit performance, remote diagnostics, monitoring and control, advanced energy management, and third party content integration services to its customers. This also helps the owner of building to increase property values when negotiated with estate realtors or property management firms.Commonly referred to as the importance of data security and personal privacy issues, this reality is being driven by increasingly connected devices, cloud economics for computing and data, and the acceleration of big data analytics. McAfee is one of the most important partners of security. Greg Brown, vice president and CTO, Cloud and Data Center Solutions at McAfee, presented in the seminar. He highlighted McAfee Embedded Control is a security platform to maintain system integrity and block unauthorized applications and change on fixed-function, point-of-service infrastructures, including retail devices, medical devices, industrial control systems, office equipments and devices. It provides a simple, lightweight software technology to make connected devices resilient to malware infections and attacks.Wind River Intelligent Device Platform is a firmware type product which already a standards-compliant and fully tested system. Namiq Kunimoto, vice president of APAC regions at Wind River Systems, gave his keynote speech to introduce software solutions. The platform provides device security, smart connectivity, rich network options, and device management including broad modem support and PAN, LAN, and WAN network access. This platform will integrated all the features and give the cost support to IoT system developers.IoT focus on exploring the value of Big DataRick Dwyer, vice-president of sales and marketing group and general manager of worldwide embedded systems group at Intel, raised Zipcar service as another good example of innovation of IoT.Zipcar is a brilliant good idea of "sharing" car usage via a membership organization. The founder of Zipcar was a housewife, who has the vision of appreciation the low rates, living without the hassle of car maintenance and paying for gas, parking and insurance. The idea is especially perfect fit for the requirements of students or wives living in the suburbs.People just need to sign up online for Zipcar and went to the parking place to pick up the rented car through Internet or smart phones with membership. The rental fees are US$8 an hour or $72 a day covering gas, parking and insurance expanses. It costs you depending on how much time you use the services.The technologies behind Zipcar services are the applications of IoT. It leverages the power of big data analysis to provide services of localization, satisfaction and customization. Reducing cost of operation and creating a loyal customer base becomes the success of Zipcar business model. Zipcar not only is highly praised by the public, but also contributes to global environmental protection.Today, a bunch of big name IT companies step into IoT development because of emerging business opportunities and potential business model transformation. Aside from focusing on the hardware devices or sensor components, Taiwan IT and electronics manufacturers can also look at some innovative ideas from the IoT Day event and continue to extend the applications to new emerging market.Steen Graham, Asia Pacific Director, Embedded Sales Group at IntelJim Robinson, General Manager of IoT Solutions Group Segments and Broad Market Division at IntelRick Dwyer, Vice President of SMG & General Manager of Worldwide ESG at IntelGreg Brown, Vice President and CTO, Cloud and Data Center Solutions at McAfeeNamiq Kunimoto, Vice President of APAC regions at Wind River Systems

To recognize international firms for their contributions to Taiwan's IT industry, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) held the "2013 Outstanding Electronics and Information International Partner Firm Awards and Appreciation Banquet" in Taipei on November 27. Minister of Economic Affairs Chang Chia-juch presented 20 awards to 18 foreign firms earning recognition as best in six major categories.The six categories were "technology value-added partner," "software integration partner," "green system partner," "strategic bright spot partner," "versatile innovation partner," and "market expansion partner."The following is a list of the award-winning firms and the basis on which they were granted their awards:1. "Technology value-added partner": Foreign firms making special contributions by engaging in joint R&D with Taiwanese partners and establishing R&D centers in Taiwan. In alphabetical order, the three award-winning firms in this category were Applied Materials, ASML, and TDK.2. "Software integration partner": The top three international firms selected by Taiwanese information hardware and software firms on the basis of "outstanding contribution to enhancement of Taiwan's information industry software and systems integration competitiveness." In alphabetical order, the three award-winning firms in this category were Google, Microsoft, and Tokai.3. "Green system partner": The top three international firms selected by Taiwanese information hardware and software firms on the basis of "outstanding assistance with Taiwan's development of a green systems industry, and further assistance to Taiwan's green system exports." In alphabetical order, the three award-winning firms in this category were Hitachi, HP, and Panasonic.4. "Strategic bright spot partner": The top three international firms recommended by the Industrial Development Bureau on the basis of strategy direction consistent with government policy, assistance with optimization of Taiwan's industry structure, and contribution to raising added value. In alphabetical order, the three award-winning firms in this category were Ericsson, Kodansha, and Micron.5. "Versatile innovation partner": The top three international firms selected by Taiwanese information hardware and software firms on the basis of "assisting Taiwanese firms to introduce innovative services, establishing an applied R&D environment in Taiwan, and providing innovative service manpower training." In alphabetical order, the three award-winning firms in this category were Google, IBM, and Sony.6. "Market expansion partner": The top five international firms determined on the basis of weighted calculations using indicators announced the Industrial Development Bureau, including total purchases in Taiwan throughout the year, total purchases of products manufactured in Taiwan throughout the year, effective tax rate during the most recent three years, and growth in number of employees during the most recent three years. The top five award-winning firms in this category were, in alphabetical order, HP, Dell, Qualcomm, Lenovo, and Broadcom.To ensure that Taiwan possesses an all-encompossing information and communications industry supply chain, the MOEA has been encouraging the use of technology to strengthen value chain depth, and the enhancement added value and interdisciplinary cooperation to accelerate industrial upgrading and help Taiwan become a global innovative trade hub. Starting from last year, the indicators by which the award-winning firms are selected have been broadened as part of a shift from the emphasis on foreign firms' purchases in Taiwan to the establishment of partnerships between foreign firms and Taiwanese firms. Because of this, this awards activity seeks to stress a vision of "enhancing value and promoting partnership" and "diverse innovation and considerate services."Apart from recognizing foreign firms for their introduction of new technologies to Taiwan, these awards also expressed appreciation of those firms establishing R&D centers in Taiwan, enhancing the software and systems integration capabilities of Taiwan's information industry, jointly engaging in product development with Taiwan's ODM firms, and thereby helping to train innovative manpower and create employment opportunities, as well as helping Taiwanese firms to develop a green systems industry and expanding investment in Taiwan in conjunction with government policies, and thus helping to enhance the country's overall industrial competitiveness. Apart from this, the MOEA also hopes that foreign firms will join forces with Taiwan's information and communications industry and establish industry chains and partnerships in the areas of software, content, systems, services, and green products at this key moment for industrial transformation, and thus help realize the economic vision of "a strong Taiwan, connected with the Asia-Pacific, and deployed globally."According to Minister Chang, in order to respond to changes in the global environment and the challenges of cross-Strait industrial development, the MOEA will continue to lead Taiwan's ICT industry in the direction of a high added value industry structure and enhanced international competitiveness. The MOEA will take "three industries/four modernizations" (service strategies in manufacturing, internationalization and technologization of service industry, and specialization of traditional industry) and mid-sized "Backbone Enterprises" as its main focal points as it promotes the continued development of industry in Taiwan. Because of this, apart from establishing a highly attractive investment environment, the MOEA will also emphasize the establishment of long-term partnerships between foreign and Taiwanese firms and a higher level of industry chain cooperation, in hope that Taiwanese industry and foreign collaborators can jointly enter a new era amidst the intense industrial transformations of the post-PC age.Looking back on the past decade, foreign firms purchases in Taiwan have continued to soar. According to the Institute for Information Industry's MIC survey, foreign information firms made purchases worth close to US$91.7 billion in Taiwan this year (2013), and this was nearly double the figure of US$48.5 billion of ten years ago (2003). The MIC survey also estimated that the total output of Taiwan's information hardware industry, including both exports and domestic sales, will surpass US$134.2 billion in 2013. Apart from domestic firms' dedicated efforts to strengthen the industry and their innovative R&D undertakings, the current achievements of Taiwan's information industry owe much to the long-term partnerships established between foreign firms and cooperating Taiwanese firms, which have shed light on the contributions to the industry made by these foreign collaborators.Apart from recognizing and expressing gratitude to the foreign companies that have made such great contributions to Taiwan's information industry, this awards event also featured the invitation of approximately 75 persons from domestic firms, associations connected with major international cooperating firms, and foreign trade offices in Taiwan (notably the American Institute in Taiwan). High-level personnel from the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association, Information Service Industry Association of R.O.C., Institute for Information Industry, Quanta, Compal, Liton, Wistron InfoComm, Pegatron, Inventec, BenQ, Delta Electronic, Tatung, Via Technologies. Qisda, Microstar, Mitac International, Alpha Networks, MitraStar, Wistron, Mitac, Systex, International Integrated Systems, and Inotera were in attendance, along with the heads or representatives of government units including the Industrial Development Bureau, Industrial Technology Department, Industrial Development and Investment Center, and Investment Commission.

As embedded devices move towards intelligent systems, the traditional video surveillance devices are also seeking to add more intelligence, in order to make differentiation in the highly-competitive market. In WPC 2013, Advantech introduced the trend of deploying intelligent video solutions in a wide range of vertical applications and how it will team up with partners to provide complete hardware and software solutions.According to market reports, the production value of analog cameras, IP cameras and DVR will reach USD 16.4 billion by 2015, and the CAGR for electronic surveillance equipment from 2012 to 2017 is 17.8%."Though the video surveillance market is still growing, the fierce competition has made pure video hardware manufacturers almost profitless," Victor Jan, Senior Director of iService-IoT Division, Advantech, said.Jan stressed that, "In order to survive in the market and create added value for video surveillance, moving towards intelligent video or adopting video analytics solution has become a must. This is also Advantech's strategy to drive the wider adoption of intelligent video from this year."As more and more cameras are creating video data at unprecedented rates, how to properly handle the unstructured content has brought new challenges for customers. In particular, relying on human operators alone to investigate and review all the video content is very time consuming and imprecise.Dale Small, Senior Product Manager of 3VR, explained that, intelligent video is a digital video technology integrated with analytical software to automatically track and identify objects, analyze motion and extract video intelligence from analog, digital, or IP video streams.With this search, analysis, alert, and report functions, video surveillance could be more intelligent to handle the tasks such as counting the number of customers entering a building during a specific time period, identifying the geographic location of something or someone, or detecting suspicious activity and triggering alarms and/or alerts.Steve Shaw, Founder of TCIT, also introduced how the company's face recognition-based intelligent imaging solutions can to used for applications such as VIP or blacklist recognition, age and gender estimation, and parking lot detection."It is the trend that intelligent video go to vertical applications, including retail store, traffic monitoring, digital signage, inspection and so on," Victor Jan pointed out.FullSee Technology, Advantech's partner in China, introduced its intelligent video solutions in intelligent transport systems (ITS) and traffic monitoring. Matrox talked about its intelligent video walls solutions.Intelligent Video Analytics (IVA) market in 2011 was worth USD 180 million, and is expected to grow USD 867.8 million by 2017, with CAGR of 30.4% from 2012 to 2017. The potentials are huge.To help customer move into the intelligent video market quickly, Advantech not only teams up with related software partners but also develops a full range of hardware solutions.Victor Jan commented that, analog CCTV will still account for the larger portion in the surveillance equipment market in next three to five years. In response to the trend of moving towards IP and HD-SDI cameras, a Tribrid DVR system, which can be compatible with IP, HD-SDI, and CCTV structures, will play an important role in the transition period.Advantech can offer hardware solutions to fully satisfy this market demand. Meanwhile, though the platform competition among SoC/DSP, RISC, and x86 is getting bloody, Advantech bets on TI's DSP technology. "TI should be the winner in SMB and project-based IP surveillance market," Victor Jan said. With a full range of hardware and software solutions available, Advantech is now seeking partnership opportunity with local companies to further expand the intelligent video market in China.Advantech can offer Intelligent Video hardware solutions to fully satisfy this market demandFinding more Advantech WPC information

In WPC 2013, which was held from November 21st to November 23rd in Suzhou, Advantech invited important guests from Intel, ARM, and Loogson to join a panel discussion on the theme of "The Latest Technology Advancements and Industry Outlook to Accelerate Intelligent Solutions" to share their vision and technology, and advise how companies can work together to grow the ecosystem.As the intelligent system market grows, the world becomes more interconnected, which will ignite new and huge opportunities for everyone involved in the design and deployment of connected devices, including silicon vendors, hardware providers, software providers and system integrators. Thus, a robust and broad ecosystem support is required to make IoT a reality.All these three companies emphasized the importance of building a strong ecosystem to drive innovation. And they all are key partners for Advantech's embedded offerings.Hu Weiwu, Chief Architect of Loongson, pointed out that, "The business potential for IoT in China is definitely huge. However, because there is no strong ecosystem support, the IT industry of China is big but very weak. The 10 trillion RMB IT industry revenue only produces 3%~5% profit, and the total profit of Top 100 IT companies in China is only 40% profit of one company in US (Apple). Therefore, in order to establish a healthy industry, China needs to set up an ecosystem for IoT."Loongson is now building an ecosystem, including CPU, BIOS, middle ware, and application around its MCU offerings. Hu Weiwu said, "Our ecosystem is still very small. We look forward to cooperating with companies like Advantech to build a unified technology platform and commercial ecosystem for IoT in China."On the other hand, Hu Weiwu indicated that IoT has much higher security requirement than traditional computer and handheld systems. For example, it is dangerous if the power station of China can be remotely shut down abroad. System designers should develop devices with built-in security to reduce any possible risk.From Intel's perspective, Jim Robinson, General Manager of ISG Segment & Board Market Division at Intel said, "We are now at a major inflection point for the IoT market. In order to lead the transition, Intel is investing heavily in all related fields. One of the actions we took is to form a new business group, which was just announced a few weeks ago.""This new organization, IoT Solutions Group (ISG), will include the original Intelligent Systems Group and Wind River organizations, bringing together the intelligent systems hardware, software, services and platform elements together into one group. In particular, the group will report directly to our CEO office for the first time, which shows how big and important the market is for Intel."Intel is a long-term partner of Advantech. With its complete processor, platform, security, and connectivity technologies, Jim stressed that, "We are uniquely positioned to help create the solutions for a wide range of IoT applications."Nandan Nayampally, Vice President of Application System Marketing at ARM, commented that, "IoT is a trend and not a single sector or market. This trend will need cost effective and power efficient sensing technology that can last for years not hours. These sensors can gather small amounts of data for long periods, so that users can benefit by unlocking the value of the data collected by IoT."ARM processors span all verticals, and are deployed in all segments from endpoints, gateways, to servers. "8.7 billion ARM processors were shipped in 2012. As sensors will be pervasive in the new IoT era, it is estimated the cumulative shipment of ARM processors will reach 150 billion by 2020. We are just at the beginning of the revolution," Nandan Nayampally said.He also echoed the viewpoint of ecosystem, saying that, "Enabling ecosystems that drive innovation is a critical part of what ARM does with its partnership based business model. We have commitment to collaborative partnership and will drive embedded applications by standard offerings."In WPC 2013, Advantech invited important guests from Intel, ARM, and Loogson to join a panel discussion on the theme of "The Latest Technology Advancements and Industry Outlook to Accelerate Intelligent Solutions."Finding more case study articles

In response to the rise of intelligent systems, Advantech is undergoing an embedded business model transformation, aiming to become an intelligent system enabler and to provide customers with integrated solutions.At 2013 Advantech World Partner Conference held in Suzhou, Miller Chang, Vice President of Advantech Embedded Computing Group, talked about the initiates that Advantech has been taking to embrace the era of intelligent systems at the presentation titled "Core Engine Accelerate the Era of the Intelligent City.""Embedded Computing Group (ECG) has made great achievements in the last 5 years," Miller said. "In 2009, there were only 3 key account customers worldwide, each contributing USD 1M sales of our board level products. But this year, we are expecting 35 key account customers, who each purchases more than USD 1M of integrated embedded solutions from us. It's a remarkable 10 times of growth!"He noted that, according to the shipment data in 2012, over 1.5 million embedded boards and system were shipped, as well as 800,000 sets of embedded OS, 600,000 pieces of peripheral modules, and 400,000 pieces of LCD displays shipped out. The meaning of these numbers behind is that customers are looking for one-stop solutions and more embedded integration, and the traditional single solution business model is no longer suitable.Building Fully Integrated, Turnkey SolutionsIn line with customers' requirements and the emergence of intelligent systems, Miller stressed that, the traditional business model is changing. We need to proactively provide integrated solutions for embedded market, which means that we will move from hardware to turkey solution providers.Advantech is now aggressively building up a full range of embedded computing platforms, form factors, software, modules, and design-in services to help customers achieve time-to-market goal. "It's our mission to drive the transition to intelligent embedded systems," Miller said.For Advantech, innovation is the key to realize technology integration. The company is taking the lead to drive embedded form factor design and innovation. For example, its RTX board is designed for ruggedized application, and Q7 for portable application, M I/O Extension provides modularizes flexible I/O, and UBC for M2M focused wireless sensor network.In terms of IoT gateway and edge computing, Advantech is also keeping up the IoT trend to develop various new products, including UBC-FA30 edge computer, UBC-WN100 IP-based WSN, and UTX-3115 miniature IoT gateway, for applications such as production monitoring, environment protection, and traffic security management.Not only standard products, Advantech also focuses on some vertical segments, such gaming, digital signage, and machine control to provide integrated solutions. Miller said that, "The acquisition of UK-based intelligent display player GPEK is another example to show our continuous commitments in embedded computing market. With its join, we can upgrade our total solutions to the next level in this area."Establishing M2M Product DivisionUndoubtedly, the opportunities of IoT and smart city market are huge, with billions of devices to be interconnected by 2020. However, moving to the next phase of growth, the industry is still lack of robust and complete embedded M2M solutions for implementing complex remote communications, and for connecting devices to develop monitoring and remote control applications.In order to bridge the gap, Advantech has established a new product division called Embedded M2M Solutions. The division will focus on providing ready-to-use embedded M2M solutions by integrating Advantech's current embedded platforms, wireless modules, and remote control software; in collaboration with ecosystem partners.Miller stressed that, "We will work closely with software and silicon partners to provide a wide range of integrated solutions. The new Embedded M2M Solutions division will be launched in 2014. Leveraging our resources at A+TC in China and Taipei-LinKou center, we will be able to help customers in keeping up with IoT trends so they can take the lead. We are ready and look forward to collaborating with more partners for the business growth in the embedded sector.""We will be able to help customers in keeping up with IoT trends so they can take the lead," says Miller Chang, Vice President of Advantech Embedd Computing Group

CAYIN will take part in the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) trade show in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on February 4-6, 2014. CAYIN will take this opportunity to demonstrate its brand-new and advanced digital signage players.Continuing its commitment to developing the best solutions for its clients, CAYIN's professional team will present brand-new SMP-6000, SMP-4000, and SMP-2000 digital signage players at ISE 2014. The state-of-the-art digital signage players are all embedded with the completely renewed and upgraded SMP-NEO system software. Users can easily choose the most suitable products based on various project requirements from the variety of product offerings.SMP-NEO features a stunning and completely renewed system that provides users with intuitive and seamless user experiences. SMP-NEO has successfully improved its system for smooth operation with many great new features.Here are six significant features of SMP-NEO:*An Intuitive user interface: By visualizing the information and the menu icons, it allows users to get started more easily and quickly.*Rich library resources: Users can easily enrich the content with a variety of materials in the library, including files, fonts, clocks, programs, and playlists. Moreover, the system allows users to upload desired fonts or images or to download the latest template resources from CAYIN's Cloud service for free.*Powerful scheduling management: The rich and easy-to-operate scheduling system becomes a great help for users in efficiently organizing their schedules. By taking advantage of the time filter function, users can better monitor and learn more about detailed information of each agenda.*Web integration support: Users can present different web content, including Twitter, weather news, etc., or retrieve specific website content and broadcast them onto the digital signage displays simultaneously. In this way, sharing with the world at any moment becomes easier than ever.*Real-time online help: A navigation tutorial is now available on each page, helping users to easily solve all kinds of problems.*Simple playback settings: By integrating the functions of the SMP-PRO and SMP-WEB series, the playback settings of SMP-NEO have been redesigned to become more feature-rich and user-friendly. With the addition of a preview feature, SMP-NEO allows users to get the most use out of their SMP players.Ravel Chi, Vice President of CAYIN Technology, said, "SMP-NEO is the most significant upgrade for us over the years. The software provides users with higher performance and stable technology than ever. We strongly believe that SMP-NEO will bring higher user experience to our clients. "CAYIN sincerely welcomes you to visit ISE 2014, the largest professional AV and system integration trade show in Europe, on February 4-6, 2014. You are more than welcome to visit CAYIN and share in its exciting new product debut.Booth No. 8-F182About CAYIN TechnologyCAYIN Technology offers a complete portfolio of appliance-based digital signage solutions, including media players, servers, and software, for various commercial applications, such as education, transportation, retail, hospitality, corporate use, and financial and public institutions. CAYIN is dedicated to being a reliable partner to its clients worldwide and has successfully set up various application references globally. In order to best facilitate the deployment of CAYIN products, the company also provides tailored services to satisfy the ever-growing market demand for almost limitless applications.CAYIN's professional team will present brand-new SMP-6000, SMP-4000, and SMP-2000 digital signage players at ISE 2014.

APLEX Technology Inc., a global industrial computer products solution provider, will be showcasing an array of its latest technology and innovation products at the SPS IPC Drives in Nuremberg from 26th to 28th November, 2013. During the exhibition, Aplex will introduce a series of brand new industrial computers specially designed for vertical application customers who are looking for compact, rugged, and cost-effective product solutions.The APC-3593P features stainless steel enclosure and provides full IP65 and IP69k certified to target at strict hygiene regulations for food/chemical industry. AEx-P526 with ATEX (EN-60079:11) provides solution for hazardous application. Moreover, Aplex transportation management solutions help customers to increase visibility into mobile logistics environments by capturing real-time data about cargoes, trucks, deliveries, vessels and workers.Intelligent transportation applicationsAt the 2013 SPS IPC Drives, Aplex's transportation management solution will present how to manage a moving asset in an energy-saving and efficient way. Aplex's transportation applications include marine, railway, and fleet management. For instance, the APC-3920 meets the requirement of DNV standard IEC 60945 and fit in marine application. Moreover, when operating in a speedy railway, it is critical to have industrial solution provide anti-vibration and shock-resistance. Aplex ACS-2563 with EN50155 compliance guarantees high reliability and stability during the journey. To navigate route and transmit data for mobile vehicles, APC-3122 features communication functions including WiFi/GPS/3G to make sure the real-time data capture and fast response.Space-limited and harsh environmentsWith the growing demand for small size and rich I/O interface on a device, the ultra slim fanless ACS-2160 (less than 3cm in height) is a versatile BOX PC which can be installed in space-limited applications such as digital signage, KIOSK, and Point of Information. The ultra slim fanless ACS-2160 can be multifunctional turned your display into a panel PC when it is integrated with a LCD. For harsh environment application, the AEx-P526 equipped with EN60079-11 316 stainless steel enclosure provides solid and reliable protection for hazard applications such as coal mine industries and so on.Expert of stainless steel productExtending Aplex's successful line of stainless steel panel PC, the APC-3593P with full IP 65 rating and IP69K protection provides projected capacitive touch with multi-touch function, enabling zoom, pan and rotate functions and enhancing users touch experience.Aplex is displaying our comprehensive portfolio in the 2013 SPS IPC Drives, and in Aplex Booth in Hall 8, stand 8-200, your will see how Aplex makes our partners more efficient, flexible and productive in their business as well as create add value for our customers.

In line with the rising popularity of IoT (Internet of Things), FineTek (Group) Company, which has deepened its deployments in the industrial sensor market by utilizing its in-house developed technologies, has rolled out integrated wireless smart sensors based on IEEE 802.15.4-enabled Zigbee Pro and WirelessHART 7.3 standards for IoT applications.FineTek has also optimized a number of technologies for versatility of industrial sensors , including PZT (piezoelectric), magnetostrive, radar, optical, flow and RF technologies, to help upgrade the process automation industry, pioneer the development of wireless technology within the industry and formulate related standards and specifications for industrial certification.Enhancing R&D capability; setting international standards and certificationDr. Kelvin Cheng, vice president of FineTek, indicates that there are five categories of physical sensors: temperature, pressure, level, flow and power sensors. These sensors are widely used for process automation in cement, petrochemical, shipbuilding, refrigeration/air conditioning, steel, engineering machinery, food/pharmaceutical machinery industries.Since it began marketing its products under "FineTek" and "FineAutomation" brands in 2003, FineTek now has become a leading supplier of level sensors globally. With R&D personnel accounting for one-fifth of its total employees and R&D expenditure accounting for 12% of its annual sales, FineTek is typically a paragon of technology-oriented company, capable of handling R&D, design, marketing and manufacturing of sensor products in-house.With over 95% of owned design and manufacture in products, FineTek won the National Award of Outstanding Small and Medium Enterprises in 2009, the National Quality Award in 2010, and the Taiwan Excellence Award 2012-2013, and it was also inducted as one of the 128 National Backbone Enterprises in 2013. To encourage an integrated development and fundamental research among industries and academics, FineTek has invested large sums in holding an annual scientific thesis contest since 2012. Graduate students in electronics, telecommunications, machinery and related engineering departments are encouraged to participate in the contest.Dr. Cheng points out that the manufacture of industrial electronic sensors is a complex integrated process combining optics, mechanics, electronics and materials, featuring diverse specifications, customized applications, stringent operating environments and high reliability requirements. After decades of efforts, FineTek's brand image, product portfolios and explosion proof and intrinsic safety related products have built a high barrier that rival companies hard to surpass. This makes FineTek one of a very few companies in Asia that lead the industry in terms of R&D design, owned manufacturing, specifications ruling and owned marketing.FineTek was the sole representative of the manufacturing sector in Asia to take part in PTB-UL Workshop 2012. FineTek has also played an important role promoting the establishment of China's national (GB) standards, Taiwan's TS explosion-proof certification as well as Taiwan's national standards for low-pressure gas flow calibration.Enhancing technological services and new product deploymentsFineTek's competitiveness lies in its unique capability to pioneer the industry by providing its clients with its "SAVE" technological services that help integrate knowledge between clients and supply chains, shunning cut-throat pricing competition in 4P (product, price, packaging and promotion) areas, Dr. Cheng stresses.SAVE is an acronym of Solution, Access, Value and Education, representing the company's aims to provide its clients with integrated solutions that enable access to convenient procurement and technology services, that ramp up application value at clients, and that integrate educational training between clients and supply chains, Dr. Cheng explains.Under SAVE, FineTek offers a number of services to clients, covering product design, on-spot technical support and industry information. It also helps clients enhance their user experience by offering them integrated operating interfaces with wireless communications compatibility.For small- and medium-size enterprises in the process automation industry, FineTek not only provides them with physical sensors, but also helps them build up needed platforms for Internet connectivity and access to wireless sensor networks. FineTek also offers basic training and industry knowledge for human-machine interaction, as well as other educational programs and real-time technical support for industrial upgrading.Management consulting company McKinsey has pointed out that a total of 12 out of 100 major technologies currently being developed will have the highest potential in the future, and these 12 most promising technologies will generate total production value of up to 14-33 trillion USD by 2025. FineTek is currently involved in four of the most promising technologies: mobile Internet, Internet of Things (IoT), oil and gas exploration, and renewable energy applications.The global process automation industry requires the most demanding industrial explosion-proof certified devices. To meet such requirements, as well as rising demand stirred up by IoT development, FineTek is also delivering its core remote wireless monitoring and contactless smart sensing technologies aiming to stimulate new business opportunities worldwide.Applications for homeland monitoring and new energy explorationIn addition to deepening its development of IEEE 802.15.4-based wireless smart sensor solutions, FineTek has also ventured into the development of radar sensors and magnetostrictive level sensors. FineTek is also capable of offering next-generation low-power physical sensors which are built combining renewable energy (solar, wind, hydro and vibration) and wireless networks for new energy exploration in the wilderness, and environment and homeland monitoring in remote areas.Optimizing our core technologies and SAVE service model, FineTek's integrated sensor solutions cover microwave electronics technology, radar technology, magnetic components, wireless solutions, flow technology, and PZT and optical applications. These will be recognized as most reliable branded products in the international real manufacturer, fulfilling our goal of becoming one of the top-10 physical sensor providers globally.FineTek intelligent wireless sensor networking solutions

Featuring low-power consumption, small size, and a wide operating temperature range, RISC-based devices are playing an increasingly important role in the embedded market. At the panel discussion themed on "Key business growth driver – RISC", Advantech invited executives from Freescale, TI, and Advantech Europe and China to discuss its huge market opportunities as well as the challenges ahead, and how Advantech is collaborating with partners to provide complete RISC-based solutions.The RISC Market is BoomingFrom the perspective of power consumption and response time, RISC architecture such as ARM will have a considerable advantage in embedded application. With more and more smart nodes devices will be installed in the smart city, this represents a hug market opportunity for RISC devices.According to Aaron Su, Director of Advantech Embedded Computing Group, in the smart city network architecture, the middle level and advanced computing needs will still be taken by X86, while the entry-level intelligent system, such as "smart nodes" in intelligent cloud network, will be dominated by ARM. ARM-based micro computing will be the last mile technology of smart city.Carlos Betancourt, Sitara ARM MPU Marketing Manager of TI, is also optimistic about the future of RISC architecture, saying that it is estimated that ARM-based processors will be widely used in a wide range of IoT markets, such as point of service, smart grid, automotive, medical, and connected home, with CAGR more than 10%."The opportunity for ARM in China market is also huge," said Xiaofeng Ou, Sales and Marketing Manager of Advantech China. One of the reasons is that customers may switch from existing X86 architecture to ARM because of better power consumption. At the same time, for a better choice on performance, customers may also decide to upgrade from old models to new ones.However, though RISC-based products can offer a better P/C rate for embedded applications, there are still many challenges for the customers to us RISC solutions.Driving Growth through RISC Standards"As the industry is driving the progress of IoT applications, there are still plenty of challenges to overcome, such as issues of connectivity, power, security, design complexity and rapidly evolving standards," Carlos Betancourt said.In order to cope with these issues, what the industry needs are: broad variety of wired or wireless standards, the lowest power solutions for any applications, build-in hardware security technology, IoT solutions for everyone, not just experts, and flexible hardware and software portfolios to mix and match.Stephane Gervais-Ducouret, Director of Global Market for Consumer & Industrial, Freescale, echoed this viewpoint. He emphasized that, in the IoT era, the industry needs more flexible solutions, since one size doesn't fit all anymore. In addition to cost-effectiveness and energy efficiency, the main considerations should also include real-time and user interface, portfolio breadth that enables software scalability, and embedded architecture with a rich software ecosystem.He pointed out that board solution is the best way for fast adoption while addressing increasing number of new applications. And both TI and Freescale are teaming up with Advantech to offer a wide range of solutions.On the other hand, Vincenzo Difronzo, Sales and Marketing Manager of Advantech Europe, stressed that the lack of standard makes customers cautious about using ARM architecture because of its low ROI. Adopting RISC-based designs is time and cost consuming. Therefore, minimize design efforts is a must for the wide adoption of ARM architecture in IoT applications.In view of this demand, Advantech is actively participating in the specification definition for Qseven and SMARC to promote RISC-based industrial standards. In addition, for rugged applications, Advantech has proposed a RTX 2.0 (RISC Technology extended) form factor.Advantech has collaborated with partners to offer a full range of standardized modules such as Qseven, SMARC, and RXT. In addition to module solutions, Advantech also provides complete 3.5" RISC-based box computer products, such as the newly launched UBC-DS31, to help customers leverage RISC-based products more easily. Through partnering and speeding up the progress of standardization efforts, Advantech is well positioned to embrace the great opportunities of RISC market.Advantech has collaborated with partners to offer a full range of standardized modules such as Qseven, SMARC, and RXT.