Intel CEO Brian Krzanich has announced a collaboration agreement with Arduino, an open-source hardware platform in the maker and education community. Krzanich also unveiled the Intel Galileo board, the first product in a new family of Arduino-compatible development boards featuring Intel architecture.Arduino development kits and software programming interface allow artists, designers and other do-it-yourself enthusiasts - who often don't have technical backgrounds - to create interactive objects or environments.Krzanich also announced a large-scale donation of 50,000 Intel Galileo boards to 1,000 universities worldwide over the next 18 months.The development board runs an open source Linux operating system with the Arduino software libraries, enabling scalability and re-use of existing software, called sketches. Intel Galileo can be programmed through Mac OS, Microsoft Windows and Linux host operating software. The board is also designed to be hardware and software compatible with the Arduino shield ecosystem.Intel Galileo features the Intel Quark SoC X1000, the first product from the Intel Quark technology family of low-power, small-core products. Designed in Ireland, the Quark SoC X1000 is a 32-bit, single core, single-thread, Pentium instruction set architecture (ISA)-compatible CPU, operating at speeds up to 400MHz.Helping to expand native usage and capabilities beyond the Arduino shield ecosystem, the Intel development board comes standard with several computing industry standard I/O interfaces, including ACPI, PCI Express, 10/100Mb Ethernet, SD, USB 2.0 device and EHCI/OHCI USB host ports, high-speed UART, RS-232 serial port, programmable 8MB NOR flash, and a JTAG port for easy debug. Intel Galileo will be available by the end of November.Intel Galileo boardPhoto: CompanyIntel Quark X1000 SoCPhoto: Company

Indium Corporation introduces a full line of soldering products that satisfy IPC's J-STD004B. The IPC's new 004B has stricter requirements for measuring halogens and electromigration risk. Indium Corporation's full line of PCB assembly products were specifically designed to meet these new international standards, which help to improve both first pass yields and long-term reliability.Users' existing solder products may meet the existing J-STD-004, but could fail to meet the more environmentally-realistic and challenging requirements of the 004B electromigration test.Included in the new assembly products that are "B" compliant are:*Wave Solder Flux WF-9948*Flux-Cored Wire Series CW-807Wave Solder Flux WF-9948 is a high-activity, no-clean wave solder flux designed for use with through-hole and mixed-technology assemblies. It performs well with both tin-lead and lead-free solders. WF-9948 is very heat stable and has been thoroughly tested for selective soldering and wave soldering applications. Even with the high degree of activation, WF-9948 passes all known reliability requirements.The CW-807 Flux-Cored Wire Series has been fully tested to J-STD-004B. The series includes:*CW-807 (halogen-free, ROL0)*CW-807M (slightly more active, ROL1)*CW-807HMP for high-temperature applications, such as automotive and downhole survey equipment (ROL0)For more information about Indium Corporation's full line of flux products, visit http://www.indium.com/flux-and-epoxy

Photo-imageable coverlays (PICs) provide a solution for mass production of flexible HDI (high-density interconnect) boards. PICs are similar to solder masks used in rigid printed circuit boards (PCBs), but as a material for flexible PCBs (FPCBs), they must have certain levels of flexibility.There are two types of PIC: liquid photo-imageable ink (LPI) and dry film. In the wet process, the LPI is evenly coated on the circuits using screen printers, bake-dried, exposed and developed to obtain soldering point patterns. In the dry process, the dry film is coated with a layer of ductile solder mask and then laminated onto the FPCB using low-temperature vacuum pneumatic thermal laminators. The general manufacturing process of flexible HDI is complicated - which involves material cutting, CNC drilling, through-hole plating, dry-film lamination, exposure, etching, hole pre-punching, AOI (automated optical inspection) testing, pre-lamination, LPI screen printer coating, electric treatment, surface mounting, punching, function testing and quality control. However, using PICs can significantly simplify the process.Dry-film lamination solves problems of clogged through-holesFor double-side and multi-layer PCBs that need BGA insertion, LPI has to be used to meet precision requirements. However, the use of LPI unavoidably causes a problem, that is, through-holes in BGA areas will be clogged with ink. The problem can be easily solved by using dry-film PIC lamination, which can also significantly increase yield rates and production efficiency. Why are PICs important? It is because the use of PICs will change the way of producing FPCBs and therefore the ecosystem of Taiwan's FPCB industry. It will enhance Taiwan-based makers' competitiveness in the face of Japan- and US-based competitors in high-end FPCB market.Taiwan-based makers developing materials for FPCB coverlaysThere must be a cover layer to protect the circuit of a FPCB from the impacts of temperatures and humidity, as well as pollutants and corrosive substances. There have been three major types of cover layer: polyimide (PI) film, thermal laminated solder mask and photo-imageable solder mask. But now PICs are new materials that can replace both PI films and photo-imageable solder masks. The concept of PIC is not new, though. US-based DuPont developed such a prototype more than 10 years ago and then other firms in Japan and the US, including Hitachi Chemicals and Morton, also attempted to develop similar products but failed. However, FPCB makers have maintained a strong interest in PICs simply because the use of PICs provides a simpler and more efficient way of attaining high precision required for FPCBs.PICs feature high precision and flexibility and offer a better solution than PI films in terms of flexibility and circuit precision on FPCBs. Taiwan-based Teamchem Materials has developed PICs and cooperated with FPCB makers in southern China. Teamchem is renowned for specialty chemical materials and has worked with various major FPCB makers in successfully developing specialty ink tailored made for the clients' needs. Teamchem is a champion in developing PICs, and Yeh says his company is ready to work with FPCB makers to jointly develop products that cater to their specific needs.PICs developed and produced by TeamchemFPCB makers in southern China replace PI films with PICs

In the past, digital signage only provided one-way information playback. As technological development and Internet of Things (IoT) have advanced the graphics and sensing technology, digital signage are moving towards intelligent and interactive applications, bringing unlimited business opportunities for the retail and related industries.Digital signage applications emphasize dynamic playback ability. Under the influence of intelligent and interactive technologies, digital signage are moving to a turning point where it can help businesses to provide targeted advertisements and entertaining interactions to engage customers, allowing customers to learn more about the products through intelligent interactions, stimulating their interest, shopping experience, and purchase intent, and ultimately increasing sales.Intelligent + Interaction: The Key Elements for Digital Signage ApplicationsSteven Wu, General Manager of NEXCOM's Vertical Industry Platform (VIP) division, states, "The continuous advancements in digital signage technology have ended the days of electronic posters and introduced a new generation of intelligent and interactive applications. These intelligent digital signage can integrate anonymous video analytics (AVA) to provide personalized viewing content. For example, Japan has deployed beverage vending machines with digital signage that can display product recommendations based on the consumers' age and gender, as well as the current weather conditions. This was a trial run which delivered impressive preliminary results. Sales more than tripled when compared to using traditional vending machines.""An intelligent digital signage can also connect to the sales and inventory system and automatically adjust its content based on current stock levels, displaying special promotions for overstocked items to help reduce inventory. Not only this can stimulate sales, it can also serve as a tool for market analysis. For example, it can track view counts and dwell time of a particular advertisement, enabling owners to analyze traffic flow and customer demographics to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement. Businesses can also use this information to establish a clear basis for billing advertisers," Wu explains.In recent years, touch and gesture-based controls have become the standard for user interaction and helped digital signage deliver interesting applications including virtual fitting rooms and virtual gaming. In addition, interactive digital signage can integrate mobile and social media, such as text message voting and Facebook video sharing to increase exposure, popularity and view counts, creating opportunities for viral marketing. Promotional content can also be sent to customers' mobile device through Bluetooth for real-time proximity marketing, turning the digital signage from passive to active displays.Digital Signage Players: The Key Foundation for Intelligent and Interactive ApplicationsDigital signage players are the key components behind intelligent and interactive digital signage displays. Thus, they need to provide accurate and real-time image analysis, interactive technologies and support a range of communication protocols. Furthermore, to provide high clarity images, they need to support a high resolution of 4K x 2K.Mechanical wise, there is also a close connection between the player and display. With increasing miniaturization of displays, digital signage players need to trim down in size while keeping all the functionality intact. Even so, the players still need to maintain high reliability, low power consumption and fanless design to ensure noise-free operation, dust-free protection and long term stability.Since an intelligent and interactive digital signage is connected to a network, remote management can be performed to help increase system availability. Signage content, operating system updates and hardware troubleshooting can be effectively managed in real-time to reduce digital signage downtime. Even when an onsite visit is required, engineers can analyze the root cause of problem in advance and prepare the necessary tools to resolve the issue, allowing the digital signage players to resume operation quickly. These features will continue to improve as digital signage evolves.To respond to the digital signage trends, NEXCOM has employed an integrated development strategy for both hardware and software components. All NEXCOM's digital signage players are evolved in sync with Intel's processor cycles, and include SDK for gesture control, built-in Ethernet for wired connectivity and expansions for wireless connectivity including 3G/LTE and Wi-Fi. NEXCOM's digital signage players are designed to fulfill the needs of video analytics, graphics and connectivity for intelligent and interactive applications.In addition, NEXCOM has released digital signage players that is compliant with open pluggable specification (OPS) and can be slotted inside OPS-compliant displays through a common plug-in connector. Combining the unified display output interfaces of HDMI, wiring and installation time can be reduced to allow faster time to deployment and lower cost implementation. With integrated IntelR Active Management Technology and embedded controller, the players can be remotely managed.About NEXCOM: Founded in 1992, NEXCOM has five business units which focus on vertical markets across industrial computer, in-vehicle computer, multimedia, network and communication, and intelligent digital security industries. NEXCOM serves its customers worldwide through its subsidiaries in seven major industrial countries. NEXCOM gains stronghold in vertical markets with its industry-leading products including the rugged fanless computer NISE series, the in-vehicle computer VTC series, the network and security appliance NSA series and the digital signage player NDiS series. http://www.nexcom.com/Interactive digital signage can integrate such as text message voting and Facebook video sharing to increase exposure, popularity and view counts

Imagination Technologies (LSE: IMG.L), a leading multimedia, processor, communications and cloud technologies company, has signed a further license agreement with MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions. The multi-year agreement includes multiple cores from Imagination's PowerVR Series6 'Rogue' family and beyond.PowerVR Series6 is already enabling MediaTek to deliver products with advanced graphical features, such as OpenGL ES 3.0 support, while maintaining the low power profile essential to mobile devices. The new agreement will ensure MediaTek has access to innovative and market leading graphics technology for years to come.Says Johan Lodenius, chief marketing officer for MediaTek: "MediaTek is focused on providing a market-leading product range that delivers all key market requirements resulting in true end user benefits, including leading performance and an enhanced feature set, all at low power. The strengthening strategic relationship with Imagination is a significant element in our SoC roadmaps and we are pleased with this multi-year agreement which will deliver the next wave of success for both companies across key segments."Says Imagination EVP marketing, Tony King-Smith: "Graphics performance and efficiency, particularly in terms of optimal power consumption, are crucial to the majority of markets today, especially mobile. With wide ranging adoption of PowerVR technology MediaTek will confidently deliver a range of solutions that address those markets in a compelling way. MediaTek's SoCs are a great example of how we see our partners using their unique expertise and innovation combined with our technologies to differentiate their products."MediaTek will deploy the technology in SoC devices targeting multiple markets across its product range.Under the terms of its licensing arrangements Imagination receives license fees, and royalty revenues on shipment of SoCs incorporating Imagination's IP.See more at: http://www.imgtec.com/News/Release/index.asp?NewsID=801#sthash.9GQrenpc.dpuf

Super Micro Computer, Inc., a global leader in high-performance, high-efficiency server, storage technology and green computing, announces that it has signed an agreement with San Jose Mercury News to acquire its San Jose campus located in the heart of Silicon Valley, USA. The 36-acre campus is currently home to the San Jose Mercury News and Bay Area News Group and includes 324,000 square feet of prime building space. The property is located within a mile of Supermicro's existing headquarters and will serve as an extension to Supermicro's US R&D and operations for worldwide growth."This new addition to our campus provides us space for immediate R&D and operations expansion to meet strong needs for high energy efficient server and storage solutions," said Charles Liang, President and CEO of Supermicro. "We are increasing operational efficiency, engineering resources and integration capacity to further accelerate development of industry leading green computing solutions while giving back to our local economy with continued job growth. At Supermicro, this is an exciting milestone in our 20 year history and we look forward to delivering next generation, energy efficient computing solutions from the heart of Silicon Valley.""Supermicro's announcement that it will acquire the San Jose Mercury News site is a strong indicator of Silicon Valley's position as the world's center of innovation," said San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed. "I thank Supermicro for choosing to stay and grow in San Jose, the Capital of Silicon Valley. We appreciate Supermicro's investment and the jobs it will generate, and are committed to work at the speed of business to ensure the company's development timelines are met as it expands its headquarters in North San Jose."Consummation of the sale of the property is subject to customary closing conditions, including, among others, Supermicro's review of the property. Escrow of the property is expected to close on or about October 30, 2013.

AMD has unveiled the Radeon R9 290X, R9 290, R9 280X, R9 270X, R7 260X and R7 250 graphics cards.The Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture in the AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics cards continues to serve as a driving force behind the Unified Gaming Strategy, AMD's approach to providing a consistent gaming experience. The four pillars of the Unified Gaming Strategy, console, cloud, content and client, come together with the introduction of Mantle which will allow specific games the ability to speak the native language of the Graphics Core Next architecture, presenting a deeper level of hardware optimization.AMD TrueAudio technology empowers game developers with a programmable audio pipeline on the GPU.AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics cards are made for gaming on Ultra HD (3840 by 2160) displays, including support for non-tiled 2160p60 displays with a future AMD Catalyst driver release.AMD Radeon R9 and R7 series graphics cards will be available for purchase in the near future.

Amazon has introduced the third generation of Kindle Fire - the new Kindle Fire HDX. The Kindle Fire HDX tablets combine the latest hardware, the newest version of Fire OS, and new features and services like X-Ray for Music, Second Screen, Prime Instant Video downloads, and the new Mayday button. Amazon also introduced the new US$139 Kindle Fire HD.The Kindle Fire HDX features an HDX display with pixel density of 323ppi for 7-inch (1,920 by 1,200), 339ppi for 8.9-inch (2,560 by 1,600), 100% sRGB color accuracy, reduced glare, dynamic image contrast, and improved brightness, the vendor said.The tablet comes with a quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor running at 2.2GHz provides over three times the processing performance compared to the previous generation, plus the latest graphics engine and more memory.The Mayday button delivers a new live tech support - one touch connects users to an Amazon expert who can guide them remotely through any feature for free. Fifteen seconds or less is the Mayday response time goal.Both 7-inch and 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDXs feature 4G LTE wireless support and will be available on the AT&T and Verizon Wireless networks.The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX is priced at US$229. It is available for pre-order and it will begin shipping October 18. The 4G version is US$329 and will begin shipping November 14.The 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HDX is US$379 and will begin shipping on November 7. The 4G version is US$479 with shipping to start on December 10.The new Kindle Fire HD features a display with 1,280 by 800 resolution and 216 pixels per inch, a dual-core 1.5GHz processor and dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio.The new Kindle Fire HD also has a similar industrial design as the new Kindle Fire HDX and is powered by the Fire OS 3.0 with hundreds of new and upgraded features, platform updates, and Amazon-exclusive services.The new Kindle Fire HD will begin shipping October 2.Amazon Kindle Fire HDX tabletsPhoto: Company

OCZ Technology Group, Inc., a leading provider of high-performance solid-state drives (SSDs) for computing devices and systems, announced the latest addition to the popular Deneva 2 Series which now utilizes 19 nanometer (nm) NAND flash. The new models are 2.5-inch, 6Gbps SATA III-based Multi-Level Cell (MLC) drives that implement the Deneva 2 SSD Series feature-set and are built around a smaller NAND flash process geometry.This cutting-edge drive solution also features a completely new power architecture that was designed from the ground up to optimize server back plane functionality, providing enhanced management of in-rush current and power fluctuation. The result is an advanced SSD series that delivers superior storage performance, enterprise-class endurance, reliability and quality, and excellent total cost of ownership for customers."Our Deneva 2 has been a popular SSD series among IT professionals not only as an HDD replacement but to dramatically accelerate I/O access of such popular enterprise applications as OnLine Transaction Processing, database warehousing, read intensive data caching and server boot-ups," said Daryl Lang, SVP of Product Management for OCZ Technology. "By implementing new features and the latest NAND flash process geometry we are able to deliver an optimal balance of I/O performance and cost-efficiency to our customers."The new Deneva 2 SSDs continue to utilize the proven and effective LSI SandForce SF-2281 processor and delivers exceptional performance with 19nm toggle mode NAND flash. The performance specifications support read bandwidth up to 550 MB/s, write bandwidth up to 520 MB/s, random read throughput (4K blocks) over 45,000 input/output operations per second (IOPS), and random write throughput (4K blocks) over 34,000 IOPS. It provides consistent sustained performance over time so that users can achieve faster file transfers, boot-ups and benefit from a more responsive storage experience. With a priority on reliability and flash-optimized enterprise endurance, the new Deneva 2 includes advanced features such as data fail recovery, intelligent block management, wear leveling and robust error correction. Additionally, power consumption has also been lowered in the new models as well.The new Deneva 2 SSD Series are now available in three models supporting 120GB capacity (Model D2CSTK251M3T-0120), 240GB capacity (Model D2CSTK251M3T-0240) and 480GB capacity (Model D2CSTK251M3T-0480). For more information, visit http://www.ocz.com/enterprise.New Deneva 2 Models deliver improved features and superior total cost of ownership

Apple has updated iMac with fourth-generation Intel quad-core processors, new graphics, next generation Wi-Fi and PCIe flash storage options.The entry-level 21.5-inch iMac features a 2.7GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 processor and new Iris Pro GPU for graphics performance. The high-end 21.5-inch model and both 27-inch models feature Intel quad-core Core i5 processors with up to 3.4GHz clock speed and Nvidia GeForce 700 series graphics with twice the video memory and up to 40% faster performance than the previous generation. Customers can even upgrade the iMacs to Intel quad-core Core i7 processors with up to 3.5GHz clock speed and Nvidia GeForce GTX 780M series graphics with up to 4GB of video memory, the vendor said.iMac now supports next-generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi. When connected to an 802.11ac base station, iMac delivers wireless performance that is up to three times faster than the previous generation, Apple claimed.The updated iMac now features support for PCIe-based flash storage that makes Fusion Drive and all-flash storage options up to 50% faster than the previous generation. Customers can configure their iMac with a 1TB or 3TB Fusion Drive, and all-flash storage options are now available in configurations up to 1TB.iMac comes standard with 8GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive, and customers can choose to configure their iMac with up to 32GB of memory and up to a 3TB hard drive. iMac also comes with two Thunderbolt and four USB 3.0 ports for connecting to external storage and other high performance peripherals.iMac ships with OS X Mountain Lion, bringing Messages, Notification Center, system-wide Sharing, AirPlay Mirroring, Dictation, Game Center and the enhanced security of Gatekeeper to consumers' Mac.The 21.5-inch iMac is available with a 2.7GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 processor and Intel Iris Pro for a suggested retail price of US$1,299; and with a 2.9GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GT 750M for a suggested retail price of US$1,499. The 27-inch iMac is available with a 3.2GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 755M for a suggested retail price of US$1,799; and with a 3.4GHz Intel quad-core Core i5 processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 775M for a suggested retail price of US$1,999.Apple new iMacs with fourth-generation Intel processorPhoto: Company