Global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation, the industry leader in electronic component selection, availability and delivery, announced the addition of Califia Lighting, a Bivar company, to its vast product line."Califia offers customers the ability to purchase 'plug-and-play' modules to have their applications running within moments to evaluate the product," said Mark Zack, Digi-Key's Vice President of Global Semiconductor Product. "The low-profile, easy-to-use products offered by Califia will help our customers get to market faster while implementing energy-efficient LED lighting technologies."Califia Lighting serves a growing base of customers transitioning to energy-efficient LED lighting technology in the Industrial and Commercial markets. The company's mission, along with Bivar, is to improve life with LED lighting. Califia offers an expanding range of low-profile luminaires, designed to deliver reduced operating costs in an easy-to-use system while incorporating leading technology for top performance and the ability to upgrade in the future."Califia Lighting is pleased to partner with Digi-Key in providing UL rated low-profile LED lighting products to assist OEM customers," said Michael Finn, Califia Lighting's Vice President of Sales & Marketing. "Digi-Key's global service and support will expand our online resources, making it easier to add light in all sizes of enclosures and cabinets, equipment, racks, and workstation applications."Califia Lighting products are now available for purchase on Digi-Key's global websites: http://www.digikey.com/

Advantech (TWSE: 2395.TW) announced the Q2 availability of a new product line based on the CompactPCIR PlusIO and Serial standards, responding to a growing customer demand for a backwards compatible migration path from legacy PCI to PCIe and other serial technologies including Ethernet, SATA/SAS and USB. CompactPCIR PlusIO enables platforms that combine existing, legacy PCI based peripheral cards based on CompactPCIR as well as newly designed, high speed serial peripherals based on CompactPCIR Serial.CompactPCIR PlusIO makes use of the rear I/O pins available on CompactPCIR system slots in order to support high-speed serial signals without interfering with legacy PCI signals. This allows interoperability with all other PICMG CompactPCIR 2.xx standards which do not use these pins. A new Ultra Hard Metric (UHM) connector was introduced to transport these high-speed signals. The UHM connector was designed to mate on all deployed backplanes which comply with CompactPCIR base specification. System slot boards equipped with this high-speed connector can be used in existing 32-bit systems and support differential signals up to 5 Gb/s per pair."The transition to serial interfaces does not happen overnight. Customers have made significant investment into the CompactPCIR platform, both in hardware and even more importantly the related software. With CompactPCIR PlusIO we can offer a soft migration paththat protects our customers' investments but also takes them a step forward - by giving them the ability to utilize the latest high speed bus interfaces in the same system that hosts their legacy IO boards." said Peter Marek, Senior Director x86 Solutions, Advantech Networks and Communications Group. "Re-using well qualified platform building blocks like special purpose I/O cards along with the related software in these hybrid systems helps users to stay within their R&D budgets, meet their time to market objectives and mitigate risk."In addition to the parallel PCI bus architecture PlusIO allows the use of the CompactPCIR system slot to provide a simple star architecture based on the applicable serial bus standard. A hybrid backplane features a CompactPCIR PlusIO compliant system slot and a combination of legacy 32bit CompactPCIR as well as CompactPCIR Serial peripheral slots. For closely coupled extensions, PCI Express based I/O can used to implement interfaces requiring higher bandwidth and to upgrade legacy PCI functions which are reaching the end of their lifespan. For storage, SATA or SAS on the backplane now allows for RAID systems to be built-in. USB facilitates the integration of off the shelf wireless modules like WiFi or cellular network mezzanines for applications such as M2M."In the same way as VMEbus users can migrate to VPX or PCI/104 users to PCIe/104 our CompactPCI customer base now wants to leverage serial bus technologies more. But unlike VPX, which breaks backwards compatibility with legacy VME, CompactPCI PlusIO paves a backwards compliant upgrade path." added Marek.Full details concerning the first products to be released will be announced early in the second quarter with sampling expected shortly afterwards.Finding more case study articles

The world renowned motherboard and graphics card manufacturer MSI, officially announced 2013 MSI MASTER OVERCLOCKING ARENA (MOA) is entering its 6th anniversary. The concept of "NO LIMITS" will bring out the core sprit of overclocking and help to unveil MOA 2013. Now, if you simply share "NO LIMITS MSI MOA" video on Facebook, then you will get a chance to enter our lucky draw. This activity will draw-out two lucky persons to take home MSI's latest Gaming Series mainboard that are both efficient under gaming condition and overclocking environment. Can't wait? Please join to be the fan of MSI FAN CLUB and share the movie; you will be the lucky draw winner.For more detailed information, please visit MSI FAN CLUB page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/MSIHQFANCLUBNotice:1. Only members of the MSI FAN CLUB fans have the right to participate.2. Winners must contact with MSI FAN CLUB before Apr. 15th, 2013 to retrieve the prices, anytime later than the designated date will be disqualified. 3. The organizer reserves the right to review the eligibility of participants. Winners will be disqualified and prizes will be recalled if participant takes part in any act of obstructing the fair game principle with malicious computer programs or any other methods or if nonconformance with the activity rules are detected or reported by a third party.NO LIMITS MSI MOA video sharing action

Acer has announced its entry to the professional workstation market with the Veriton P series and new Altos servers thereby expanding its commercial offering. The new workstations and servers support a wide range of computing configurations and feature Intel Xeon E3 and E5 processors, error-correcting code (ECC) memory, RAID support, and backup components.The new Veriton P series workstations target customers ranging from small offices to large scale corporations and public organizations and pack Nvidia's professional 3D and 2D graphics cards with support across the Intel range of Xeon processors.The new Altos line carries management tools and software including the Acer Smart Setup, Smart Console and Smart Server Manager and features such as iKVM.NET. Specific models are capable of storing up to the industry maximum of 24 hard drives and supporting numerous applications to address different usage scenarios.Acer has also begun to test and develop a wide range of proven solutions for customers throughout the global regions, including those for thin/zero clients, cloud computing, virtualization and high-performance technical computing. Acer's commercial offering currently includes building an international-scale supercomputer with clients from the automotive and financial services industries.The new Veriton P workstations and Altos servers will be available to customers starting the second quarter of 2013 with general availability varying by region. They will be shown at the GPU Technology Conference held from March 18-21, 2013 in San Jose, the US.Acer Veriton P workstationPhoto: Company

VIVOTEK recently announced the launch of the VIVOTEK Expert Certificate Program (VEC), which is available exclusively to official VIVOTEK distributors and system integrators, aiming at cultivating genuine experts in VIVOTEK products, solutions and technology. The program is rolling out globally, starting from March. Viewing on the increasingly competitive security solutions market, VIVOTEK believes that just offering superior products is insufficient. A thorough understanding of products and the company behind them, drawing on this understanding to compellingly demonstrate the benefits for customers, is crucial to the business growth and sustainability. VIVOTEK, hereby, with great supports and assistance of local partners, had a dedicated team organizing the program. The program consists of a two- or three-day workshop. Material covered in the workshop includes a comprehensive and detailed introduction of all the features and functions of VIVOTEK cameras, as well as discussion of the technologies, the benefits, and the applications of VIVOTEK cameras. In addition, the VEC program also enables participants to better understand the VIVOTEK brand spirit and company objectives, while also facilitating exchanges of first-hand experience and the latest market intelligence among participants. The VEC program provides such expertise, enabling VIVOTEK distributors and system integrators to more effectively sell and support VIVOTEK solutions.Steve Ma, VIVOTEK's Executive VP, stated: "Maintaining a trustworthy and close relationship with our partners is the core philosophy of VIVOTEK. Our business success will be achieved together with our partners. The VEC program, especially designed for the cultivation of VIVOTEK experts, is to be the stepping stone for VIVOTEK and our partners worldwide to the next business peak!"

Global discrete inductor market demand contracted by nearly 30% from 2008 to 2012. In contrast to this downward trend, Chilisin Electronics Corporation, a professional inductor manufacturer based in Taiwan, achieved an outstanding growth of 80% within the same time frame. Within seven years since its establishment of overseas offices in the US and Korea, Chilisin quickly grew from a domestic player to a world-class company with a 7th place ranking in global discrete inductor market share by shipment value. Excluding Japanese players who have a longstanding history in the industry, Chilisin is currently ranked as the largest inductor manufacturer in the world. Chilisin's ability to grow rapidly in this tough environment stems from many key advantages that set it apart from its competitors.For a long time, Chilisin has established strong working relationships with many of the largest contract manufacturers in the world based in China and Taiwan. Following a trend towards the separation of design and manufacture in the consumer electronics production process, Chilisin's presence and well-known brand in the Greater China and Asia manufacturing environment gives it a competitive edge over its Japanese counterparts. With Asian OEM and EMS customers increasingly favoring emerging inductor vendors in the Greater China region, Chilisin has been able to outperform its peers in the global market.Chilisin is one of the few inductor manufacturers in the world specializing in all four types of manufacturing technology (multi-layering, wire-winding, molding, and thin-film processing) in addition to having the upstream powder formulation technology. Vertical integration coupled with an integrated production technology platform gives Chilisin both a cost competitive advantage and flexibility to adapt to market changes. As consumer electronics product lifecycle continue to shorten, Chilisin has been able to quickly respond in the design-in stage through support from its wide technology platform. Sales for use in smartphone in particular now account for more than one-fifth of the company's overall revenue as Chilisin continues to deepen its market penetration into the hand-held device sector.Following a rough period for the entire passive components industry, inductor demand is estimated to grow by up to 50% in the coming five years. In an environment toughened by existing players and new entrants, continued growth must be achieved through creation of greater volume and higher value. Though it holds much of the world's production facilities, China is no longer a production location but becoming a fast growing market for fast-growing Chinese enterprises. The US, among other parts of the world such as Israel, will still be a leading destination for design-in activities providing higher value chain. Chilisin's favorable position among Asian contract manufacturers coupled with its penetration into the design-in stages of manufacturing in the US will be key in supporting the Company as it seeks to become a top 3 global inductor supplier.Source: Paumanok Publications, Inc

Due to huge industrial ecology as well as hardware and software support, NXP has introduced the 100% focused 32-bit ARM architecture low power consumption (LPC) series MicroController Unit (MCU) with low pin count, low power consumption, and low cost simplified system design that can be used for intelligent industrial control applications such as outdoor lighting equipment, factory automation, equipment HMI human interface devices, elevator/lift controls, touch applications, smart grid/ammeter, and smart indoor lighting.NXP also provides a complete set of development tools, evaluation boards and software libraries, abundant third-party software development/debugging tools, and community support to enable the rapid develop a variety of intelligent industrial applications by the industry….Intelligent industrial control applications that are 100% focused on ARM architectureJeff Liu, technical marketing manager of NXP Semiconductors (NXP) in Taiwan, indicated that NXP's LPC series MCU is fully focused on industrial control/embedded applications, which is 100% dedicated to the 32-bit ARM processors. The MCU adopts an extendable 32-bit ARM core architecture and enjoys software/hardware intellectual property (IP) reusability/portability made possible by the extensive ARM industry ecology, which enables a fast-growing industrial ecosystem with community and technical support. NXP provides the LPCXpresso development tools, free open source codes, and third-party vendor support. The award-winning innovation enables connectivity, flexibility, integration, packaging, power efficiency, ease of use, and long service life.The Cortex M0 ARM was launched for low-power embedded applications, and the even-lower power consuming Cortex M0+ core was further introduced during late 2012. Focusing on the alternative market for the 8/16bit MCU, NXP has launched LPC800, LPC1100 (Cortex M0) that have 110 μAmp/MHz low-power consumption running in active mode; adopt TSSOP, SO, and DIP packages; and provide the LPC1100 designed ultra-small WL CSP module package (2mm x 2mm) that make these models ideal for active cable applications. NXP has also introduced a comprehensive series of products for the USB market segment ranging from the low cost LPC1100 and LPC1300 to LPC1700, LPC1800, and LPC4300. The USB driver codes for these products can be built-in into the internal ROM and free software and technical support are also available. The LCD Controller supports 1024x768 resolution and 24bbp color to provide a complete product for the market segment, such as the high-end LPC1700, LPC1800, and LPC4300. Free LCD software libraries are also available. NXP has introduced the fastest 180MHz Cortex-M3, 204MHz Cortex-M4 microprocessor products to meet the performance demands of embedded applications. The LPC4300 adopts the Coretex-M4 plus Cortex-M0 dual-core unique design.Under the present industrial interconnection scheme, outdoor lights/lighting equipment, smart meters, and indoor elevators are connected to the control room via cloud control or a wired method; automated factory machines and equipment are also connected to the control room via the PLC programmable logic control gate through Ethernet; and household automation includes using Zigbee to provide wireless controlled intelligent lighting. These embedded applications include point-of-sale (POS) devices, PLC controller, human machine interface (HMI) on machines, car alarms, etc.The LPC178x/1800/4300 series PLC controllers specifically designed for HMI applications have the maximum 1024x768 LCD display capacity and maximum 204MHz clock; Ethernet, USB, and UART connectivity; as well as rapid assessment and development kit provided for R&D. The LPC178x/1800 specifically developed for elevator control is equipped with a 7-inch LCD display module, uses CAN Bus to replace the old RS-485 interface, and uses a simple system architecture to reduce design as well as FPGA and BOM meter costs.Touch applications such as the LPC1700 series support device firmware upgrades from USB (USB DFT), provide dual SPI port and high-performance CPU data operations, have low-power consumption, and are certified by the USB specification. Smart grid/smart meter product planning includes the EM773/783 plug meter, LPC122x 1-ph meter, LPC122x entry-level collector, LPC2000/LPC17xx 3-ph meter, LPC18xx/ LPC40xx data collector, and LPC43xx/LPC32xx concentrator applications.The LPC series provide CFL and LED intelligent lighting solutions that allow iPad/iPhones to control lights through switches, touch control capacitive switches, and wireless light sockets. In addition, there is also the TCP/IP to JenNet gateway wired intelligent lighting solution.Blueprint for the LPC series embedded MicroController productsLiu also illustrated NXP's blueprint for the LPC series embedded MCU products. NXP's LPC series controllers have accumulated 10 years of the ARM core R&D experiences and are divided into the entry level LPC Go series, the mainstream LPC Connect series, and the high performance LPC Connect/Turbo and LPC Command series. Their clock frequencies range between 30, 50, 70, 72, 100, 120, 125, 180, and 204 MHz; they have between 8 and 296 pins, and their flash memories range between 4KB to 1MB.LPC Go come in LPC800/1100/1100LV/11E00/131x/210x models; adopts the Cortex M0/M3/ARM7 core architecture; has frequencies ranging between 30, 45, 50, 70, and 72 MHz; has reduced system power consumption and design costs; can replace the 8/16 bit MCU and be rapidly incorporated into the market; and adopts the 8 to 64 pin design as well as the 4KB to 128KB flash memory capacity. Liu indicated that the LPC800 series is further divided into five different models: LPC800M021FN8, LPC811M001FDH16, LPC812M101FDH16, LPC812M101FD20, and LPC812M101FDH20. These models adopt the Cortex M0+ core architecture, 2-stage pipeline, and single-cycle I/O design and can provide 0.93DMIPS/MHz of execution performance.The LPC Connect series LPC11Uxx/LPC11Cxx/11A00/1200/134x/213x/214x also adopt the Cortex M0/M3/ARM7 architecture with a 50/60/72MHz frequency, USB and CAN bus controller or Segment LCD display, connectivity, 20 to 64 pin design, and 16KB to 512KB of flash capacity. Liu indicated that the CAN bus controller equipped LPC11Cxx series is comprised of the LPC11C12, LPC11C14, LPC11C22, and LPC11C24 models; and the non-CAN transceiver LPC11C1x series such as the LPC11C00 with LPC1700 can be used for robotic automation applications in factories. LPC1800 and LPC4300 connected to LPC1700 through a CAN Bus or RS-485 can serve as a programmable logic controller (PLC) application.The high performance LPC ConnectPlus series include LPC407x/408x/1700/2300/2400 models that adopt Cortex M3/M4/ARM7 core architecture with the faster 72/100/120MHz frequency, provide USB plus Ethernet/LCD/CAN bus controller, 80 to 208 pin design, and 32KB to 512KB of flash capacity. Liu mentioned that the LPC177x/8x and LPC407x/8x series in conjunction with an LCD display module can be applied to HMI devices for machine equipment or household automation control devices.Blueprint for LPC dual-core embedded processorThe LPC ConnectTurbo series is comprised of the LPC1800/4300/2900 models. It has the fastest clock frequency combinations of 125/180/204MHz; provides optimal integration options such as HS USB, LCD, CAN with Ethernet and DSP instruction set acceleration; and diverse designs such as 144 to 256 pin numbers and 512KB/768KB/1MB flash memory capacities. These chips can be applied to wireless walkie-talkies, factory/laboratory testing machines, electronic medical equipment, and wireless network base stations/infrastructures.Liu specifically introduced the LPC43xx series comprised of the following 11 models - LPC4312/4313/4315/4317/4322/4323/4327/4333/4337/4353/4357. The entire series adopt the optimal 204MHz Cortex M4+Cortex M0 large and small dual-core design, are equipped with field magnetic oriented control (FOC) required for motor control, and provide features such as circuit and industrial control bus controllers, high-speed SPI flash interface that connects to serial flash in order to accelerate firmware read and execution speeds, state configurable timer, and serial GPIO serialization signal line control.The LPC Command series is comprised of the LPC3100 and LPC3200 models that adopt ARM9 micro core architecture with the clock frequency of up to 266MHz. These models can execute high-end operating systems such as Linux and have 180 and 296 pin number package options as well as the external flash memory (flashless) designs.LPC development engineering suite and third-party products/community supportLiu explained that the first step to develop the NXP LPC MCU for intelligent industrial control applications is to select the optimal software development platform. NXP provides the LPCXpresso integrated development environment (IDE) with the maximum firmware code compilation capacity of 128KB. There are also third party IDEs such as Keil/ARM MDK, Embedded Workbench from IAR, Red Suite from Code_Red, Crossworks from Rowley, TrueStudio from Atollic, and other GNU open source compiler software.The hardware debugger is supported by NXP's LPCLink (on LPCXpresso development board), Segger Company's J-Link, IAR/Signum's I-Jet/JTAGjet, Keil/ARM ULink2, Code Red Company's Red Probe, Hitex Company's Tantino, and Lauterbach Company's Trace32.The evaluation/development board is comprised of NXP's LPCXpresso board and built-in LPCLink debug cable/kit combined with the previously mentioned LPCXpresso IDE to provide the lowest embedded engineering assessment costs/development platform for the clients. At present, the LPCXpresso forum has more than 1,000 registered members. In addition, NXP also provides the mbed rapid engineering prototype boards with built-in LPC1768 and LPC11U24 MCUs, which has shipped over 15,000 units; and the NGX Xplorer evaluation/development boards with built-in LPC1800/LPC4300 MCUs. In addition, other evaluation/development boards include those developed by Embedded Artists, IAR, Keil/ARM, Code Red, Hitex, Embest, and NGX.Regarding a free software library; NXP provides open source, nxpUSBlib library for USB control, Free Lightweight IP (LWIP) library for Ethernet network control, and emWin graphics library for GUI interface. Regarding real time operating systems (RTOS); μC/OSII or μC/OSIII developed by FreeRTOS and Micrium or μCLinux developed by EmCraft are free and downloadable online.Finally, regarding technical support; NXP has established the LPCware.com website to provide education and training, software and driver download, engineering schematics, development tool download, FAQ, and design technique discussion and information. Educational training video clips are also available at the lpczone channel on YouTube. Finally, NXP LPC microprocessor discussion information can also be found in social networking sites such as Yahoo, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook as well as exclusive community websites such as LPCware, LPCXPRESSO, and mbed.Jeff Liu, technical marketing manager of NXP Semiconductors (NXP) in Taiwan

Phoenix SecureCore Technology (Phoenix SCT) 3.0, the latest UEFI BIOS firmware from Phoenix Technologies, uses a graphical user interface to simplify once obscure BIOS settings. It uses an integrated development environment to accelerate firmware development, debugging, and customization in order to enhance boot performance while providing peripheral and system security support. Phoenix SCT 3.0 is playing a significant pioneering and innovative role in the next generation of BIOS. It is the first firmware in the industry to provide native EDK II support, backward compatibility support for EDK 1117, and cross-border applications for tablet PCs, ultrabooks, embedded systems, and servers.Phoenix SCT 3.0 - Pioneering and innovativeIn the past, BIOS used a text mode interface, with computer engineers having the knowledge to understand an item's meaning. The old model of control interface no longer meets the needs of today's prevailing touch control mobile devices. Terry Chen, VP Development Engineering at Phoenix, said during the recent DTF 2013 Embedded Technology Forum that Phoenix is committed to providing a simpler and more intuitive BIOS interface for end-users. Phoenix SCT 3.0, launched at the end of 2012, is equipped with a brand new graphical user interface BIOS setup.Chen said that Phoenix SCT 3.0 is based on the latest UEFI specifications and the next generation UEFI BIOS EDK II core build environment. It provides backward compatibility to the previous generation's EDK 1117 specifications, and its unique universal framework system can provide cross-platform support for x86 and ARM architectures, simultaneously supporting different operating systems such as Windows and Linux, and can meet the needs of multi-platform generation system development with a single BIOS core.Smooth migration to EDK IIChen said that the packages, building tools, library objects, and configuration settings of EDK II are vastly different than those of EDK 1117. Intel is only scheduled to migrate to the EDK II firmware codes no later than 2015; therefore, a smooth transfer to EDK II is critical. Currently, the existing EDK program codes/library resources have not been fully migrated. If both the EDK 1117 and EDK II systems were used simultaneously to write firmware code, it would cause resource investment duplication and management problems.Phoenix Technologies has proposed a universal build system that can simultaneously support EDK 1117 and EDK II program codes and drivers. The system's program code foundation is comparable to distinct IHV principles, and remains compatible with the older SCT .def usage, as well as the new EDK II PCD macro language definitions to assist customers with a smooth migration to EDK II.Support and enhancements for Windows 8Chen stated that Phoenix SCT 3.0 has added numerous new functions to the Windows 8 platform. For example, Fast POST can decide whether to initialize USB devices to save boot time. Microsoft uses the S4 sleep mode for fast boot-up and may not be able to detect newly installed hardware, but Phoenix SCT 3.0 can fix this situation.Many automated software tests used on production lines will not work if the Secure Boot option in BIOS is activated. The Auto Signature Enroll Utility designed by Phoenix can configure the BIOS to activate Secure Boot during the last shutdown after all the products have been detected. In addition, Phoenix SCT 3.0 also supports the random number generator (RNG) agreement provided by EFI firmware or hardware during Windows boot-up, as required by Microsoft.When a tablet PC activates the BitLocker hard disk encoding mechanism, the touch IC driver is integrated into the protective TPM encoding block and cannot be initialized during the boot process. This prohibits the tablet PC's virtual keyboard from being activated during the boot stage and being used to enter passwords. However, Phoenix SCT 3.0 can pre-initialize the touch control mechanism during the boot stage and allow users to perform BitLocker unlock using a virtual keyboard. In addition, for tablet PCs requiring external USB LAN Dongle (USB to LAN adapter) connections, Phoenix SCT 3.0 can support the LanBoot PXE with USB to LAN adapters and provide USB device boot support for Windows To Go (WTG).Chen indicated that Microsoft has proposed allowing BIOS, TPM, IC readers, and even LAN network firmware to be downloaded and updated automatically through the Windows EFI Firmware Update (WUFU). Phoenix SCT 3.0 already provides full support for the NIST SP 800-147 (Secure BIOS and Secure Flash) security specifications, the Non-volatile Capsule Update mechanism, and reserves future support for WUFU. Phoenix SCT 3.0 also supports S0ix required by Connected Standby and PUIS (Power Up In Standby) modes as defined by Microsoft.Modern screen settings and excellent user experiencesChen emphasized that Phoenix SCT 3.0 can hide some sensitive/critical setting options required by the customers which can be displayed through special hotkeys. In some cases, File Explorer can also be embedded in the BIOS setup screen to provide functions that are similar to Windows Explorer. This allows users to organize files and directories, download files online, or delete files for drivers on the hard disk prior to reaching the OS stage.Phoenix SCT 3.0 can directly initialize and provide support for touch ICs during the boot stage and provide BIOS touch hot-zones. Even without a keyboard, users can trigger various functions by touching the various parts of a touchscreen. For example, users can enter BIOS setup by touching the upper-right corner of the screen, or enter the Boot Menu by touching the lower-right corner of the screen, or even activate the Windows Key by touching the lower-left corner of the screen. Chen also mentioned that since the default text size is 19 points for the Intel UEFI firmware codes, text is hard to see on a 7.5 inch tablet PC and cannot be accurately controlled by the touchscreen. To solve this problem, Phoenix SCT 3.0 provides an adjustable font size browsing mode.The biggest change for Phoenix SCT 3.0 is the latest Windows 8 style GUI BIOS Setup that utilizes finger touch control through a floating keyboard. Even gesture control is planned in the future.OEM/ODM system developers can use the Phoenix Desktop Manager (PDM) customizable graphical user interface core engine to easily design exclusive graphical interfaces with WYSIWYG real-time text/color adjustment control methods that are similar to Windows.Using BIOS applications to create added-value for embedded systemsAnother feature of the PDM is that before an OEM device is registered by Windows during boot, it can pre-load the extension platforms that run the UEFI app programs, creating critical vendor differentiation in the embedded systems market. For example, the calculator, or QR Code programs can be directly executed during the BIOS stage without having to wait until Windows is booted.In the past, BIOS firmware usually had to be fully rebuilt because some preloaded EFI drivers had to be removed in order to accommodate production line automated testing. Through the universal customized system (UCS) under the Phoenix SCT 3.0 development environment, several drivers and functional combinations can be selected and written into the BIOS firmware, and be defined by the runtime feature control jumper bits. When the system boots, the BIOS firmware enables Phoenix SCT 3.0 to perform the corresponding driver initiation/function combinations based on the jumper settings on the motherboard. This prevents production lines from having to wait for BIOS engineers to modify firmware before tests can be performed.Improve system integrity and securityPhoenix SCT 3.0 provides additional system integrity improvements: (1) Sure Boot provides BIOS Auto Fail-Over that enables the system to select the most conservative factory-default settings during boot; (2) Safe Recover BIOS2 provides dual firmware backup/repair mechanisms to reduce the probability of RMA repairs due to BIOS damage; (3) Debug support capabilities that record the error register and flag states, memory addresses, and possible debugging information into the non-volatile memory via UEFI BIOS Capsule Update when the blue screen of death appears under the Windows 8 environment; and (4) a Non-Volatile Capsule that directly records the parameter setting values into the protected GPT Partition and reboot to replace the sleep wakeup boot mode.Regarding security enhancements similar to the Secure Boot stage defined by Tiano (UEFI), Phoenix SCT 3.0 ensures that only reliable software and firmware can be executed and adds BIOS system parameter write protection as well as UEFI RAID OPROM password support.Chen indicated that as a solution for the embedded market, Phoenix SCT 3.0 can help embedded system developers to smoothly migrate from existing Legacy/EDK 1117 firmware to EDK II to create a universal system platform and provide synchronized support for Windows 8 Embedded. Phoenix SCT 3.0 can provide a scalable text setting screen as well as touch and graphical configuration interfaces that can apply to embedded mobile devices and tablet PCs, and provide BIOS damage auto-repair mechanisms and proposed WUFU support to enhance system reliability that meets the present and future security needs of Windows 8.Developed under the EDK II architecture, Phoenix SCT 3.0 UEFI BIOS can smoothly migrate from the software code resources of EDK 1117, taking into account future cross-platform portability of the ARM architecture while providing a better user experience and connectivity, support for embedded servers and embedded applications, and create differentiated product value for customers.Terry Chen, VP Development Engineering at Phoenix

In a research report on the global flexible circuit board (FPCB) industry from PR Newswire in 2013, Reportlinker.com pointed out that 2012 was an excellent year for FPCB makers as the component was being broadly used in most of the popular IT products, especially tablets and smartphones, both of which were driving the strong growth in the FPCB market. The global FPCB market reached US$10,680 million in 2012, rising 15.2% compared to 2012. Compared to other IT parts and components, the FPCB achieved strong growth in 2012 and its powerful momentum will continue and drive growth in 2013. The global FPCB market is expected to reach US$11,628 million in 2013, up 8.9% on year.Currently, almost 90% of the global FPCB output value is contributed by Japan, the US, Taiwan and Korea, and the global top-4 FPCB makers are all Japan-based. Taiwan- and Korea-based FPCB makers place most of their business focuses on applications for personal consumer electronics, such as touch panels, smartphones and game consoles, while the US- and Japan-based makers focus mainly on high-end precision electronics sectors, such as aerospace, defense and weapons, high-end medical equipment, hard disk drive components and precision rotary joints. The entry barriers of these high-end sectors are still too high for Taiwan-, Korea- and China-based FPCB makers, but these sectors offer the most added values and profits in the FPCB market.US-based Expert Assembly Service, Eurocircuits USA, Moog Components, and Aurora Circuits are all well-known FPCB specialists that have achieved extraordinary performance in the high-end sectors mentioned above. These FPCB makers started showing interest in Taiwan's FPCB ink supply chain in 2013 and have recently started making requests for quotations, conducting tests and placing orders, giving Taiwan-based FPCB ink suppliers access to the US-based FPCB makers' supply chain. In the past, most of the US-based FPCB makers almost only used inks from Japan-based suppliers and hardly used inks from Taiwan. But the development trends in the application markets and improvements in Taiwan's ink technologies and quality have changed the US-based FPCB makers' purchase habits. More importantly, only Taiwan's FPCB ink suppliers are able to handle the US-based makers' demands for products that are diverse in types, small in shipment volumes and highly bendable.The Apple iPhone has sparked demand for 3G smartphones from consumers, but many consumers do not know that inside the handsets from Apple, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Asus and HTC, there is a breakthrough material developed by Taiwan's FPCB industry. It is this material that allows handsets to become lighter and thinner. Now Taiwan makers are working on ways to lower smartphone costs. As the integration of the FPCB with the rigid PCB is able to replace the functions of conventional connectors, it can not only enhance the stability of electric currents, but also further lower the thickness and weight of handsets. The PI cover layer, which has been widely used to protect cables on the FPCB, can also be replaced by flexible inks that have high flexural strength. This will further lower the costs of handsets.In the past, FPCB component supplies were mainly controlled by Japan-based makers and Taiwan only had a share of less than 30% in the global FPCB ink market. Because of component cost concerns, FPCB makers now hope to receive support from Taiwan's supply chain, which in turn also hopes to have more control of component supplies. After years of hard work, Taiwan makers have made achievements. Of these makers, flexible ink supplier TeamChem Company's products have already been adopted by 70% of Taiwan's FPCB makers. TeamChem Chairman Todd Yeh pointed out that the company's flexible inks are made of heatset soft rubber and in addition to acting as solder masks, the inks can also enable heat dissipation. When adopted to replace the PI cover layer, the inks can fully wrap up the flexible cables, preventing the cables from breaking during bending. Heat generated by the electric current passing through the cables can be dissipated through the surface of TeamChem's flexible inks. In 2013, TeamChem has internally developed its own photoimageable coverlay, which can completely resolve FPCB makers' long-term problem concerning the plug-hole process. At a recent FPCB technology conference hosted at the Shenzhen Industrial District in China, the new technology attracted the attention of several FPCB makers, with most of them having decided to cooperate with TeamChem in developing related applications.TeamChem's FPCB ink is applied on a flexible substrate.

The defense, aerospace, transportation, outdoor, mining development, high temperature, and chemical industry fields often encounter extreme or corrosive chemical environments. Advantech, which provides services for long-term management of embedded applications, has proposed embedded application solutions for these types of extreme environments.Extreme environments bring new challenges and opportunities for embedded applicationsAaron Su, Embedded Core Group/COM Product Manager for Advantech, indicated that industrial automation as well as cloud and smart computing are the two major trends that will spur a new wave of market opportunities for embedded applications. Extreme temperature changes provide a great challenge for the temperature tolerance of embedded devices. Extreme climates caused by greenhouse effects as well as resource depletion challenges are similar to challenges faced by a coal mine digging machine after it has dug the surface and is moving underground, which has to overcome different geothermal and environmental pressures.The key design features of extreme environment industrial control products are: higher product stability is required to reduce future maintenance costs; wide-range temperature embedded devices for single-task RTOS that do not require high computing capabilities; and longer warranty and supply periods. Risky industrial control applications for the military, aerospace, transportation, outdoor, mineral resources development, high-temperature, or chemical fields are all within the scope of extreme environment applications. To overcome extreme environments, embedded systems must be heat resistant as well as provide compression and seismic reliability, stability, waterproofing, and anti-corrosion features. These requirements can be overcome through designs, materials, and stringent verification.Embedded solutions for wide-range temperature fluctuationsSu indicated that from the initial design stage, materials and parts that do not meet the working temperature requirements must first be identified to save time and subsequent development. Product design must go through functional design testing as well as heat source simulations and analysis. In particular, to ensure stable operation in a wide-range temperature environment when some materials and parts in the wide-range temperature product are still under normal temperature specifications, Advantech has designed onboard overheat protection mechanisms to prevent materials and parts from overheating and crashing, as well as low temperature activation to enable materials and parts to reach working temperatures rapidly and maintain normal operation. In addition, power efficiency must be considered to enable devices to operate longer in areas that lack electric sockets.Wide-range temperature product verification is divided into developmental verification and shipping verification stages. During the developmental stage, engineering samples/systems are fed into a chamber and then activated to perform full-load operations; thermal shock tests are then performed by rapidly and repeatedly moving the test products between high and low temperature environments; and finally, over 50 hours of full-load burn-in and power outage/restart power cycling tests are also performed. 100% of the products must also be tested during mass production where each systems must be burnt-in to confirm normal operations before shipping to the customers. In addition to burnt-in tests, reliability tests such as Highly Accelerated Life Testing (HALT) can also be performed to detect product weaknesses and select appropriate improvement or reinforcement measures to improve the tolerability of products.Waterproof/corrosion resistance/seismic solutions for embedded products and peripheralsSulfide particles in the air around ships, chemical plants, outdoor mass transportation (such as trains), and industrialized countries with severe air pollution problems often cause corrosion and damage to embedded motherboards. Su further introduced waterproofing and anti-corrosion applications and indicated that moisture-proof, dust-proof, anti-corrosion, and anti-friction effects can be achieved by performing Conformal Coating Services on the PCB surfaces of motherboards. Materials used include acrylic (AR), urethane (UR), silicone, and epoxy (ER). Each of these materials has unique repair, moisture resistance, abrasion resistance, solvent resistance, mechanical tension, and elasticity characteristics that are suitable for certain objectives.Protective coatings can be applied manually or mechanically. Manual coating is used during small test production, and the drawback is that it is unable to achieve a uniform coating. Advantech provides mechanical automation coating services using acrylic resin or organic silicon as the coating materials. Under IPC-610D specifications, the maximum coating surface is 450mm by 450mm with thickness ranging from 0.5mm to 5mm. On average, coating for one motherboard can be completed in three minutes. The coating can enhance the waterproof, moisture-proof, anti-salt atmosphere, anti-friction, anti-metal particle, and anti-bacterial capabilities of boards.There are currently four solutions that can improve the shockproof and warpage-resistant capabilities of a system: solder chips such as CPU and memory onto the motherboard as much as possible; apply glue on both sides of memory modules to avoid shaking and shedding; use locked connectors with retaining clips for connectors/slots; and use lockable flash storage modules.The IEC60068-2-64 specification is compiled for anti-vibration tests where the maximum vibration acceleration force and frequency can reach 5G and 5Hz to 500Hz. The IEC60068-2-29 specification is compiled for impact tests (with the maximum impact force set at 15G). In addition, Corner Bonding can be performed on chips to increase the PCB thickness as a solution to prevent PCB board warpage from causing BGA chips to crack.Su pointed out that Advantech also provides a full series of industrial wide-range temperature peripheral devices. These devices include the SQFlash storage module series (with PATA/SATA/USB interfaces and a three-year warranty) and the SQRAM memory module series (wide-range temperature, Goldfinger 30nm plating processing, Fix Die chip bonding, and thermal sensor designs). The wireless transmission module provides wide-range temperature and seven-year warranty as well as wide-range temperature and high illumination touch control display equipment. Advantech's Rugged Industrial Display Solution enables normal operation between minus 20 to 60 degrees C and provides readability of 1,200nits under normal sunlight. The solutions include rugged, stand-alone monitors with IP54 front panel protection and tempered glass. The life span of the backlight reaches 50,000 hours.ARM's opportunity in low-end embedded devices and intelligent nodesAt present, hardware developers such as AMD, Freescale, TI, and Nvidia have adopted industry specifications such as PCI Express, USB, and SATA. Microsoft and Google have launched the Windows RT and Android operating systems, respectively. Industrial control field players such as Kontron, Congatec, and MSC are promoting Q7 and ULP form factors. According to ARM's market data, in 2011, ARM's mobile device market saw a 15% gain and reached US$4.5 billion, the embedded device market division saw a 70% gain and reached US$7 billion, enterprise applications had a 30% gain and reached US$1.3 billion, and household devices had a 10% gain and reached US$300 million.Su said he believes that the ARM RISC architecture with low power consumption (<3W), wide-range temperature (minus 40- to 105-degrees C), SoC design, and rapid boot features should be preferred by customers. At present, ARM's products are low priced. However, overall development costs are higher than for x86, and information acquisition costs are not as diverse. Because ARM's level of standardization is not high and its cases are mostly project design in nature, there is a higher moral risk for customers and specific hold up costs. This restricts ARM's penetration in the low-end embedded application market.To integrate industrial control applications into cloud computing architectures under the intelligent earth concept, sensors provide downstream transmit data using wireless or wired methods to intelligent nodes with ARM cores. Data are then connected to a computing core (x86-based) at the next higher level and then are eventually uploaded to the cloud server. The functions of the intelligent nodes are to connect the sensors and the cloud as well as provide the underlying intelligent computing capacity for the cloud to disperse load and make the system more efficient.Strengthening ARM through early designs and integrated supportBased on Su's analyses, RISC clients are categorized as in-house, outsourcing, early-comers (pragmatists), late-comers (followers), and laggards. The first two categories focus on product price/overall development costs. The early-comers (pragmatists) appear in the design standard stage and are restricted by company size and development capabilities; therefore, they cannot independently develop ARM core applications and need to switch to x86 solutions. This category of clients focuses mostly on the first four costs mentioned above. Late-comers (followers) select ARM solutions due to market trends, low RISC price factors, and customer demand; and mostly focus on price/overall development costs and specific hold up costs. The characteristics of laggards are that they refuse to integrate ARM solutions due to non-technical or non-market driven reasons, such as being Intel partners.Promoting ARM standardization can resolve the moral risk costs and specific hold up costs; closely connect the upstream and downstream to resolve information acquisition costs; and resolve these costs by replacing trade with a collaborative design methodology.Regarding form factor standardization; Congatec launched the Qseven(Q7) in 2008 and Advantech launched its RTX 1.0 in 2008, Kontron during late 2012, and RTX 2.0 for rugged applications in 2013. RTX 2.0's shockproof design and 2mm PCB thickness can prevent board warping and cracking. RTX 2.0 adopts the B2B connector which is similar to that of ETX specifications, has a multi-function heat-sink design, and is more suitable for rugged industrial control applications than Q7 and ULP. Finally, Su mentioned that the ARM RISC architecture's collaborative design methodology can replace the traditional trade model. For example, Advantech provided R&D manpower and design support from the early developmental stages of U-Boot and BSP/Driver. After the products began selling to the client-side, Advantech continued to provide design-in services to assist clients in completing their projects, which in turn reduced the clients' difficulty in adopting the ARM-core products.Aaron Su, Embedded Core Group/COM Product Manager for Advantech