In 2007, Corning launched Gorilla Glass, a tough glass product that is ideal for touch screens and many other applications. Because of Corning's proprietary fusion manufacturing process with automated robot arms precisely drawing glass in a clean room environment along with a chemical tempering procedure, Gorilla Glass has a very clean and even surface of excellent quality, and there are different product sizes to flexibly meet the specifications of LCD TVs and monitors. Since its launch, as many as 33 world-renowned brands and 750 types of devices have adopted Gorilla Glass, and Gorilla Glass can also be found in more than 750 million products in the market.Strengthened hardness and damage resistance of Gorilla Glass 2According to James Hollis, Worldwide Sales & Applications Engineering, Corning Glass Technologies, the features of Gorilla Glass have changed the traditional perception of glass, and Gorilla Glass has been widely applied to the coolest smartphones, tablets, PCs, TV, and other consumer devices to enable scratch resistance in daily normal use.As the interaction between consumers and various smart devices is becoming increasingly frequent anytime and anywhere, the thinness, lightweight, ligh transmission, durability, as well damage/scratch resistance of new generation glass products must be improved in order to meet the requirements of various applications, such as optic fiber lighting, automobile glass, architectural display glass, electrochromic glass, all-weather surface glass, antimicrobial glass, optimized components for 3D glass, transmissive display glass, for living rooms, bedrooms, classrooms, vehicles, hospitals, and open space.In order to let glass materials more easily blend into the future applications, Corning has recently launched Gorilla Glass 2, which is as outstanding as its predecessor in optic performance, scratch resistance, and cost efficiency, while completely compatible with the existing parts manufacturing processes. But it features significant form factor and damage resistance improvements.According to Hollis, with all other things being the same, the load-to-failure of Gorilla Glass 2 after abrasion is at least 25% higher than Gorilla Glass. In other words, with the same damage resistance, Gorilla Glass 2 is 10-20% thinner than its predecessor. For example, at a failure load of 170kgf, Gorilla Glass 2 can be 2mm thinner than Gorilla Glass, while 10-15% of the strengthening time during production is saved.Lighter and slimmer smart devices enabled by OGSIn order to meet the needs in manufacturing large full-touch screens, Corning has a one-glass solution (OGS) combining the touch sensor and cover glass into one, allowing the ITO to be patterned directly on the underside of large-size cover glass. Such single-sheet glass is both a strong and safe cover glass and a touch sensor.For projective capacitive touch, according to Hollis, the conventional discrete touch module needs an extra ayer of glass with both sides pattenred with ITO. But now the OGS integrates the touch sensor and cover class into one to do without the thickness of an extra sheet of glass. This not only reduces weight but also simplifies the materials and manufacturing process to decrease panel thickness. It enhances light transmission, and the production process is streamlined.Because of different sequences of sensor processing as well as glass cutting and strengthening, there are two different touch panel making processes: full sheet and discrete sheet processes. According to Hollis, the discrete sheet OGS will directly hand over Gorilla Glass 2 to glass finishers for cutting, as well as the machine and ion exchange processes. Then it is handled by touch panel makers for deposition, patterning and registration. The last step of assembly is completed by ODM companies.The full sheet OGS first will see Corning make the IOX-FS glass substrate from Gorilla Glass 2, and then deposition, patterning and registration are done at touch panel makers. After the cutting and machine processing, assembly is lastly completed by ODM companies. Whether the cutting takes place before or after IXO, the Corning glass still supports OGS.OGS issues improved by IOX-FSBefore the Corning IOX-FS substrate was available, OSG could save costs and enhance capacity utilization, but device durability was weakened considerably by fragile edges of glass panels because the substrate was cut after strengthening. The cutting incurred stress and made edges fragile.The OGS-based IOX-FS glass performs much better than soda lime glass in terms of surface damage resistance, critical stress, edge strength, and light transmission. For example, the surface damage resistance and critical stress of IOX-FS are respectively 5-7 times and more than seven times soda lime glass, enabling a smaller form factor, design flexibility, enhanced durability, better scratch resistance, high-definition, higher display brightness, lightweight, and richer colors on displays. Material and production issues are improved, too.The toughness of Gorilla Glass allows thinner glass to be put on various devices and more importantly the devices' lighter weight makes it easier for transportation and therefore reduces transportation costs. Soda lime glass needs to be 5mm thick to achieve the same toughness of Gorilla Glass of only 0.7mm, said Hollis. Soda lime glass for a 70-inch screen can be as heavy as 17.6 kg but 2.5kg of Gorilla Glass will be enough - a great difference of 15kg, Hollis added.According to Hollis, the current international freight rate charges US$2.2/kg, and US$33 can be saved if an item is 15kg lighter. Thinner displays amount to more space for other cargos for each shipment, and freight efficiency is therefore enhanced, said Hollis.Better user experience that is also more interactiveMoreover, Gorilla Glass effectively reduces screen parallax and improves touch control accuracy to provide better visual quality. The parallax of 5.0mm soda lime glass is 2mm when viewed at an angle of 25 degrees. The parallax is 4mm at angle of 45 degrees and it increases to higher than 10mm at 75 degrees. But the parallax of 0.7mm Gorilla Glass is lower than 1mm and increases only slightly when viewed at an angle of 75 degrees.The touch sensitivity of Gorilla Glass is also 40% higher than thinner soda lime glass based on parallel-plate capacitor approximations, and such a feature is critical to high-definition touch panels. Direct lamination that eliminates air from the gap improves contrast ratios and rigidity to provide superior viewing quality.Established in 1851, Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications, and life sciences. The company now has 29,000 employees around the world, including more than 2,000 employees in Taiwan. Its 2011 revenue came to US$7.9 billion. Corning is the 328th of the 2012 Fortune 500 companies and the world leader in ceramics and specialty glass.According to Hollis, Corning succeeds through sustained investment in R&D, more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, and a distinctive, collaborative culture. Corning excels in combining its abundant professional knowledge with its service to local customers in order to enjoy success together with customers. It is Hollis' view that people live in a world made from glass will soon become a reality as more and more companies are embracing Corning products.James Hollis, Worldwide Sales & Applications Engineering - Gorilla, Corning Glass Technologies, Corning

Memory applications are omnipresent in today's digitalized information society, In particular, non-volatile memories (NVM) featuring durability, high intensity and high speed, lightweight, power efficiency, and non-volatile storage, are widely used in USB, notebooks, netbooks, tablets, cell phones, HD video and MP3 players, pen recorders, electronic pets, wearable gadgets, and digital/video cameras.According to a recent Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) report, the global mobile memory market is expected to amount to US$7.7 billion in 2012 and may grow to US$13 billion in 2016 despite the slowdown in America and Europe and the Greek debt crisis. This is because each and every electronic device needs independent NVM operation to make it work.Serious bottleneck of electric leakages associated with micro-memory developmentAccording to Ralf Kilguss, Senior Segment Marketing Manager, Macronix, many technologies help NVM production, including SONOS (charge trapping and XtraROM are the representative architectures), ROM & fuse, as well as RRAM and phase change that have a great potential, but the floating gate technology (including NOR flash and NAND flash) remains the mainstream.According to a DRAMeXchange forecast, the processing speed of NAND flash is lower than NOR flash but the rapid increase of various consumer electronics needs data storage - the primary function of NAND flash - and this would help the 2012 NAND flash revenue increase 12% from the previous year, and the NAND flash output value is expected to exceed that of DRAM this year.As semiconductor manufacturing processes keep evolving and components are increasingly smaller, the floating gate technology now faces a serious bottleneck in micro-memory development. According to Kilguss, because the floating gate technology has electric charges stored in polysilicon, the tunnel oxide at the bottom must be thick enough to avoid direct tunneling and Frenkel-Poole tunneling that easily incur electric leakages and affect memory quality and reliability.According to Kilguss, generally speaking, tunnel oxide should not be thinner than 8nm, and this makes floating-gate non-volatile memory manufacturers unable to freely reduce their product sizes horizontally or vertically.Bad block, write/read disturbance, and durability issues to be tackledOn the other hand, floating-gate non-volatile memory size reduction means decreased electric charges stored in polysilicon. According to Kinam Kim's presentation at VLSI-TSA 2005, floating gate memory size reduction from 120nm to 40nm will rapidly decrease the number of electrons stored from more than 3,000 to about 80 if Vth is set at 4V. Because a NAND flash memory has fewer electrons than a NOR flash memory of the same size, the impact on the NAND flash memory is more serious, and the expected lifespan of charge loss tolerance will decrease from more than 10 years to 5 years.A lower total number of electrons means a more severe impact resulting from losing a same amount of electronic charges. For small-size floating gate NVMs, particularly NAND flash memories, this is a dilemma between data storage and enhanced reliability.Moreover, NAND flash bad blocks are generated along with increasing program/erase (P/E) cycles, and the endurance affected by write/read disturbance incurred by electric current instability or sensitive components needs to be re-strengthened by wearing leveling, while there is certain danger to long-term data storage.Write/read disturbance is caused by the voltage difference between the pages selected and unselected (e.g., read the selected page at 0V and write at 20V, while read the unselected at 5V and write at 8V), and ongoing pressure on the unselected page units easily incurs data losses. According to Kilguss, the issue would further worsen as semiconductor manufacturing process advances are making gateway nodes increasingly smaller.Memory flexibility and reliability factored in by Macronix's new HybridFlashWhen the value of a byte or more bytes changes from 1 to 0 during NAND flash read and write, a read disturb error tends to happen. If many times of reading (tens of thousands sometimes, depending on technology) of a page happen before erasing, the error can be even worse. This means that the raw bit error rate (RBER) increases with the increase of NAND flash reading. When there are too many bit errors to be corrected by Error Checking and Correcting (ECC), NAND flash reliability and data storage ability will drop to an unacceptable level, and the issue cannot be completely resolved only by built-in ECC.In order to resolve the aforementioned issue during micro NAND flash development and provide a high quality solution to embedded storage devices, Macronix has launched its new generation product HybridFlash that factors in both flexibility and reliability. According to Kilguss, HybridFlash consists of XtraROM, flash memory and controller, which can respectively serve OS storage, boot loader/code update, and interface purposes.XtraROM is able to provide ASIC design based on customer DRM schemes, does not need bad block management and extra ECC, is free from write/read disturbance, requires fewer masker layers than other technologies, and enjoys its exclusive wafer foundry capacity. So many strengths of XtraROM help maintain considerable reliability after product size reduction and do not need the extra backup code image required by other NAND flash technologies.XtraROM's superiority over NAND flash in many areasHybridFlash provides a very stable medium to contents and OS, enabling storage as long as 20 years at 85 degrees centigrade and it also works normally from 40 degrees below zero to 85 degrees centigrade. Its security control mechanism effectively guards against hacking, viruses, and unauthorized alterations.According to Kilguss, Macronix has conducted repeated reading of three sets of XtraROM's single page at 25 degrees centigrade with Vcc set at 3.6V and a data rate at 1MByte per second to test whether the data in XtraROM is affected. After more than 109 tests lasting for 168 hours, 80 units of each of the three sets of XtraROM were randomly sampled (a total of 240 units sampled), and no error was found. According to Kilguss, testing of general SLC/MLC NAND flash under the same settings would show errors of disturbance within one hour.Compared to SLC NAND flash or MLC synchronous NAND flash, XtraROM performs better in Random Read, Sequential Write, Random Write, and Read Cycle. Therefore, XtraROM is now widely used in closed consumer systems (e.g., printers, set-top boxes, and digital TV), network devices (e.g., switches, routers, and base stations), industrial applications (e.g., programmable logic controllers, industrial PCs, rugged PDAs/tablets, and point-of-sale systems), and home appliances (e.g., coffee makers, ovens, and refrigerators).HybridFlash can replace CDs and DVDs traditionally used to install or distribute Windows, Office, Visio, Project, Visual Studio, Visual FoxPro, Adobe Acrobat, Games, etc. According to Kilguss, the data written into HybridFlash can be preserved longer, free from virus attacks, and can do without any wait for downloading. HybridFlash also helps netbooks, tablets, smart phones, and slim notebooks do without the space for CD players to make them even more compact.Ralf Kilguss, Senior Segment Marketing Manager, Macronix

Twenty years ago, technological innovations were driven by demand from large companies, governments and the military. Today, the world is led by consumerism, and meeting consumers' needs has become the reason for all innovations.According the organizer of IFA noted that the debt crises in Greece, Spain and Ireland cannot be seen as an economic crisis of the whole Europe, which remains one of the biggest consumer markets of the world. To understand the trends of this consumer market, one needs to understand Berlin, the mainstay of the European economy and finance.Industrial innovation directed by consumers, instead of enterprisesJens Heithecker, Executive Director of IFA, gave a speech on why the consumer is the decision-maker for the industry's future. He pointed out the first rule of the industrial innovation nowadays is "consumerization." Marc Andreessen, founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, shared his view about consumerization. Andreessen said that many exciting developments of IT technologies first appear in the consumer market before heading towards other areas. Companies also provide personalized devices.Heithecker said that in the 1990s, industrial innovations were meant to meet the demand of large companies, research centers and the military. With the rise of Internet, the situation has gradually changed, with innovations intended more for consumers. Now it is an age of individuals, and innovations are starting to be first inspired and guided by consumers' needs before finding their own ways into enterprises and governments.He cited two IT giants as illustrations: Microsoft and Apple. Microsoft thrived in the 1990s because the company provided innovative technologies to fulfill demands of enterprises. But Apple's high market value and wide influence in 2012 has come from the fact that its innovations have always been meant for consumers.The market trend has also turned from traditional PCs to mobile Internet devices. The Economist remarked in 2011 that the Wintel era, dominated by PCs running Microsoft Windows and Intel chips, was drawing to a close.According to various market research done by enterprises, investment companies or governments, from 1981 to 1993, there were 100 million PCs in the world. By 2008, the number had grown to one billion. It is expected that by 2020, there will be 10 billion Intrernet-connected mobile devices in the world.That leads us to the second rule of industrial innovation: "mobility." The Economist mentioned in 2011 that society is changing with more and more people trusting or even relying on online shopping and activities on social networks, and they are looking to access these Internet services and computing capabilities from more locations.A new high-tech environment of mobility has begun taking shape. Heithecker emphasized that it is not just those computing capabilities, services, mobile sites and apps that should be made available on the Internet. Content and personal data should also be accessed anytime, anywhere on any devices. Mobility means "ubiquitously connected."The IFA showcase of the 'ubiquitously connected world' for consumers and by consumersHeithecker further stressed that in this present era, everything is "for consumers" and "by consumers." The IFA exhibition opens every year from late August to early September in Messe Berlin, gathering manufactures and traders of consumer electronics from all over the world to showcase their latest products and technologies.IFA attracts thousands of buyers, local citizens and personnel from local and international media establishments. Not only mobile devices are shown at IFA; there are also all kinds of digital gadgets, including smart TVs and intelligent home appliances that form an ubiquitously connected life.During IFA 2011, 38,569 international buyers (56% Y/Y growth) visited the exhibition. The fair attracted 2,181 foreign press people (16% Y/Y growth) and 6,189 local ones (2% Y/Y growth). A total of 1,441 companies (1% Y/Y growth) exhibited at the show.IFA offers a large indoor space at 28 exhibition centers/halls. There are seven areas: *Home Entertainment: Hall 3.2, Hall 4.2, Hall 5.2, Hall 6.2b, Hall 7, Hall 8, Hall 10, Hall 11, Hall 18, Hall 20, Hall 21, Hall 22, Hall 23 and Hall 25*Audio Entertainment: Hall 1.2, and Hall 2.2b*Home Appliance: Hall 3.1, Hall 4.1, Hall 5.1, Hall 6.1, Hall 7.1, Hall 8.1, and Hall 10.1*IFA My Media: Hall 13, Hall 14, Hall 15, Hall 16, Hall 17, and Hall X19*Public Media: Hall 2.2a, and Sommergarten plaza*IFA Communication: Hall 6.2a, and Hall 9*Technology & Component: Hall 5.2, Hall 11.1, Hall 26, Hall 27, and Hall 28People may wonder: since IFA is at the heart of Europe, which is being hit by an economic crisis, what benefits may there be to join the show? Heithecker noted that only three European countries are heavily influenced by the debt crisis, namely Greece, Spain and Ireland, and their situations cannot be seen a crisis of the entire continent.According to statistics, in 2011 Europe was the largest market of consumer electronics with a share of 27%, and it will remain number one through the end of 2012. China accounted for 22%, the US for 21%, Asia-Pacific for 13%, Latin America for 11%, and Africa and Middle East for 6%.According to statistics and estimation provided by World Bank in 2011, German, France, the UK, Italy and Sweden saw their GDP decrease 3-5% in 2009, while the global GDP dropped 2.3% on average. Eastern Europe was in a more difficult situation where countries there saw GDP decrease 4-14.5%, except for Poland, whose GDP grew 2%. In 2010 and 2011, Italy had only a 0.5% growth, but most other Western European nations recovered with 1-5.5% growth, while Eastern European countries had 1-7% growth.Heithecker said all IFA booths this year have been booked up. As the most important trade event of consumer electronics in the world, IFA 2011 achieved orders up to US$4.8 billion, and attracted more international media attention than ever. IFA 2012 takes place from August 31 to September 5 in Berlin.Jens Heithecker, Executive Director, IFA

Mobile devices nowadays offer more and more functions with screen sizes bigger than ever. However, the increased interactivity is challenged by the limit of battery life. In addition, people need to link their mobile devices to large LCD TVs to display their proposal, diagrams, video conference and games.Besides HDMI and micro-HDMI, the mobile phone industry alliance has introduced MHL interface technology. Using the present micro-USB port, the MHL interface not only outputs 1080p video to large displays, it can also charge via the display as a source of power supply, enabling mobile devices to output images with better quality and enhanced power.Mobile devices require large displays for HD video outputDavid Kuo, Director of Product Marketing for Mobile Devices at Silicon Image, Inc, said that according to the estimation of InStar in November, 2011, by the year of 2015, there will be 2.5 billion mobile devices in the world, including mobile phones, tablets, cameras and other gadgets, and applications for mobile viewing will also be a major market trend.From digital cameras, Blu-ray players, notebooks, wireless gateways/routers, tablet PCs and smartphones, standards have evolved from VGA into 1080p (1920x1080 full HD). Processors have progressed from dual-core to quad-core, and mobile communication from 3G to 4G broadband. Gaming on mobile devices is no longer limited to simple games, but serious action games even 3D ones that are competitive to those on video game consoles.The limit of mobile devices nowadays is the screen size. The bigger screen it has, the better interactivity it provides. But the screen size and battery life vary inversely: the bigger the screen, the shorter life the battery.Mobile devices are also often linked to large-size displays: displaying proposal data from the smartphone by linking the device to a projector; doing video conferencing on smartphones with an HDTV; or playing games downloaded to the smartphones on a large display.Kuo also pointed out that in order to provide the best connectivity among mobile devices and other peripherals, the video transfer interface of the new generation mobile devices needs to support HD audio & video output, interactivity without video delay, compatibility with mobile devices of common sizes. These devices must be powered by batteries and easy to design.MHL: An aggressive competitor among HD output interfacesAt present, there are several interfaces supporting HD output: HDMI; MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link) introduced by MHL Consortium; and WirelessHD. They all provide high quality, interacting and real-time HD viewing experiences. Since its introduction in 2004, HDMI interface has been built in more than three billion devices. However, the size of HDMI ports on TVs and notebooks are still too big. To solve this problem, mini-HDMI (Type C) ports and even smaller micro-HDMI (Type D) ports have been invented, the latter also compatible with present smartphones.As for the new MHL interface technology, it can also output 1080p60 full HD video supporting transmission of HD photos, HD videos, video conferencing and digital audio. Its back channel enables user to control the HDTV and the smartphone simultaneously with the remote control or touch panel on the HDTV, and MHL also allows users to simultaneously charge their connected devices.The MHL interface is connection agnostic, which means it works without being tied to a specific type of connector, as long as it provides these signals: HD video/audio, data and power. The MHL eco-system has formed: There are standards and related testing equipment; there are MHL Tx, Rx component and MHL IP for SoCs; and more than 100 MHL products have been developed. In 2011, more than 50 million MHL-enabled devices were shipped in the world, and it is predicted that over 100 million for devices with MHL built-in will be shipped in 2012.The following are displays with the MHL interface that can be found on the market: Samsung SmartTV 7000 and 8000 series LED TV (available in 46", 55" and 60"); LG LM9600, LM8500, LM7600 and LM6700; SHARP LC-xxLE745U, LC-xxC7450U, LC-xxLE845U, LC-xxLE847U, LC-xxLE8470U, and LCD-xxLX840A; Toshiba WL800A series LED HDTV; Samsung 7 Smart Station and HDTV display (available in 24" and 27").As for MHL mobile devices, there are: HTC smartphones including Sensation, Sensation XE, EVO 3D, EVO 4G LTE, Amaze, resound, Vivid, Raider, One X and One S; HTC tablets Flyer and Jetscream; Acer smartphone CloudMobile; Fujutsu ARROWS Z ISW13F; Sharp Aquos ISW16SH; Samsung Galaxy S2, Infuse, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S3; LG Optimus LTE II, Optimus LTE, Nitro HD, Spectrum, Optimus 3D Max, Optimus 4X, Optimus LTE Tag; Pantech Vega LTE; Lenovo S2; Huawei Ascend P1/P1 S, Ascend D1, D1 Quad; ZTE PF200, Era; and Meizu Mx, OPPO Find3.Other products and gadgets with the MHL interface: Onkyo AV Receiver; Sharp Aquos Media Station BD-AMS10U & BD-AMS20U, Roku Streaming Stick; Renesas Ultra-Compact STB Reference Board; Pioneer AppRadio 2 In-Dash Car Receiver, and MHL to HDMI, MHL to VGA connectors, MHL docks and MHL cables.Technical differences between HDMI and MHLHDMI uses 19-pin HDMI connector for connection. The output end transmits video/audio and power signals to the input end, while EDID/HDCP and CEC signals are transmitted from both ends. Therefore, when the smartphone is connected to the monitor via HDMI, the power signal needs to be sent from the output end (which is the smartphone), which consumes power.There is usually one micro USB port on smartphones, and if a micro HDMI port is added, users may be confused by their similarity. The micro HDMI port will also increase the costs of components, such as transmitter ICs, connectors, ESD diodes, and CM chokes. It also occupies more space on the PCB. Therefore, the micro HDMI port may be feasible for tablet PCs, but not for smaller mobile devices.As for the MHL interface, the output end transmits video/audio signals, but the EDID/HDCP/remote control and power signals are transmitted from the input end to the output end. The MHL connector has only five pins, and can be used the connector for any mobile device.MHL Consortium is promoting the MHL interface in the form of the most popular micro USB connector. With a MHL transmitter chip and a micro USB connector, transfer of HD video/audio, as well as USB data transfer and charging can all be performed. By adopting this single connector with multi functions, manufacturers can remove the material cost for the second set of video connectors, save PCB space and improve the look and design of the device.Advantage of 60Hz WirelessHD technologyKuo also mentioned about WirelessHD, a 60GHz, almost non-delay 1080p60 wireless video transfer technology. The present 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi technology allows users to stream video via the DLNA protocol, but when it comes to transferring 1080p60 video, the video need to be compressed first, and there can be delay for more than one second, which is quite obvious for users when playing games. Encode/decode signals are written on the original video; as a result, the video player will need to consume more CPU resource or require a high efficiency H.264 codec chip. Also, as Wi-Fi is a structure of bandwidth sharing, once it is accessed by other users, the bandwidth may not be sufficient for transmitting videos.The 60GHz WirelessHD is a solution similar to connecting cables, with one-way bandwidth up to 4GBps. The bandwidth is 100% for video transmission only. It allows 1920x1080p60 uncompressed HD video transmission, and delays under 3ms, which users can hardly feel. It is ideal for interactive HD video and gaming.Kuo concluded that the ability to connect HD video to a large display is the key to the development of ultimate and interactive mobile devices. HDMI, MHL and WirelessHD can all bring users high quality and interactive HD experience. For wired HDMI, MHL to WirelessHD, there are solutions readily available from Silicon Image.David Kuo, Director of Product Marketing for Mobile Devices, Silicon Image

As the trends for cloud computing and mobility intensify, online video streaming often experiences serious lags. Now consumers are asking for flash storage devices of larger capacity and faster performance. Leading flash memory vendors are well aware of the demand for faster performance from upstream servers, midstream access networks and downstream mobile terminal devices, and they keep offering comprehensive performance-boosting solutions. Competitiveness coming from memory technology, system expertise and production capacity is the key to sustainable leadership in this cut-throat market of flash memory.Device mobility boosts demand for flash memoryOne of the IDC forecasts quoted by Dan Inbar, senior vice president and general manager of OEM Business Unit at SanDisk, estimates that the digital world of data will grow to 2.72 zettabytes by 2012, when more mobile devices with extreme performance are scheduled to launch. Data centers are expected to become more responsive, as by 2016 each mobile device will have an average capacity of 38GB.Inbar said according to statistics published by Gartner in first-quarter 2012, global smartphone shipments reached 500 million units in 2011, with an average flash capacity at merely 7GB per device. Global handset shipments are expected to hit 1.35 billion units by 2016, and the average flash capacity will rise to 26GB. In 2011, nearly 70 million tablet PCs were sold with an average flash capacity at 24GB per device. Tablet shipments are estimated at nearly 380 million in 2016, and the average flash capacity will increase to about 46GB per machine.As for SSDs, only 17 million notebook PCs were shipped with SSDs in 2011 with an average SSD capacity at 126GB. By 2016, global shipments of SSD-equipped notebooks will reach 100 million units with an average 319GB flash capacity.For enterprise SSDs, only five million servers with SSDs were shipped in 2011, with an average 214GB SSD capacity. The shipments are expected to surpass 20 million units by 2016, and the average SSD capacity per server will rise to 1,248GB, increasing nearly six-fold from 2011.Enabling faster data transferInbar pointed out that SanDisk has enabled faster data transfer by launching a 64GB, UHSI-compatible Class 6 micro memory card, microSDXC, with 30MB/s read speed. A 64GB ultra mini USB drive that can be directly inserted into USB ports is also available now. According to market surveys conducted by SanDisk itself, UBS flash drives sold as tie-ins with mobile devices or via retail channels neared 500 million units in 2011, and the figure is expected to grow year by year to over 700 million in 2015.Inbar mentioned that a combination of maximum-performance enterprise servers and storage is the first node for cloud computing service. Access networks that provide data, in 3G, 3.5G, 4G WiMAX or LTE, are the middle node, while end devices are at the last node with maximum mobility. For content delivery at YouTube, Amazon, NetFlix and Hulu, online shopping/payment mechanism and client analytics of Walmart and VISA, or cloud service providers like Facebook, Google and iCloud, cloud data needs to be delivered in a faster manner. Flash memory technology will redefine performance.Solutions for faster delivery by devices/networks upstream, mid-stream and downstream in the cloudInbar said a second-quarter 2011 Bytemobile Mobile analytic report found 60% of total mobile data was video in 2011, but users complained that there was a 40% chance of experiencing lags while streaming videos. In a bid to address these challenges of video lags, SanDisk has come up with a set of solutions to problems from upstream to downstream.First is the solution for enterprise servers. SanDisk found that while only one third of CPU capacity is utilized at any time, disk I/O is often almost in full load with over 90% utilization. If flash I/O is properly applied, the load for server CUP and disk I/O can be simultaneously reduced to below 50%. This will double the density of virtual server to increase the efficiency of cloud services.The second solution concerns client computers. Installing a SanDisk iSSD, with small package size at 0.5mm pitch 156Ball BGA and capacity ranging from 8, 16, 24, 32 64 to 128GB, will help. It is also equipped with SATA 6Gbps high-speed interface and a max read up to 450MB/s and max write 350MB/s. With SanDisk's nCashe cache technology, core OS, log files and recent data can be stored in iSSD and accelerate operation of the entire system.The third solution is for access networks. Through a time shifting strategy during peak and off-peak time of mobile base station utilization, most of the day time is allocated for communications while the off-peak network bandwidth at night is used for massive data transmission. Mobile devices can also adopt smart caching technology to store streamed content into flash, and transfer the data to DRAM with rule-based caching. Lastly, when a mobile device is brought home for downloading, it can automatically detect wireless gateways/routers and use the PC for side loading. Preloading of possibly useful multimedia files/documents via Wi-Fi of higher bandwidth can also relieve the burden of mobile download.Flash memory companies are rising to the challengesInbar believes there are four key elements for flash memory companies to cope with these ever-expanding challenges: the first is memory technology, and the second is system expertise. SanDisk has a good command of controllers, firmware, algorithms and ECC that support various chipsets, OSs and leading industrial standards. For example, the 50MB/s eMMC v4.2 specified by JEDEC in 2009 was mostly applied in feature phones, smartphones, tablets, digital still cameras and video recorders.From 2010 to 2011, JEDEC raised the eMMC v4.3/v4.4 transfer speed to 100MB/s so the application extended to larger-size and dual-core smartphones, tablets and digital camcorders. With the eMMC v4.5 standard being drafted by JEDEC from 2012 to 2013, the transfer speed will be raised to 200MB/s and an IOPS interface for multitasking I/O will be included so that it can be applied to ultrabooks, multi-core tablets, smart TVs and cloud servers. SanDisk will offer a complete series of flash memory products for various devices ranging from PNDs, e-book readers, budget feature phones, potable multimedia players, portable game consoles, digital camcorders, superphones, tablet PCs, x86 tablets, and other ultrathin devices.SanDisk has conducted a cloud server test, finding that without optimization, there were a large number of inconsistency occurrences while doing 256KB writes. The system's latency mostly falls between 300ms and 1,600ms with some cases even reaching 5,500 ms. After being optimized with flash acceleration technology, the number of inconsistency occurrences were greatly reduced.The third key element is the integration of manufacturing capability and capacity. In addition to its existing 200mm wafer plant, a 300mm fab at Japan's Mie Prefecture in a joint venture between SanDisk and Toshiba started mass production in July 2011. With sufficient supply of flash memory wafers, SanDisk also set up a packaging/testing plant in China in 2007 to cater to demand in the local mobile device market.The fourth key element mentioned by Inbar was an eye on the future of storage. By 2016 each tablet will require an average flash memory capacity of 46GB, and the key solutions include high speed memory card, eMMC and SSD with COB or traditional flash IC designs.Average capacity of smartphones will reach 26GB by adopting high speed memory card, eMMC and iSSD as key solutions. Average capacity of notebooks, ultrabooks and PCs will reach 319GB with eMMC and SSD being key solutions. Capacity of most memory cards and USBs will increase to an average 25GB, offering up to 128GB capacity limit and 95MB/s speed in COB or flash IC designs. Finally, average flash capacity of data centers/servers will rise to 1,248GB, providing high-end, high-speed SSD solutions such as SATA, SAS and PCIe.Dan Inbar, Senior Vice President and General Manager of OEM Business Unit at SanDisk

The first generation Wi-Fi launched 15 years ago brought forth wireless LAN (WLAN) applications, and the newer Wi-Fi standards that ensued have been providing faster transmission to notebooks, smartphones, and tablets. Over the past few years, Wi-Fi has even become available to consumer electronics and peripherals.In terms of the emerging home applications, however, Wi-Fi 802.11g and 802.11n in the existing 2.4GHz band can no longer meet the requirement for HD streaming video transmission. As a result, 5G Wi-Fi - faster than 1 Gbps - is forthcoming.Wireless video transmission expedited by 5G Wi-FiThe trademark of 5G Wi-Fi can be noticed at the exhibition halls of Computex 2012 and on the shuttle buses for the event. This is what Michael Hurlston said at his key note speech for "Computex Taipei Digitimes Tech Forum 2012 - Mobile Technology." Hurlston is Senior Vice President and General Manager of Wireless Combo Connectivity Line of Business, Broadcom. He also noted 5G Wi-Fi-related products exhibited by some companies at Computex.Why is there the 5G Wi-Fi standard? What are the benefits of the standard? According to Hurlston, Wi-Fi dominates all the applications of digital home devices and every consumer needs Wi-Fi. According to a Broadcom survey of about 1,000 people in America, 60% of the respondents said that they cannot do without Wi-Fi on any single day; 39% said that they are willing to give up drinking coffee for one month in exchange for Wi-Fi; and 50% are willing to give up Facebook for one month in exchange for Wi-Fi.Videos amounted to 29.5% of the global network traffic in 2009, and the percentage increased to 42.7% and 53.6% respectively in 2010 and 2011, but the explosive growth of videos is just beginning. According to VNI's statistics and forecast in June 2011, more than 50% of the global network packet traffic comes from video transmission and network streaming traffic alone exceeds 1 ExaBytes. By 2015, the percentage of online video traffic is expected to exceed 91% and 7 ExaBytes, four times of the traffic in 2012.Prevalent Wi-Fi for PC, mobile devices, and consumer electronicsAccording to Hurlston, as online video traffic is on the rise globally, the types of devices for online video viewing have started to change. According to a Sandvine Broadband Report in October 2011, 90% of online video viewing used to rely on desktops and 10% used to rely on game consoles, smart TV, set-top boxes (STBs), tablet devices, and smartphones, but now only 45% rely on desktops while 55% rely on game consoles, smart TV, set-top boxes, tablet devices, smartphones, and other mobile devices.He noted the ongoing increase of Wi-Fi applications and types of Wi-Fi devices. In 2008, Wi-Fi was built in on smartphones, notebooks and game consoles, but since then built-in Wi-Fi has been expanding to smart TV, set-top boxes, vehicle electronics and entertainment systems. The number of Wi-Fi built-in devices around the world is expected to exceed 3.2 billions in 2012, and then smart meters, e-healthcare devices, remote control helicopters, and even refrigerators as well as laundry machines will have Wi-Fi built in. The number of Wi-Fi built-in devices around the world is expected to exceed five billions by 2014.When Wi-Fi 801.11n - the mainstream standard at present - was introduced in 2007, continuous transmission of massive streaming videos of high definition as required by today's mobile devices and consumer electronics had not been expected. As a result, 5G Wi-Fi is the only solution now.Wi-Fi evolution and technology advancementAccording to Hurlston, from 1997 to 1998, speed of the 1st-generation Wi-Fi 802.11 was only 2Mbps. From 1999 to 2001, the 2nd-generation Wi-Fi 802.11b accelerated wireless transmission to 11Mbps. From 2002 to 2006, the 3rd-generation Wi-Fi 802.11g/a increased it to 54Mbps. From 2007 to 2011, the 4th-generation Wi-Fi 802.11n raised the limit to 600Mbps (4 channels). The current limit is 450Mbps (3 channels).The 5G Wi-Fi 802.11ac launched in 2012 enables single-channel transmission at 450Mbps, three times of 150Mbps of 802.11n. At present, 802.11ac supports four MIMO channels (1.8Gbps) and will support up to eight MIMO channels. Therefore, the mainstream design of three transreceiver antennas for MIMO may reach 1.35Gbps. 5G Wi-Fi 802.11ac is also compatible with 802.11n (2.4GHz/5Ghz).Hurlston pointed out the features of 5G Wi-Fi as the following:(1) Highest speed of streaming video transmission.(2) Higher capacity for networking of more devices.(3) Wider network coverage that is three to four times of the existing 802.11n to reduce dead spots.(4) A longer battery life resulting from faster transmission that shortens the time required for high power consumption. At present, 5G Wi-Fi is able to concurrent transmit three HD 1080p streaming videos.HD streaming video playing evidenced by 5G Wi-Fi device demoHurlston also invited a Broadcom colleague for a 5G Wi-Fi device demonstration. The colleague unveiled three large-size LCD TVs on the stage. The three TVs played Iron Man, Lorax, and John Carter respectively, using Broadcom's 5G Wi-Fi chip-based wireless multimedia gateway to concurrently play three full HD 1080p videos by wireless transmission without any delay. Concurrent output of four full HD videos is also doable.In terms of file transmission, 5G Wi-Fi enables less packet synchronizations than Wi-Fi 802.11n. It was clocked onsite that transmission of a video of more than 900MB by a 5G Wi-Fi device took only 33-40% of time required for transmission by a 802.11n device. 5G Wi-Fi - because of its speediness and power efficiency - is very suitable for mobile device video transmission.Available products and applicationsAccording to Hurlston, Broadcom debuted its 5G Wi-Fi chipset at CES 2012. The dual-band chipset, which supports 2.4G/5GHz and meets the 802.11ac standard, has won support from wireless network equipment suppliers. Netgear has been the first company supporting 802.11n/802.11ac by launching its A6200 USB adapter as well as R6200 and R6300 wireless routers. Other wireless router and multimedia bridge products launched later to support 5G Wi-Fi include Buffalo AC1300, Air Station WZR-D1800H, and WLI-H4-D300H. Broadcom has become the first ever 5G Wi-Fi equipment supplier in the physical market.The China-based Datang Telecom Technology has announced its 5G Wi-Fi access device adoption. Asustek Computer has announced its RT-AC66U router across 2.4G/5G with the 2.4G band (802.11n) supporting transmission at 400Mbps and the 5G band (802.11ac) supporting transmission at 1,350Mbps. A total bandwidth of 1,750Mbps is available for transmission. Hurlston also mentioned the availability of upcoming wireless routers such as D-Link DIR-865L, Belkin AC1000 and AC1200, Tenda W1800R, and EDIMAX BR-6673AC.Hurlston noted that a complete 5G Wi-Fi ecosystem is being established, for example, ASUS G75VW shown at Computex is the world's first ever gaming notebook with 5G Wi-Fi built in and ASUS P8Z77V motherboard also has 5G Wi-Fi built in.According to Hurlston, the core products with 5G Wi-Fi built in for the first half of 2012 are wireless routers and notebooks, and there will be backbone devices of wireless routers each equipped with two or three antennas in the second half of this year. In the first half of 2013, 5G Wi-Fi will become available to desktops, laptops, smart TV, and set-top boxes. In the second half of the year, it will become available to every type of mobile devices including smart phones, tablets, game consoles, and digital cameras.It is Hurlston's expectation that there will be more choices of 5G Wi-Fi applications and devices to provide better experiences. The latest 5G Wi-Fi guidelines and industry news are available at: http://www.5gwifi.org/Michael Hurlston, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Wireless Combo Connectivity Line of Business, Broadcom

The IT industry is becoming more mobile as cloud services and mobile computing are increasingly prevalent, while there is a demand for mobile device projection on screens of different sizes anytime and anywhere to enable presentations and video playing. This will be a requirement for any new mobile device.In order to help developers of mobile applications and manufacturers of mobile devices to grasp the essence of mobile solutions and technologies, Digitimes hosted the "Computex Taipei Digitimes Tech Forum 2012 - Mobile Technology" on June 6 at Taipei International Convention Center, inviting Broadcom, Nvidia, MIPS, SanDisk, Silicon Image, IFA in Berlin, JDC, IPMS, as well as academic and industry representatives to share the latest trends of multi-core processors, wireless networking, storage, video transmission, and touch control.Prevalence of mobile videos and solutions to faster wireline and wireless transmission solutions driven by HD external outputAccording to Michael Hurlston from Broadcom, videos amount to 53.6% of the global network traffic, and the devices for viewing online videos are becoming increasingly diverse. Now 2.4GHz Wi-Fi no longer suffices and in 2012, 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) operating on the 5GHz band increases the speed of single-channel transmission by three times for an ordinary gateway with three trans-receiver antennas to concurrently transmit three streaming videos of 1080p at 1.35 Gbps; 5G Wi-Fi (802.11ac) is also compatible with the existing Wi-Fi.According to David Kuo from Silicon Image, micro-HDMI (Type D) is suitable for smartphones and the new MHL interface is capable of 1080p output, while HDTV and cell phones can be simultaneously controlled by HDTV remote control or touch control and there is also a rechargeable power supply design for cell phones. Moreover, 60GHz wireless HD transmission features a proprietary unilateral bandwidth of 4Gbps to allow transmission of uncompressed HD videos of 1920 x1080p60 almost without any delay perceived. This is particularly suitable for interactive HD videos and game applications. The existing 2.4GHz band will not be able to continuously transmit video packets.Multi-core, diverse, and flexible architectures for either Windows RT or AndroidAccording to Rene Hass from Nvidia, ongoing enhancement of mobility for devices is critical to sustaining growth of the IT industry. It is Hass' forecast that a new model that integrates tablet, notebook, and cell phone appearances into one will appear and become a trendsetter. The best solution to PC mobility is the tablets with ARM architecture Tegra 3 in conjunction with Windows RT (RunTime) that supports touch control. Such new generation tablets operate as smoothly as x86 architecture mobile devices when running packaged software, browsing the web, streaming videos, or playing 3D games, but they have a longer battery life than x86 architecture mobile devices and are quiet enough because they do not require fan ventilation.According to Amit Rohatgi from MIPS, MIPS is the first company in the world that launched the tablet CPU for Android 4.0 ICS, a leader of digital home applications, and enjoys a gradually increasing share in the market of mobile devices. MIPS now provides entry-level microAptive, medium-level interAptive, and high-end ProAptive CPUs for mobile device development based on individual manufacturers' market positioning, pricing, and product functions. Consumers, OEM companies, SoC suppliers, and telecom carriers now have even more choices because of MIPS in addition to Intel and ARM architectures.Consumer-driven innovations from upstream to downstream of cloudAccording to Dan Inbar from SanDisk, signal delay has happened to online video playing, and the issue can be resolved by adding Flash I/O to upstream servers to balance CPU and disk I/O resources; implementing bandwidth allocation transfer as well as smart cache download and smart transfer to Wi-Fi on access networks; and implementing nCache in mobile devices to speed up their operation. Flash memory companies need to simultaneously master controllers, firmware algorithm, and flash memory access to achieve system integration and make good use of the capacity strengths of wafer foundries. By doing so, they will be able to focus on the increasingly higher requirements for the capacity and speed of storage device and have a head start in developing relevant solutions.According to IFA Director Jens Heithecker, Apple's global leadership is all associated with the company's innovation that grasps consumer needs and wants. IFA, which takes place at the end of every August or the beginning of every September at Messe Berlin, is a major exhibition and gathering for manufacturers and trade companies of consumer electronics from around the world. Heithecker admitted that Europe has to face up to the debt crises in Greek, Ireland, and Spain but such crises do not amount to an economic crisis in the whole Europe. According to Heithecker, Europe is the world's largest market of consumer electronics while IFA is the world's most important place where orders for consumer electronics are placed. The orders placed at IFA 2011 total US$4.8 billion. He invited the Taiwan media and companies to take part in IFA in order to grasp consumer needs and wants.Demand for HMD and micro protectors brought in by LCoS and OLEDoSAccording to Darwin Hu from Jasper Display, by 2015 consumers would become picky about the quality of full HD and start to pursue a better experience such as QHDTV and even UHDTV. Moreover, they would look for HD viewing anytime and anywhere. On-Silicon Microdisplays are applicable to desktops, digital cameras/video cameras and recorders, wavelength selective switches, head-mounted displays (HMD), heads-up display glasses, hologram projectors, pocket projectors, micro projectors for cell phones, projector modules of laptops, office projectors, and home theater projectors.According to Uwe Vogel from the Fraunhofer IPMS, existing silicon display technologies are for the design of micro displays smaller than 1.3 inch and mobile projection displays, while the Fraunhofer IPMS is studying Hypoled that combines micro display and mobile projection display technologies in one. Therefore, Hypoled means "see-through micro display" and "bi-directional micro display" with camera and recorder functions.According to Darwin Hu, an LCoS projector is easily capable of 1080p output in a viewing distance of 50-75 cm. Vogel mentioned an iSTAR project at the IPMS. iSTAR is a near-to-eye display device like sun glasses; its bi-direction silicon micro-display chip lens will be applicable to smartphone-based HMD, electronic view finders, head-mounted microscopes for engineering control and medical purposes, and military spec HMD helmets.Participants are attentive to the trends introduced at "Computex Taipei Digitimes Tech Forum 2012 - Mobile Technology."A total of 869 people signed up for the forum and 486 of them showed up.

Tegra 3 - developed together by Nvidia and ARM - is a brand new multi-core mobile processor with powerful 3D graphic functions for smartphones and tablet devices. Tegra 3 in conjunction with Microsoft's new Windows RT, which supports touch control, generates great synergy to make web browsing, video streaming, and game playing extremely easy. It also offers longer battery life. Tegra 3 is redefining mobile PC architecture, offering an alternative to x86.Ongoing enhancement of device mobility to sustain IT industry growthAccording to Rene Hass, Vice President and General Manager, Notebook Business Unit, Nvidia, ongoing enhancement of mobility for devices is critical to sustaining growth of the IT industry. According to a market survey conducted by Nvidia, the 2008 global shipment of 300 million notebooks exceeded the shipment of 200 million desktops for the first time ever; in 2009 smartphone shipments exceeded notebook shipments; the iPad launch in the second half of 2010 created a new tablet PC market and in 2011, tablet sales exceeded the netbook sales.For desktops, shipments from 2007 to 2014 are expected to remain unchanged at about 200 million per year. Hass forecast that a new model that integrates tablet, notebook, and cell phone appearances into one will appear and become a trendsetter as the shipment of the new model would exceed the shipment of tablets. Haas also noted ARM processors have a 65% share of the overall market and their share in the tablet and smartphone markets is as high as 90%. Supported by Windows RT, ARM is expected to win 50% of the mobile PC market by 2015, when ARM would become as strong as the Android platform.Haas pointed out several important numbers:(1) 2.5 billion, which is the sum of populations in India and China. The sum is about 36% of the global population of seven billion, and China and India now have the strongest economic growth.(2) 10%, which is the Internet penetration rate in India, where there is considerable room for growth.(3) 6%, which refers to the fact that only 6% of the people in China subscribe to 3G mobile communications.(4) 29%, which refers to the present combined market share of e-book readers and tablets, up from merely 2% three years ago.(5) 3X, which means the number of cell phone users is three times that of fixed-line phone users now.(6) 25 billion, which is the number of times that apps on Apple App Store have been downloaded over the past 15 quarters.(7) 1.25 billion, which is number of PCs around the world running Windows.Another explosive growth of tablets driven by Windows RTWhat devices - be they smartphones or tablets - are suitable to replace PCs in the post-PC era? Should such devices run iOS or Android OS? The best solution, according to Haas, would be the tablets with the ARM architecture in conjunction with Windows RT (RunTime) supporting touch control.According to Haas, Windows RT-based tablets have a beautiful design, a modern and clean interface, and are more intuitive. They would also enhance peak execution efficiency with an even faster, smoother streaming OS in order to stay connected anytime for real-time updates of apps from an unprecedented app ecosystem. Moreover, there would be a built-in independent software vendor (ISV) community that has developed for decades in order to provide the greatest opportunity of development from a single platform, while more than 100,000 apps would be announced and available for download.Windows RT-based tablets equipped with the Tegra 3 multi-core processor also make web browsing, video streaming, and gaming playing extremely easy.Tegra 3: the world's only four-plus-one architecture, quad-core mobile processorHaas next introduced Tegra 3, the third-generation mobile processor announced by Nvidia. The max frequency of Quad-Core Tegra 3 is 1.4GHz, with 32KB L1 I-Cache, 32KB L1 D-Cache, 1MB L2 Cache, ARM Cortex A9 Core, and the 5th 1.5GHz battery-saver core forming the Super 4-PLUS-1 Quad Core manufactured by TSMC 40nm process. This Variable SMP architecture enables four performance cores to be used for max burst, when needed, with each core independently and automatically enabled and disabled based on workload. The single battery-saver core (or companion core) handles low-power tasks like active standby, music, and video, and is transparent to the OS and applications.Tegra 3 has 12 texture pipelines built in as well as ULP GeForce GPU to enable simultaneous dual screen output; HDMI 1.4a output; high definition up to 2048 x 1536 for liquid crystal screens and 1920 x1200 for CRT screens; 1920x1080 full HD; video decoding and playing of H.264 (HP @ 40Mbps), VC-1 AP, MPEG2, MPEG-4, DivX 4/5, XviD HT, H.263, Theora, VP8, WMV, Sorenson Spark, Real Video, and VP6; video encoding of H.264, MPEG4, H.263, and VP8 for video teleconferences; audio decoding of AAC-LC, AAC+, eAAC+, MP3, MP3 VBR, WAV/PCM, AMR-NB, AMR-WB, BSAC, MPEG-2 Audio, Vorbis, WMA 9, WMA Lossless, WMA Pro, G.729a, G.711, QCELP, EVRC, etc.Manufactured by TSMC 40nm process, Tegra 3 runs at 1.4GHz and conforms to 3D standards such as OpenES 2.0, Open VG 1.1, and EGL 1.4. Moreover, Tegra 3 has a built-in primary camera/GPU of 32 megapixels as well as a secondary camera/GPU of five megapixels, capable of auto exposure, auto focus, auto white balance, lens shading 9th order, de-mosaic, sharpening, and programmable de-noise to meet the videophone requirements associated with 3.5G/4G smart phones or mobile tablets.Tegra 3 has a DirectTouch architecture built in for the processor to share some touch control processing tasks in order to make touch control more responsive and decrease power consumption. Tegra 3 offers 3D Stereo Gaming, a function for real-time conversion of OpenGL applications and games into Stereo 3D. Nvidia PRISM (Pixel Rendering Intensity and Saturation Management) Display Technology reduces a mobile device's backlight power while simultaneously enhancing the pixel color to deliver the same visual quality with substantially extended battery life.According to Hass, Tegra 3 helps super phones, low-price tablets, smartphones, and Windows RT-based tablets achieve the greatest multitask streaming performance, while running packaged software, web browsing, streaming video, and 3D game playing are as enjoyable as the experience provided by the existing x86 architecture for mobile PCs.Redefinition of mobile PC architectureHass lastly pointed out that mobile PC architecture is being redefined, which is a positive change because the four-plus-one core Tegra 3 can replace x86 processors for mobile PCs. Mobile PC communications used to rely on Wi-Fi, but now cellular mobile communications systems (3G/3.5GWCDMA/4G LTE) are available in addition to Wi-Fi. Touch control input is also available in addition to keyboard and mouse input.The power supply of an x86 architecture mobile PC can only last up to seven hours, but with Tegra 3 the power supply of tablets and super phones can easily last for more than 10 hours. An x86 architecture mobile PC requires fan ventilation, which is noisy and power consuming, while Tegra 3 completely does without fan ventilation. The x86 architecture used to be perceived as indispensable to mobile PC design, but now the ARM-based Tegra 3 SoC in conjunction with Windows RT is probably an alternative and smart solution for mobile PCs.Rene Hass, Vice President and General Manager, Notebook Business Unit, Nvidia

Android is the mainstream platform in the non-Apple camp but various versions of Android limit the possibilities of developers' transplantation of Android apps. Microprocessor heavyweight MIPS is committed to cooperation with Google and OEM companies to help develop a fee calculation mechanism for Google Play, more secure protection of digital copyrights, more open and diverse architecture options, and once-for-all code writing that results in convenience of cross-platform execution. MIPS is also committed to the high performance and low cost provided by the ecosystem of Android devices.Platform transplantation as new thinking for ISVsAccording to Amit Rohatgi, VP of Mobile Solutions, MIPS, Android is now able to support MIPS, Intel, and ARM processor architectures, and near 100% of the codes of apps can probably be transplanted. Dalvik Virtual Machine, which uses Android Core Library, has about 80-85% of Java transplantable and another 15-20% of Java need to be recompiled by Android Native Development Kit (NDK). Even Renderscript functions used by 0.1% of Java are also transplantable (but this is not the subject matter today). Based on functional needs, some contents can be executed on the Java Virtual Machine, while some are executed as native codes. Transplantation is the thinking for Java code development at present, and each procedure has its independent, exclusive virtual machine. Java codes converted into Dalvik Byte Code (dex) are free from hardware dependence and can be transplanted to MIPS, Intel, and ARM architectures completely.Now MIPS, Intel, and ARM all use the standard gcc and bionic libc in the NDK for code compilation. C/C ++ Library can be used and acceleration is enabled by the Java Native Interface (JNI) or direct native execution. Google Play has established an automatic mechanism for architecture screening, so that smartphones and tablets of different architectures are able to have exactly correspondent apps downloaded.Moreover, through the JNI, Android Java classes can use System.loadLibrary to call native classes for execution, while checkJNI provides debugging support. The strength of the JNI lies in its repeatable use of codes to enhance efficacy under certain circumstances, but complication of code writing is an issue and codes may have hardware dependence on specific architectures.Another way to enhance efficacy is to have developers informed by NativeActivity in the Android framework, so that developers are able to know the execution cycle of return from last call. Developers can also perform the return from last call function when there are onCreate(), onStart(), etc. Services and contents other than radio still need to use JNI/native code.Challenges facing Android platform developmentAndy Rubin, Senior Vice President of Mobile, Google, hopes to establish a unified app ecosystem on the Android platform, but the challenges facing Android platform development are various versions of Android, i.e., 2.3, 3.0, and 4.0 and API unification is required; how fees should be calculated; and how SoC suppliers and OEM companies choose a specific version or choose between various versions while factoring copyright protection and an understanding of GPU. As newer Android APIs are increasingly mature for smartphone and tablet applications and have become transplantable, Google has noticed the issue of various versions of Android and started to work towards unification. Many workshops and training programs have been arranged for developers and OEM companies for them to achieve the greatest transplantability. The unification principle for Android enables developers' once-for-all code writing.According to Rohatgi, Amazon App Store's revenue is 89% of that of iTunes App Store, while Google Play only makes 23% of iTunes App Store's revenue. Google Play has recently made some improvements such as blocking malware, providing apps to 130 countries, and announcing expansion of in-app purchasing. Developers can automatically update subscription and pay in lump sum. Last year there were only two direct carriers responsible for billing but there are 15 now.Moreover, apps, books, music, and videos have been vertically integrated into Google Play, whose log-in page has been changed, too. On the other hand, cooperation between MIPS and an OEM partner has launched affordable but high quality Android devices. A MIPS architecture 7-inch tablet is priced at US$79 only. Rohatgi has bought this model for his two children.More options provided by MIPS to SoC suppliers and OEM companiesSupport from different MIPS, Intel, and ARM architectures enriches the choices for SoC suppliers, OEM companies, telecom carriers and consumers. The Android platform allows OEM companies to pursue differentiation such as UI customization; multi-touch panels with different definition options; and multiple CPU, GPU, and GPS cores. There is also a Compatibility Test Suite (CTS) to ensure a consistent user experience across a variety of Android devices. Each app has its exclusive UID to ensure independent maintenance authorization for each app and avoid affecting other apps. For data sharing, users must be clearly informed during app installation. Widevine's Digital Right Management (DRM) provides a unified solution to key content protection. Android provides a graphic acceleration API to developers to enrich user experience, as the software executed by CPU must be optimized in order to smoothly work with GPU.According to an IDC survey of what would make Android tablets successful in July 2011, 62% of the respondents noted the user experience; 46% transplantability from smartphones to tablets; 45% unification of various Android versions; 39% pricing; 33% how many apps on Google Play; and 29% hardware specs. Android will continue its hardware architecture neutrality, API diversity, and a consistent user experience to help lower device costs and accelerate time-to-marketRohatgi concluded that, after tablets and smartphones, Android is going to expand into the markets of set-top boxes (STBs) and smart TV. At present, the brand name companies embrace Android include Motorola, Samsung, LG, Acer, Asus, and Philips, while chipset suppliers are Nvidia, Qualcomm, TI, Ingenic and Rockchip. Many platform and OS versions as well as three CPU architectures (MIPS, Intel and ARM) also support Android. He encouraged developers to embrace differentiation and use Dalvik or NDK r8 for code transplantation.MIPS' contribution to Android platform industryMIPS' contribution to the Android platform industry, according to Rohatgi, is the availability of low-price Android devices with the best licensable microprocessors running Android OS to help everyone enjoy tablets and smartphones. The demand created by MIPS would be an incentive to developers to convert existing contents into new contents that can be widely accepted by the public. There are 1.8 million MIPS microprocessor-based tablets in the market and the number is rapidly increasing.The microprocessors MIPS launched for Android include:(1) The high-end ProAptiv, which is renamed from the firm's existing 1074K and 74K series. It is a fused triple-dispatch single-thread superscalar core and a core-speed floating point unit. With up to six cores can be used for multi-processing, ProAptiv achieves 4.4Coremark/Mhz 3.5DMIPS/MHz.(2) The medium-level interAptiv, which is renamed from the existing 1004K, 34K, and 24K cores with multi-threading, EVA, and one to four cores on a chip. Benchmarks are 3.2CoreMark/MHz and around 1.7Dmips/MHz.(3) The entry-level microAptiv, which is renamed from the M14K series with DSP and micro controller core design. It delivers 3.1Coremark/Mhz and1.57DMIPS/MHz.In May 2012, Google announced NDK Release 8 to start to support MIPS ABI. With the complete support from Android 4.0, MIPS codes are directly submitted to Google for review and approval and then placed on Google Play. A total of 85% of apps can be executed on MIPS architecture devices, and workshops such as Gameloft, Rovio, Halfbrick, Opera, Marmalade, Xamarin and Unity now help transplant Android apps.In 2009 MIPS first launched its quasi tablet running Android; in 2010 the company launched its set-top box also running Android.In the second half of 2010, Google licensed Honetcomb (Android v3.0) to MIPS, which launched the world's first ever Android 4.0 ICS-based, MIPS architecture tablets in cooperation with a Chinese company in December 2011. The tablet runs at 1GHz and its retail price is only US$99. In 2012, Philips announced its 100% CTS-certified, MIPS architecture tablets in China. At present MIPS is a leader of digital home applications, and the company's share in the mobile device market is gradually increasing.Amit Rohatgi, VP of Mobile Solutions, MIPS Technologies

As cloud computing is becoming more prevalent, anytime and anywhere Internet connectivity is becoming the standard for consumers, which has caused IT vendors to dedicate their research to making portable, mobile products. In recent years, Intel has been promoting the ultrabook which is less than 0.8 inches thick, costs less than US$1,000, and can be turned on and connected to the Internet at fast speeds, making it the next wave of ultra-mobile products in the market. The ultrabook along with smartphones that have large-sized screens and tablets are all following the ultra-mobile trend.As the ultra-mobile trend continues to flourish, existing components, chassis, mechanical parts, energy efficiency and industrial design have been constantly reexamined and restructured to satisfy product developers' demand for thinner and lighter devices. This is creating new technological barriers.Against this backdrop, Digitimes held the "DTF 2012 Ultra Mobile & Ecosystem Forum" in Taipei on April 25, inviting leading firms in the IT industry such as Intel, DTS, NXP, MPT, Kingston, Asus and AUO to talk about ultra-mobile trends in the industry ranging from platform planning, systems, multimedia, the Internet, power sources, mechanical parts, display panels as well as many other topics.There was also a stand put up at the forum to display some of the latest products and technologies, and it is hoped that through the forum it could help industries learn more as well as create ultra-mobile products.Rethinking brand meaning and value: Economies of scale, orders and the popularity of AppleColley Hwang, president at Digitimes, revealed that he asked Steve Ballmer what "MIT" meant to him about a year ago when the Microsoft chief executive officer was in Taiwan. Ballmer's answer was "Microsoft, Intel and Taiwan." However, despite Microsoft and Intel reporting record high revenues, Taiwan's electronics industry barely grew last year.IT players have previously relied on big orders and mass production of products to help with operations in the financial market. But this strategy has come under increasing since Apple's iPad whirlwind in 2010. In the past "PC" meant personal computer, but now it means "Price below Cost."In an era where pricing competition is fierce, Amazon is using a subsidized hardware sales model to promote its Kindle products. When world-class companies such as Microsoft, Qualcomm and Google leave Taiwan with a market with limited gross profits, we may ask these companies to lower their license fees, said Hwang. But then, we will still have to face the situation where we have no way of using products' added-value as a means to raise the price of a PC to US$1,200 when others can attach a US$1,000 retail price tag on their devices whose product cost is only US$600.The IT market has already seen big changes. For example, 40% of IT revenues used to come during the first half of a year followed by 60% in the second half. That has changed since 2008. Last year China surpassed the US to become the largest PC market. Although Korea has industry advantages, its foreign debts have increased more than US$80 billion since 2008. Its industry structure is not too healthy. By the end of 2011, the 800 companies that were listed in Taiwan reported a total of nearly US$446 billion in revenues, and 15 of them individually reported more than US$10 billion.Moreover, brand value has also been experiencing "qualitative change." Seven out of 10 major notebook brands in 2011 were Asia-based, but only Taiwan-based Asustek and China-based Lenovo earned profits. Acer is expected to turn losses into profits in the second quarter of 2012.Compared with Apple, which manages to have high profits and high market shares by maintaining only a simple product line, major PC makers try to appeal to consumers with multiple and complex product lines with different features for different market and price segments. But their profitability has been far from being ideal. The success of Apple's minimalistic product strategy indicates that there needs to be major changes in strategy within the PC industry.Striving for resources and the right to speak to enhance Taiwan's IT industryHwang said that industry competition has given much emphasis on patents and market share but for brand vendors, their products have not brought them much meaning and value. One example is with Samsung's consumer electronic products. Even though it has been one of the largest CE brands in the world, its profit margin isn't even 2%, which is inferior to Taiwan contract manufacturers.There are 800 listed companies in Taiwan, forming a big army for the IT supply chain. In terms of the ultrabook, Intel's technology is not the only thing that matters. Attention still needs to be drawn to the eco-system of the related supply chain. Of the US$345 billion China reported in exports during 2010, Taiwan-based entrepreneurs made up two thirds and created more than US$280 billion in production value last year in China as well. Looking at the monumental role Taiwan has been playing in the IT world, we absolutely have the right to require Intel and other world-class companies to give us more resources and assistance, added Hwang.Hwang concluded that in the development of the world's civilization, Europe, Asia and Africa have always had equal importance. Europe started to flourish after the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. In the future, populations will become an important strategic resource with the rise of cloud computing and Eastern civilization will again become a dominant force. Taiwan's companies and industries need to constantly enrich their knowledge in the face of future trends.The DTF 2012 Ultra Mobile & Ecosystem Forum attracts hundreds of participants.Digitimes president Colley Hwang delivers a talk on how the ultra mobile eco-system can recreate Taiwan's IT industries.