American Megatrends Inc. (AMI), a leader in BIOS and computing innovations, is pleased to announce the availability of its new UEFI Development Workstation System for sale to manufacturers, developers, system integrators and testers. AMI's UEFI Development Workstation System is purpose-built for Aptio and UEFI development and testing.This leading edge desktop PC with premium components provides a comprehensive development environment for UEFI, particularly for the integration of UEFI 2.3.1-compatible operating systems including the upcoming Microsoft Windows 8. AMI has worked closely with Microsoft to develop this system in order to facilitate the rapid development of the soon-to-be-released Microsoft Windows 8 throughout the entire developer community.First and foremost, the UEFI Development Workstation System is a flexible development platform, built upon a full-featured hardware architecture optimized for firmware projects in a mini-tower configuration. It features an Intel Core i7-2600 Processor with 8 GB of DDR3-1333 memory for stellar performance under the most demanding conditions.Of course, this new UEFI development system is powered by the latest version of Aptio UEFI BIOS - version 4.6.5.x. Aptio 4.6.5.x not only offers full support for the next generation of Microsoft Windows, but also adds support for the latest UEFI specifications, UEFI 2.3.1 and PI 1.2. This makes the latest features of the UEFI specification, such as Secure Boot, UEFI boot mode, secure firmware update, eDrive support, fully localizable user interface and more, available to manufacturers in a production-ready UEFI BIOS. Notably, this development system will be the first PC on the market with full UEFI 2.3.1 support, allowing for a complete Windows 8 experience.The UEFI Development Workstation System integrates seamlessly with other AMI products for system development and debug, such as AMI Debug for UEFI and AMI Debug Rx, to give developers the ideal toolset to exhaustively test and debug UEFI drivers and applications. It is also the optimal solution to validate UEFI 2.3.1 compatibility of PCI-E expansion cards, especially HII compatibility. Additionally, the UEFI Development Workstation System includes the industry-standard Aptio Text Setup Engine (TSE) supporting the development of HII forms and can integrate seamlessly with the AMI Graphical Setup Engine (GSE) and other pre-boot UEFI solutions.S. Shankar, President and CEO of American Megatrends commented that "AMI is greatly pleased to be the first BIOS vendor to provide a purpose-built UEFI Development Workstation System to the manufacturing and development community. Most importantly, this system features the full production, latest version of Aptio that leverages the UEFI 2.3.1 standard and the security and usability enhancements that will be at the core of the 're-imagination of Windows' with Windows 8. This will help developers get the most out of their projects. We anticipate that this new system will quickly become a key component of the Windows development ecosystem and help enable the rapid adoption and interest in Windows 8 development throughout the worldwide developer community."Interested parties are encouraged to contact AMI at 1-800-U-BUY-AMI for pricing and detailed specifications on the UEFI Development Workstation System for Aptio.NOTE: This system is not available for sale or lease to the general public and is not intended for home or commercial use. This product has not been approved by the FCC at this time and is intended for UEFI development only.

SemiLEDs Corporation recently launched its new "Enhanced Vertical" (EV) LED product series. The EV LED has been designed to have higher thermal endurance, ensuring better reliability at higher temperatures. The EV LEDs feature SemiLEDs' vertical chip structure on a patented metal alloy substrate, offering advantages in excellent optical output and high thermal conductivity.SemiLEDs' EV LEDs are available for global sales and immediate sampling in blue, green and UV and chip sizes of 0.4mm x 0.4mm through 1.5mm x 1.5mm.For more information about SemiLEDs EV LED series, please visit http://www.semileds.com or contact sales@semileds.com.About SemiLEDsSemiLEDs develops and manufactures LED chips and LED components for general lighting, including street lights and commercial, industrial and residential lighting, along with specialty industrial applications such as UV curing, medical/cosmetic, counterfeit detection, and horticulture. SemiLEDs sells blue, green and ultraviolet (UV) LED chips.

Imagination, one of the world's three largest makers of multimedia and communications semiconductor intellectual property (IP) cores recently held a technology forum in Taiwan's northern city of Hsinchu on June 14 that discussed topics ranging from IP cores to the latest SoC solutions. The forum also featured technology from some of Imagination's partners, and overall attracted nearly 200 participants.VP of sales and business development at Imagination, David McBrien, and Max Lin, director of sales, said during the introduction, that this was the first time the company held a forum of such size in Taiwan and the new event was due to the importance of the market and the number of partners there. "We want to keep investing in the Taiwan market and provide excellent service support, so that we may assist customers in developing competitive products," said McBrien.McBrien also said, "Not only will we be introducing our latest graphics processing IP, we will also talk about video, displays, multi-threaded cores, and wireless processors. We hope that industries can further understand that Imagination is a company that provides complete SoC solutions."David McBrien, VP of sales and business development at ImaginationMax Lin, Director of sales at ImaginationLater in the forum, VP of marketing at Imagination, Tony King-Smith, revealed the company is continuing to expand its market strategies and prospects by building advanced SoC technology combined with a wide range of ecosystems and rich product portfolio.Complete solutions to fulfill consumer requirementsKing-Smith pointed out that Imagination was established in 1985 in Britain and has a long history as an IP provider, with licensed clients listed as the world's top-20 semiconductor and OEM players in the world. A total of 800 million shipments ranging from smartphones, tablets, digital TVs and gaming systems have built-in technology from Imagination, and it is estimated that number will increase to one billion by 2016.Graphics processor IP is Imagination's core technology. King-Smith said that years ago the market was skeptical about on-chip GPUs, but now it is proven that this technology is widely accepted. We predict the adoption by video and on-chip multiple-standard communications solutions will grow at a rapid pace and will move towards M2M, which will bring more business opportunities for Imagination.He also said Imagination can provide a wide range of SoC solutions, such as PowerVR for graphics, video and displays, Ensigma receivers, and Meta multi-threaded processors, along with non-SoC solutions such as HelloSoft V.VolP and VoLTE software, as well as Flow cloud computing and service IP products. This will give customers unique differentiation and most cost-efficient solutions.King-Smith emphasized, "Imagination wants to be the building blocks for satisfying requirements in the market and we will continue to strengthen our relationship with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), ensuring that licensees receive optimal speed, area and power efficiency available."Tony King-Smith, VP of marketing at ImaginationAt present, Imagination is a member of the TSMC Soft-IP Alliance Program and is working to co-optimize with TSMC to will give SoC designers the most efficient solutions available.Touching on the current technology trends, King-Smith said that heterogeneous computing, 4K displays, connectivity and processor diversification will all be trends and new business opportunities for Imagination.King-Smith described that GPUs have better scalability due to their parallel processing features. After there are 2-4 CPU cores within SoC, there will be complications with design its processing sequence will make it difficult to expand. In contrast, GPUs are able to have 95% linear performance growth and will not add difficulties with writing applications. In order to gain even higher efficiency, present GPUs already occupy half of the surface area of SoCs.Hence, Tony King-Smith is optimistic about the future development of combining CPU and GPU in heterogeneous computing architecture. Imagination has also formed the HSA Foundation with AMD, ARM, MediaTek and TI to create standard APIs and tools, accelerating cross-platforms and cross-operating heterogeneous computing applications, which will all be the next set of opportunities for SoC.Social connectivity is becoming more and more popular and smart applications are becoming more integrated with automobiles, which is increasing the amount of requirements for on-chip connectivity. Moreover, as screen sizes become larger and support higher resolutions, combining video and non-video material is becoming increasingly important, as video, displays and graphics products indeed will react to 4K resolution trends.In terms of the availability of diverse processors, King-Smith said Android's neutral stance with its hardware architecture will give other CPU architectures more chances in the market. And, as heterogeneous computing develops, optimal design will not be necessary for CPUs. Therefore, Imagination's Meta multi-threaded processors will not be limited by problems concerning binary compatibility, and will be able to expand their market further.King-Smith also noted that consumers aren't concerned with what kind of hardware is used in products, but rather, if the products meet their overall requirements. If a good product image is created in the minds of consumers, then they will have even more trust with the products.In keeping in line with this notion, Imagination will be dedicated to creating complete solutions for consumers by combining performance optimization and further collaboration with TSMC along with creating new technology that will create win-win situations for both the company and its customers.Imagination Technology Forum on June 14, 2012Cooperation with TSMC for next-generation graphics technologyCliff Hou, TSMC Vice President, Research and Development, said as the development of consumer electronic products continues to strengthen, users are pushing for cloud computing, which has prompted TSMC to enhance GUI.Hou pointed out that GUI user experience is developing towards resolutions of the retina level. In addition, a 60Hz frame rate is a must. This coupled with requirements for cell phones and tablets supporting HDTV have all been important factors for enhancing graphics, added Hou.Looking at the evolution of desktop GPU requirements, TSMC's advanced processes have been pushing GPU performance to double on a biannual basis. And the progress of mobile GPU's performance has been even faster. In 2007, the performance was less than 1 GFLOPS, but with the implementation of 28nm technology this year, the performance can now reach 12-30 GFLOPS and could reach 100-200 GFLOPS next year after migrating to 20nm next year.However, Hou said that increasing memory bandwidth within high-performance systems is pushing up the power of chips and overall systems, which is a big design challenge.In order to solve production challenges resulted from process scaling, TSMC has been very active in developing technologies for 3D- IC chip stacking, CoWoS and 14nm FinFET 3D transistor structure, as well as building complete ecosystems with its partners.Hou added that a comprehensive design ecosystem needs to comprise of TSMC's design specifications, SPICE patterns, reference flows, EDA tools and IP product mixes. Only when an ecosystem is ready can TSMC help its customers adopt new process nodes. Key factors such as quality, accessibility, timeline and integration all need to be taken into consideration.Therefore, TSMC has put efforts in establishing an OIP in the past four years that can provide complete design kits, design processes, tools, IPs as well as overall solutions and services. Through mutual trust and hard work between customers, partners and TSMC, customers are able to use reliable design solutions to develop complicated chip products as well as shorten time to market.As industries begin to move towards 20nm, Hou said that TSMC will be able to achieve an increase of 15% in speed improvement and lower power by 32%, bringing even more value to its customers. Regarding the next generation 14nm technology, it's hoped that it can reach the goal of reducing power by 40-50% at the same speed, as well as lowering operating voltage by adopting the FinFET architecture.However, Hou added that FinFET is a brand-new 3D architecture that needs new design specifications and that logic gate density will still be a challenge. An industry wide cooperation is needed to overcome these difficulties.In terms of TSMC's CoWoS technology, since a higher level of system integration can be promoted, chip size and power can be decreased while at the same time increasing bandwidth and speed. Hou said CoWoS can solve issues with power usage created by high-performance systems as well.Hou also talked about the collaboration between Imagination and TSMC, saying that TSMC will continue to validate all of Imagination's IP solutions to push its next generation GPU cores. He also said the results from the two sides' first round of cooperation will be announced at the OIP forum in October to be held by TSMC this year.TSMC uses the most advanced production technology to further shrink GPU process and estimates every process node that uses the same power standard will be able to double its performance. With the same performance standard, the goal of using 30% less power will also be fulfilled.Cliff Hou, TSMC Vice President, Research and DevelopmentPower VR graphics and video technologyImagination PowerVR graphics products business development manager, Kristof Beets, described GPU market trends and requirements, stating optimal GUIs need higher pixel processing capabilities. Mobile devices, automobiles and other products are developing in this trend such as digital dashboards, ICT entertainment systems, rear-seat entertainment units and multiple-screen displays.This high pixel growth rate has caused GPUs to be more important than CPUs, which can be seen from the tablet version. Beets said typical models use an A9/1GHz CPU, but the GPUs are moving from a dual-core version to a quad-core one, which doubles performance.According to reports, Imagination's PowerVR Graphic has a 79% market share in the mobile embedded graphics market. Beets said PowerVR's graphics architecture that is supported by DX9, OpenCL and Renderscript can provide excellent results for Windows 8, Windows Phone and Android.PowerVR SGX products use a flexible programmable architecture and have unique deferred pixel shading technology, which only draws visible parts, hence providing the highest performance per watt. More so, the next generation PowerVR Rogue products use the next generation Tile-based deferred shading and non-parameter/frame buffer technology, which will bring their performance to a new level.Regarding video applications, Imagination's business development manager, Chris Longstaff, said action streaming, 4K displays, OLED, wireless displays, OTT, smart TVs and HEVC will all bring both new business opportunities and challenges.Using the newest kind of HEVC as an example, it is predicted that as of next year when it is formally released that it will create new applications and markets. But since it needs high-performance solutions, low risk and a reduced time to market, this will bring industries a major challenge.Although HEVC won't replace H.264 in the short term, Imagination will provide low-risk and low-cost HEVC encoder and decoder programs as early as possible next year.Longstaff pointed out that 3D video hasn't appealed to consumers as much as predicted, which the 4K video market is taking advantage of. But he did emphasize that video standards means standardization of products. Imagination's 4K solutions will provide differentiating features with power, performance and functionality as well as fulfilling high-performance compression requirements.At present there are already customers using PowerVR video products to develop TV/set-top boxes and household video transmission products. In terms of low power play-back applications, mobile devices need long play-back time and low system costs. Imagination is the only company that can provide 4K 60Fps video solutions, and is optimistic PowerVR video will be another success following PowerVR graphics. In fact, Intel's new Medfield processors emphasize HD functions and uses Imagination's PowerVR video technology.In addition, consumers also have increasing requirements for color depth, which has moved to 10 bits from 8 bits indicating that screens need to display one billion colors. PowerVR D4500MP and E4500MP fulfill these requirements and support 4:4:4 and 4:2:2 color resolution, which is able to increase color resolution 1-3 times more for wireless displays and graphics coding.Kristof Beets, PowerVR graphics products business development manager at ImaginationChris Longstaff, PowerVR video & display products business development manager at ImaginationEnsigma RPU: Next-generation multi-standard wireless processing technologyEnsigma is Imagination's on-chip RPU solution that can support a wide range of global connectivity and radio receiver standards.Ensigma's business development director, Simon Hambly, said graphics, video and memory has integrated into the SoC trend and in the future, communications technology will be embedded into SoC design as well.He explained the TV market is already evolving into first generation digital and second generation high-definition digital standards and is set to use third generation of global integrated standards.Different terrestrial, cable and satellite broadcasting technology coupled with market protection have caused current differentiating standards in the TV market. In the past, industries have developed different demodulators for different standards but in the future will develop in a more integrated manner.Imagination has already been developing a multi-standard baseband for more than 10 years. Hambly said demodulators will significantly benefit both embedded and shared memory resources in the SoC, which will help OEMs lower system costs.Within the Ensigma UCCP IP platform is a digital TV receptor, connector, digital and FM radio receiver along with functions such as mobile TV receivers, all of which can be expanded to support multi-channel operations and MIMO.Hambly added that as future SoC needs to support multiple TV standards, RPU will be integrated within SoC, causing high-performance multi-cores to replace individual hardwired cores.Simon Hambly, Ensigma's business development director at ImaginationHelloSoft software IPHelloSoft's Business development director, Prabir Mohanty, meanwhile introduced HelloSoft V. VolP and VoLTE, the only cross-platform carrier-class software IP solution in the market that supports 4G.He quoted a market report that said according to statistics, annual LTE device shipments will reach 300 million units by 2016 with the number of LTE subscribers rising to 600 million during the same time. As telecommunication industries begin to use VoLTE technology more, mobile VolP applications will take advantage as well.To react to this growing market trend, Mohanty added that opportunities and challenges for industries both lie in a single integrated terminal device that can serve multiple platform requirements. This is because users have different systems, connecting technology such as LTE, 3G, Wi-Fi and WiMAX, along with different devices to perform telephone operations.HelloSoft can provide a single integrated dialer and brings seamless user experience to any platform and device. This is a multi-platform, multi-operating system VoIP/VoLTE/RCS base that has accelerated video capabilities.Mohanty pointed out that at present, HelloSoft has already been adopted by 200 devices, including smartphones, Wi-Fi mobile phones and IP phones. Companies such as T-Mobile and Orange have already started using the solution and have been conducting testing and making deployment.Moreover, because handheld devices are used in different settings, HelloSoft can ensure that telephone calls will not be cut off during handoff from any network to any other. Mohanty added that Imagination can provide IP communications software such as VoWiFi, VoWiFi+VoLTE, along with VoWiFi+VoLTE +VCC+IMS/RCS. He also said HelloSoftVoLTE has already optimized its design concerning performance, power and lagging. It is not only much better than circuit-switched voice performance, but also three times more efficient than the widely popular Skype in handling packet loss.Prabir Mohanty, HelloSoft's business development director at ImaginationMeta multi-threaded processorsThe next product that was introduced was the multi-threaded Meta 32 general purpose RISC processor core that has a DSP. Meta business development manager, Paul Evans, quoted IDC statistics saying that as of 2014, embedded systems and other mainstream systems will have a total of eight billion shipments, which means increased connectivity and computing requirements.However, designers now have to face two kinds of design requirements, which are to lower energy usage and increase efficiency. Latency is also another challenge because it will significantly reduce system performance and waste system power.Evans said some of the solutions include increasing clock frequency and additional L2 cache along with using dual-core or quad-core design.But he said in order to effectively solve these challenges, different concepts should be used to design CPU, such as: switching one's pursuit from the highest theoretical DIMPS to the highest system performance; from the lowest CPU power to the lowest system power; and from homogeneous computing architecture to heterogeneous architecture.In order to have more efficiency with system resources, Evans pointed out that if Meta's simultaneous multi-threading technology can increase its active cycle, then it will be able to enhance system performance.Meta processors can support four virtual processors within a single core, which means multiple operating systems can simultaneously be run and provide three times the amount of processing capabilities. This is the CPU with the highest latency that is acceptable in the industry and can fulfill present embedded system requirements.Also, aside from reacting to CPU challenges, terminal devices are moving towards connectivity and cloud computing. This has caused Imagination to keep using Flow technology, which is a "device to cloud" platform that can provide API and portal information to quicken the development of connectivity products.Paul Evans, Meta's business development Manager at ImaginationIn the end, McBrien concluded that Imagination is not only an IP provider that fulfills anything from low-end to high-end graphics IP requirements, it also provides video, display, wireless processor and processor core solutions for consumers and is looking to boost product quality and sales through cooperation with TSMC.Looking at growth possibilities in Asia, Imagination already possesses a good foothold in Japan and South Korea and is now looking more at the Taiwan and China markets. McBrien added that Imagination possesses advanced SoC solutions and is dedicated to helping licensees achieve differentiated product features through cooperation with TSMC.Imagination Technology Forum on June 14, 2012

June 19, 2012–On the day before the opening of GSMA Mobile Asia Expo, Marvell presented its TD-LTE products to the press in its Shanghai office. Up till then, Marvell has maintained a low profile in marketing and promotion of its mobile products. Ivan Lee, Marvell Corporate VP of Mobile Business, is an expert in SoC design and computing platforms. He has worked at Texas Instruments, Sun, and AMLogic before joining Marvell, and has over 20 years of experience in the semiconductor industry. In the second half of 2008, Lee led his team onto the journey to develop TD-SCDMA chipsets and he is a pioneer in TD-SCDMA products at Marvell.Lee said that unlike other major global semiconductor companies, Marvell has invested in building up R&D teams and developing core technologies in China. "Locating R&D activities in China allows our team to get closer to customers in Greater China to better understand their requirements, and to quickly respond to the ever-changing market. Our headquarter in the US pays close attention to our R&D team in China, gives us full access to technologies developed elsewhere within the company, and thus accelerates product development and technology advancement.""For example, compared with our competitors, we were late to engage in TD-SCDMA product development. However, we fully tapped into our expertise in WCDMA products, CPU technology, and support from other teams, allowing us to catch up and become the leader. In February 2011, we achieved volume production of the world's first single-chip TD-SCDMA smart phone solution. At present, 80% of TD-SCDMA smart phones are based on Marvell solutions."Lee currently leads the over-800-member Marvell TD chipset and system R&D team. Over 200 staffs in the US are an integral part of this team, and its core members have been working together for almost ten years. It is this miracle-making team in TD-SCDMA that is working on the development of LTE technologies.Lee said: "Marvell's China team initiated LTE research in as early as 2009. From the very beginning of this project, our objective was to achieve productization quality in the very first design iteration, at the same time to meet requirements for prevalent commercial deployment. In addition, the solution must meet not only requirements for TD-LTE, but also those of LTE FDD. Considering the fact that initial LTE deployment will not have full coverage of mobile networks, our solution needs to be backward compatible with 2G and 3G technologies, thus supporting TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, and GSM. Furthermore, in order to meet the requirements for voice services from different operators, our chipset must support Single-chip dual-radio connection, and circuit-switch fallback (CSFB)–the two most popular voice solutions in the world."Comparing to single-mode LTE solution, designing such a product requires considering many competing factors and solving many challenges in a very complex system. While attaining a higher degree of integration, we have to achieve better power efficiency and to balance performance and cost, without sacrificing quality and robustness.It is note-worthy that Marvell's first multi-mode LTE chip sampled in October 2011 has performed extremely well in a variety of verifications. At present, its 2G and 3G functionalities quickly passed tests due to reuse of mature IP blocks. Marvell's LTE solution has completed the TD-LTE IOT tests with multiple infrastructure vendors, and its specifications have exceeded design expectations in all tests. In addition, it has achieved full category 4 LTE downlink throughput of 150 Mbps and uplink throughput of 50Mbps. This success is a testimony of our team's world-class experience and technology know-hows. Talking about Marvell's LTE commercial deployment, Lee said confidently that Marvell will be able to help partners to launch volume products by the end of this year, given its progress so far.Ivan Lee, Marvell Corporate VP of Mobile BusinessMarvell PXA 1802, Industry's Most Advanced Multimode LTE Modem ChipsetMarvell LTE Live Demo at GSMA Mobile Asia Expo 2012

Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, announced its collaboration with TSMC to ensure that licensees of all of Imagination's IP (intellectual property) cores can optimize speed, area and power consumption on TSMC's most advanced 28nm and below processes.By bringing together engineers from both companies, this collaboration aims to improve power, performance, and area by co-optimising TSMC process technologies and foundation IPs with Imagination's most advanced IP cores, including its latest PowerVR GPUs.Imagination, a member of TSMC's Soft-IP Alliance program, is making this announcement as part of a closer relationship with TSMC. Imagination intends to validate its IP cores through the TSMC Soft-IP Alliance program.Imagination's IP core families in this collaboration include:* PowerVR graphics, the de facto standard for mobile, embedded and computing graphics* PowerVR video and display, the comprehensive and widely adopted range of multistandard decoder, encoder and enhancement cores for applications from mobile to ultra-HD* Ensigma communications, the multi-standard programmable communications and connectivity technology for TV, radio, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth* Meta processors, the advanced 32-bit hardware multi-threaded processor architecture that delivers the best in both general purpose and signal processing performanceImagination is one of the world's leading semiconductor IP suppliers, with cores which can be synthesised for a broad range of silicon processes. As more customers use Imagination's IP cores to deliver the key high performance processing on their SoCs (System on Chip), Imagination plays a key role in the semiconductor IP segment to deliver the levels of performance demanded by leading edge customers.Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: "Many of our licensees rely on TSMC to provide them with leading edge low power, high performance silicon foundry capabilities. This strengthening of our relationship with TSMC reflects our determination to deliver the best possible SoC solutions on the latest silicon processes for our SoC IP licensing partners. We believe this initiative will ensure that Imagination's licensees to continue to push the boundaries of what is possible for future generations of advanced SoCs."Says Mark Dunn, VP of IMGWorks, Imagination's SoC implementation group: "The characteristics of the latest processes such as 28HPM and beyond have to be taken increasingly into account when designing future high performance IP-based solutions. As major blocks such as GPUs increasingly dominate the area, power and performance of next generation SoCs, design flows need to be tuned to maintain the optimum balance between maximizing IP portability and achieving the best possible performance. We believe this extensive engineering partnership will greatly benefit all of our IP partners.""We are delighted to be working with Imagination to deliver the full benefits of TSMC's latest and most advanced processes for mobile and embedded applications," says Suk Lee, Senior Director of Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, TSMC. "By leveraging Imagination's leadership position in the market, we can help our customers to ship the most highly optimised SoCs."

GIGABYTE Technology, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, announced that GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 Technology utilizing award winning IR3550 PowIRstage ICs has earned the Best of Computex 2012 award by leading tech authority, Tom's Hardware. The award falls into the 'Systems and Components Innovation' category, and has been published on the Tom's Hardware website, http://www.tomshardware.com/picturestory/597-computex-awards.html.GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 technology includes high current capable components for the CPU power zone including the highest rated and awarded IR3550 PowIRstage ICs from International Rectifier, 2X Copper PCB and high current Ferrite Core Chokes rated up to 60A, which together are able to deliver up to 60°C* cooler temperatures than traditional motherboards. Featured on a range of new motherboards based the Intel X79 and Z77 Express Chipsets, GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 technology is the next evolution in quality motherboard design."We are extremely happy with the Best of Computex 2012 award from Tom's Hardware because Ultra Durable 5 is our most important new technology this year," commented Henry Kao, Vice President of GIGABYTE Motherboard Business Unit. "We had overclockable Intel k sku CPUs in mind when we designed the Ultra Durable 5 CPU power zone, and this award provides excellent recognition for all the work that went into our new CPU power design.""We like Gigabyte's promise that the PowIRstage IR3550, which is found on all motherboards with Ultra Durable 5 technology (UD5), increases efficiency and improves stability. This is particularly important in overclocked systems, where UD5 it could raise the bar for systems that run on liquid cooling. Such systems might not even require a CPU fan anymore, which today has to be used to cool the voltage regulators." said Benjamin Kraft, Managing Editor of Tom's Hardware Germany, representing Tom's Hardware worldwide at Computex.About GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 TechnologyIR3550 PowIRstage ICs: The award winning IR3550 PowIRstage ICs feature greater power efficiency and are the highest rated Power Stage in the industry, able to provide up to 60A of power. This ensures the best power delivery to the CPU, for more stable operation and better overclocking performance. GIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 motherboards also use both IR digital PWM controllers and IR PowIRstage ICs, for a uniquely seamless power delivery system.Single Package Design: IR has leveraged its world class packaging technology developed for the DirectFET, improving the thermal capability and layout of the PowIRstage significantly over that of other MCM packages.Driver IC Developed by International Rectifier: IR3550 PowIRstage ICs feature a specialized MOSFET driver IC which is tuned perfectly for the MOSFET pair. Many Driver MOSFET companies use drivers from other companies, thus the drivers are not always optimized for the MOSFETs. With co-packaged Driver+MOSFETs, IR has designed this driver to optimize this module for greatest efficiency.Industry Leading Peak Efficiency up to 95%: IR3550 PowIRstage ICs are more efficient, with peak efficiency up to 95%, during normal operation. Even at higher Current levels, IR3550 PowIRstage ICs are able to maintain lower power losses. Lower power loss also means less heat as a byproduct.High Efficiency = Low Power Loss = Less Heat = Longer Lifespan: IR3550 PowIRstage ICs remain cooler than other MOSFET designs, allowing users to overclock to greater levels of performance. Each power component has a maximum thermal operational temperature, and once it is reached, adding more voltage will only result in a failed overclock. Since IR3550 PowIRstages are able to operate at cooler temperatures at higher voltages than traditional designs, overclockers are able to have more headroom to increase voltages, resulting in higher potential overclocks.High Capacity Ferrite Core Chokes and 2X Copper PCBGIGABYTE Ultra Durable 5 motherboards feature High Capacity Power Stages and Ferrite Core chokes rated up to 60A with GIGABYTE exclusive 2x Copper PCBs to provide the most stable power delivery.GIGABYTE's exclusive 2X Copper PCBs design provides sufficient power trace paths between components to handle greater than normal power loads and to remove heat from the critical CPU power delivery area. This is essential to ensure the motherboard is able to handle the increased power loading that is necessary when overclocking.Quality Inside and OutEven though several of the high quality components used in GIGABYTE Ultra Durable motherboards are not visible from the outside including the amazingly efficient IR3550 PowIRstage ICs from International Rectifier and the copper inside of our 2X Copper PCB, rest assured that they are working hard to provide better efficiency, greater power savings, lower system temperatures, better overclocking performance and extended system longevity. That's the GIGABYTE Ultra Durable guarantee.*Up to 60° C lower temp. obtained using 4 phase IR3550 PowIRstage with 2x Copper PCB vs. 4 phase D-Pak MOSFET @ 100A load 10 mins lab testing without heatsink.

Following the increase of energy prices, green concepts are becoming more embedded into consumer markets, with such sectors as LED lighting applications, solar and wind energy, hybrid vehicles and renewable energy gaining more attention.LED displays, backlighting, general lighting and automotive lighting make up more than US$150 billion in the global market. Aside from displays, the lighting industry has some of the most benefits to reap with LED. Indoor and outdoor lighting, specialized lighting for medical, military and agricultural purposes, safety lighting and portable lighting equipment have all become a battleground for companies to compete and create new products.Although LED lighting is energy-efficient, it still has to overcome problems with heating. To increase the heating efficiency, LED light bulbs need to add heat sinks with larger surface areas (deeper heat sink grooves), and the space for the circuit board has to be shrunken; therefore, there needs to be development for small-sized circuit boards used in LED lighting. The miniaturized design of the board means that components on it will also decrease in size. For chip fuse applications, the shrinkage means the conventional AI type will be replaced by the SMD type.To offer solutions for LED lighting applications, Conquer Electronics in the first quarter of 2012 obtained UL certification for its 2410 P Type chip fuse (product name: CQ24PF & CQ24PT series), which has a size of 6.1x2.6x1.1mm. Compared with the traditional micro fuse, it has 93% less volume and 58% less than the traditional 2410 square device. This is the smallest and thinnest 2410 chip fuse in the world. (Picture 1)The CQ24PF & CQ24PT series supports a current range of 0.5A-12A with a great increase in the interrupting capacity from the traditional 2410 square fuse's 50A 125Vac to 100A 350Vac/dc. When the CQ24P series is used to replace the micro fuse, not only is space utilization increased, customers can also save the costs of having to trim the pins. The one-piece structure also avoids the problems that traditional 2410 devices face, namely, when they go through the reflow oven or wave soldering process, the copper caps of the electrodes may falloff because of the high temperatures. The CQ24 is also a series of lead- and halogen-free products that meet the newest environmental standards. (Picture 2)AT present, LED makers mostly use traditional micro fuses and subminiature fuses with their IC boards. As LED product modules become lighter, there will be an inevitable trend of smaller fuses and related components. Conquer's CQ24PF & CQ24PT series provides ideal solutions for protecting LED lighting fixtures' circuits. Generally speaking, CQ24PF or CQ24PT 0.5A-2A fuses are suitable for 1-8W home-use LED bulbs that have an input voltage of 85V-220VAC, while CQ24PF or CQ24PT 1A-2A fuses are suitable for 10-25W indoor and outdoor lighting or architectural lighting fixtures that have an input voltage 110V-220VAC. (Picture 3)Conquer has been dedicated to research and development work with strong roots in Taiwan over the last 35 years. Its new CQ24P series has great circuit design, accurate fuse characteristics and high anti-surge capacity, and has also met European Union's standards energy standards with its lead-free and halogen-free material. Conquer also provides the most up-to-date information and quality-care service for its customers while helping them choose the most appropriate energy-efficient fuses. Conquer's CQ24PF and CQ24PT series has superb quality and punctual delivery, making it the number one choice in the LED lighting industry.Author: Conquer Electronics R&D centerPicture 1: A comparison of the sizes and volumes of fuses commonly used in LED devicesPicture 2: A comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of the CQ24PF/CQ24PT series and traditional 2410 fusesPicture 3: CQ24PF/CQ24PT installed in 8W LED bulbs has gone through reliability testing for more than one year and still maintains good quality.

Imagination Technologies, a leading multimedia and communications technologies company, has announced the first members of its PowerVR Series4 video cores. The PowerVR Series4 D4500MP video decoder and E4500MP video encoder build on the highly successful PowerVR VXD and VXE Series3 multistandard video codecs. These multi-pipe video IPs deliver features designed to enhance modern applications such as wireless display and video capture with previously unseen levels of colour fidelity, as well as HD and Ultra-HD displays and surfaces (H.264 L5.2 4Kx2K @ 60fps).Despite class leading performance these video processor cores deliver small area as well as low power consumption, making them ideal for consumer applications. These cores are fully scalable from single to four pipes, ensuring that the requirements for both 1080P performance in a compact area and low power can be met at the same time as industry leading 4Kx2K performance.Says Tony King-Smith, VP marketing, Imagination: "With the ability to handle over 1 billion colours in full resolution, the enhanced colour handling of PowerVR D4500MP and E4500MP enable significantly crisper and more accurate results for today's demanding applications, such as wireless display and high quality video capture. With the increasing availability of OLED displays, and 10 bit monitors, which offer a wider colour range, consumers are demanding higher colour fidelity than ever before. Plus, with 'beyond real time' HD video handling, the cores are ideal for today's most widespread displays and applications, while providing more than enough performance for tomorrow's ultra-HD 4Kx2K applications, such as display surfaces and mosaic screens."Lifelike colour handling in full resolution with support for over 1 billion coloursPowerVR D4500MP and E4500MPenableincreased colour depth, providing up to 10 bits of precision, allowing over a billion colours to be represented, compared with only 16 million available to traditional 8 bit systems. This increase in colour depth allows SoCs to maintain internal processing precision from source to display, allowing true and lifelike representation of colours. The increase in colour performance can provide the required colour fidelity for the latest generation of 10bit and OLED displays, to ensure maximum performance. The use of 10 bit also helps to reduce banding phenomenon, which can affect 8 bit systems.To further enhance the colour rendition provided, the video processor cores have increased colour resolution to 4:4:4 (or 4:2:2), which gives full resolution across all components. This makes transitions between YCbCr and RGB far simpler, as no interpolation is needed, making this ideal for wireless display subsystems. Repeated conversions between colour formats (and resolutions) can also lead to the blurring of detail caused by interpolation errors, which the use of 4:4:4 virtually eliminates.The cores' increased resolution and fidelity allows applications like camcorders, DSCs, DSLRs and mobile phones to maximize the capabilities of the image sensors, which typically offer at least 10 bits of resolution. This enables them to offer an unprecedented professional quality level, giving manufacturers product differentiation and increased value to consumers.Encode and decode performance for tomorrow's applicationsPowerVR D4500MP and E4500MP respectively increase the performance for decode and encode of full HD 1080P video applications, which enables realistic super high definition quality, multi-stream HD channel browsing, high frame rate support for detailed slow motion footage of sports events and other content. The new cores also offer class-leading performance for ultra-HD 4Kx2K video, a core-technology for future video applications, providing four times the volume of visual information as an HDTV as well as and 'wall of information' surface applications which combine TV with apps, social media and channel browsing.

Veeco Instruments Inc. recently introduced three new models of its market-leading TurboDisc metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) systems for the production of high brightness light emitting diodes (LEDs): TurboDisc MaxBright M, TurboDisc MaxBright MHP and TurboDisc K465i HP.* MaxBright M: a modular and more compact version of Veeco's multi-reactor system. The MaxBright M provides easier serviceability and up to 15% improved footprint efficiency compared to MaxBright. It also features improved layout configuration flexibility to accommodate various fab spacing requirements.* MaxBright MHP: a high performance version of the new modular "M." The MaxBright MHP provides as much as 20% within-wafer wavelength uniformity improvement over MaxBright. Higher yields are achieved from technology advancements that result in improved thermal and flow capability. The MaxBright MHP also provides lower cost of ownership as compared to MaxBright.* K465i HP: a high performance option for Veeco's single-reactor MOCVD system which delivers up to 20% within-wafer wavelength uniformity improvement compared to the K465i and lower cost of ownership.* These new systems are available in 2, 4, 6 and 8" configurations. Existing MaxBright and K465i systems are easily field-upgradeable to the high performance HP option. All of Veeco's MOCVD systems feature its low maintenance TurboDisc technology, which enables highest system availability and throughput.William J. Miller, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Veeco Process Equipment, commented, "This new suite of products provides our customers with tremendous flexibility to make the most of their capital investments and choose the system that works best in their unique production environment. The innovation in the MaxBright M, MaxBright MHP and K465i HP was accomplished by listening to our customers and focusing on system improvements that could drive their productivity and yield – two critical factors in our customers' success."John R. Peeler, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Veeco added, "This new product line-up, all based on our industry leading technology and automation expertise, can help to accelerate worldwide adoption of LED lighting by reducing manufacturing costs. Veeco remains committed to providing the industry's highest capacity, highest throughput and lowest cost of ownership MOCVD systems available."According to IMS Research, the K465i, introduced in 2010, was the top selling MOCVD tool that year, and the MaxBright, launched in 2011, was the top seller last year. Compound Semiconductor Magazine recently awarded Veeco the "Compound Semiconductor Manufacturing Award, stating "MaxBright was the biggest breakthrough in compound semiconductor manufacturing over the last 12 months."For more information on these new products please visit: http://www.veeco.com/maxbrightmhp

One world-renowned firm was quoted as saying,"Without the Chinese market, the company is not a true multinational." And with this, the direct sales company began to establish a presence in China. In 1995, the company began opening branches, and has been continually expanding its base throughout the country. By 2012, the scale of the company has grown to over 280 stores with the highest membership base in Asia. Breaking Time and Space Constraints with Digital Signage Advantech Intelligent Services, Sales Engineer, Qianyuan Dong, who is responsible for the client, said that the company set up several stores to sell its products in China. Management of information was initially easy to control and deliver, but with rapid expansion, such a traditional information model had become largely inadequate. In order to overcome time and space constraints, the company intended to use advanced IT technology to build a completely new digital system. Qianyuan Dong said, "We have had some brilliant results in the retail sector over the past few years." Indeed, after a detailed search and analysis, the company in China selected Advantech over other options. In 2009, Advantech provided the first digital signage system to the company to be used as a message announcement system targeted at staff in the stores. The company seldom has an opportunity to gather staff together, due to the locations being widely spread throughout the country. In the past, when there was a need to release a message company-wide, announcements such as an executive speech or educational training video would be recorded at the headquarters office on DVD and distributed to each shop. Although delivering the message via video is more effective than a telephone conversation or a meeting, one limitation to this approach is the lack of timeliness. Secondly, a DVD is a one-way message delivery mechanism, and there is no way for headquarters to know for sure if a particular store has watched the presentation or not. Advantech's digital signage solution quickly solved the company's problems. Qianyuan Dong pointed out that Advantech provided its DSA-3010 controller together with a partner's software to create a total solution comprised of a digital signage station and a back-end management system. Through the network, dynamic updates and feedback can be delivered in real-time. And, the announcement status can be controlled for each shop by the head office. Currently, more than half of the stores have already installed the Advantech system, and more stores are coming online each day. Advantech's System Makes Work Easier In addition to the message announcement system, another system which is targeted to members can display customer rewards and other information. Prior to the new system, the company set up award showcases in each shop, but was unable to display all the rewards due to limited store space and multiple categories. Also, keeping the reward system up-to-date and posted in the store was inefficient and time consuming, which increased workload and caused headaches for staff. Advantech designed the new system with 2 or 3 LCD screens, depending on store size. A large monitor was used to display current promotional programs via a carousel slideshow, and a smaller monitor was used to show customer prizes and exchange information about the award program. The store manager could immediately change content as needed. Furthermore, Advantech's signage system helped improve staff efficiency throughout the 280 store chain. Higher Stability and Perfect Services Win Customer Trust Advantech's digital signage systems have become important tools for the company's operation. The systems are stable and Advantech provides a 3-year warranty to the company via local branch and dealer offices to ensure follow-up maintenance, services and component replacement is quick and complete. Qianyuan Dong said that a benefit to the customer is that sales staff can effectively support new product introductions to the stores using a combination of image and text. At the same time, administration is more efficient, and e-services enhance the company's corporate image. The customer's evaluation of Advantech's digital signage solution received high marks. Based on its successful implementation and the customer's favorable comment. Advantech will continue to provide this world-class, direct-sales company with the best in services and solid support.