Few of the tourists and faithful who gather in Uspenski Cathedral in the Finnish capital, Helsinki, are aware that banks of servers are whirring away in an underground cavern just beneath them. Academica, the information technology service company that owns the data center, is particularly proud of this facility, though not because of its unusual location."The data center in Katajanokka is the most energy efficient in the world," said Marko Vanninen, the company's chief executive officer.Using sea water and heat exchangers to cool the servers, Academica's data center uses 80 percent less energy for cooling than centers that rely on traditional methods. The heat that is produced by the servers is fed into the municipal heating network.The data center also uses power distribution units (PDUs) from ABB. These units enable effective management of the energy consumption of the servers and improve the reliability of electrical distribution in the center.Data centers worldwide used 80 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2010, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency, equivalent to 1½ times the annual power consumption of New York City. A data center on average uses 100 times more power than an office building of the same size, making energy efficiency an important factor in data center profitability."ABB's PDU solutions help to more effectively manage the data center's capacity, and the energy consumption of the servers and of the cooling systems," said Academica's Vanninen.The ABB power distribution units report when they require maintenance, which helps to reduce the number of interventions made. They can also be kept in operation while maintenance is performed, a feature that significantly reduces operational costs. Energy consumption is monitored in real time so that this can also be optimized."Our international experience in critical power distribution is based on decades of active development related to products, systems and services around energy efficiency," said Timo Kontturi, ABB's Sales Manager for data center industry in Finland.ABB's offering for data centers includes motors and drives for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, which account for about half of the energy consumed in data centers. In addition, ABB has recently acquired a controlling interest in US-based Validus DC Systems, a leading provider of direct current (DC) power infrastructure equipment for energy-intensive data centers, as well as a stake in Power Assure, a developer of power management and optimization software for data centers.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth about $11 million from Facebook Inc.'s subsidiary Pinnacle Sweden, to power its first server facility outside the United States. ABB will build two high- and medium-voltage air- and gas-insulated switchgear substations that will supply power to a data center being built in Luleå, a coastal town in northern Sweden. The data center will be the largest of its kind in Europe."The substations are designed to handle the high electricity demand of such facilities" said Peter Leupp, head of ABB's Power Systems division. "They will provide reliable and quality power supply to the server buildings."The construction of Facebook's data center will be carried out in three phases. The facility will consist of three server buildings with a total area of 84,000 square meters, equivalent to 11 full-sized soccer fields. The first building is scheduled to become operational in December 2012, and will have a substantial need for electrical energy to power and cool its servers.Located near the Arctic Circle, Luleå's cold climate is well suited for the natural cooling of server buildings. This, along with a stable supply of clean energy from renewable sources as well as reliable communications and electricity networks, paved the way for the choice of Luleå as a location for its new center, making it a European node for Facebook's data traffic.ABB will also install substation automation systems compliant with the global IEC 61850 standard and equipped with the latest protection and control products. The installed capacity of the substations will exceed the city's normal consumption on cold winter days.ABB is the world's leading supplier of turnkey air-insulated, gas-insulated and hybrid substations with voltage levels up to 1,100 kilovolts (kV). These substations facilitate the efficient and reliable transmission and distribution of electricity with minimum environmental impact, serving utility, industry and commercial customers as well as sectors like railways, urban transportation and renewables.There is a YouTube video from ABB on data centers available here: http://www.youtube.com/abb#p/c/F012FD98B8428AD1/28/uM8QwVW0JxM

As a founding member of the UEFI Forum, US-based Phoenix Technologies, in order to help its partners quickly transition from Legacy BIOS to UEFI firmware, hosted a product launch conference, "Phoenix SCT for Intelligent Computing," with secured connectivity and mobility as its theme at Grand Victoria Hotel in Taipei, Taiwan on December 2, 2011. At the event, the company had its Senior Vice President of Field Operations David Everett analyze the current market status as well as announcing Phoenix SecureCore Technology 2.2 (SCT 2.2) that supports the new-generation UEFI standards, and detailing the latest status of the company's related development toolkits.Kelly Wu, Corporate VP and GM of Greater China, pointed out, "Our newly-launched Phoenix SCT 2.2 not only meets the latest UEFI standards and comes with powerful features; its user interface is also very friendly, allowing developers to easily customize firmware that meet the demand in the market without issues arising from the switch to a new silicon platform." Since Phoenix has close partnerships with Intel and Microsoft, the company can help OEMs, ODMs, Server and Embedded customers quickly switch to the UEFI BIOS platform.Because of the impact from mobile devices' fast growing popularity, the PC market has become a very complicated one. Although Windows and the x86 architecture are still the mainstream, Google's strong promotion has widened the application of its Android operating system, and allowed it to become a favorite for many product developers. Furthermore, as the speed of data processing under the ARM structure grows faster and faster, it promises to break the limitations of it being only able to support mobile devices, and stands a good chance of running the more complex Windows operation system in the future. Many system developers will have to obtain the capabilities to develop products for different platforms to satisfy demand from different market segments."Phoenix has been working in the BIOS sector for over three decades and its R&D team's pursuit for technological excellence has helped the company accumulate an impressive amount of patent assets," said Everett. "Our newly-launched Phoenix SCT 2.2 completely meets the latest industry specifications, such as UEFI, TCP/TPM and ACPI, and can be paired with different development and testing toolkits, making it the best solution currently available on the current market."Full spectrum of UEFI product offerings to satisfy customer needsAlthough Phoenix just consolidated its engineering focus on the embedded system and server sectors in 2010 in addition to its client computing core busines, the company has managed to achieve impressive results in a very short time, not only because its outstanding products have won recognition from its global partners, but also because it has a complete product lineup to meet partners' needs for future product development. For example, when Phoenix launched SCT 2.1 last year, the solution only offered a choice of six different platforms. But after only one year, the newly-launched SCT 2.2 already supports products of 16 different platforms, attesting to the company's strong R&D capability.Director of Product Marketing Juliet Chen explained, "One of Phoenix SCT's major characteristics is its cross-platform feature. In addition to supporting the latest products from Intel and AMD, Phoenix plans to launch SCT 3 in 2012 that is also compatible with EDK1117, EDKII and ARM structures in line with SCT's design concept of modularization to accelerate product development." Apart from launching the new product, Phoenix also released two toolkits, Tool Development Kit (TDK) and Phoenix Core Architect (PCA5), to help reduce the time required for firmware development and debugging.In fact, SCT 2.2 supports more than 16 different platforms, catering to nine major categories with more than 60 different new features. In addition to satisfying the needs related to Windows 8, the company also has made improvements to the user interface to provide three extra boot-up modes and strengthen the security functions of servers and embedded systems. On the other hand, addressing the maintenance and upgrade needs of OEMs and ODMs, Phoenix provides easy-to-use development and debugging tools to effectively reduce maintenance cost and time."Phoenix SCT 2.2's design is based on EDK 1117, and it meets not only the UEFI 2.3.1 specifications, but also the ACPI 5.0 standards," said Senior Director of Engineering Terry Chen. "Within the Windows 8 framework, reducing boot-up time is one of the major requirements, and the time is required to be at least seven seconds faster than that of Windows 7. Therefore, BIOS must now offer the option of faster boot-up time." In addition, since Windows 8 also provides a new Windows to Go function to allow consumers to install the operating system from a USB flash drive, it has also become a function that the new generation of BIOS platforms must carry.Development and testing tools PCA5 and TDK help simplify firmware developmentTo simplify the process of follow-up product testing, Phoenix provides easy-to-use development and debugging toolkits. In addition to the latest version of PCA 5, the company also has launched another toolkit, Tools Development Kit (TDK), for use by its partners. The major features of the toolkit are its adoption of standard C language, cross-platform support and user-friendliness. The toolkit can simultaneously support firmware tool development under four major environments – Windows, Linux, DOS and Shell. Engineers at the production lines, basing on the changes of the testing environment, can develop more suitable software to meet actual needs and identify any potential problems.Senior Development Manager Jack Wang pointed out, "PCA 5 is a very complete firmware toolkit that is tightly integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio. Apart from reducing the difficulty in using the tool through its single interface, it also provides several choices of templates and supports development and debugging of firmware that is based on Phoenix SCT, Intel BLDK or EDKII, with its stability and scope of application both outperforming its predecessor."With the competition in the global PC market growing fiercer and fiercer, R&D teams are facing pressures not only from shorter product development time, but also from the need to improve the products' stability and quality, in order to win consumers' recognition. However, previous methods of manual testing were not only time consuming, but also unable to collect large amounts of testing data for future reference. Therefore, Phoenix has raced ahead of other industry players by adopting automation for quality control and testing. The new method allows parameter adjustments based on the environment, and reduces testing time by more than 50% with great improvements in testing reliability."The biggest advantage of automated testing is that it is not limited by time and can run around the clock," noted Manager of Quality Assurance Richard Lai. "During the testing, all kinds of data can be collected and all along analyses can be conducted to identify potential problems through a web-based interface management platform. These features can reduce the high manpower costs."Kelly Wu, Corporate VP and GM of Greater China at Phoenix, points out that the newly-launched Phoenix SCT 2.2 can help partners to quickly switch to UEFI BIOS.Phoenix Senior Director of Engineering Terry Chen notes that under the Windows 8 framework, boot-up time must be at least seven seconds faster than Windows 7, and it is a major task for BIOS.

US-based Phoenix Technologies has been in the BIOS sector for more than 30 years and in addition to its BIOS business, the company also entered the operating system (OS) and application sectors a few years ago. In 2010, after receiving investment from a private equity fund, the company consolidated its engineering focuses on the BIOS sector and related services, and after more than a year of strategy adjustments and reforms, it has already achieved initial success. Currently, Phoenix's UEFI BIOS solutions cover such segments as the notebook, desktop PC, server and embedded system, and the company's high market share in the notebook market is an indication of the company's strong R&D capabilities in the BIOS sector.With the new-generation UEFI BIOS platform gradually becoming mature, and the related functions offering better support for the Windows 8 operating system, many system integrators are starting to choose UEFI BIOS to replace the Legacy BIOS, looking for an early understanding of the development methods for UEFI BIOS and hoping to provide consumers with a better and more secure user environment. As a founding member of the UEFI Forum, Phoenix in 2010 launched the SecureCore Technology (Phoenix SCT) BIOS solution that met the UEFI standards, and earlier in 2011 the company launched the next generation Phoenix SCT 2.2, featuring more than 60 new functions in nine major categories to provide its partners with a complete BIOS solution."After changing from a publicly traded company to a private firm, the company currently has an even stronger management of our operation strategy, and can be more focused on the R&D in BIOS technologies to offer our partners better products and after-sales services," said David Everett, company senior vice president of field operations. Phoenix currently has branch offices in the US, Japan, Taiwan and Korea, as well as a large technical support team in China – the largest domestic market of the world – to allow its products to enter the consumer market at the fastest possible pace.Strengthening cooperation with first-tier international OEMs to boost market shareMajor international OEMs will often work with their technology partners in the development of products during the early stage of product design. To materialize the major concepts behind the new models, the vendors will cooperate with their major partners from the supply chain to seek breakthroughs in terms of technology and design to increase product differentiation and accelerate the time to market.Headquartered in Silicon Valley, Phoenix has over 20 years of partnerships with many major international OEMs and has built an OEM Identity Library based on the modularized structure of each partner's BIOS features to allow the characteristics of the OEMs' products to remain consistent in different combinations of software and hardware applications."Phoenix has close partnerships with many major OEMs and chipmakers, and continues to seek innovations in the BIOS sector. We maintain specific service teams at the locations of our OEM partners' headquarters or on-site personnel to give timely assistance to our clients during technology development," noted Everett. "Phoenix is the founding member of many industries' standards-setting groups and has been active in taking part in the setting of new industrial specifications. Since the company is one of the standards setters, when system developers adopt the new standards, the company can provide professional technical advices and services related to the adoption."Easy-to-use development toolkit helps reduce learning curveAs Windows 8 will soon be launched in 2012, issues such as the unresolved security vulnerabilities hidden within the current PC structure and the 2TB capacity limitation for storage devices, will create troubles for consumers, but at the same time will boost demand for UEFI products in the market. Although many vendors are set to launch various products based on UEFI BIOS, they face limitations arising from the difference between the present and previous methods for product developments and market deployments. Due to insufficient human resources, they will be unable to make timely adjustments to the directions of product design and development in response to demand in the market.Compared to other BIOS vendors' solutions, Phoenix's SCT 2.2 inherits the easy-to-use characteristics of the past and can be operated without the need of re-learning to easily design products that comply with the UEFI standards. It is the best choice for companies seeking to maintain their competitiveness in the market. Furthermore, Phoenix also offers complete supporting services that can provide timely technical support from early-stage design to back-end production to help lower the barriers for product development.Everett explained, "We have a complete network of technical support centers worldwide with mechanisms to maintain mutual support and cooperation and to assist partners in resolving technical issues during the R&D and volume production stages. The significant rise in demand for UEFI BIOS will highlight our competitiveness." Phoenix has always been recognized by partners for its complete technical support. For example, many ODMs run their R&D and production separately in Taiwan and China, respectively. In addition to receiving support from Phoenix's technical team for their R&D centers in Taipei, their production lines in China will also receive on-site support from Phoenix's technical staff during pilot runs to help resolve any issue during actual production.Providing solutions compatible with both x86 and ARM platforms to satisfy demand from different marketsThe portability, low-power consumption and connectivity of smartphones and tablet PCs have quickly made them consumers' favorites, not only affecting sales of notebooks but also prompting Intel to invest in related sectors and launch corresponding processors. As for the ARM platform, which features low power consumption, the big improvements to its computing capabilities in recent years have expanded its application beyond mobile devices, and Microsoft will even support the ARM structure in its forthcoming Windows operating system. This will complicate system vendors' launch of related products.ARM has a completely different structure than x86 and with support from Windows in the future, there will be many different platforms derived from different combinations of processors and the operating system. Therefore, most of the vendors are hoping that there can be a single BIOS solution that can meet the needs of different environments through modularized changes to reduce firmware engineers' re-learning burden."We believe the appearance of Intel's Ultrabook and Microsoft's Windows 8 will trigger a new wave of demand," said Everett. "Phoenix's expertise is attested to by its excellent firmware architecture and library of abundant patents. For consumer models, our program source code is concise with a clear structure to significantly boost the efficiency of product development in this age of multiple platforms. For the enterprise applications, Phoenix has abundant experience in developing security-related functions and can help increase product differentiation. For partners who want to tap related markets, our solutions are the best choices currently available on the market."For the pace of new product launches, as well as follow-on development tools and technical support, Phoenix offers complete and detailed planning. In addition to solutions designed to avoid possible technical issues arising from the transition to UEFI platform, Phoenix also has corresponding solutions and service models to fulfill demand from different market segments, such as the notebook, desktop, server and embedded system. For notebook, tablet, server, and embedded developers who are currently facing fierce competition in the global PC market, they can rely on Phoenix's solutions to satisfy their needs for developing UEFI products and enhance their product quality, making sure they stay competitive in the market.Phoenix senior vice president of field operations David Everett pointed out that after changing to a private firm, the company can be more focused on the R&D on BIOS technologies to offer our partners better products and after-sales services.

The leading global motherboard and graphics card maker MSI today announces the release of the MSI+ APP, an unprecedented premium service for mobile users.Due to the prevalence of smartphones, making an interactive tool that connecting users and industries has being a trend. Now, MSI breaks the typical image of hardware manufacturer to create a tailor-made app that emphasizes the idea of user experience.The MSI+ APP covers News, Video, Match, Specs, Manual and Calculator six categories. Except accessing the MSI's latest dynamic news, users can also efficiently learn a lot of product characteristics and specifications from a comparison list, and then to pick up the matched one.It is noteworthy that Calculator, one of MSI+'s features, can automatically evaluate the power consumption after users input the type and quantity of needed components. It will never be a brain-teaser to choose a proper power unit while assembling a computer!Now scan the QR code to experience the awesome MSI+ app: http://www.msi.com/service/msiguide/Up-to-the-minute News and VideosAny special promotions or events information? Tap MSI+ News on the smartphone to get it! Join the MSI Fan Club now! Don't miss any exclusive discount!News: The overclocking website HWBOT (http://hwbot.org) is holding MSI "Sandy Bridge-E evolution" overclocking contest. Experience the MSI Afterburner iOS APP for free. Don't miss out on this great opportunity!Video: In MSI+ APP, enjoy the sound and vision festival by watching the categorized YouTube videos to learn MSI's award-winning products and comprehensive video news.The Shopper's Dream ToolMatch: Hard to choose a desired mainboard or notebook? Check the type and quantity of needed components it will automatically filter and show the matched models and pictures. The intelligent MSI+ APP can save time and energy in screening what users want.Specs: Want to know the difference among similar products? Up to seven models specifications comparison in a list, the MSI+ APP helps users easily target a product at a glance.Manual: Cannot find the paper manual when encountering computer problems? Tap the MSI+ APP Manual on the smartphone, download the manual file step-by-step to the SD card and open it with PDF reader.Power Consumption Calculator, A Must for Budget UsersCalculator: Apart from component selection and budget control, one big headache when assembling a computer would be choosing a proper power supply unit. A higher wattage power supply unit would cost a lot while the lower one might fail to boot the computer. Let the Calculator be your solution! Just input the type and quantity of needed components, an estimated wattage value would show automatically, and then tune these items to get a suitable power supply unit.MSI+ App

San Jose, Calif. – December, 2011 Kawasaki Microelectronics (K-micro), a leading supplier of image processing LSIs, such as LCD T-Con, has released samples of its new Frame Rate Converter LCD Timing Controller product (FRC T-Con), dubbed VFRC-A1, for the large-size LCD TV market. Mass production will begin in Q2, 2012.As a result of increased pricing pressure, LCD panel and television manufacturers need to be able to develop improved products without extra cost and complexity. K-micro's VFRC-A1 allows them to offer superior motion picture performance by reducing motion artifacts such as blur and judder at significantly lower cost than before. K-Micro reduced the cost of this new generation controllers by 50%.Top tier customers, including Funai Electric Co., Ltd, a leading company in high quality and reasonably priced LCD TVs, are sampling VFRC-A1 products. "The success of design-in at Funai Electric is further proof that the FRC T-Con product is providing a cost competitive solution for Full HD TV," said Takayuki Ochi, product marketing manager at Kawasaki Microelectronics. "VFRC-A1 is a major milestone in our strategy to become the supplier of choice for the LCD TV market with superior technology at cost-effective prices.""We are developing our third-generation FRC product to deliver image processing functions for LCD panels, which are used for 3DTV with a simple Quad Flat Package (QFP)," Ochi added. "This next generation product will help TV makers bring a high quality 3D viewing experience into the homes of end users."K-Micro developed VFRC-A1 through close cooperation with several Japanese TV makers that pursue development of LCD TVs at a competitive price and superior performance.VFRC-A1 integrates major components for 100/120Hz Full HDTV LCD panels such as FRC, frame memory and T-Con in a low cost QFP. It supports both VA and IPS LCD panels and is also available for integration into ASICsPricing and availabilityThe VFRC-A1 is available now in sample quantities to select customers, Mass production will begin in Q2, 2012 with sample pricing of $15. This technology is also available for integration into ASIC's for qualified customers.About K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics America, Inc.)K-micro's innovative ASIC technologies and world-class design support are used in the consumer electronics, computer, office-automation, networking and storage markets. The company is an active participant in industry standards organizations, including InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) Technical Committee T10 for SCSI Storage Interfaces, PCI Special Interest Group (PCI-SIG), USB Implementers Forum, Universal Plug and Play Forum (UPnP), Serial ATA International Organization SATA-IO, Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), IEEE P1901, IEEE P2030, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), HomeGrid Forum, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), High Definition Power Line Communications (HD-PLC), and OCP International Partnership (OCP-IP). K-micro has design centers in San Jose, Taipei, and Tokyo. For more information, contact the company at 408-570-0555, or visit http://www.k-micro.us. Taiwan contact: +886-2-2547-1297###Press Contact (K-micro): K-micro Press ContactSacha ArtsSlider & Associates+1 408-356-3099sacha@sliderassociates.com

It is an era dominated by 3C products, and in almost all product categories there are flat panel devices. For such devices, a thin and light design is a common goal, and for mobile devices, energy-saving is another important goal. Because of these considerations, components for these devices must be developed in a direction towards making them smaller and consume less power. According to the Chilisin team, "As smartphones now also adopt multi-core processors that significantly increase the devices' overall power consumption, there are stricter requirements of inductors' DCR. The lower the DCR, the less power consumed. In addition, developing smaller-size inductors is our R&D direction and we have already achieved significant results."Chilisin, the leader of inductor sector in Taiwan, is currently capable of producing two billion multilayer beads and inductors and 120 million wire wound chip inductors each month. It is the major supplier worldwide. To fulfill the demand of the 3Cmarket, Chilisin has been focusing on the development of LVS power wire wound inductors and its latest LVF series power wire wound inductors, which feature a smaller size, higher power but less power consumption, have already entered mass production.LVF series greatly enhances power performanceChilisin pointed out, "Due to breakthroughs in material technologies, the LVF series inductors' inductance value can increase by 70%, DCR can decrease by 20% and rated current can rise 20%, significantly improving all the related properties. They are as good as products of Japanese competitors, but their unit prices are at least 30% lower. Therefore Chilisin's products have a better CP (cost/performance) ratio." In the face of the low-price smartphone trend next year, Chilisin's high CP ratio will clearly be its best weapon for further expanding its market share. Chilisin's newly launched LVF series inductors are sized at 2.5mmx2.0mmx1.2mm.The 2025 size is the mainstream size of smartphone-use power inductors, accounting for around 70% of the demand of 400 million high-end power inductors in the market. It is understood that currently not too many players are able to supply power inductors of such a small size. Therefore, through the launch of the LVF series, Chilisin hopes to achieve a 20% share of the market next year.In addition to leveraging its high CP ratio to compete in the smartphone market, Chilisin's capability of vertical integration is also a strong advantage in the face of price competition. Chilisin pointed out that the basic powders needed for manufacturing inductors and the related production processes are both fully handled by the company itself without the need of outside help. This is exactly where Chilisin's core capabilities lie.In-house capacity for material and inductor production efficiently lowers production costAs it is self-sufficient in materials and production processes, Chilisin has been the leader in launching various products, such as its multilayer power inductor series for handheld devices. The inductors are currently the smallest available on the market. Chilisin pointed out that although the investment was high, in order to increase its competitiveness and maintain its market advantages, Chilisin decided to install dry process equipment in 2010 while other inductor makers were still cautious about it. With the equipment, Chilisin was able to develop different combinations of materials and shapes earlier than its Taiwan-based competitors. Its capability of producing such components as high-end miniaturized multilayer power inductors is comparable to that of Japanese competitors.Chilisin pointed out that the multilayer power inductor is mainly used in high-end handheld devices because a device will encounter physical limitations after shrinking down to a certain level, making wire wound chip inductors unusable, and leading to the necessary step of adopting multilayer power inductors. As for the smartphone segment, Chilisin has already finished developing a high-end small-size thin-film inductor with mass production scheduled for 2012. It is understood that the thin-film process is rather common in the semiconductor sector but in the inductor sector only a few of the players have the related know-how. Since Chilisin possesses the technologies to produce both multilayer and thin-film inductors, the company in the future will integrate the two technologies to achieve breakthrough in developing inductors bearing the characteristics of both in even smaller sizes.Chilisin's complete and multiple inductor product lines, including multilayer inductors, wire wound chip inductors, thin-film inductors, multilayer power inductors and low profile molding chokes, are able to satisfy demand from different kinds of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs and notebooks, and can also be used in PC monitors or LCD TVs. With competitiveness coming from its in-house control of the upstream production process, material cost control enabled by flexible material management, and a head start on installing advanced production equipment, Chilisin apparently has been well-prepared to deal with the market uncertainties in 2012.Chilisin's LVF series products have better CP ratio than Japanese competition.

While Taiwan is not usually thought of as being at the forefront of the green revolution, Taipei happened to perform quite well in the Asian Green Index published earlier this year. The Index was the result of a research project conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by Siemens, and assessed the environmental performance of 22 major cities in Asia, with Taipei landing in the Above Average group with five other cities, trailing only Singapore overall in the region.Digitimes recently had the opportunity to attend the Global MBA Forum Series at National Taiwan University (NTU) and see Siemens Taiwan CEO Peter Weiss deliver a speech on Answers for Sustainability. After the event, Weiss discussed other topics, including developments in the solar industry and the mindset needed for Taiwan to move up the global value chain.Q: The Asia Green Index shows that Siemens is especially concerned with developments in urban areas in Asia. Why the focus on cities?A: When Siemens looks at sustainable global development, we see cities as being the key to the future. For example, cities consume 70% of global energy and produce 70% of the world's output of carbon dioxide. But cities are also the growth engines of the world; 50% of global GDP is generated in cities. So of course we need to see that cities thrive. But at the same time, they cannot continue doing business as usual, because the environmental impact will be immense.And if you look at various urban regions around world, Asia has its own unique challenges. Approximately 100,000 new people are moving into cities in Asia every day. If you translate that into infrastructure, that means 20,000 new homes need to be built, six million additional liters of drinking water need to be made available and 250 kilometers of new streets need to be built.In terms of how current cities deal with these issues, Taiwan fares well compared with other Asian cities. Taipei scored quite well when it came to energy consumption and transportation. However, Taipei's water leakage ratio is still quite high, so there is room for improvement.Q: How can more improvement come about? After all, the region has built its success on being able to control costs and maintain manufacturing efficiency, not energy efficiency. Is there room for green thinking, when you are trying to cut costs?A: It's a matter of long-term thinking. For example, if you look at the lifecycle cost of a new building from start of design to end of life of the building, only about 20% of the cost comes from the design and construction. About 80% of the overall building cost comes during the lifecycle of the building.Historically, this aspect of lifecycle cost has caused some problems here in Taiwan, where people like to build buildings with minimal cost. Sure, when energy efficiency is not a priority, you can save a little bit of money during the construction stage, which is part of the 20%. But in the long run you end up increasing your overall lifecycle costs. To save a little, you might end up using the wrong materials or perhaps implement an inefficient design, which is a mistake in the long run.Two years ago Siemens did a study with the European Chamber of Commerce and National Taipei University of Technology, looking at the existing building stock in Taiwan. The outcome was promising. With existing building technologies we realized we can save 30% of the energy used by the existing stock if we were to apply new building technologies. Of course the savings are a theoretical one and things will not change overnight, but the point is there is huge potential here in Taiwan.Q: Do you see attitudes changing in Taiwan? Are governments and businesses interested in wanting to do the "right thing," so to speak, when it comes to building sustainable cities?A: In many ways change come by necessity and decisions that are "green" decisions can be viewed purely as business decisions. If you look at Taiwan's growth over the past 30-40 years, it has been driven by mass production and reasonable quality products, and Taiwan has been very successful with this strategy.However, over the past 10-15 years other nations such as China and Vietnam have begun stepping in with the same strategy, so Taiwan has had to adjust its value proposition and learn how to differentiate its products. Local companies need to move up the value chain and implement more long-term strategies. We already see this in the global semiconductor manufacturing industry, where no other nation can touch Taiwan in term of wafer technology.Going back to the example used with buildings, Taipei 101 highlights how things are changing in Taiwan. Even though the building had a modern design and was energy efficient, Siemens was consulted when the building was seeking to obtain LEED platinum certification. We showed that energy consumption for 101 could be reduced by another 10% and water and waste by 10%. These reductions, in turn, went back to the tenant because operation costs are lower, so rent is able to be kept at a lower level and the building can be run in a more competitive manner.Looking at Taiwan's various manufacturing industries, the same can be done to improve factory processes and have products more economically developed. And these firms can go back to their customers and be able to say, "Hey, I have a green factory," which only brings more opportunities.So our value proposition to factories is that we can help them reduce their operational costs and reduce their CO2 footprint, while in a nutshell, helping them become a green company.Q: One area of green development where Taiwan has had much success is green energy. However, currently the solar industry is in the doldrums, can you comment on the industry moving forward?A: Despite the current gloom, there is no doubt everyone agrees that there is a future for solar. We are seeing more and more solar installations coming up around the world, not only in PV but in other solar fields as well, such as solar thermal.While the industry will continue progressing, it is important for players to remain committed. Products brought to the market need to have the highest efficiency because only then do we have a return on investment, and it is important that the resources that we are putting into this industry are being used in the best and most efficient way. It doesn't make sense if we have cells or installations that are not efficient.The industry went through a period of seeing subsidies stimulate the market, and massive investments have also substantially brought costs down. However, as the cost structure makes the industry more economically viable, it is important for players to keep up the research and development to further improve the technology.And this advice is useful for Taiwan on the whole. As the region moves up the value chain, it needs to remain committed to improving itself. It also needs to realize it cannot be great in each and every field, so decisions will need to be made. Whether it's the continued development of a few key areas such as semiconductors or whether the focus is on emerging industries like electronic vehicles or biotech, Taiwan needs to choose its focus areas, gather the investment and push all activities in this direction in order to differentiate itself from other countries in the region.Siemens Taiwan CEO Peter WeissPhoto: Michael McManus, Digitimes, November 2011

Opera Software and MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia solutions, announced that Opera Mini, the world's most popular mobile browser, will be included into MediaTek's Runtime Environment (MRE).MRE is MediaTek's innovative middleware technology designed for mobile developers and application providers to deploy services and content for "smart-feature-phones". The MRE solution provides millions of users in emerging markets with the ability to enjoy rich mobile Internet experiences previously available only on smartphones. This partnership will allow users of handsets powered by MediaTek's MRE platform to enjoy the best and most affordable Internet experience.Opera Mini has an impressive user base, with more than 140 million users each month and growing. It offers cloud-assisted browsing, where its renowned compression technology reduces data load by up to 90% before sending it to phones. This results in a much faster page-loading speed on a limited bandwidth connection, as well as lower data costs."MediaTek and Opera Software share the same vision. We both want people to access the Web on their own terms," said Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software. "The MRE solution makes the traditional feature phone smarter and, at the same time, delivers the best user experience. Opera Mini makes the Web an enjoyable experience regardless of bandwidth. We look forward to seeing the next billion people to surf with Opera Mini on MRE-powered phones."MediaTek is the world's largest mobile chipset platform provider, shipping over 500 million units in 2010, for assembly into a wide range of mobile phones distributed worldwide.

Wincomm has now followed up on its success with the WPE-793 in the digital signage market by releasing the WPE-796. Not only is the new engine box lighter, thinner and more compact, it also comes with a PCI-E x16 slot that customers can use for a high-end discrete graphics card to improve the clarity and comfort of digital signage applications. A separate PCI-E x4 slot can be used for a TV card to provide public information.The digital signage market now has a requirement for displaying high definition images. Existing products were however unable to meet the graphics requirements due to limited CPU processing power. Wincomm WPE-796 provides an answer by using a high-end discrete graphics card to meet the demands of digital signage displays.As digital signage installations must be compatible with other industrial products, the product dimensions of the WPE-796 conform to the US Electronics Industry Association (EIA) 1U rack form-factor. The WPE-796 can therefore be placed in steel or aluminum racks, simplifying overall design and on-site installation for the customer. It can even be placed in the same rack as network servers and other industrial products.The hardware design of the WPE-796 supports Intel Core i3/i5/i7 CPUs for improved performance, operating temperatures of between 0~50 degrees C and extended operation around the clock. Wincomm is able to deliver this level of reliability thanks to its proprietary cooling technology. A combination of directed air flow and thermal conduction effectively reduces the temperatures of the CPU, north bridge and south bridge chipsets, enabling the WPE-796 to maintain a high level of reliability and stability all year round. Another feature of the WPE-796 is the low-noise design. At an operating temperature of 25 degrees C, noise is significantly lower than other products on the market, at 37dB.Digital signage services are now being introduced by many industries. Hotel operators, the tourist industry, airport services, banks, hospitals and other service-related industries are all installing digital signage in indoor and outdoor public spaces to provide consumers with easy information access. The key to signage system installations is the stability and ruggedness of the control PC. The WPE-796's ruggedness and high availability means it can continue to run stably in harsh conditions to provide consumers with the latest video information throughout the year.The WPE-796 is shipping now to meet the needs of the digital signage market and provide customers with product options they can count on. If you have a requirement for our product, please contact Wincomm sales at sales_support@wincomm.com.tw. For more product information, please visit the Wincomm website at http://www.wincomm.com.tw/2 PCI-E slots, advance Intel Core i CPU and Q57 chipset makes high graphics performance and upgrades simple