Sony has announced the market launch of its first two Sony Tablet devices – the Android-powered Sony Tablet S and Sony Tablet P in the US.Available for pre-sale and on shelves in a month, the Sony Tablet S device is optimized for rich media entertainment on its 9.4-inch touchscreen display. With an Nvidia Tegra 2 mobile processor, the Sony Tablet S device lets consumers enjoy the Web as well as content and applications on its high-resolution screen. Weighing in at about 1.33lbs, its unique asymmetric design allows for hours of comfortable use and built-in Wi-Fi compatibility means Internet connectivity virtually anywhere there is a hotspot, said Sony.Available later in the year, the Sony Tablet P device is ideal for mobile communication and entertainment. With its folding design, two 5.5-inch displays and weighing about 0.83lbs, it can easily fit into a pocket, purse or backpack. It features the Nvidia Tegra 2 mobile processor and is both Wi-Fi compatible and 4G capable exclusively on AT&T's mobile broadband network, offering users access to digital content including videos, games, and e-mail, while on the go, nearly anytime, said Sony.Both devices run on Android, Android 3.1 on Sony Tablet S devices and Sony Tablet P devices will be equipped with Android 3.2 by the time they ship. Both models feature front and rear facing cameras that allow for video recording and capturing still images. The devices also support micro USB and SD cards.Unlike other tablet devices, The Sony Tablet S has an ergonomic, asymmetric design, which allows it to be easily held or carried for long periods of time, said Sony. The unique form factor shifts the device's weight closer to the consumer's palm, making it feel lighter and more comfortable while reading an e-book or watching a video, Sony claimed. The screen is sloped when placed on a flat surface, enhancing visibility and making typing more comfortable. Placing a Sony Tablet S device onto a specialized charging cradle (sold separately) converts the device into a digital photo frame, a digital clock that displays customizable information.Software taking advantage of the design of the Sony Tablet P device allows its dual screens to be used for different functions simultaneously such as playing video on one screen while using the other as a controller or reading e-mail on one screen while using the other as a virtual keyboard. The displays can also be combined to form a single large screen for Internet browsing and more. By holding the device vertically, you can also read e-books much in the same manner you would a physical book.Both Sony Tablet devices are equipped with Sony's TruBlack displays which reduce reflection and glare from sunlight or fluorescent light for high-contrast visibility both indoors and out.A range of optional accessories includes a cradle, AC adapter, LCD screen protector, carrying case and USB adaptor cable for Sony Tablet S devices, and a rechargeable battery pack, AC adapter, LCD screen protector, carrying case and detachable panels for Sony Tablet P devices. A Bluetooth keyboard is also available for both models.The Sony Tablet S device is available in both 16GB and 32GB versions and will be sold at Sony Stores including online and other authorized retailers in the US for about US$499 and US$599, respectively.Sony Tablet S1 tablet PCPhoto: Company

Global Lighting Technologies (GLT) Inc., the specialist in LED-based edge-lit illumination, held an initial public offering of shares of its common stock on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) on July 28, 2011 (symbol: GLT). The initial public offering totaled 15.35 million shares at an initial price of NT$50 (US$1.767). The IPO was presided over by GLT's Chairman, Mang-Shiang Lee, General Manager C.L. Wang, and Vice President Johnny Tsai. GLT posted revenues of NT$3.08 billion (US$106.94 million) with net profits of NT$256 million or an EPS of NT$2.39 for 2010, according to the company.Headquartered in Chung-Li, Taiwan, GLT was established in 2000 by combining the manufacturing assets of Shanghai Shinny Electronic Technology Corporation Ltd. and Suzhou Shinny Plastics Co. Ltd. with the Solid State Research and Development arm of Lumitex, Inc., an American lighting technology company based in the Cleveland, Ohio area. GLT's U.S. R&D, engineering and sales force worked out of suburban Cleveland, eventually settling in Brecksville, OH, to develop LED-based edge lighting technology for the latest generation of flat panel displays, according to Vice President and General Manager, David DeAgazio.GLT now offers the world's most efficient LED-based edge lighting technology as well as advanced light extraction technologies and improved manufacturing processes to provide the slimmest, most efficient and cost-effective light guides used in LED backlight units (BLUs) for flat panel displays, LED illuminated keyboards and indoor lighting products as well as solutions for a wide range of general illumination applications. With four manufacturing facilities in the Far East, GLT is poised to deliver a superior illumination solution at a lower cost with faster turnaround.GLT's clients in the device-end market include Sony, Samsung Electronics, Hitachi, and Toshiba. In 2010, GLT teamed up with notebook ODM Wistron to develop large-size LED light guide plates. The GLT-Wistron team will build five production lines for light guide plates at a plant in Guangzhou, China before the end of 2011 with a monthly capacity of 700,000-800,000 units of 40-inch equivalent light guide plates. Including production capacity in Taiwan, GLT will be able to roll out 1.2 million light guide plates in 40-inch equivalents a month by year-end 2011. GLT has also demonstrated the capability of making light guide plates for use in LCD TVs of over 55-inches diameter, and has set up three production lines with total monthly capacity of 400,000 light guide plates for large-size LCD TVs at its factory in northern Taiwan. In addition, GLT is establishing five more production lines at its factory in Zhongshan in southern China in August, with completion scheduled for fourth quarter 2011.Beating the drum for Global Lighting Technologies' initial public offering are, from left to right: Mark Wei, Chairman of KGI Securities; C.L. Wang, General Manager of GLT; Mang-Shiang Lee, Chairman of GLT; and Dr. Chi Schive, Chairman of the TWSE.Photo: Company

The IR OSLON SFH 4715S of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is today's smallest infrared LED with more than one Watt optical power. The device measures only 3.75 x 3.75 mm² and therefore facilitates very compact illumination units for CMOS and CCD cameras. OSRAM's nanostack chip technology and a temperature stable OSLON Black Series package paved the way for the record-breaking high performance device.The infrared OSLON typically provides 1070 mW optical power at 1 A operating current, and it features a typical thermal resistance of only 6.5 K/W. A lens with +-45° emission angle is integrated in the device. Due to this adapted outcoupling lens the IR OSLON delivers 15 percent more output power than components without lens. With a wavelength of 850 nm, the IR OSLON is particularly well matched with the sensitivity of CMOS and CCD camera sensors. The small package allows compact arrangements which enable a very high power density. Especially 3D cameras benefit from the improved power since the IR-LED can be modulated up to very high operating currents of 5 A in the range of 10 MHz.To achieve the record-breaking ratio of device size to power, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors combines its nanostack chip technology with the temperature stable OSLON Black Series package. The highly efficient stack chips have two p-n junctions connected in series and generate nearly twice the optical power of conventional emitters. The OSLON Black Series package is based on a metal lead frame, and its thermal expansion matches exactly the thermal behavior of circuit boards. Thus a good cycle stability is achieved, even at heavily fluctuating temperatures as they may, for instance, occur outdoors. In other respects, too, the IR OSLON complies with the highest quality standards, as for example with the automotive standard AEC-Q101. Together, the latest chip technology and the excellent package properties ensure an operating lifetime of up to 50,000 hours.Extensive product portfolio for illuminationThe IR OSLON is fully compatible with its counterpart for the visible spectral range. Manufacturers of street lighting or CCTV systems who combine visible and infrared LEDs can use their experience with OSLON Black Series LEDs and apply existing designs and board layouts.With the IR OSLON, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors expands its position in the field of infrared illumination and complements its range of products with an additional power class. The new device particularly addresses the security industry. Possible applications range from spotlights for IR cameras and CCTV systems via machine vision solutions to number plate recognition. For Dr. Joerg Heerlein, Marketing Manager for infrared devices with OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, the IR OSLON hallmarks the beginning of a new product family: "As our next move we plan a 940 nm version. The longer wavelength reduces the so-called red glow effect: since humans perceive intensive infrared light as a faint red glow, this IR OSLON is especially tailored for light sources which should not be seen by people."The infrared OSLON of OSRAM Opto Semiconductors is the smallest IR LED in the 1-Watt class. It affords extremely small illumination units for cam.Photo: Company

ASPEED Technology Inc., a fabless semiconductor company that specializes in SoC (system on chip) design, announced today that it received funding from Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization. The funding will be used to expand ASPEED's research and development team and extend the company's marketing program for cloud computing solutions.ASPEED's research and development of remote server management ICs enables a richer server system feature set, including the addition of an IPMI-complaint baseboard management controller (BMC) and iKVM functions. According to Gartner, the market for cloud computing will expand rapidly in the coming years, with cloud-computing server shipments forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.4% from 2011 to 2014. ASPEED hopes to capitalize on this growing demand for cloud computing to expand its business in the coming years."We are very pleased that our advanced IC design capability for cloud-computing server management was recognized by world-class investor Intel Capital. Over the past five years, cloud computing has become one of the most important IT trends, and we believe the potential of this technology is just beginning to be explored. Innovation is the wellspring of ASPEED's growth, and lies at the heart of all aspects of our business, from strategic planning, marketing and management," said Chris Lin, president of ASPEED Technology."Over the last six years, ASPEED has grown to become a leading provider of cutting-edge SoC system solutions for remote server management. With ASPEED's rich experience in server BMC implementation, the company's products enable sophisticated multimedia and management applications over the network," said Keith Larson, vice president of Intel Capital. "Driven by growing demand for cloud computing services and technology, ASPEED is well positioned for future growth."

A presentation prepared for Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) had been made available for publication. The presentation provides an overview of Taiwan's key ICT industries and the dynamics influencing future development.For readers interested in accessing the original presentation, a link is provided at the end of the article.- In the mid-1980s, Taiwan started to manufacture IBM compatible PCs and gained economies of scale through volume production and stronger worldwide competitiveness in the mid-1990s.- In 2000, leveraging the advantage of production scale, Taiwan integrated electronic components, foundry services to form a complete EMS supply chain and make the region the leading industry provider servicing the world.- In 2008 during the economic crisis, Taiwan enhanced the capability of manufacturing and pushed the IT applications through the efforts of increasing foreign investments, technology and supply chain upgrade.- With the strong success of the Apple and Google platform, Taiwan is facing the new era of multi-platform infrastructure. The new industrial shift is going to bring great changes in the Taiwan ICT industry.- According to Digitimes, there are 735 IT companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange.- These companies generated US$424.6 billion in revenue in 2010. This represented growth of 35.7%.- The majority of ICT manufacturing sales was from PC and handset sectors. This sector generated US$229.1 billion in revenue in 2010.- The display sector, including LCD panel, was the next biggest portion. It provided revenues of US$54.9 billion.- The semiconductor sector covering foundry, packaging and testing and IC design contributed US$52.8 billion.- Other contributors, including networking, components and distribution also played an important role to help Taiwan makers expand their markets worldwide.- The listed companies on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TSE) need to disclose the operation and finance information to public to help investors to trace the performance of each companies.- Analyzing the information from the TSE, there are at least 10 listed companies forecasted to more than US$5 billion in revenues in 2011.- Foxconn Group is the biggest, with 2011 first half revenues were NT$1,187 billion (around US$41.2 billion), representing 27.8% on year growth.- Companies such as Quanta computer, Wistron, HTC, TSMC, AUO, WPG, Asustek are all forecast to have US$5 billion in revenues.- It is expected that 15 companies will have US$10 billion in revenues this year.- Meanwhile, Taiwan will face industry re-structuring and supply chain evolution.- From the current positive Taiwan economy situation, Taiwan yearly economy growth rate will be over 5% with US$400.3 billion in foreign exchange reserves.- NB manufacturing is still the number one segment. The supply chain has recently migrated manufacturing to Chongqing, Sichuan Province recently.- Taiwan makers control core value of capital, engineering research and global integration at their Taiwan headquarters.- Facing the serious competition of Apple, Google and Microsoft platforms, Taiwan has already become involved in these markets.- Co-petition among Taiwan component vendors is the norm.- Cross-border co-petition, especially with developments in Japan, Korea vendors is getting more attractive for Taiwan makers.- Emerging market development such as China, India, Russia and the Brazil markets are currently the major focus of Taiwan makers.- These are the 4 major challenges of global ICT industry.- The economic crisis in 2008 and Japan earthquake in 2011 all highlight the instability of market demands.- The ICT industry faces oversupply and market concentration issues, while suffering from decreasing profits.- The LCD panel industry is a good example, the market had consolidated greatly over the past 10 years and now Korea and Taiwan makers dominate the market, though they mostly suffer from negative profits.- Emerging markets will gain more and more attraction, as opposed to the US, Europe and Japan markets. Current global growth is being driven by demand in emerging markets.- The rise of China market is another key focus for Taiwan ICT industry.- Emerging "BRIC" PC markets, especially China, already occupy 40% of the global PC market.- The China market still has issues of government interference.- Taiwan has the best geographic, cultural and technology advantages to be the best partner for global enterprises entering China. - The new opening of Foxconn's Brazil factory is a good example of establishing a good position for entering emerging markets.- Brazil is one of the highest taxed countries in the world, double the rate of Mexico. Brazil tax income contributed 36.1% to the country's GDP in 2002. The Brazil government favored Foxconn with tax breaks.- With the market continuing drifting and global LCD TV brands starting to reduce their shipment forecast in 2011, Taiwan LCD TV makers have reduced their global shipment forecast to 54.88 million sets and overall global shipments will shrink to 211 million sets.- Europe and the US market will have zero growth starting from 2012. Japan will also have to worry about the negative growth after the earthquake. Global brands, seeing these previous negative impacts, started targeting emerging markets in 2010. Considering the price sensitiveness of emerging markets, Taiwan will benefit from more OEM/ODM orders from major brands.- According to Digitimes, Taiwan's global market share will grow to 27.1% in 2012 and 28.2% in 2013, up from 26% in 2011.- LED backlight TVs hitting the mainstream is the major goal of all global TV brands.- The LED TV penetration rate has been limited over the past few quarters.- By the end of 2011, according to Digitimes, LED TVs will have a penetration rate surpassing 50%.- Because Taiwan LED manufacturers will receive strong orders from Japanese brands, it is a great opportunity for Taiwan backlight module makers to have big growth.- Taiwan will have 17.2 million TV shipments in 4Q, 2011. The Y/Y growth will reach 41.3%.- Global TV brands are selecting OEM/ODM orders to Taiwan makers. Some of them even sold manufacturing facilities or factories to Taiwan makers.- SONY and Toshiba have released 70% of their orders to Taiwan makers.- Sony sold a factory to Foxconn. The current major manufacturing partner of Toshiba is Compal Electronics.- Taiwan TV makers will be granted key components purchase rights, such as flat panel purchasing, in the near future.- The entire Taiwan TV supply chain will take this opportunity to have tight integration and engage in close technology cooperation with international brands.- In addition to NBs and flat panel TVs, handsets will gather more attention from the Taiwan ICT industry.- In 2011, 100 million handsets will be shipped from Taiwan (excluding EMS handset makers).- There will be 19 million smartphone shipment in 4Q, 2011. The Y/Y growth rate is 66%.- The worldwide share of Taiwan handset shipments will be 65%.- Local software developers, especially digital maps, on-line games, etc. will have a great chance to corporate with Taiwan smartphone makers.- Besides Taiwan hardware developers, another potential winner to grasp this opportunity will be IC design vendors.- Taiwan IC design houses will take advantage of technology investments and sales strategies to win business.- The most attractive product in 2011 is the tablet PC.- Apple and other international brands gave the most EMS orders to Taiwan makers.- This year, 61.2 million tablets will be shipped. Taiwan makers will have an 86% share.- The biggest EMS orders are coming from Foxconn for the iPad2. The major iPad2 manufacturing bases are in Shenzhen and Chengdu, China.- Other major EMS vendors are Quanta, Inventec, Pegatron and Compal (in order of shipment volume).- New tablet players such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble will also release orders to Taiwan OEM/ODM makers in the 2nd half of 2011.- Content-based tablet players will focus on low-priced product priced lower than US$300 to penetrate the market.- Amazon and B&N will develop the Europe and US market as a first priority. For the China market, players will cooperate with Taiwan Channel vendors.- Taiwan NB and DSC product lines are facing the problems of market saturation.- Handset, flat panel TV and smartphones are currently Taiwan's top 3 competitive products.- Taiwan tablet and e-reader product lines are keeping pace with world trends.- Considering strong demand of baseband+Wi-Fi chipset used for smartphones and tablets, it shows why the merger between MediaTek and Ralink is so important. This also reflects the truth that companies that can only provide baseband or Wi-Fi chipsets are suffering to win new orders. So this kind of future merger deal will continue to grow.- With Intel's acquisition of Infineon wireless solution business in the second half of 2010 and new LTE chipset solution demonstration at MWC 2011, it highlights the strong intention of Intel to focus on mobile communications chipset solutions, especially targeting tablet solutions. With strong CPU and Wi-Fi technology, plus Infineon's baseband, RF technology, Intel will start to release multi-chip solutions as its first step. Single chip solutions will be essential for entering the mobile market in the near future.- In 2011, Broadcom merged with Percello, a Femtocell chip maker. Broadcom, with its strong Wi-Fi and baseband technology background has also shown its intention to compete in the mobile market and Femtocell will play an important role of the 4th generation mobile communication technology, allowing Broadcom to take a lead in this segment.- Qualcomm dominates the 3G chipset market. Its merger of Atheros provides a dramatic improvement in its Wi-Fi technology, and Qualcomm boldly raised the stakes in challenging others to beat it out in the market.- Taiwan chipset vendors play an important role in the China white-box handset market.- Over 80% of related baseband chips are from Taiwan. The component distribution and logistics are all well managed through Taiwan IC distributors.- Besides handsets, Taiwan EMS and OEM/ODM makers are important for the local smartphone, tablet, and flat panel TV market.- Taiwan makers have the strength of turn-key solutions to expand their business opportunities in different emerging markets.- Taiwan makers represent the best partner for developing businesses for enterprises in emerging market through joint venture or other strategic cooperation.- The Taiwan electronics component industry has received a lot of attention worldwide.- Taiwan's foundry service is the leader in this industry worldwide. TSMC is already offering a global-leading 28nm semiconductor process node technology.- UMC has the same service quality to compete with other world class competitors.- Through 2011, Taiwan foundry companies account for a 30% market share for semiconductor materials and equipment.- More and more upstream vendors understand the value of Taiwan's semiconductor industry and are pushing more investments in Taiwan.- Related vendors include Cabot, ASML, Avantor, DuPont and ATMI. They have already setup either R&D centers or operation centers in Taiwan.- Taiwan DRAM makers face immense downsizing in the industry. Although they are encountering a tough market, Taiwan DRAM makers maintain an important role in the global market.- Korean maker Samsung currently accounts for 40% of the DRAM market. Hynix has a 25% share.- These Korean makers controlled 2/3 of the market, pushing Taiwan DRAM makers to better organize and make use of their combined manufacturing capacity.- PSC, Nanya, Inotera and Promos continue to discuss possible ways of cooperating with international DRAM makers.- Although facing severe competition in the mobile device market, Taiwan makers do not need to remove their past business models entirely. But they need to increase their mobile technology investments in order to improve their strength and win in the next step of competition.- With the continued improvement in sales, distribution channel and manufacturing scope, Asian markets will be the new business horizon for Taiwan vendors.- A big change in the supply chain is undergoing in Asia. New investment opportunities are booming.- International PC bands will continue using the Taiwan supply chain to find the best fit for components or technology for their core product concepts.- Major chipset suppliers such as Intel, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Marvell, MTK will continue to release orders to Taiwan foundry and packaging testing service companies.- Chipsets manufactured by Taiwan semiconductor service providers by IC design companies are sold through IC distributors WPG, Avnet, Arrow, etc. to major EMS companies to form the complete supply chain.- This global electronics supply chain can easily discover Taiwan vendors' roles and strength. Avnet, one of the largest global IC distributors, recently acquired two Taiwan distributors to reinforce its competitiveness in Asia.- Before 2000, all NB manufacturing and logistics were completed in operation sites located in Taiwan.- With this labor intensive industry continuing to grow, the supply chain shifted to south and east China locations after 2000. In recent years, production facilities have even been moved to west or central China locations, such as Chengdu and Chongqing.- Some Taiwan EMS service providers established well managed assembly lines in Russia, Turkey, India and other emerging markets.- Thus, UPS and Fedex have become important logistics partners for Taiwan EMS service providers.- With the unique geographic position of Taiwan and the strength of EMS and semiconductor manufacturing services in Taiwan, the Taiwan Taoyuan airport is one of the busiest airports in Asia.- Shanghai Pudong Airport, with the intensive buildup of manufacturing facilities in the region in recent years, has become the biggest air cargo shipment airport in China.- It is surprising to see that the Taiwan Taoyuan airport has even higher air cargo shipment volumes than Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.- The strength of Taiwan's logistic power is mainly seen in upstream industries such as foundry, packing and testing, case and chassis, connector, PCB and other key component suppliers.- In downstream industries, Synnex and World Peace Group are the top 2 players.- Synnex covers distribution channels in China, Taiwan, India, Turkey, Malaysia, Thailand, Australia and Indonesia.- Synnex owns 100% of its China, Taiwan and Australia subsidiaries. The other countries feature joint venture agreements to have better efficiency for regional business development. Synnex is becoming one of the biggest Asia distributors of computers, consumer electronics and communications products.- WPG Holdings is a shared holding company that has merged leading Asia semiconductor distributors WPI, SAC, Rich Power, Pernas, AIT and YoSun.- Each subsidiary has its own independent sales, warehousing and logistics operations. But finance control is mainly handled by WPG Holdings' headquarters.- The company has 40 service centers in Asia and over 6000 employees including engineers and FAEs to support customers.- Facing severe competition for mobile devices, Acer chairman J.T. Wang took charge when formal CEO Gianfranco Lanci resigned in March 2011. Although Acer doesn't need to remove the past success business model, which is focus on sales channel development and outsource product technology development, it is still important for Acer to increase the efforts to develop a new tier of mobile devices and grab an advantageous business model for competing in the market.- Looking at major competitors, HP acquired Palm for quickly moving into the mobile device sector. Dell and Lenovo have increased their momentum to release mobile devices in the market. Acer is behind in this competition while its LCD TV and smartphone product lines also failed to gain market share. This is the major reason why the former CEO stepped down.- Replacing the CEO is a critical action for Acer. The main concern is how to restructure the sales force and support the new managing team to smoothly transfer the new product strategy to boost performance.- Taiwan is looking for a new business model to upgrade its role in the industry.- Cloud computing is one of the main focus- There are 4 major system makers in Taiwan- First, EMS services, including Foxconn, Quanta, Wistron and Compal, contributes 90% of worldwide NB shipments. They are looking at PC servers and storage system opportunities for engaging in the business of cloud computing.- Second, IC distribution channels, like Synnex and WPG holdings, are becoming the best partners for international enterprises to penetrate and develop in Asia markets.- Taiwan brands, like Acer, Asus and HTC, provide a strong product platform for international software developers to cooperate and build upon.- Taiwan system integrators, including industrial PC makers like Advantech, and system software solution providers, are aiming at foreign investments or international corporative projects.- Multinational companies (MNCs) used to have a business model to generate massive profit from patents and having a major portion of market share.- When MNCs migrate to Asia, the profit engine needed to add a manufacturing supply chain to better develop a production Ecosystem.- The value of products will be changed according to the value that manufacturing service providers can create, making the manufacturing supply chain a profit generator as well.- For MNCs, we suggest that a direct contact window be established and dedicated. The technology roadmap needs to be provided in a timely fashion and the company needs to be dedicated with its vision to compete in the market in order to form a clear cooperation model with Asia system makers.- To adopt special regional requirements, MNCs will need to co-develop technology with local system makers. The ability of localization and better usage of local engineering resource will be the keys to success.- The Taiwan government has setup several win-win funding projects to better assist the industry by offering MNCs lower tax rates or special funds.- The successful business model developed in Taiwan for MNCs can be duplicated in other Asia areas or countries.To download the original powerpoint presentation, click here.

Nvidia and Asustek Computer have cooperated to launch ROG MARS II, a top-class graphics card equipped with two Nvidia GeForce GTX 580 GPUs and 3GB GDDR5 memory specifically for professional game players, in the Taiwan market at a retail price of NT$54,900 (US$1,893).Asustek pointed out that the ROG MARS II has performance 22% faster than a standard GeForce GTX 590 graphics card, while being capable of running DirectX 11-based games with maximum settings and a resolution of 1080p.The company also equipped the graphics card with two 120mm fans to significantly reduce heat, while cooling technology applied in the module will also minimize noise.Benefiting from its recovering share in the notebook discrete graphics card market, up 8.9pp to 50.6%, Nvidia's net profits reached US$152 million in its fiscal second quarter of 2012, a large boost compared to its US$141 million losses in the same fiscal quarter of 2011.Asustek ROG MARS II graphics cardPhoto: Company

As one of the core cities around the Yangtze River Delta in Chinese mainland, Hangzhou characterized itself with an open economy development mode. During the period of the Eleventh Five-year Plan, 82 enterprises out of the world's fortune 500 were attracted to invest in 130 projects in Hangzhou, the total investment reached 4.345 billion US dollars. Ranked first in Zhejiang province and third in Yangtze River Delta in the field of using foreign capital, Hangzhou made itself an investment paradise for trans-national enterprises and international research and development organizations. What's more, there are 23 enterprises of mainland top 500 and 72 private enterprises of mainland private-owned top 500 setting their headquarters in Hangzhou.With the start-up of Chinese mainland's Twelfth Five-year Plan in 2011, speeding up economy development mode shifting, pushing industry transformation upgrade, leading by science and technology, and promoting the green energy-saving industry development as the principal axis in mainland's economy development, Hangzhou is constructing a modern industry system and building a creative city industry, continuously increasing structure adjustment, and gradually sets some industries like electronic information, new energy, biological medical treatment, and financial service as the main impetus.Promote electronic information industry that represented by IOTWe've witnessed a rapid development age for electronic information industry in the past three decades, with mature technology and customer's demand structure change, as well as internet's fast development, a new situation and pattern has appeared in electronic information industry's development. During the post-financial crisis period, international type factories put forward a lot of new type application concepts in order to stimulate another consumption demand wave, among them the cloud computing and IOT get the most attention. However in the Twelfth Five-year Plan, electronic information industry is still the key point, cloud computing and IOT are the most important, much resource is leading to this part, hoping to grab a niche for itself.Accommodates to the above mentioned trend, Hangzhou also reaches rapid development in information technology industry recently, it possesses an important position in this field at home with 192.8 billion RMB takings in 2010 and 36% annual growth rate. Among them IOT, cloud computing, e-commerce, software and information service etc. are all important parts of Hangzhou's electronic information industry.The production value from IOT was about 30 billion RMB in 2010, accounting around 15% of mainland's IOTs' production value. By the end of 2010, Hangzhou had congregated more than 100 IOT enterprises, formed a complete industry chain, including upstream chip design research and development, middle reaches of sensor/terminal unit manufacture, system solution and conformity, and downriver application of IOT and operation service, it is expected that the production value can reach 50 billion RMB and 100 billion RMB separately in 2012 and 2013.To the extent of e-commerce area, Hangzhou is the only metropolis of China's e-commerce in mainland. By the end of 2010, Hangzhou owned 1300 B2B and B2C e-commerce websites, accounting more than 1/5 share in the nation. Alibaba and Taobao are the biggest B2B and B2C website separately in the terms of turnover in China. In 2010 the service income of Hangzhou's e-commerce enterprises reached 11 billion RMB, accounting about 55% of total mainland's industry income.Drive the new energy industry with low carbon city constructionSince entering the new century, the high frequency of extremely bad weather and high-degree geologic destroy threaten human beings with increasingly serious natural problem, and also make people more and more realize the importance of using technological means to carry out energy saving and exhaust reduction, sustain to advance low carbon green. Furthermore, clear targets for China to control the emission of greenhouse gases were set at Copenhagen Conference on Nov. 25th 2009, which included a 40-45% drop of CO2 emission per unit of GDP by 2020 than in 2005, it is not only a responsible behavior to global environment, but also a manifestation for great change in mainland's economy development thoughts in the near future, we hope to make better efforts to save energy and reduce exhaust so as to develop green economy. The Twelfth Five-year Plan also has an entire layout for some new energy industry such as nuclear, wind, solar, and new energy car.In order to boost economy's sustainable development, Hangzhou continuously adjusts industry structure and reinforces to build a low carbon city, and energetically encourages energy-saving environment protection industry's development, stresses on developing new rising industries like PV, wind and electric equipment production, new energy car, new-type battery, high-effect and energy-saving equipment manufacture, energy-saving lighting products. Now the energy-saving environment protection industry has begun to take shape in Hangzhou, the total production value reached 79.2 billion RMB in 2010, accounting 13.3% of this year's GDP. In the field of new energy car, Hangzhou is one of the 13 trial cities for carrying out the popularization of saving energy and new energy car demonstration, and one of the 5 trial cities of subsiding private new energy car buyers. To the end of March 2011, there were 23 new energy car enterprises been developed, and it is expected that electronic-power car owners will exceed 20 thousand by the year of 2012 in Hangzhou.Promote biomedical industry based on Industrial clusterWith economic development and social structure change, human's life also start to have tremendous changes, from pure satisfaction for material life to stress on the improvement of life quality; meanwhile, as the demographic structure has entered to an aging society, we can conclude from the above trends that the importance of biology and medical industry is increasing day by day, along with the electronic information and new energy industry, they will become important parts of the new rising industry in the future.Hangzhou has a lot of advantages in developing biomedical industry. Here owns Zhejiang province's main technology resource in biological area. And among 30 biological related colleges in Zhejiang province, 17 are located in Hangzhou, and there are 14 state and ministry level key labs of biology. It gives birth to a batch of mainland's leading backbone enterprises successively such as Jiuyuan gene, Tianyuan biology, Pukang biology, Aikang biology, Aoya biology, Zhongtai biology, those products involve many modern biological areas like gene medicine, bacterin, diagnosis reagent, technical level met world's top standard.As a result, Hangzhou lists the biomedical as one of the key development during the Twelfth Five-year Plan period, and puts forward many measures in terms of matching the investment with environment in order to attract investment from international factories, it certainly will lead flourish development in subsequent related industry chain. At present Hangzhou has formed many industry clusters like modern Chinese traditional medicine, biological technology, biomedicine and bio-agriculture, there are more than 50 enterprises locate in "new medicine harbor" industry park of Hangzhou economy and technology development zone. The total production value of Biomedicine reached 28 billion in 2010, now an industry structure is formed with bio-pharmacy as precursor, chemical pharmacy as foundation and modern Chinese traditional medicine as key point.Blend with Yangtze River Delta and advance financial industryFinancial service is a pusher and an engine for various industrial developments, when developing electronic information, new energy and bio-medicine etc., it depends on financial industry's full support. For the recent years, Hangzhou also committed to advancing financial industry's rapid development, and made efforts to develop into a southern financial center of Yangtze River Delta under the Shanghai international financial system, by depending on Hangzhou, serving Zhejiang, connecting Shanghai and influence periphery.Hangzhou's financial industry mainly includes bank, insurance, negotiable securities, futures and other financial service, such as trust, asset management, finance lease, financing service, assurance and mortgage etc. By the end of 2010, Hangzhou have 275 financial organs, increased 33 compared to last year, mainly including 42 above province level banks, 8 country credit unions, 63 above province level insurance institutions, 3 stockjobber headquarters, 116 stock sales departments.Hangzhou financial industry's annual production value increased into 60.51 billion RMB, with the annual growth rate 13.9%, financial industry production value increase accounting 10.2% of the city region's total production value. In terms of financial strength it ranked the fifth among mainland's cities, and the second among province's cities. According to Financial Entironment Evaluation in China released by finance research institute of Chinese Academy of Social Science in 2008 and 2009, Hangzhou ranked as first in two running year in terms of middle and big size cities' financial entironment evaluation.

Arteris Inc., the inventor and leading supplier of network-on-chip (NoC) interconnect IP solutions, recently announced that the Chip to Chip Link (also known as C2C) product jointly developed by Texas Instruments, Inc., and Arteris has been licensed by 10 system on chip vendors serving the mobile and wireless application processor and modem markets.C2C is the first instance of an industry standard allowing shared memory between two chips, such as a mobile phone applications processor and a mobile phone modem. The 100ns round-trip latency of the C2C connection is fast enough for the modem to share the application processor's RAM and to maintain enough read throughput and low latency for cache refills. This enables the phone manufacturer to remove the modem's dedicated RAM chip from the phone's bill of materials (BOM), saving a minimum $2 in cost per phone.In addition to the $2 cost savings for a single LPDDR2 RAM, removing a RAM saves up to 115 square millimeters of printed circuit board (PCB) space and reduces mobile phone system complexity."C2C is an optimal solution for low latency mobile phone modem connection to applications processors because it allows us to fully reuse the same DDR pads that are available for connecting the standard dedicated modem RAM," said Stefan Wolff, Division Vice President and General Manager Smart Phones and RF at Intel Mobile Communications GmbH (IMC). "Using the Chip to Chip Link allows IMC modems to connect to a wide selection of mobile phone application processors from multiple vendors, allowing our customers to choose the best products for their needs whilst saving cost and footprint without compromising performance.""TI believes that split architecture provides the industry's most optimal environment for innovation. We worked with Arteris on C2C and pushed its evolution in the MIPI Alliance to help our customers turn split architecture into something advantageous regarding modem connection. In the end, OEMs and ecosystem partners alike benefit from the growth of a cost-effective thin modem market and the opportunity to combine those modems with the best-in-class OMAP applications processor," said Remi El-Ouazzane, Vice President and General Manager, OMAP Platform Business Unit, TI.In addition to Intel and Texas Instruments, other publicly announced C2C licensees include Samsung, LG, ST–Ericsson, HiSilicon Technologies, and VIA Telecom."Although licensees initially consider C2C for mobile phone DRAM memory sharing, we are seeing new use models such as coprocessor connectivity to quickly meet market windows for new standards like LTE," said K. Charles Janac, President and CEO of Arteris. "The low cost, low gate count, low latency, and low power of C2C make it ideal for a multitude of chip-to-chip connectivity use cases."

Electronic components distributor Digi-Key Corporation and Everlight Electronics Co. Ltd. have inked a global distribution agreement. Everlight Electronics manufactures through-hole and surface mounted LEDs, optical sensors and infrared components, and state-of-the-art lighting fixtures and digital LED displays."With this agreement, Digi-Key has recognized our customer's strong demand for Everlight products," said Mark Zack, vice president, semiconductors, Digi-Key Corporation. "By offering Everlight's top quality LED and lighting solutions, we are able to meet the design and supply chain needs of the engineering and purchasing communities.""Our customers expect worldwide availability and support for our products. We are convinced that Digi-Key is a strong partner for the broadening of our sales channels. Digi-Key's position as a premier online catalog and e-commerce distributor allows both Everlight and Digi-Key the opportunity to serve an expanding global customer base. Digi-Key's ability to quickly deliver Everlight products to design engineers around the world supports our commitment to meet the design needs of a diverse customer base through an extremely easy-to-use and flexible channel," said Bernd Kammerer, general manager of sales and marketing, Everlight Electronics.Everlight's lighting solutions are available for purchase now on Digi-Key's global websites (http://www.digikey.com/us/en/International/global.html)As the leading integrated Internet-based distributor, information about and inventory of millions of products is accessible to customers around the globe, with all products shipped from Digi-Key's single, North American location. The company's integrated business model provides product and support information online to help put engineers and procurement professionals in control as they solve tough product development challenges.

To fulfill strong demand in the IT market for the latest portable electronics devices, Taiwan-based inductor maker Chilisin Electronics has developed inductor products that are capable of handling high current flow, while featuring characteristics such as compact size, low power profile and low RDC. Products include its 0201 multilayer inductor, 0201 thin-film inductor and 0302 wire wound chip inductor for RF applications; 0805 multilayer power inductor and low profile molding choke (3 x 3 x 1.2mm) for D-to-D power management applications.With Chilisin possessing technical expertise in areas such as Design in and Formulation, the company is capable of quickly reacting to market demand and supplying a series of related product and service to its clients. For example, although Chilisin only started investing in its low profile molding choke business in 2010, the company has already developed a full series of specifications for its product line, ranging from 6.6 x 7.3 x 1.8mm to 3 x 3 x 1.2mm for use in portable electronics devices.Already thin, but needs to be thinnerWith the IT market trend being end products becoming thinner and lighter, as well as modular, Chilisin has not only been focusing on miniaturizing its inductor products, but also focusing on the R&D to enhance precision and reduce power consumption of inductor products, such as the 0805 multilayer power inductor, ultra low DCR wire wound power inductor and thin-film technology-based 0201 ceramic RF chip inductor.Demand for thinner and lighter inductor products can be seen in Chilisin's sales results. The company's sales of 0402 multilayer inductors have increased close to 40% growth compared to the first half of 2010. So, in addition to becoming more aggressive in making its inductor products thinner and lighter, Chilisin also started cooperating with power module makers and is set to launch inductor-integrated power ICs to supply to end-use electronics device players.Chilisin's multilayer power inductor products have better performance in conversion efficiency than Japan-based M-company, T-company and H-company.Source: ChilisinComprehensive product rangeOne of the major reasons that Chilisin has been recognized in the IT market and has become a first-tier inductor maker is because of its comprehensive product range. Chilisin's RF, power and EMI solutions can all be adjusted to perfectly match the requirements of different electronics device applications, while the company is also capable of fulfilling its clients' specific demands, such as miniaturization of inductor products, says the company.After evaluating Chilisin competitors' product lines, it becomes clear why the completeness of Chilisin's inductor product lines is allowing the company to compete at the same level against other first-tier players, while providing even more complete product lineups than competitors. The company's molding power choke and multilayer power inductor businesses, which just started 1-2 years ago, already has an absolute advantage against some first-tier players.Comparison of inductor players' product linesSource: Chilisin"Our strategy is to allow our clients to be able to purchase all inductor products and services needed directly from us, a one-stop-shopping service, and in the future we will treat this business model as a foundation that can be expanded through offering even more new services that match the trends in the IT market," noted the company, while adding that "Chilisin's complete product lines also enable the company to provide clients with the related services needed to support total solutions."Full serviceReplying to client queries within 24 hours and having strong synergy between its R&D and FAE teams ensure the quality of Chilisin's client services. Moreover, maintaining its competitiveness over price and developments of new product will continue through Chilisin's capability of producing key components such as ferrite powder and ferrite cores, as well as the company's high yield rate and stable product quality brought on by its fully automated production lines.Chilisin pointed out that the company is operating its business with a strategy of "Follow The Trend, Go With The Winners" in the market. Therefore, in addition to developing its inductor products to meet demands of the latest market trends for electronics devices, the company can maintain its flexibility and supply leading players with the best-suited products.