As countries continue to lift lockdowns, people's lives and business activities will soon recover while the world enters an era of coexistence with the virus, or so-called the "New Normal." DataVan (3521.TWO) adopted it as the theme at COMPUTEX this year to showcase a series of smart retail solutions aimed at supporting retail businesses to rapidly adapt to post-pandemic consumer behaviors and grasp market opportunities.Kris Hsu, General Manager of DataVan, stated that countries across the world have recently begun to ease restrictions and consumers are returning to physical markets. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed consumer behavior to preferring minimal contact to reduce the risk of infection; additionally, the pandemic has fostered the habit of ordering food online through smartphones and computers. These two major changes should be reflected in the evolution of retail devices and platforms. DataVan has responded to this trend by offering POS and KIOSK terminals that better meet consumer habits in the new normal.The next generation KIOSK "Mars" has been empowered by DataVan with even greater functionality that allows for self-ordering in restaurants and smartphone reservations to reduce consumer waiting times; a built-in barcode reader can scan member's barcodes and match them with promotional events to increase the repurchase rate. Furthermore, its built-in camera and back-end AI image recognition system can also be used to accurately identify the customer's gender, age, and other information to collect big data as key references for ingredient preparation, menu design, and marketing strategies planning.Body temperature measurement and disinfection equipment are commonly deployed in the commerce space during the pandemic, however, DataVan's "DKS-2150 Digital Signage" provides a value-added solution for these products. The device successfully integrates body temperature measurement, hand disinfection, and digital signage. It is equipped advanced thermography technologies to offer higher accuracy and reaction speeds. Through the built-in camera with smart image recognition, DKS-2150 is capable of detecting whether people are wearing masks. In addition to functions such as layout planning, ad scheduling, and multimedia playback required in digital signage, DataVan has future plans to add touch features to the display to provide search functions similar to KIOSK; for example, consumers can utilize touch screens to quickly find products or locations in supermarkets or malls.In terms of DataVan's POS terminals, a comprehensive product line was presented including Tango, a unique flip-over display POS and the winner of Taiwan Excellence Award and iF Design Award. Tango has been adopted by premium beauty salons in western countries and placed at store entrances where customers can independently control to boost customer engagement. There's also "HiFive," the small and lightweight multifunctional Panel PC that can be used as a checkout POS, placed in front of stores as a queue management system, or used as a table side ordering system. Kris Hsu revealed that a major Taiwanese chain restaurant is preparing to implement HiFive as their kitchen display system (KDS) to increase operational efficiency. This case fully shows HiFive's strong advantage of agility to meet diverse applications.Aside from hardware, Kris Hsu also emphasized DataVan's results in software development. One of the key features at COMPUTEX was "DataVan Central", the Cloud IoT Management Platform," which utilizes the cloud to connect with multiple DataVan POS or KIOSK terminals. The administrator can also remotely monitor the device status and update software or firmware. If there is an issue with equipment, the platform can issue a real-time alarm, increasing device management and maintenance efficiency, and thus greatly reducing management costs for administrators.DataVan's several solutions for the "New Normal" at COMPUTEX coincidentally respond to the current expectations of Taiwanese. For example, there was science park operator who engaged in discussions during the exhibition to install KIOSK terminals in the park's cafeterias and shopping areas to reduce contact opportunities by offering online orders through smartphones. Kris Hsu stated that DataVan will always continue to develop solutions that meet the "New Normal" life, and help retail industry to satisfy customers, charging full speed ahead toward post-pandemic business opportunities!DataVan is a highlight at this year's COMPUTEX Taipei by showcasing several solutions under the theme of the "New Normal."

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of industrial-grade DRAM modules and NAND Flash products, today announces the industrial-grade ADATA 31C series 112-layer 3D NAND (BiCS5) solid state drives (SSD) utilizing the SATA III interface. They include the ISSS31C 2.5-inch, IM2S31C8 M.2 2280, and IM2S31C4 M.2 2242 SSDs. All three SSDs are designed to be energy efficient, feature high capacities, and are well suited for high-load industrial systems relating to industrial computing, embedded devices, automation, networking, transportation, and other fields.The industrial-grade ISSS31C 2.5-inch, IM2S31C8 M.2 2280, and IM2S31C4 M.2 2242 SSDs are all equipped with 112-layer 3D TLC (BiCS5) flash memory developed by WDC and KIOXIA and come with a maximum capacity of 2TB. They have undergone rigorous temperature verification and testing to ensure they can operate optimally in a wide range of temperatures (from -40 °C to 85 °C) to ensure excellent quality, reliability, and durability.All three SSDs also feature Thermal Throttling technology, which automatically adjusts the device's temperature, even within a fanless host device, to help improve the heat dissipation efficiency of the overall system. What's more, with Wear Leveling technology durability is enhanced for a longer product lifespan to meet the rigors of industrial systems, while a DRAM Buffer reduces latency and improves random read and write performance. For maximum data integrity and security, the SSDs sport an LDPC ECC (error correcting code) mechanism and End-to-End Data Path Protection technology.Wayne Lin, Manager of Industrial Product Management at ADATA commented: "Meeting the needs of our customers in different industries and providing high-quality storage solutions are the basis of ADATA industrial software and hardware integration technologies. Taking into account the multiple advantages of capacity, cost, and speed, the R&D team at ADATA introduced SLC Cache technology to improve the capabilities of high-capacity TLC memory. We also developed A+ SSDTOOL monitoring software to help users monitor the remaining capacity, service life, and other parameters in real-time. What's more, with intelligent temperature control technology, the host device can be notified of temperature changes to activate the protection mechanism. ADATA will continue to develop a variety of hardware and software integration technologies and incorporate them into our products to deliver industrial solutions with excellent functionality and value."For more product details, please visit ADATA Industrial's website:ISSS31C 2.5" SSD: https://industrial.adata.com/en/product/ISSS31CIM2S31C8 M.2 2280 SSD: https://industrial.adata.com/en/product/IM2S31C8IM2S31C4 M.2 2242 SSD: https://industrial.adata.com/en/product/IM2S31C4ADATA launches industrial-grade 31C series BiCS5 SSDs

With the deep integration of the new generation of information technology and manufacturing industry, and the digital transformation and upgrading, digitalization is currently intensively filling every link of production and manufacturing. Under this background, ZNT, the industrial automation integration platform solution supplier, continues to move forward to the industry's cutting-edge with a variety of cutting-edge Application Benchmark products. In this CEO interview, ZNT shared the development experience, opportunities and challenges of ZNT digital empowerment, as well as its vision and planning for the whole industry.Q: As an industry-leading supplier of equipment automation platform solutions for realizing Industry 4.0, ZNT has accumulated lots of practical experience and provides innovative software solutions for enabling smart manufacturing. Please share your company's recent development status.A: While providing solutions to the manufacturing industry since 1985, especially the recent years have meant a rapid acceleration for our business model in many ways. ZNT originally started with equipment automation solutions primarily for the semiconductor industry. To address Industry 4.0 demands, we expanded our key focus first into Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) over the last years and now even further with a horizontal product extension into the field of entire Manufacturing Operations Management solutions (MOM) providing Advanced Planning and Scheduling functionality (APS) as well as a vertical extension into the Product Lifecycle Management space (PLM).In the beginning we specifically targeted semiconductor companies still operating disconnected manufacturing system environments and helped them into a smarter world, with first steps for data integration and equipment automation to reduce manual and paper-based work in the manufacturing process and later on with introducing smart manufacturing solutions. Meanwhile many other industries have been facing the same manufacturing challenges and we have expanded in industries such as high-tech electronics, medical device and newly also batteries.With this expansion in our product portfolio and target industries ZNT has been continuously growing and now operates eight global sites, four of them in Asia with the newest ones in Shanghai and Taiwan. This enables us to support global accounts with their digital transformation and execute more and more multi-site cross regional factory rollouts based on our grown portfolio and manpower.Q: ZNT has been focusing on the field of semiconductors and high-tech electronics and is committed to helping customers solve production pain points and enhance the real value of production. Please explain ZNT's achievements in such industries as well as the value ZNT can provide for production optimization based on its industry experience.A: ZNT definitely had a strong influence on software development for equipment automation in the semiconductor industry in the last 40 years and provides with the Process Automation Controller (PAC) product one of the leading integration platforms today. Our PAC helped many enterprises to optimize their production processes with data integration, equipment automation and an overall more effective use of their manufacturing resources.We haven't only cooperated closely with many well-known semiconductor manufacturers in the world for many years, but assisted enterprises in their industrial transformation and reaching the next level of production. In cooperation with a well-known semiconductor packaging company ZNT helped such company to establish a comprehensive and transparent smart manufacturing platform based on Siemens Opcenter Execution MES and our PAC. With such systems in place, the customer heavily increased the speed for new product introductions (NPI) as well as improved quality and cost control.In the high-tech electronics space we helped another customer connecting his manufacturing silos and disconnected systems by implementing an end-to-end solution starting from design over engineering to manufacturing. In this case we implemented the Valor solution which is also part of the Siemens Digital Software portfolio resulting in making Customer's NPI much easier and optimizing manufacturing processes with several SMT-lines increasing the overall equipment efficiency (OEE). These are good examples of providing future-proofen solution platforms enabling customers to setup and follow strategic digitalization initiatives to transform and adapt their business to reach the next level.Q: Which opportunities and challenges do you think domestic manufacturers are encountering? How can they increase the grade of industrial automation and accelerate the transformation to smart manufacturing for enhancing their competitive advantages?A: At present, the global economy is experiencing unprecedented challenges, also still under the impact of the epidemic. The manufacturing industry is essential for China's national economy. In order to promote the rapid development of the national economy, the government has issued many preferential policies to strongly support the digital transformation and further growth of the manufacturing industry. At the same time market demands increase faster than ever before; Robust supply chains have been taken for granted and now seem to become more and more fragile. Recruiting talented workers is getting more difficult while labor costs increase. Many manufacturers face a major challenge to keep pace with these trends and market development.As a result many domestic Manufacturers have to speed up their NPI and at the same time have to meet higher quality and zero defect requirements as well as traceability demands, especially in regulated industries like Medical Devices, Automotive or Aerospace. In addition, more and more enterprises in the supply chain require manufacturing audits which can hardly be passed with a traditional paper-based production or disconnected manufacturing systems. At the same time these challenges offer great opportunities for domestic Manufacturers to start embracing the process of digitalization and automation in order to to accelerate transformation and to reach the next level of manufaturing.An efficient short-term solution is to implement an MES to eliminate the paper-based documentation. This immediately helps to reduce scrap while increasing manufacturing efficiency and cost control. Although a MES is a solid base companies have to continue their investments to fully integrate all their manufacturing systems and data.Nevertheless, our experience clearly shows that in order to sustain in the future companies have to look at a wholistic digitalization strategy to achieve an entire digital thread. It is most effective to select a provider which offers an integrated manufacturing solution portfolio that matches such strategy. A future-proofen software environment for supporting smart design and manufacturing has at least to consist of products in the field of PLM, simulation, MOM including equipment automaton, quality and analytics that are fully integrated to each other. Such solution scope will be the base for further transformation and enable companies to keep up with any market demands. The implementation does not have to be done all at once but can be done step by step always keeping the overall goal in mind.Q: The epidemic has swept around the world, and due to the lack of chips a solid semiconductor supply chain has become a big challenge for many industries, especially for automotive. What learnings and opportunities do you think the epidemic has brought to enterprise transformation?A: Manufacturers were used to rely on robust global supply chains with transport capacities and parts being always available. Skilled workforce was on hand as were new equipment and spare parts for maintenance. They started to optimize their purchase for example by ordering high volume parts from only a single source or like the automotive industry with just-in-time deliveries to the production lines to meet growing market demands and increasing cost pressure. With the epidemic spreading around the world most supply chains have been disrupted which led to shortages especially in the field of semiconductor and electronic components. Especially the automotive industry being in the midst of a transformation process to develop and produce more electric cars has been severely hit with its optimized supply chain and purchasing processes.We have been observing several learnings in the manufacturing industry over the last two and a half years and many companies also seized new opportunities. For us the epidemic meant a strong demand for our solution portfolio in the field of digitalization, smart manufacturing and automation. Talking about specific solutions we supported our customers by adding functionality and value to their solutions. For example the product BOM-Connector as a part of our electronics offering helps purchasing departments to get more accurate quotes for electronic components much quicker and therefore consolidating the current fragile supply chain. By using Opcenter APS functions of our MOM solution production managers can balance demand and capacity to generate achievable production schedules. They regain some flexibility and can produce more while using existing assets. With our long-term MES expertise we helped many customers for example to reduce their scrap and increase quality leading to a better OEE.Especially in the semiconductor and electronics market it became obvious that enterprises with a higher level of automation overcame the epidemic much better. Also the demand for our PAC equipment integration platform has been growing significantly based on the very good experiences of our solid installation base at many leading enterprises in the semiconductor market. PAC bridges the gap between MES and shopfloor providing and executing relevant data in both directions. Advanced automation scenarios imply less dependency on the workforce while achieving a high level of automated manufacturing operations.Q: As 5G accelerates the Internet of Everything, digital transformation has become a development axis that companies in the Chinese market focus on. From your observation and practical experience, what does "digital transformation" mean to you and the industry?A: For us the goal of digital transformation processes is to achieve the entire digital twin from design to production. Today it's possible to plan the entire manufacturing process in a fully virtual environment. From designing the layout to visualizing material flows and possible bottlenecks on to simulating the PLC code for the automation hardware. This helps to test and optimize new production lines in order to reduce time, effort, and risk for the real commissioning.We already talked about fully integrated systems and the digital thread which allows manufacturing companies to implement closed loop manufacturing from PLM to the shopfloor. Digitalization for us also means to achieve a deeper integration of the shopfloor. While many enterprises have started to collect data from the shopfloor as a first step we have been implementing basic and advanced automation solutions with PAC which provide a much higher level of equipment control.Being early involved in digitalization standardization initiatives like Industry 4.0 we always had a look at the big picture instead of focusing on particular solutions. To our experience this is most important to us as a solution provider and the industry. Today you need an overall digital transformation strategy. You need to involve cross-functional teams and experts including engineering and production specialists. As a solution provider we internally encouraged and empowered our teams to increase their collaboration and share their knowledge allowing us to discuss overall strategies with customers and prospects.For the industry it's even more difficult. Although they are aware of the need for digital transformation it's much more difficult to define strategies and to transform while maintaining their actual production capabilities during an economic crisis. There is always a liability to look for quick wins but there should be a clear focus on a mid-term digitalization roadmap. This means to determine a precise status of your manufacturing systems and resources. The goal of a digital thread can only be achieved if companies gradually replace outdated and disconnected systems. Second they also need to look at their workforce to hire or qualify skilled resources.Q: China has released its "Made in China 2025" policy, and the domestic manufacturing industry is in urgent need of accelerating its digital transformation. As a solution provider for smart manufacturing, how can you help domestic manufacturers to actively transform? Please share your recent local success stories.A: While operating sites in Asia for more than 20 years and with an own site in Shanghai opened in 2019 we have the experience as well as the manpower to support the domestic manufacturing industry with accelerating its digital transformation. Looking at 40 years of ZNT's history, most of our projects in high-tech industries have always been about digitalization. ZNT has a very experienced implementation and development team offering a flexible and professional solution approach resulting in a high customer satisfaction.Under our worldwide partnerships with Siemens Industry Software including a technology and service partnership we leverage the global experience for the China market which brings significant advantages to our trusted customers whom we are cooperating with long-term. Our teams and Siemens can tap on mutual resources for delivering successful projects in our target industries.As such, in China's emerging semiconductor market, a number of semiconductor manufacturing companies including well-known companies e.g. in Shaoxing, Yangzhou and Qingdao, are benefiting already from our industry experience and trustful cooperation. Another example is a world-leading high-tech glass and ceramics manufacturing group, with whom we entered into a strategic cooperation not long ago and thereby also helped such customer to move forward in his digitalization strategy by implementing the Siemens and ZNT products.Thus, our team feels ready and is very motivated to continue supporting the domestic manufacturing industry in its urgent need of accelerating its digital transformation.ZNT CEO Bernhard MarsonerAaron Chou, ZNT's general manager of Greater China

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) announced today that the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) has approved its emissions reduction targets, making the Company the first semiconductor foundry globally to obtain SBTi validation of climate goals. This marks a critical step in UMC's roadmap to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.SC Chien, Co-President and Chief Sustainability Officer of UMC, said: "In 2021, we became the first semiconductor foundry to pledge net zero, while also gaining membership to RE100. SBTi's approval is a confirmation of our intended pathway to achieve net zero while also ensuring our reduction targets are in line with what the latest climate science says is needed to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. UMC's efforts to combat global warming started more than two decades ago, and we have achieved progressive goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions over the years. We will continue to drive further reductions at our operations as well as work with partners to address value chain emissions as we strive towards our scientifically verified targets."With 2020 as the base year, UMC targets 25% reduction in direct greenhouse gas emissions (Scope 1) and indirect emissions from electricity consumption (Scope 2) by 2030. The Company also aims to lower emissions from its value chain (Scope 3) by 12.3% in the same period. These targets are confirmed by the SBTi. UMC was able to complete the validation process in less than six months, demonstrating the Company's solid foundation in and management of greenhouse gas inventory, as well as the determination to honor its climate pledge.The SBTi is a partnership between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. It defines and promotes best practice in science-based target setting and independently assesses companies' targets. UMC is among the 1,400-plus companies and institutions that have had their science-based targets validated.To minimize emissions associated with both wafer manufacturing and usage of end products, UMC will continue to invest in advanced foundry technologies, and seek ways to boost energy and resource efficiency. As a RE100 member, the Company is actively pursuing its 2030 goal of increasing renewables to 30% of total energy consumption, which will contribute to reductions in Scope 2 emissions. In addition, UMC is engaging with partners in order to reduce upstream and downstream emissions to achieve a low-carbon value chain.

Digi-Key Electronics, which offers the world's largest selection of electronic components in stock for immediate shipment, announced that it has hired Mike Slater as its new vice president of global business development. In his new role, Slater will oversee the company's worldwide customer and supplier development strategy.Slater comes to Digi-Key with more than 25 years of sales, management and business experience. Prior to joining Digi-Key, he served as the president of E-Switch Inc., where he was responsible for the company's global sales across North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Slater also previously served as a general manager at Arrow Electronics, where he built, managed and developed effective sales teams."We are excited to have Mike join Digi-Key's collaborative team culture and share his leadership and expertise in the electronic components market," said Dave Doherty, president of Digi-Key. "Mike's deep background in sales strategy and management aligns with our strategic growth initiatives as we continue to expand our markets around the globe and redefine what it means to be a high service distributor."For more information, or to learn more about careers at Digi-Key, please visit Digi-Key's career page.Mike Slater has joined Digi-Key as its new vice president of global business development

As Industrial 4.0 and smart manufacturing emerge, the integration of virtuality and reality has become the mainstream. This trend has subsequently brought changes to the landscape of industrial products, from concept design, product design, mold design to manufacturing and production. The process entails CAD models all the way down to different simulations at every stage. Because of its expansive influence, the technology of molding analysis has been employed for more than 30 years and now is highly acclaimed. The application involves commonly seen injection molding, rapidly extending to advanced manufacturing fields, namely smart manufacturing and semiconductor package analysis.David Hsu, Chairman of CoreTech System, demonstrated that Microsoft Azure offers strong cybersecurity, and lists high-performance computing (HPC) as a critical development strategy, aside from a major upgrade for computing facilities under the hood. Meanwhile, Microsoft also launched a hybrid cloud model for the first time that allows customers to control their own data. Microsoft Azure introduced scalability as required for high performance computing, so customers enjoy high performance computing and asset-light benefits.More and more manufacturers are in urgent need of molding analysis software to swiftly develop molds, digital twins of products, or even digital twins of materials and machines with a view to enhancing the efficiency and quality of product development. In light of this, CoreTech System, who has gained high reputation with its Moldex3D software, decided to proceed with various value-added services, such as "Azure Connect", "Moldex3D Plastics E-Learning (MPE)", and "Material Hub Cloud (MHC)" which are built upon Microsoft Azure's cloud platform. The goal is to reduce the threshold for users to harness the techniques of molding analysis, while leveraging simulation-driven AI as means of rapidly reinforcing the capacity of smart design and smart manufacturing.Founded in 1995, CoreTech System helped the plastic industry accelerate product development and decrease the development cost of products and molds at early stages. By laying the foundation on computer-aided engineering (CAE) techniques, CoreTech System initiated Moldex3D, provoking favorable responses as the first of its kind in the global market, which makes 3D molding analysis software real and useful. The number of Moldex3D users is growing and has reached 5,000 customers as of now.David Hsu, Chairman of CoreTech System, expressed that for over 20 years of Moldex3D applications, their annual revenue maintains robust growth of 10% to 15%. There is no sign of the technology being mature or at a standstill, and this indicates continuously thriving market demands. Plastic and metal are top two industrial materials. Especially when there are more than 100 thousand types of plastic materials with distinct properties, the timeline of product development is easily delayed because it could be significantly difficult in design, processing, and size matching. Therefore, it is essential that users carry out simulation of product and mold design with the help of the molding analysis software to shorten the product development cycle. From this perspective, the fundamentals of Moldex3D are indeed solid.Three features of CoreTech System's MHC include viewing material master data, sourcing alternative materials, and recommending materials for products. David Hsu, Chairman of CoreTech System, pointed out that MHC can be beneficial for molding analysis, but much potential for product design and processing applications.It is worth mentioning that recent years have seen Moldex3D leap outside of the conventional scope. Instead, it blazed a way in the new business opportunity of semiconductor package analysis, turning into the molding analysis software that takes up the highest market share in the package area. Furthermore, the product is not just used for smart design which it is most powerful for, but extensively to smart manufacturing application. Accordingly, it is a right fit for simulation of flow, warpage as well as material properties and characteristics of machines. Customers are in perfect hands to address processing conditions during manufacturing and production.As the customer demographics and services have become diverse, the customers' expectations that CoreTech System strives to meet have been broadened. This serves as a driving force to steer away from standalone sales of Moldex3D software. In recent years, CoreTech System successively launched several innovative cloud services, including MPE (Moldex3D Plastics E-Learning) e-learning platform and MHC(Material Hub Cloud) as a database of the properties of processed plastic materials. What's more, Azure Connect solution is also made available for customers to access cloud resources and run Moldex3D for they are enabled to control data on their own. There new offerings are well structured with great values and future trends, all based on Microsoft Azure's platform.MHC as an incredible aid in accelerating product developmentDavid Hsu suggested that it is customers' demands that motivated CoreTech System to roll out the above products. Take MHC for example. One of the biggest obstacles that customers face lies in the fact that the properties of polymeric materials are non-linear and do not have a fixed parameter for reference. That is why they easily deteriorate as temperature changes or when processed. It is extremely hard to control them. Besides, the popularity of ESG stimulated a wave of plastic recycling. This has led to degradation and broken bonds in polymer within plastic materials, which would affect the stability of molding and make the problem thornier. Considering the issue, CoreTech System spent NT$ 60 million to invest in a material laboratory. On one hand, they can compile the physical properties provided by material suppliers. On the other hand, through constantly measuring and accumulating a substantial amount of data, the company helps customers quickly recognize the characteristics of each material curve. In this way, they are able to identify the most suitable materials, accelerate product development, and avoid high cost.As of now, the CoreTech material lab has already established more than 8,000 sets of physical property data of materials, and the list is going on. Usually CoreTech System would provide customers with this kind of data as they purchase Moldex3D. However, CoreTech System noticed that demands for this kind of big data of materials are not limited to molding analysis, but reach out to product design. Thus, this year (2022), the company marketed MHC service on the basis of Microsoft Azure so that existing Moldex3D customers, plastic designers, or plastic processors may subscribe to obtain more sophisticated information for design."The benefits that MHC brings to customers are in fact beyond our imagination," said David Hsu. For instance, "sourcing alternative materials," one of MHC's capabilities, is devised to select materials with similar properties for further analysis in the absence of the materials that customers desire. With that in mind, many customers draw inferences from the idea, and make use of the system to find similar materials to reduce cost or resolve the crisis of supply chain disruption.The concept of MPE derives from the experience 4-5 years ago. CoreTech System formulated a training program for customers on a 1-1 basis, but provided that the cost was relatively high, the service has been shifted online and remotely with the launch of Moldex3D University. The industry is undergoing a wave of retirement of senior masters, and this has forced newcomers to shoulder heavy burden when they still lack sufficient experience. Hence, there is a pressing need to count on Moldex3D University and develop knowledge and techniques for molding as soon as possible.Moving forward, CoreTech System is determined to enhancing the functionality of Moldex3D University to live up to customers' expectations. They look to incorporate more design courses related to materials, machines or processes than just Moldex3D into the new form of MPE service platform.CoreTech System, who has gained high reputation with its Moldex3D software, decided to proceed with various value-added services, such as "Azure Connect", MPE e-learning platform, and Material Hub Cloud (MHC), which are built upon Microsoft Azure cloud platform. The goal is to reduce the threshold for users to harness the techniques of molding analysis, while rapidly reinforcing the capacity of smart design and smart manufacturing.Azure Connect implemented to lower the threshold of simulation computingSpeaking of Moldex3D's cloud transition, David Hsu frankly shared that it occurred to him 10 years ago, but it did not work well with promotion as expected. Whether it is Moldex3D or other CAE software, the cloud journey was rugged. Customers not willing to upload the confidential information of their product design was the most challenging part.It was not until a few years ago that CoreTech System had seen a big turning point. That is to say, Microsoft Azure boasts the most complete cybersecurity and audit certification. The most thorough end-to-end security, covering from identity, encryption, network, SIEM to governance & monitoring across industries and regions, is now within reach for customers in a zero-trust structure. In addition, to play out a large number of CAE use scenarios in simulation, Azure HPC put forth the most cost-effective solution from computing and storage to network powered by the most advanced, optimized technologies. In particular, Microsoft Azure has global presence across more than 66 regions where they can respond to the market needs, fast and properly, from over 5,000 customers of CoreTech System around the world. In the meantime, Microsoft Azure's portfolio, from Azure Marketplace, pre-sales and post-sales technical support to go-to-market planning, has been honed and could be helpful for ISVs to expand their touch worldwide.Milestones of Azure HPC & AI platform about the investment in high performance computing. In 2021, A100 cluster was among the top 10 supercomputers in the world.To tap into the trend, CoreTech System brought forth Azure Connect, committed to carving out a niche of "one-click deployment" for customers to easily construct an environment to execute Moldex3D on Microsoft Azure. David Hsu categorized it as the "first-generation Azure Connect" where customers are asked to "bring your own license" (BYOL). Azure Connect is flexible, dynamic, and scalable in case the computing resources are not adequate during operation. Users may scale up for more CPUs, memory, disks and additional features; they may also scale out to increase the number of VM instances, having multiple machines to massively run parallel computing; they may even scale down to zero and pull out necessary OS Images for future rapid deployment when no resource is requested. Microsoft Azure enables customers to control their own data by introducing scalability as required for high performance computing.Though the "first-generation Azure Connect" puts remarkable benefits in the front of customers, it is restricted by the unscalable number of software license. To overcome the limitation and truly apply the asset-light model to the access to hardware and software, CoreTech System embarked on developing the "second-generation Azure Connect" which sets a license manager for Moldex3D on Microsoft Azure. The company plans to propose a prototype in the middle of the year and formally launch the service in the fourth quarter. After that, Azure Connect users will automatically receive additional pay-as-you-go licenses from the system if they need more, for example, 5 or 10 extra, once filing a request.Microsoft Azure as a critical accelerator to fulfill three development goalsDavid Hsu stated that CoreTech System has three development goals to march toward the future. In the first place, based on smart manufacturing, they would take advantage of digital twin to embed simulation computing into customers' design/ manufacturing process, from which more application values are generated. Secondly, CoreTech System will put a lot of effort in the application of semiconductor and electric vehicles, and take the initiative to seek for collaboration with more customers. He further explained that as the era of advanced 3 nm or 2 nm process is approaching, and the challenge against Moore's Law nearly comes to an end, semiconductor manufacturers are turning to package technology to prompt process innovation. They no longer build skyscrapers but establish many communities before they are packaged. Nevertheless, each community carries different component assembly which varies strikingly in properties. Heterogeneous integration could make scenarios complicated and result in issues, such as heat, interference, and deformation. Consequently, Moldex3D is brought into play here to simulate first. The dependence on it will certainly soar. Under the complex semiconductor processes, the need for IT infrastructure in CAE will also exponentially climb up. Azure HPC will work out more optimal solution to the complicated scenarios in heterogeneous integration and IC innovative package.The third focus is to "train AI with simulation data." The level of difficulty is the highest, so it is not possible to expect results in five years' time. Why does CoreTech System attach great importance to this? Because unlike commercial AI application, people are looking for far more accurate industrial AI in analysis. Nonetheless, acquiring engineering data is costly. The lack of an adequate amount of training data delays the development. Accordingly, it is inevitable that simulation data, coupled with real data, will be utilized for training. The lineups of Microsoft Azure Data Services, namely Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Machine Learning, Azure Datalake, Azure Data Explorer, and Power BI, furnish customers with data analysis model and engine that are more flexible and on-demand. They will carry on the professional services in the realm of digital twin and AI, thriving together with CoreTech System.All in all, on CoreTech System's journey of pursuing the three goals, Microsoft Azure will play the role of critical accelerator to assist customers in producing a new form of synchronized, collaborative work flow. Moreover, the simulation capability of Moldex3D is incorporated into the flow. In this way, more participants can conduct optimized analysis very efficiently while stepping closer to the vision of smart manufacturing and IC package.Learn More*Probe into the solution to unlock your innovation through Azure's leading high-performance computing*[Free download of whitepaper] How Azure helps semiconductor industry grow and thrive*Explore and start your Azure journey

DEKRA and VicOne, a subsidiary dedicated to vehicle security established by a global cybersecurity leader Trend Micro Incorporated, announced their partnership in providing joint solutions for automotive suppliers to compliance with new international regulations and standards in vehicle security. With their technical know-how, knowledge and certification services, suppliers in the automotive supply chain who are eager to enter the industry of electric vehicles are in good hands so that they can implement and comply with international security standards more efficiently.Daniel Lee, General Manager of DEKRA Taiwan Product Testing Operations, stressed that as the technology of 5G and low-earth-orbit satellites have become mature, high-speed transmission and low latency have facilitated the rapid development of the applications of Internet of Vehicle. A growing number of smart in-vehicle auxiliary technologies and software has changed the landscape of automotive industry. Since the era of software-defined vehicles is approaching, industries in Taiwan are looking to bring their capabilities to the supply chain of smart vehicles and the Internet of Vehicle. Whether it is the design and hardware and software, deployment, or the production of associated parts and computers of the network, cybersecurity is inevitably a key challenge. Only when automotive players within the supply chain pay proactive attention to and intensify security-related regulations can the requirements from major international car brands be satisfied.Mr. Gerhard Rieger, Senior Vice President of DEKRA DIGITAL Global Functional Safety, said: "Global vehicle manufacturers are accelerating their digital transformation, and cyber security has also become a core requirement in the future automotive manufacturing and development process. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce internationally recognized standards and obtain certification to achieve a leading position in automotive cybersecurity." Kevin Huang, Manager of Global Functional Safety/ Cybersecurity, DEKRA Taiwan, in charge of this collaboration project, explained that ISO/SAE 21434 and UN ECE Regulation 155 have been regarded as the mainstream standards for automotive cybersecurity by European and American car manufacturers. However, suppliers are often uncertain about how they can incorporate these international regulations into their development process or meet the legal requirements for security in ISO 21434 and UN155. Therefore, VicOne comes into play, offering counseling and cybersecurity solutions to in-vehicle security. A one-stop integral solution has been devised, coupled with DEKRA's vehicle security certification services, to assist suppliers in implementing and complying with international security standards more efficiently, while lowering the cost of development and production."We've seen news of car companies experiencing cyberattacks to electric vehicles in recent years and it becomes the emerging challenge for the automotive industry." said Edward Tsai, Vice President of Strategic Partnership at VicOne. The new international automotive cybersecurity regulations has prompted global leading OEMs and suppliers to ensure the compliance as it acts as a vital factor to determine whether they are qualified to enter the market of electric vehicles. Edward said "Combining VicOne's expertise in automotive cybersecurity and DEKRA's abundant experiences in inspection and certification, makes us the best security partner of choice for automotive companies and suppliers"DEKRA is the most prominent motor vehicle inspection body in the world. It boasts the largest independent testing center in Europe for interconnection, intercommunication and autonomous driving. The scope of services covers the entire industry chain of the automotive industry, including testing and certification, certification of industry-related management systems, safety counselling, cybersecurity and functional safety. It built a global laboratory network that is driven by one-stop integrated solutions to either the most basic safety testing on materials, parts and components for cars or sophisticated testing and certification for electronic systems and cybersecurity. In addition, DEKRA also provides testing and international certification services for EMC, RF, 5G, DSRC, V2X, electricity safety, functional safety, and reliability verification.DEKRA collaborates with VicOne to create integrated services for vehicle cybersecurity certification

The rising demands of 5G smartphone, electrical vehicles and data centers drive semiconductor components rapid expansion. The industries increase the investments of advanced packaging technologies to response the trending multi-chip or multi-module packaging technologies. The IDMs, foundry and OSAT service providers increase the capital expenditure for development of wafer level packaging. Meanwhile, in the other hand, the PCB and panel makers are developing fan out panel level packaging (FOPLP) as a way to reduce the cost of advanced packaging. Therefore, on June 1st 2022, Manz AG hosts the "Advanced Packaging Technology Forum" in Sheraton Hsinchu Hotel. This forum explores process challenges of interconnect structure and further depicts the market trends of advanced packaging and multi-chip heterogeneous integration.Robert Lin, General Manager of Manz Asia, gives his opening lectures on this forum. He looks at the shortage of IC substrates and semiconductor components in automotive market globally. The solutions of FOPLP have gradually become a key area of focus of the industry in recent years. The heterogeneous integration is expecting to extend the Moore's Law for semiconductor industry. And the FOPLP is the prevailing technology in advanced package. Manz is incorporating with supply chain partners and material suppliers to make industry continuing its robust growth and having more prosperous together into the next decades.There are several welcome speeches by honored guests and co-host partners including Steven Lin, Taiwan Country Manager of NXP Taiwan, Miss Jo-Ann Su, Senior Director of SEMI and Mr. S. Y. Wang, Secretary General of TEEIA. The invited guests are highly regarding to Manz efforts to collaborate with supply chain partners and pioneer the development of FOPLP technologies.The optimistic semiconductor industry and national technological policy highlightsThe first lecture topic of Ray Yang, Consulting Director of ITRI/ISTI, he talks global market insights and Taiwan government funded scientific and technological development planning. Taiwan semiconductor industry have consecutive three years in double-digit growth since 2019. In 2022, the forecast of Taiwan semiconductor industry will generate the NT$ 4.3 trillion having 18% growth yearly. As counting the total production value of supply side vendors, Taiwan is sitting as the second place taking 20% market worldwide in semiconductor industry. America is number one again to take 39% global market share. Yang also shares the recent Samsung and Intel news for predicting the next move of the industry. He explains two major attractive technologies, which are advanced packaging and logic-memory-chip stacking technology.Additionally, talking about Taiwan government funded development planning, he highlights three major directions. The first, Angstan node process development, the second, GaN and SiC-based compound semiconductor chip development, and the third, AI on Chip or called edge AI development.Dr. M.H. Chan, R&D Manager of SPIL, shares with audience about the advanced packaging solutions to successfully integrate High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) chips. The solutions provide 2.5D, FO-EB, FOEB-T processes for 3D stacking IC, Embedded Bridge Die and Fan-out packaging technology. The current use cases for these solutions could support 1 GPU + 2 HMB dies or 1 GPU + 4 HMB dies in one packaging chip. The benefits for these processes include lower RC delay time, smaller dimension, shorten product development time, lower manufacturing cost and expanding the use of heterogeneous integration.The emerging opportunity of FOPLP applicationsDr. Eric Lee, Director of R&D at Manz, talks the topics focusing the business opportunity of FOPLP technology. He points out that FOPLP technology will be one of the emerging solutions for solving semiconductor chip shortage in the automotive industry. Apart from Foundry and OSAT service providers investing wafer level packaging technology by leveraging the higher end lithography tools and expensive equipment to lead the development roadmap, PCB and Panel makers takes different approaches to push FOPLP as the key driving force to solve the problems. Today, there are 95% investments coming to wafer level packaging market. But FOPLP will grasp the fast forwarding opportunity because high manufacturing capacity and cost advantage still becoming permanent competitive advantages.The current mainstream chips that use FOPLP for integration include AiP antenna modules of 5G smartphone, integrated chips of wearable devices and Internet of Things use cases. The current specification of line width and spacing (L/S) is ranging from 20/20 to 5/5 microns in FOPLP technologies. Due to the reality of high cost structure of higher end IC substrates and slower capacity ramping schedule, FOPLP technologies have strong potential for achieving the goals of miniaturized packaging and lowering costs while the yields rise. FOPLP will continuous gain in the market sectors of lower end SoC chips or middle end multi-chip heterogynous integration applications. The cost advantage of FOPLP will continue to drive the momentum to replace the lower or middle end market, although wafer level packaging increasing in adoption of high end sectors.Manz FOPLP production solutions are mainly focus on RDL (Re-Distribution Layer) technology. The wide area electroplating equipment produces fined line high density copper interconnection. The key technical challenges include uniformity of electroplating pattering, high resolution and high electrical connectivity. Therefore, the main focus of Manz total production solutions are Cu electroplating equipment and wet chemistry systems. Manz also integrates the process solutions form supply chain partners including sputtering and plasma cleaning systems. Furthermore, Manz provides the Total Fab Solutions from factory planning to production services. The current production design can be used for 600mm x 600mm surface areas. And in 2022, the production solution will extend to 700mm x 700mm areas. Besides the lower cost manufacturing and high performance, Manz has extensive experience in automation, material usage and environmental protection while simultaneously satisfying ESG objectives.Collaboration with supply chain partners to accelerate the adoption of FOPLPMr. P.C. Liu, Vice President of R&D at UVAT technology, talks the Ti-Cu seed layer in-line vacuum sputtering equipment in FOPLP production. The company provides the solutions to improve the production yields. The solutions implement dry etching and sputtering by plasma equipment to do the surface modification, roughening and cleaning to increase the stability of Ti-Cu seed layer formationDr. Tim Tsai, Customer account Technology Leader Taiwan of DuPont Taiwan, presents material development projects ranging from PCB to FOPLP industries. His main focus is material differentiation product strategy and process equipment vendors support. The material products are covering main categories including lamination, drilling, high performance dry films, which have better integration with Digital Imaging equipment and electroplating systems. One major thing, for better supporting FOPLP market, DuPont establishes integrated service site in Chungli factory including testing Laboratory, process development and simulation services. This massive investments will strongly support FOPLP supply chain partners to perceive better future for advanced packaging technology.Jack Huang, Vice President of E&R Engineering Co., gives his speech to introduce the laser drilling and plasma cleaning processes in WLCSP technologies. The company provides the drilling tiny holes in diameters down to 20 microns and further to 10 microns for proofing. The last session is on-line presentation by Miss Yik Yee Tan, senior Market Analyst of Yole Développement. The advanced packaging market is expected to grow from US$ 32 to 57 billion during 2021 to 2027. The CAPEX investments are mainly from Intel, Samsung, TSMC, ASE and several OSAT vendors including China top-3 back-end service providers. Among this emerging market and quick scaling development, the trends are toward to a prosperous development in coming years.Manz has been investing FOPLP RDL production equipment since 2016. The process verification and testing tasks are successfully applied in real-world applications with supporting key customers to prepare the sample devices. The roadmap is continuing to go to volume production and provide turnkey solutions in the future. Facing the diverse needs of the market, Manz will actively expand the reach of its Total Production Solutions to help customers in different fields construct high performance FOPLP production systems, seizing the opportunities with continuous innovation in advanced packaging applications.Robert Lin, General Manager of Manz Asia

The 5G industries are ramping up competition to drive innovation and diversify the global telecoms supply market. Surprisingly, in the fierce competition of recent years, Taiwan networking solution providers grab the benefits from market share gains, robust customer demand and a new wave of outsourcing from global telecoms. Revenue is expected to grow, supported by a price-friendly environment and a better product portfolio, wireless module makers play an important role behind the picture for driving the success of Taiwan networking supply chainsFounded in 1999, Fibocom is the first wireless modules provider listed in China Shenzhen Stock Exchange in 2017. The company invests the resources to provide series of wireless modules. The 5G product lines of the company have been applied in wide ranges of applications and received certificates of global telecoms. Another strength of Fibocom is the ability to control the cost to allow OEM/ODM customers to have a better chance to win the telecom bits. These cost advantages and power features have accelerated the market penetration rate of Taiwan networking equipment makers.Ronald Chan, General Manager of Taiwan IoT sales division, Fibocom, talks through this interview. Following its strong growth in the China market, Fibocom is aggressively expanding the business of mobile payment market. Especially in the category of Point of Sale systems, Fibocom takes a 45 to 50% worldwide market share.5G FWA CPE market success driving by cost and engineering effortsLeveraging the strong growth momentum of the Asia market, since 2014, Fibocom started to enter a strategic partnership and collaborate with Taiwan networking and telecommunication, notebooks and industrial PC industries. The product portfolio is ranging from various communication modules, as well as techniques related to industrial Internet of Things and M2M solutions. Chan points out, Fibocom provides one-stop services to build a tightly bound for mutual benefits by deeply investing in wireless technologies to maintain a long turn strength.Looking at the PC market, although consumer-grade notebooks have slower growth in 2022, there is still maintaining upbeat in the higher-end commercial notebook models. The entire PC market of Fibocom's business still enjoys a good result. Furthermore, through the collaboration of Intel and Mediatek targeting 5G Modem chips, there is a good future for notebook PC business outlooks. Fibocom has contributed the cost effective modules with excellent price performance ratios.Apart from the commercial notebook business, the international tenders and competitive bids of the global telecom market are another major sales growth engine of Fibocom. Talking about 5G FWA use cases for rural regions or countryside areas in North America, the end users pay fifty dollars to get a 5G CPE device to massively improve internet connection speed. To chase this opportunity, Taiwan networking solution providers have an aggressively move with the full support from Fibocom through the engineering efforts to pass the telecom's certification tests and refinery cost structure.Software and testing lab investments strengthening the future opportunitiesThe new emerging IC design vendors such as Mediatek have tried to change the development landscape of 5G wireless modules very hard. The 5G CPE devices leveraging SoC-based chips combined with software stacks to integrate wireless protocol including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other mainstreaming wireless connectivity with a cost-effective manner. It leads the cost structure of 5G FWA gateway very attractive with powerful features inside. This makes Taiwan networking manufacturers to win telecom competitive bids of North America. Apart from software support, Fibocom has also invested in building a Shielding Room in Taipei for 5G communication testing, providing strong support from both software and test labs to help Taiwan networking manufactures win international telecom bids. Adapting this cooperative experience, Fibocom continues to help Taiwan vendors to penetrate the market of many other countries.Compared with the success in the global telecom sectors, Industrial IoT (IIoT) market is a different story, said Chan. IIoT requires longer term engagement and steady steps in the market. The series of smart solutions including smart manufacturing, agriculture and medical provide the versatile but small quantity orders. The market is relying on engineering efforts and stronger support with prolonged product verification and approval sequence. Fibocom is gaining because of providing strong technical support to help Industrial PC vendors catching up the business opportunities.Chan talks about the current economic situation. The downturn directly affects the market segments driving by the pandemic-driven Work-From-Home (WFH) business. The radical spending is decreasing while the slow down or reversing economic growth. And the increasing inflation rates, it looks like another bad news to hit the market further. However, the global enterprises increase the investments for improving the energy efficiency and performance to reaching ESG goals by introducing smart applications.This will be a fundamentally boost to IIoT sectors. A new driving force implements multiple wireless technologies of Wi-Fi, BT, NB-IoT and Lora fast forwarding the data streams from IoT sensors to smart edge nodes. These trends have helped the IoT gateway devices to play a more active role as a data hub bridging the cloud servers through 4G/LTE and 5G technologies. Those are related to the devices or solutions with wireless modules. Backed by solid technical expertise, Fibocom looks at this new opportunity and is actively working with Taiwan industrial PC, networking and electronic manufacturing service providers to build Taiwan's competitiveness. Looking into the future of 5G construction, there is still room for continuous improvement. Fibocom accurately grasps the trend of 5G commercialization, insists on promoting digital transformation to unlock the full potential of the future IoT business.Apart from software support, Fibocom has also invested in building a Shielding Room in Taipei for 5G communication testing, providing strong support from both software and test labs to help Taiwan networking manufactures win international telecom bids.

STREAM education is a novel educational concept of a new generation, combining science, technology, reading and writing, engineering, arts and mathematics. It brings inspiration and invention to help students improve their practical problem-solving skills. As this new trend of education will have a great influence on national competitiveness in the future, it is playing an important role in worldwide educational policies.HOLTEK Semiconductor (HOLTEK) uses microcontroller technology along with product creativity to promote STREAM educational products:1. HOLTEK has launched 32-bit music synthesis MCUs of a new generation: HT32F61355, HT32F61356 and HT32F61357.2. HOLTEK has developed an Audio Workshop, an audio development platform, to assist customers to build diversified and interdisciplinary educational products efficiently.3. HOLTEK provides a variety of Music STREAM creative musical instruments and smart toy application solutions.HOLTEK launches a range of Music STREAM creative musical instruments and smart toy solutionsPhoto: HOLTEKA new generation of 32-bit music synthesis MCUBased on the Arm Cortex -M0+ core, these are high-performance, low-power 32-bit microcontrollers. The devices have a maximum operating frequency of 48 MHz with memory capacity of 128KB ROM, 16KB RAM and 32Mbit~128Mbit of Data Flash. In addition, these devices offer a wide range of peripherals and communication interfaces. Fully equipped with an internal of 32-channel MIDI music engine, these devices can simultaneously operate the function of 32-channel wavetable synthesis and meanwhile provide stereophonic outputs. The data waveforms synthesized by the wavetable, such as musical instrument timbres, MIDI music melodies, voice, sound effects, etc., can all be directly stored in the internal data memory. This then can be used in the development of electronic organs, digital pianos, electronic drums, electric guitars, electronic accordions as well as other musical products, even can be used in Acoustic Vehicle Alerting System (AVAS) for electric vehicles.Audio development platform (Audio Workshop)The devices of HT32F6135x series are equipped with a powerful computing engine. When used together with the exclusive audio development platform, the Audio Workshop, these devices can implement pre-release evaluation and post-development design. This will offer enhanced editing and configuring music rapidly, same to voice, sound effects, sentences and other audio content. The Audio Workshop has multiple functions such as optimized editing, switching of customers' own unique timbres, ADSR parameter adjustment, real-time update of timbre parameters and simulated sound effects, etc. The use can also be expanded with various sensors and functional modules, allowing developers to quickly develop related voice, music, smart toys as well as many other audio products.Creative Music STREAM demonstration products and solutionsHOLTEK has integrated both Music and STREAM to launch various application solutions of creative products.7 creative instrument solutions:Sophisticated lighting effect products can be thus created, such as "illuminated electronic drums" and "electronic strike pad" percussion instruments as well as "gesture controlled drum" percussion instruments. Moreover, there are simulated traditional musical instruments with interactive lighting, "electronic wind instruments" and "weighted key electronic pianos". These parts can be divided and joined to form "combination instruments" to implement a band ensemble. All electronic musical instruments can be directly played through "MIDI speakers", which can be matched with an App for intelligent teaching and enhanced playability, thus lowering beginners' learning threshold.5 smart toy solutions:Products such as "RGB full-colour combination light boards", "building block creative toys" and "colourful caterpillars" are platform products that include sound and light to create creative products for children. "humanoid robots" with integrated multiple sensors are high-end intelligent interactive experiential products which can be freely separated and spliced and combined into various shapes, when used with an App for graphical programming. "RGB screen card music early education machines" can read teaching cards, with mini games to integrate both educational activities and games.1 solution of infant care:A "smart cradle" can swing automatically. As combined with soothing music, it assists infants to fall asleep more comfortably and peacefully. It has a foot piano module for audio interaction as well as intelligent weighing and temperature measurement functions. With the App management and functions of cloud data recording, parents can be eased of the worry and pressure of parenting babies.STREAM education focuses on interdisciplinary applications with an emphasis on the cultivation of creativity and improving the quality of students' study. Here HOLTEK provides one-stop Music STREAM solutions and demonstration products, allowing customers to promote STREAM education in the simplest and most efficient way. For anyone interested in such applications, please contact our sales teams for more information on potential business opportunities.