In the wake of the continuous advancement of semiconductor manufacturing processes, sensing technology has been popularized, which empowers the rise of many new technologies and drives the demand for sensors. According to Yole Developpement, aside from mobile applications, the emergence of other application demands has been seen, such as automotive, healthcare and security. The development is expected to drive the continuous growth of the CIS market in the future, and the global market size is even anticipated to expand to US$31.5 billion in 2026.Status of CMOS Image Sensor Industry 2021 report. Yole Developpement, 2021ASM Pacific Technology (ASMPT) Assistant Vice President — CIS, Benny Au points out that the rapid development of smartphone design from single-camera to multi-camera indicates the assembly technologies of major CIS cameras are progressively becoming mature. ASMPT has long been optimistic that the application of CIS is a key factor leading the world to an intellectualized future and therefore, we have been utilizing the advantages and experience of the smartphone camera market to accelerate the development of CIS in different fields. Today, we have successfully set foot in the two major fields - automated driving systems and the Metaverse.ASM Pacific Technology Assistant Vice President — CIS, Benny AuOne of ASMPT's observations is that consumers have ever-changing expectations for automobiles. Vehicles are no longer just a means of transportation and overall driving safety needs to be ensured with the incorporation of intelligentization and safety technologies. Therefore, major automobile manufacturers are advancing the use of technologies like AI and machine learning to build a brand-new possibility of smart mobility. Regulations, clarification of responsibilities, and safety guidelines, however, are the biggest challenges for the development of autonomous vehicles. In addition, different markets and countries have different views on the technology and thus, we will continue to keep a close eye on the changes and trends in different markets in order to provide the products in demand.Camera quality plays a vital role in driving safetyAutonomous vehicles are highly anticipated by consumers on account of the ability to actively detect changes in the surrounding environment of the vehicle through camera lenses and sensor technologies, such as LiDAR, millimeter-wave radars, and ultrasonic radars. Other than reporting abnormal conditions, the connected mechanism including accelerating, steering and braking will also provide car owners with assistance to cope with emergencies as well as ensure driving safety.Although the aforementioned sensor technology is progressing significantly, camera is capable of capturing the actual state of the surrounding environment directly, allowing car owners to comprehend the surrounding situation accurately when driving. Cameras, therefore, play a crucial part in driving safety.ASMPT believes that the image processing capability and back-end algorithm of the system are not the only criteria for assessing autonomous vehicles' ability to detect the surrounding environment. On the other hand, cameras' ability to capture high-quality images carries much more weight. Different from the camera requirements of consumer electronics, automotive cameras involve road safety and even personal safety. Therefore, the majority of automobile manufacturers have extremely strict quality requirements for camera products. They will even formulate purchasing standards for the cameras according to the characteristics of their own automated driving systems and algorithms."As the market demand for cameras has increased remarkably, the competition between camera module suppliers has also become fierce. Many industry players have gone down the path of price competition. This way, the focus of camera assembly has switched from quality to cost, bringing uncertainty to the safety of autonomous vehicles," Benny Au explains. "In contrast, we pay full attention to product quality. Apart from purchasing high-precision manufacturing equipment, we have also established a holistic set of precision monitoring mechanisms in the production line. In this way, manufacturers are empowered to take full control of the entire process of the camera assembly and to advance the quality and precision of the entire production line, all for the high-quality cameras that meet the needs of autonomous vehicles."Aiming to improve the quality of camera assembly, ASMPT has also acquired the world-leading active camera module assembly factory, meeting the mass production needs of major European and American clients as well as accelerating the development of new products. The acquisition will further put our business philosophy of high performance, high productivity, high assembly precision and stability into practice, ensuring the delivery of the highest quality products for our clients.Heated topic of Metaverse sparks demands for camera lensesOther than autonomous vehicles, the Metaverse that can draw consumers and enterprises all the way into a massive virtual world has been another hot topic recently, and it is anticipated to bring significant changes to the electronic product supply chain. Although there is no complete definition of the Metaverse by research institutions, it has already attracted a wide range of companies to expand their investment in the field. Even Facebook has changed its name to Meta to declare its determination to play a part in the Metaverse. In the next few years, the world is expected to step into the new era of the Metaverse.The world is expected to step into the new era of the Metaverse. ASMPTAs the key path to the Metaverse, VR/AR devices can provide immersive human-computer interaction, and more related applications are also seen on the market. The market demand for cameras, therefore, is soaring. It is estimated that the total addressable mark, TAM (Total addressable market) of the camera for VR/AR applications will increase from US$120 million in 2021 to more than 10 times in 2025, and then rocket to US$ 4.6 billion in 2030.Benny Au mentions that the camera lens of VR/AR equipment is mainly for simultaneous localization and mapping as well as pass-through viewing. Under the Metaverse trend, it is believed that RGB cameras will gradually replace grayscale cameras to enhance the interaction with the surrounding environment. Also, the camera lens used to capture eye movement is capable of improving the accuracy and precision of tracking position and gesture. On top of it, when combined with depth-sensing technology, the interaction between computers, humans, and the environment for mixed reality will be further accelerated.In response to the latest trends including autonomous vehicle systems and the Metaverse, ASMPT will put its competence in mobile cameras to good use, and continue to explore the high-quality cameras market. By enhancing our own R&D capabilities and participating in pre-development work, ASMPT is confident to provide different industry players with the best solutions to sharpen their competitive edge in the market.

A single-board computer (SBC) incorporates microprocessors, memory, and input/output (I/O), among other features on a single circuit board. It provides industrial control or commercial IoT developers with a straightforward mode that simplifies the process and reduces the high costs of developing their own hardware, thereby accelerating time-to-market. Currently, SBCs are generally mature, powerful, and easy to use. SBCs can help industrial/commercial end customers and system integrators to quickly create products for various applications.In recent years, market acceptance of ARM-based SBCs has risen. According to Abbey Chen, Product Manager of ASUS Tinker Board, this is mainly due to improved performance and lower power demand. Moreover, ARM processors are not only used for mobile or embedded applications in the industrial control and commercial markets; nowadays, ARM usage has entered new areas such as PCs, high-performance computing, deep learning, and more. Abbey Chen said that the ASUS Tinker Board is equipped with the latest, most powerful quad-core ARM-based processor, which provides "best in class" performance.The ASUS Tinker Board is one of the most popular products in the ARM-based SBC market. An exploration of the reasons behind its success showed that its first advantage is its supply cycle of more than 5 years. Thanks to this, developers can stop worrying about default risks due to delayed deliveries or having to switch to alternative materials. To avoid these issues, ASUS provides a long-term and stable supply, so that developers can avoid the high costs of manpower and materials required for the development and verification processes of introducing new SBCs due to supply shortages.It is worth mentioning that in the past two years, the global parts shortage has continued to worsen, which highlights the advantages of Tinker Board. ASUS has a close relationship with its parts suppliers, and has thus been able to establish a stable source of parts to ensure that the Tinker Board supply will not be affected.Second, ASUS is one of the few SBC suppliers who are familiar with the underlying architecture of Android and can provide strong technical support for it. Most application developers are proficient in the development of high-level Android apps, but not necessarily in how to adjust the app based on the SBC hardware functions or the underlying architecture of the operating system. Thus, SBC manufacturers need to provide customized development or optimization services; this is one of ASUS' strengths. In particular, ASUS provides dedicated on-site technical support engineers for each customer to offer nearby support. This can shorten the customer's development cycle and accelerate application deployment. Thus, this service is well received by customers.eMMC on Board: Better Reliability and PerformanceSince its launch in 2017, Tinker Board has produced a large number of IoT application cases. For example, many retailers use Tinker Board-based digital billboards because they take the quality of advertisement playback and display stability very seriously, and Tinker Board eMMC on Board design's provides higher reliability. Moreover, Tinker Board is also widely used in smart cities, smart hospitals, and smart factories. Applications include digital billboards for bus stops, outpatient check-in machines in hospitals, and IoT gateway applications such as tracking for smart warehouses and renewable energy storage monitoring, etc.Most system integration partners in the aforementioned vertical application fields tend to give priority to Tinker Board, due to several factors. Abbey Chen said, first of all, most development board suppliers provide technical consulting services through online forums, which force customers to disclose development details online. On the other hand, concerns about information leaks are eliminated with Tinker Board's dedicated FAE service.Second, Tinker Board not only supports Linux (Debian), it also supports Android, which is not supported by many SBC suppliers. Customers have more options to choose from and can create the most suitable operating environment according to their application requirements or programming habits.Moreover, Tinker Board is one of the very few SBCs with an eMMC memory soldered directly onto the board. Therefore, customers can install the operating system on the eMMC instead of the Micro SD memory card to eliminate the risk of poor slot contact. In addition, the on-board eMMC was found to be able to withstand more than 3,000 write/erase cycles after testing, far exceeding the 300 to 500 of a Micro SD slot, and with better reliability. The on-Board eMMC also features superior write and read performance, which are 6% and 32% higher than that of Micro SD cards, respectively.Powerful CPU/GPU Performance Advantages and Detailed User ResourcesMore importantly, ASUS has strictly selected and configured relatively high-quality SoCs to ensure Tinker Board's outstanding performance. The CPU performance of the first Tinker Board, which was born five years ago, is still comparable to the latest competing products of today.How does the CPU performance of the latest Tinker Board 2 (ARMv8 6-core SoC based) compare with competing products? The technical editing team of DIGITIMES conducted a test using the Geekbench 5 benchmark. The results showed that Tinker Board 2 has a CPU speed of 298Mbps and 806Mbps under different single-core and multi-core conditions, which are 1.5 and 1.35 times higher than those of competing products, respectively. Then, the team used the glmark2 benchmarking software and ran a test under the same visual computing load. The results showed that the GPU speed of Tinker Board 2 is 787 Mbps, which is 73% higher than the 456 Mbps of competing products.In terms of memory performance, although both Tinker Board 2 and major competitors use LPDDR4, Tinker Board 2 adopts a dual-channel design, which is different from the single-channel design of competing products. This design gives Tinker Board 2 superior memory access performance, surpassing competing products by 74%.Regarding the 802.11ac Wi-Fi connection speed, Tinker Board 2 relies on a 2x2 dual-band 2.4/5 GHz design foundation, which is different from the 1x1 single-band architecture of competing products. Thus, Tinker Board 2 has a throughput of up to 618 Mbps, which is 7.3 times higher than the 74.5 Mbps of competing products.In addition to the aforementioned advantages such as stable supply, complete technical support from FAEs, and outstanding performance, Tinker Board also has many other features that add to its value. For example, ASUS created the Tinker Board forum, shared the open source code on GitHub, and provided a comprehensive User Guide and Developer Guide to help users who don't have a software engineer background install the OS and adjust the boot settings; in addition, ASUS assisted people with an R&D background in building their own Android or Debian operating environment and convert the preset GPIO to I2C, UART or I2S as needed.Furthermore, developers can manage Tinker Board with the ASUS IoT Cloud Console (AICC) for more efficient operations and maintenance. For example, administrators can connect to the AICC via a computer or mobile phone anytime, anywhere to check the status of Tinker Board, as well as the sensor data connected to Tinker Board; they can also control Tinker Board through remote commands. Essentially, developers can easily access the rich functions Tinker Board provides to quickly turn ideas into reality.It is worth mentioning that in the past two years, the global parts shortage has continued to worsen, which highlights the advantages of Tinker Board. ASUS has a close relationship with its parts suppliers, and has thus been able to establish a stable source of parts to ensure that the Tinker Board supply will not be affected.An Arm-based Single Board Computer (SBC), with Arm technology with highly efficient Cortex-A processor, offers enhanced computing performance with low power consumption.

MEAN WELL is a global leading standard power supply manufacturer. Since its establishment in 1982, MEAN WELL has launched more than 10,000 power supply products. Its diverse and comprehensive product range fully satisfies the power supply needs of customers around the world. However, some customers require products that can be integrated with existing ones, and that offer smart control integration capabilities. System planning for smart control functions is difficult, so customers must rely on the technical capabilities of manufacturers. To solve this problem, MEAN WELL recently released the 3+N System Solutions, which is the first wave of solutions that focuses on the DALI digital lighting system.MEAN WELL Introduces the 3+N System Solutions the First Focusing on Smart Lighting Control.Photo: MEAN WELLThe "3" in 3+N System Solutions refers to the rack power supply, modular power supply, and system power supply; while the "N" stands for other MEAN WELL products and controllers. Under the 3+N solution framework, MEAN WELL combined a set of system solutions according to customer needs to provide the corresponding power supply combinations. Tony Hsieh, Section Manager of MEAN WELL's Technical Service Center, said that "MEAN WELL is like an amoeba that can meet customer needs by changing and adapting its product mix."Different from the "you place an order, I fulfill it" model of selling products, when selling the 3+N System Solutions, MEAN WELL's sales and technical teams must first understand what customers really need before "prescribing the right medicine." Since MEAN WELL has established a complete global distribution system, it is able to provide consulting services to customers all over the world.Three Smart Lighting Control Solutions: IoT, DALI, and KNXMEAN WELL first promoted the 3+N System Solutions for smart LED lighting applications and released solutions for IoT lighting control, DALI lighting control, and KNX building automation, covering most of the current needs for LED lighting.Among these, the IoT lighting control solution is suitable for small spaces. MEAN WELL uses Bluetooth Low Energy, allowing users to change settings and control light switches and dimmers wirelessly via an app on a mobile phone or tablet. MEAN WELL partnered with world-renowned manufacturers like Casambi, Tuya, and SILVAIR to design various LED drivers for wireless lighting control, which are suitable for the constant current control, LCM-IOT series for lamps, and the constant voltage control, PWM-IOT series for light strips.DALI is a widely used communication protocol of digital lighting applications for buildings in Europe. It is suitable for communication between lighting control devices, and it makes lighting control easier to set up and reduces the need for rewiring. Rex Lin, Product Manager of MEAN WELL's Product Strategy Center, explained, "The DALI Alliance continues to add new lighting control functions to the protocol, and MEAN WELL has quickly launched corresponding solutions. Now, we not only provide DALI-2 driver power supply products, we have also released DALI-2 DLC-02 digital controllers that comply with the latest specifications."Digital Lighting Controller-DLC-02 for office lighting applicationPhoto: MEAN WELLThe DALI-2 digital control system is mainly composed of three parts: bus, control device, and control gear. The control device includes an input device and an application controller. MEAN WELL launched a DLC-02 controller that complies with the latest DALI-2 IEC 62386-103 Standard. It has two built-in independent DALI power supplies (each set can provide 250mA of current), so it can serve as a bus power supply and an application controller in DALI systems. By integrating an input device and control gear, we can build a complete DALI digital lighting control system.KNX is also a common control system in Europe. Unlike DALI, the scope of KNX control extends from lighting to the entire building since it can connect various electrical control systems together. MEAN WELL also launched KNX-related products that comply with international standards, including KNX LED power supplies, gateways, and actuators. Depending on the application, these products can be used with various MEAN WELL products.Taipei 101 Boutique Watch Store Deploys a Digital Lighting SystemThe 3+N System Solutions have received positive feedback since their launch, with many successful cases. The watch store in Taipei 101 adopted the DALI-2 DLC-02 controller solution as suggested by the MEAN WELL team. To help the customer with its lighting needs for different scenarios, the MEAN WELL team suggested the best digital control solution based on the customer's application and scenario requirements, and paired it flexibly with the customer's lights. Rex Lin pointed out, "For different groups and applications, we use lights with different wattage and optical angles. It is not always possible to find a digital lighting controller that meets these needs. MEAN WELL's DALI-2 DLC-02 can utilize the advantages of digital lighting to configure groups and lighting scenarios of lights on the same circuit, offering customers greater flexibility. In addition, when combined with the latest DALI-2 DT8 variable color application, both general groups and scenario applications are available for the same lighting controller, with color change applications. Thanks to this, the customer was able to adjust the background color of store displays to match the theme of its luxury watches, achieving the best mood lighting effect."Demo Kit Suitcase: Helping Customers Quickly Understand MEAN WELL's SolutionsTo help distributors explain the 3+N smart lighting solution to customers, MEAN WELL designed IoT, DALI, and KNX 3+N solution demo kit cases. For the DLC-02 DALI-2 controller solution, for example, MEAN WELL integrated the DLC 02 controller with two digital dimmable LED drivers, LCM (constant current output) and PWM (constant voltage output), and built-in lights in a carrying case. This demo kit can also be connected to other lights.Furthermore, MEAN WELL's Virtual Expo Technical Service Hall also provides introductions and success cases of the 3+N System Solutions to help customers quickly become familiar with the solutions. For the 3+N System Solutions, MEAN WELL will launch solutions for other applications in the future. Eris Wu, Head of MEAN WELL's Global Technical Service Center, said, "In response to the global trends of net zero and carbon neutrality, MEAN WELL will launch 3+N energy conservation and green energy solutions to help customers overcome multiple challenges."

Wintel, a partnership between Intel and Microsoft, has been strongly driving the development of PCs and NBs. Recent years, digital transformation has been one of the key elements in manufacturing industry remarkably edging toward intelligentization. The two prominent companies also work hands in hands to navigate their services through edge computing, visual recognition, and Artificial Intelligence + Internet of Things (AI + IoT). Synnex Technology International Corporation invited Intel, Microsoft, and many leading technology companies to join 2022 Taiwan AI EXPO and hosted "When AI enables mass production – Future Manufacturing Summit for Successful People."Lien-Ren Hsueh, General Manager of Synnex Component Business, Synnex Group, believed that in the rapidly changing industry environment, the manufacturing industry has to strengthen the resilience of their organization to address distinct challenges. Experts in different areas dissect the AI development trends in the manufacturing field in the hope of entering a new era of smart manufacturing with collective wisdom.I-Fen Lin, Deputy General Manager of Synnex Component Business, Synnex Group, pointed out in his opening remarks that digital transformation has become an essential lesson for businesses to remain unbeaten against market challenges, such as complex production equipment and strenuous effort to integrate heterogeneous systems. Transformation would be more seamless if professional support is in place from close partners. Synnex has worked with Microsoft recently to assist several manufacturers in deploying smart systems and empowering both production lines and employees.IoT covers a considerably wide range of aspects. That is why software systems, hardware platforms and expertise should come into play simultaneously with a view to devising a new-generation manufacturing structure that tailors to clients' requirements. As a result, Intel has been actively establishing a complete industry ecosystem and deepening partnership in recent years. In addition to extending the collaboration with Microsoft that has continued for years, Intel framed the concept of Intel IoT Solution Aggregator where Synnex plays a major role. Synnex and Intel brought Market Ready Solutions (MRS) and IoT RFP Ready Kits (RRK) for industry players to swiftly accomplish the most purpose-built IoT specific to their needs.Crystal Yin, Microsoft IoT Partner Ecosystem, Director of Asia Sales, expressed that Intel, professional and experienced, is also one of the key factors in successful digital transformation. With years of presence in the manufacturing industry, Microsoft has everything in its product portfolio, from data capture from front-line equipment and communication and transmission of the network layer to data analysis in the top layer. Microsoft carries on the collaboration with Intel, supporting the integration of intelligent edge and intelligent cloud conned by AI + IoT. The purpose is to foster system upgrades and the construction of a smart solution that delivers diverse functions and immensely high information security for manufacturers. Together with partners in IoT ecosystem, we achieve more!Metaverse has been firing on all cylinders, while the technology of digital twin has attracted great attention. Kuo-Pin Kao, Technical Director of Otsuka Information Technology, gave a speech on Otsuka Intelligence – Interaction between Digital Twins and AI Inspection Mapping to introduce the values that this technology attaches on the manufacturing industry. He stated that the company adopts Microsoft HoloLens Mixed Reality AR smart wearable devices and Azure Digital Twins to design an AI smart integration solution that bolsters the establishment of a factory IoT system and intelligent inspection model. Therefore, onsite personnel are able to precisely carry out works, for example, system inspection or equipment maintenance. In this way, manufacturers could have a clear and timely picture of the operation status to prevent unexpected downtime and further increase capacity utilization.Han-Lu Fan, Business Development Manager for Taiwan, DataMesh, also believed that metaverse at business level will act as a novel power of industry innovation and be primarily built upon the technical foundation of XR and digital twin. She provided an overview about DataMesh in the first place. The company is a global partner of Microsoft in the realm of XR as well as forming a closed-loop working relationship with XR leaders, including Qualcomm and NTT Docomo, from product research and development to selling in the industry. Businesses are well served with the fundamentals of an industrial metaverse by DataMesh, which can be applied to CAD, BIM and IoT and knowledge base to develop digital twin. Businesses then make the most of their know-how to bridge the digital world and reality. By empowering industries, such as manufacturing, architecture, and operation and maintenance with XR techniques, front-line personnel management and execution capabilities can be improved. DataMesh specially indicated that it is the digitalization of cumulative experiences that keeps businesses not only motivated to invest in innovation technologies but also competitive at its core.Image recognition carries weight in the field of smart manufacturing. Hong-Pei Lin, General Manager of YUAN High-Tech Development, mentioned that as the world-renowned video capture module provider, the company has accumulated an abundance of expertise and experiences. Recently, it launched a smart image processing platform equipped with NVR and AI image recognition to respond to scenarios of video capture, recording, streaming, and image analysis in a smart factory. The first 8-channel product of its kind processes image in real time and supports different formats of video or audio input signals. It shows more flexibility as it is intended for system build across both Windows and Linux that helps manufacturers optimize the overall signal processing of image and audio.ADLINK, specializing in industrial PCs, has been committed to the manufacturing industry for years. Manufacturers at home and abroad have benefited from ADLINK's products designed for edge computing and realized their vision of smart manufacturing. Yan-Ting Shen, Product Manager of Open Instrument Business Center, IoT Solutions & Technology Office, took their MCM solutions for example. MCM-100 in the series is embedded with I/O which is highly scalable to capture data from the equipment in a field. By contrast, MCM-200 I/O module with lower power consumption is a better fit for rapid deployment to detect the temperature and current of the equipment on site. ADLINK have seen successful use cases with their MCM solutions in various manufacturing areas, namely petrochemical industry and semiconductor fabrication. Their product performance and quality of services have received notable recognition in the market.In the end of the summit, I-Fen Lin shared that AI could be a valuable aid to shaping the thinking on data decision and enriching market insights, but AI implementation requires thoroughly professional capabilities. Hence, he suggested that manufacturers seek collaboration with partners from varied areas so that they can leverage the collective wisdom to contribute to diverse values for their business.Synnex invited Intel, Microsoft, and many leading technology companies to join 2022 Taiwan AI EXPO and hosted "When AI enables mass production – Future Manufacturing Summit for Successful People.

COMPUTEX 2022 is set to kick off starting from May 24, the world-leading brand in gaming, content creation, and business & productivity, MSI, attends 2 online exhibitions: COMPUTEX DigitalGo and COMPUTEX CYBERWORLD to showcase its new lineup of laptops, graphic cards, AIO and gaming peripherals, of which feature its maximum-beast Titan GT77 laptop, the most powerful graphics card GeForce RTXTM 3090 Ti SUPRIM X 24G and others, dedicated to making high-performance computing accessible to everyone.At COMPUTEX 2022, MSI stood out from the major brand competitors, winnig total 4 Best Choice Awards. MSI Titan GT77 Gaming Laptop wins "Golden Award"; MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X 24G Graphics Card, MSI Modern MD272 Series Business Monitor, and MSI AMR-AI-PJ-UVGI Robot all receive "Category Awards"."We are proud to announce Titan GT77, the double winner of COMPUTEX 2022 Best Choice Golden Award and red dot 2022, along with other award-winning products that manifest MSI's continuous innovation and dominance in gaming, content creation, and business & productivity lineups on a global scale, " says Sam Chern, MSI Marketing Vice President.After the star-studded tech bonanza, MSI will launch a virtual event: MSIology: Ahead of the Curve, showcasing the latest 12th Gen Intel HX CPU Gaming and Creator laptops on June 7 at 01:00 A.M. Taipei Time. Made for gamers and creators, the new series presents uncompromising performance and more. Stay tuned!Here are eye-catching products MSI has to offer:Titan GT77 gaming laptopWinner of 2022 COMPUTEX Best Choice Golden Award and red dot, the flagship Titan GT77 features a perfect gaming desktop replacement that truly lives up to the name. The triumphant return of Titan GT77 unleashes the next level of performance, cooling as well as stunning features.Check out MSIology: Ahead of the Curve for more details.MAG Trident S 5M gaming desktopThe MAG Trident S 5M is a desktop dedicated to the cloud and mobile gaming. Unlike the traditional gaming desktop, MAG Trident S 5M is your best choice for a living room gaming PC. All gamers have to do is to activate MSI APP Player via the MSI's exclusive Game Stadium software, plus a 30-day free XBOX GAME PASS ULTIMATE, you're ready to sit on your couch and enjoy your favorite games with just one joystick. Furthermore, you can easily access cloud games and other entertainment software.GeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X 24G graphics cardBased on the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, the SUPRIM cards are crafted for performance, efficiency, and prestige. Cooled with MSI's TRI FROZR 2S system, heat is effectively dissipated from critical board components with TORX FAN 4.0, up to 8 Core Pipes, Airflow Control fins, and a copper base plate.GeForce RTX 3090 Ti GAMING X TRIO 24G graphics cardThe latest iteration of MSI's iconic GAMING series once again shows performance, low-noise efficiency, and aesthetics that hardcore gamers have recognized and trusted. Highlighting the excellent TRI FROZR 2 cooling system, making it possible to tame the power consumption of the beastly GeForce RTXTM 3090 Ti.Modern MD272 Series MonitorThe 2022 Best Choice Award & 2021 Red Dot Design Award Winner, the Modern MD272 series brings eye care & ergonomic environment for all users. With the Less Blue Light PRO and Anti-flicker technology, this monitor protects your eyes while maintaining vibrant colors.Modern AM242 & AM272 All-in-One PCFeaturing the MSI Cloud Center software, Modern AM242 and AM272 series AIO PC bring you a private cloud and help back up your files between the Android and IOS mobile devices and this series of AIO PCs. Just one click and MSI Cloud Center will automatically backup all of your photos and videos to the designated space within a secure intranet environment.VIGOR GK71 SONIC gaming keyboardThe VIGOR GK71 SONIC is an esports-focused keyboard, stressing the world's lightest linear mechanical switches, MSI SONIC RED, co-developed by MSI and the professional switch maker, Kailh. Underlining its 35gf actuation force and a linear smooth feel for each keystroke, MSI's proprietary switches offer seamless and instantaneous responses thus helping finger fatigue, bringing more comfort, and improving the ergonomics of your posture during gaming sessions.SPATIUM M480 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 2TB PLAY SSDPacked with high-quality, high-density 3D NAND flash memory and compliance with PCIe 4.0, the SPATIUM M480 2TB PLAY SSD is capable of delivering read speed up to 7000MB/s. The sleek dual finish aluminum heatsink makes it a perfect match for storing PS5 games.RadiX AXE6600 WiFi 6E TRI-BAND GAMING ROUTERThe RadiX AXE6600 WiFi 6E tri-band gaming router sports the latest WiFi technology to handle numerous bandwidth-intensive WiFi devices in a variety of home environments. The 7 high-speed channels on a low-interference frequency band ensure incredible network performance with low latency for all connected devices including next-gen AR/VR home entertainment.MSI @ COMPUTEX 2022 OnlineCOMPUTEX DigitalGoDate: Tuesday, May 24 - Monday, June 06Time: 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM (GMT +08:00)Location: MSI@COMPUTEX DigitalGoCOMPUTEX CYBERWORLDStarts now and 24/7Location: MSI@COMPUTEX CYBERWORLDMSIology: Ahead of the CurveDate & Time: June 7, 01:00 AM TAIPEI (GMT +08:00)June 6, 10:00 AM LOS ANGELES (GMT -07:00)June 6, 06:00 PM LONDON (GMT +01:00)Location: MSI YouTubeThe 2022 Best Choice Award and 2021 Red Dot Design Award Winner, the Modern MD272 series brings eye care and ergonomic environment for all users.Photo: MSIGeForce RTX 3090 Ti SUPRIM X 24G.Photo: MSI

STAr Technologies, a leading supplier of semiconductor test probe cards, unveils a new one-touch Aries-Prima Memory Test probe card. The probe card is designed specifically to meet the current high speed and precision test requirement that is applicable for highly parallel large array multi-DUT Memory devices to increase productivity with reduced cost-of-test. Aries-Prima at its extreme, is used for "one-touch" Memory IC tests, at which only one touch-down contact is required for testing the whole 300mm wafer.Driven by the market uptrend for AI, AR, VR, and cloud services which drive IT infrastructure and the explosive growth of computing memory and power. With such increasing demands, our industry customers need to increase wafer-level test efficiency with the lowest possible probe card cost, which is one of the highest test consumable expenditures. To meet these requirements, STAr has been developing MEMS probe technologies for years and launched the high-value MEMS probe cards to the test market this year.The Aries-Prima series MEMS probe card is designed for interfacing both DRAM and FLASH Memory ICs wafers to ATE for large array multi-DUT tests. Aries-Prima enables wide temperature range, from-40degC to 150degC, wafer-level tests with "one-touch" capabilities for 300mm wafers. This is achieved with stable probe contact up to 120um over-drive from first contact and coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) equivalent to that of silicon wafers.In addition, STAr enhances the physical characteristics of 3D MEMS probes for extended probe contact lifetimes. With a maximum of 100,000 pins, up to 1536 DUTs in parallel, and minimum pitch down to 50um, Aries-Prima provides reliable measurement data with testing speed up to 3.2Gbps for leading Memory ICs."STAr is devoted to MEMS probe technology development and is eager to bring customers great test experiences for now and in the future. Aries-Prima is another achievement for one-touch memory test probe card technology. We believe the revolutionary structure and probe properties will dramatically improve capability achieving lower cost-of-tests," said Dr. Choon-Leong Lou, CEO & CTO of STAr Technologies.STAr Aries-Prima one-touch memory test probe cardPhoto: Company

After the global impact of COVID-19, some countries have gradually lifted lockdowns. Taiwan is also on the last mile towards co-existence with COVID-19 to be ready to embrace so-called the "new normal". This trend could bring a positive effect for the retail industry that had suffered great impact by COVID-19. Kris Hsu, General Manager at DataVan (3521.TWO), believes that some new service models introduced during the pandemic will remain even after the pandemic is over. To meet related requirements, DataVan has launched multiple software and hardware solutions which will be on full presentation at COMPUTEX of this year between May 24 to 27.Kris Hsu points out that many cities in Europe and U.S. have been shut down by COVID-19 in the past two years, severely impacting storefronts in the restaurant industry. As the world-leading POS manufacturer, DataVan partnered with customers in these places to launch various smart solutions to help integrate technology and create new business models, one of which is the restaurant delivery POS system. This type of POS allows consumers to order online and select take-out or delivery service, and it is helpful to decrease the risk of indoor contact between customers and restaurant staff. While similar services have been provided by some European and American restaurants in the past, they had not become popular in local markets; instead, this kind of service has become a necessary option for restaurants and consumers due to the pandemic. People are also used to it after lifting lockdowns Kris Hsu predicts that this model will become the "new normal" for the future restaurant industry and will stimulate many new applications and services.Kris Hsu stated that while the pandemic is temporarily coming to an end in the U.S. and Europe, the rooted public health awareness will boost innovative applications. For the restaurant industry, the reduction of physical contact has become a consensus. This spawned the use of O2O or OMO solutions, one of which allows consumers to order online through their smartphones or computers or order in stores using self-service devices. Kris Hsu pointed out that DataVan offers solutions for both KIOSK and table-side tablet ordering that can reduce contact as well as manpower costs of restaurants. These solutions can also shorten customers' waiting times, increase turnover rates, and create greater benefits for restaurants and consumers.In addition to food services, the operations of physical storefronts have also changed due to the "new normal." More and more stores are adding alcohol disinfectant and body temperature measurement devices at their front doors. Kris Hsu emphasized that a key trend of new retail within the "new normal" is "increasing operational and management efficiency". For instance, DataVan's "DataVan Central IoT Management Platform" can connect multiple DataVan POS and KIOSK devices, so that the administrator can remotely monitor the statuses of all connected devices. The software/firmware updating service through cloud can also reduce the cost of on-site maintenance, greatly lowering contamination risks and transportation costs for higher management efficiency.In addition to retail solutions, DataVan's subsidiary Maincon Corporation has established complete market access in Japan and Southeast Asia markets. In recent years, DataVan's focus on software development complements Maincon's industrial computer product line to strengthen product value and meet customer needs. These results will also be presented at COMPUTEX of this year. Kris Hsu disclosed that soon DataVan will expand the new application to the field of buildings with the integration of Maincon's AI and hardware capabilities as well as DataVan's software advantage to launch a smart home system that better meets the needs of construction companies and tenants.Kris Hsu suggested that retailers should provide a safer and more reliable environment for consumers as well as enhance efficiency of operations and management to face new challenges from the new normal. DataVan has completed solutions for these challenges and will build a coffee shop scenario to showcase them at COMPUTEX of this year. The booth will integrate all new retail solutions, including digital signage with epidemic prevention, temperature measurement and facial recognition integration, self-service KIOSK, table-side tablet ordering devices, POS systems, and the cloud management platform as well as Maincon's industrial computer products. Systems developers and retailers can fully explore the smart, convenient, and safe retail solutions for the new normal in the post-pandemic era at DataVan's N0514 booth. Welcome to experience DataVan's outstanding retail solutions for the new normal!

Industries such as semiconductors and panel manufacturing, which the world depends on, implement cleanrooms to prevent contaminants such as microorganisms, suspended particles, volatile chemical gases, or dust that can decrease yield rates and result in considerable losses in the production process.It's undeniable that the high degree of cleanliness expected by the above industries cannot be solely achieved through isolated spaces such as cleanrooms, but must also rely on personnel's compliance to good cleaning practices. This means that personnel must wear protective clothing/hats/shoes before entering cleanrooms and raise both arms when walking through air shower tunnels, so that clean air may remove dust particles attached to these items. While these rules are in place, sometimes colleagues may fail to properly raise both arms, walk quickly through the air shower tunnel, fail to rotate properly, or spend insufficient time in the air shower tunnel, affecting the product's yield rate.In order to eliminate these circumstances, more and more businesses are requiring in house development teams to work on AI surveillance models to identify whether personnel's behaviors in air shower tunnels are compliant with existing rules; in the event of a violation, a linked warning mechanism can instantly request personnel to undergo comprehensive cleaning procedures. Due to the complex development of these models, the completion of many projects has been put on hiatus. Luckily, the NEON AI Smart Camera developed by ADLINK has provided timely assistance and helped revive numerous projects towards successful landings.AI Engineers Don't Understand Imaging? Potential Delays to Program DevelopmentChia-Wei Yang, Director at ADLINK's Edge Vision Business Center stated that the majority of factory AI engineers have backgrounds in automation and have only changed their fields in recent years; while they have undoubtedly honed their ability in AI over many years, they do not understand imaging in the sense that they don't know how to select lenses, light sources, or understand camera settings. As such, their efforts in developing image capture programs will naturally encounter a challenging learning threshold.However, the difficulties don't stop here. Challenges await at each stage, including environment restrictions (such as the inability to drill holes in cleanrooms, minimizing cabling, space restrictions, and the need for fanless designs to prevent dust accumulation), ensuring system reliability, and real-time DIO.Tsai-Pan Lin, Solution Engineer Director at ADLINK's Edge Vision Business Center, pointed out that this would not be an easy task due to the development processes that these AI engineers are accustomed to. Since it is impossible for them to develop programs directly in cleanroom environments, they need to record videos and use them as the basis for writing testing programs, which require integrating posture judgment logic to identify whether personnel's actions should be deemed as "Pass" or "NG." Once testing is confirmed to be error free, they have to go through the time consuming process of coming up with methods to integrate edge devices and cameras, and then deploy them into designated spaces.Taking Advantage of the EVA SDK to Land Projects within Two WeeksAfter implementing the NEON AI Smart Camera, AI teams will only need to develop one inference program to utilize the clear function block guide provided by EVA SDK (the NEON AI Camera's built-in edge vision analytics software development kit). This allows developers to give a tangible form to their logic, swiftly introduce it into programs, and rapidly toggle image sources from video to camera. In other words, one program can meet testing and subsequent real-life scenario flattening requirements. Generally speaking, users can utilize visualization tools in the built-in EVA IDE of EVA SDK to convert complex development processes into intuitive flow charts, and then place function blocks in order and achieve project landing within two weeks.As for environment restrictions, the NEON AI Smart Camera provides massive assistance primarily because it is an All-in-One system with an integrated camera and computer that only requires one network and a power cable to meet businesses' expectations by "reducing cabling to a minimum." Furthermore, NEON features ease of installation and supports the VESA standard installation interface, so that users can obtain various mechanisms available in the market to complete setup operations, thereby eliminating the necessity to drill holes. More importantly, NEON utilizes a fanless design, which eliminates concerns regarding dust accumulation.In the past, AI engineers utilized development boards and webcams readily available to users for in house developed programs, which often suffered from unknown factors that resulted in poor inference reliability and images being bypassed. Also, additional efforts were required to develop I/O control programs to immediately trigger warning mechanisms such as three-color indicators and voice warnings. After implementing NEON, pre-operations such as image capture, verification, and adding algorithms can be completed and quickly setup within two weeks to provide stable image capture without bypass as well as stable inference time. The addition of EVA SDK's built-in I/O control plug-in also allow AI engineers to build I/O control logic through low-code development methods.The clear benefits provided by NEON with EVA SDK can offer massive value to businesses. Based on responses from various customers, AI surveillance has increased personnel compliance; they no longer disregard cleaning regulations and undergo proper cleaning in air shower tunnels, decreasing dust by a massive 80% and significantly eliminating factors that affect yield rates.Chia-Wei Yang stated that ADLINK is pleased with the positive customer feedback and expects to develop additional tools "that will lower learning curves," so that customers can accelerate their implementation of vision AI applications; these little tools will appear on the inference side and eventually for the training side. Additionally, ADLINK will continue to organize in-depth AI academy courses to cultivate even more talented individuals capable of developing advanced vision AI solutions.For more information, please visit: https://www.adlinktech.com/en/EVA_SDK_ADLINK_Edge_AI_Vision_Analytics.NEON AI Smart Camera developed by ADLINK has provided timely assistance and helped revive numerous projects towards successful landings.

NeoGene Tech, a Guangzhou-based technology platform provider for mobile device thermal management, has unveiled a breakthrough solution for ultra-high-packaging-density power battery module, which has a very simple cell and vapor chamber integration structure to simultaneously solve the thermal management issues in both excessively high- and low-temperature battery operation scenarios.It is known that power batteries are extremely sensitive to either excessively high or low temperatures. Battery cells charge and discharge in both high- and low-temperature scenarios will significantly result in short supply of energy, reduction of lifespan and fast degradation. High power density, as well as high packaging density along with better thermal management as well, is always the goal for power battery module development.Once the battery cells are assembled together in very high density, the heat dissipation will become a very tough issue. On the other hand, operating the power battery module in a low-temperature environment is also necessary to warm up the cells to a better operation temperature in advance. Considering heat dissipation and heating functions together, the total size of the battery module is becoming big and the structure is also becoming more complex."NeoGene Tech's approach is to integrate multiple high energy density pouch cells and large-area, double-side wick structured, heat-pipe-array, ultra-thin vapor chamber with self-heating function together in high-density assembly to conduct both heat dissipation and self-heating in different scenarios of operating temperature," said Jeffrey Chen, CEO of NeoGene Tech."The ultra-thin vapor chamber was designed based on NeoGene Tech's MagicWick-Inside Technology Platform, and the porous wick structures inside the vapor chamber were made by the print wick structuring (PWS) approach. The thickness of the ultra-thin vapor chamber devices is only 0.6mm like multiple flattened micro heat pipes that are parallel assembled together as an array and the temperature difference (Delta T) between evaporator and condenser can be controlled at around 1 degree C. The vapor chamber is seamlessly assembled and integrated with lithium-ion pouch cells and the heat generated in the evaporator area and being dissipated and exchanged by two heat sinks coupled on the two sides of the condenser area of the vapor chamber. On the surface of the vapor chamber, a heating circuit formed by thick film printing and sintering technology that enables cells to warm up in low-temperature scenario," said Chen."We are targeting the high-end market first with our technology. Once the applications need an ultra-compact and ultra-high power density and superior thermal management, we will take advantage in such an area. Collaborating with world-class high-energy density lithium-ion cell manufacturers as well as BMS solution providers will be creating a win-win-win situation. Achieving another record-breaking in power density and the charge-discharge cycle will be foreseen in near future," said Chen.Photo: NeoGene Tech

Touch key product applications are becoming increasingly innovative, with a trend of increasing intelligence in terminal products, HOLTEK Semiconductor has launched its new 5V wide-voltage range Arm Cortex-M0+ Touch microcontroller HT32F542xx series. This new device touch key range includes the part numbers, HT32F54231, HT32F54241, HT32F54243 and HT32F54253. These new devices have a frequency of up to 60MHz and can provide up to 28 touch keys. In addition to the stable and reliable capacitive touch engine core hardware, this new series of MCUs also have standard communication interfaces which includes USART, UART, SPI and I2C, suitable for applications in a wide range of smart household appliances and IoT terminal equipment as well.The sensing technology is mainly sub-divided into the following types, resistive type, inductive type, capacitive type, infrared type, surface acoustic wave type, etc. Presently, the majority of touch keys use a capacitive type sensing methodology. The main challenge lies in achieving stability and compliance with EMC specifications. Due to variations in different IC companies touch key design technology and differences in provided engineering service levels, developers may not be able to establish correct test procedures during their early development stage. It is only after the product design has been completed and already in use by customers over a period of time, that performance problems will arise leading to many after-sales customer complaints. This is especially prevalent with AC power supply problems, environmental humidity, moisture, etc., all of which can create false touch detect situations.Sources of touch key instability and implementing good test techniques:Common sources of interferenceCommon interference sources include voltage fluctuations, temperature/humidity changes, electromagnetic interference (RF antennas, walkie-talkies, etc.), power supply interference (motor startups, fluorescent lamp startups), etc.Applying good test techniquesThe following test methods can be used to create practical environments for the testing of general electronic equipment.1. Functional test: Here the touch keys are functionally tested while the operating voltage is adjusted from high to low and then from low to high in a repeated test. 2. Wet environment test: Use water vapor to cover the touch panel to be tested with condensation, or place the touch panel close to the air outlet of an air conditioner. Higher humidity levels will result in higher capacitance values. 3. Temperature test: Use an oven or hot air to heat up the touch panel for the heating test and put the touch panel into a refrigerator or freezer for the cooling test. 4. Power supply interference test: Test for EFT burst immunity using the standard IEC61000-4-4, GB/T 17626.4. Test the RF field disturbance immunity using the standard IEC61000-4-6, GB/T 17626.6.5. Space radiation test: Test the radio frequency electromagnetic field radiation immunity using the standard IEC 61000-4-3, GB/T 17626.3 with a test field strength between 3 - 10V/m.6. ESD test: Use the standard IEC61000-4-2, GB/T 17626.6.HOLTEK Semiconductor initiated its development of touch key devices in 2006. With a desire to offer excellence in professional customer technical service, HOLTEK established its subsidiary company, Best Solution Technology Inc., in 2008 to solely focus on touch key solutions. To the present date, they have assisted related customers with the volume production of some 200 million units every year. HOLTEK fully intends to continue to support its customers by providing excellence in professional technical services and complete solutions to assist customers with rapid product development and design through to final mass production and sales of finished products.HOLTEK new released 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ touch key MCUs.