The LEC-RB5 SMARC is a high-performance module, built with the Qualcomm® QRB5165 processor, allowing on-device AI and 5G connectivity capabilities for consumer, enterprise, and industrial robots. It features a high-performance NPU, an Octa-Core (8x ARM Cortex-A77) CPU, low power consumption, and support for up to six cameras. The Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, customized for robotics applications, is designed for running complex AI, deep learning workloads, and on-device edge inference efficiently while using low power.ADLINK Technology Inc., a global leader in edge computing, released the LEC-RB5 SMARC module –its first SMARC AI-on-Module based on a Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. processor. The Qualcomm QRB5165 processor is designed for robotics and drone applications; it integrates several IoT technologies in a single solution. The LEC-RB5 SMARC module provides on-device artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, support for up to 6 cameras, and low power consumption. It is capable of powering robots and drones in consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial, and logistics sectors."This high-performing SMARC module is a good option for the next generation of high-compute, low-power robots and drones," said Henri Parmentier, Senior Product Manager, ADLINK. "It empowers customers to do everything they need for complex AI and deep learning workloads at the edge without relying on the cloud.""Qualcomm Technologies' portfolio of leading robotics and drones solutions is driving next-generation use cases, including autonomous deliveries, mission-critical use cases, commercial and enterprise drone applications, and more. The Qualcomm QRB5165 solution supports the development of next generation high-compute, AI-enabled, low-power robots and drones for the consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial and professional service sectors that can be connected by 5G. The ADLINK LEC-RB5 SMARC module will support the proliferation of 5G in robotics and intelligent systems," said Dev Singh, Senior Director, Business Development and General Manager of Robotics, Drones and Intelligent Machines, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.For robotics and autonomous robot solution providers, the LEC-RB5 SMARC module provides the capability to build powerful robots for use in harsh industrial conditions and in temperatures that range from -30° to +85°C. The LEC-RB5 SMARC module features:*Qualcomm Kryo 585 CPU (eight ARM Cortex-A77 cores)*Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA) running up to 15 trillion operations per second (TOPS)*Support for six cameras: MIPI CSI cameras CSI0 (2 lanes) and CSI1 (4 lanes)*Low power consumption: <12W*82 x 50 mm compact form factorThe LEC-RB5 is part of ADLINK's portfolio of SMARC form factors that support both ARM and x86 designs. ADLINK has worked closely with Qualcomm to design a smart, powerful solution for next-generation IoT applications. The module provides enhancements for computer vision (CV) applications with reduced latencies for real- time image processing decisions, freeing up capacity for other critical AI applications while delivering mobile-optimized CV experiences. Hardware acceleration for advanced CV applications with on-device AI capable of running complex AI and deep learning workloads at low power makes the LEC-RB5 SMARC module advantageous for a wide variety of industrial and consumer applications.Visit ADLINK Technology to learn more about the LEC-RB5 SMARC module and development kit.ADLINK releases its first SMARC module based on Qualcomm QRB5165, which enables high-performance robots and drones at low powerPhoto: Company

As people are becoming more conscious of their physical and mental health, sports technology has also risen to the forefront of technological innovation. As a result, Coretronic Corporation established uCare Medical Electronics, a dedicated subsidiary, in June 2017 to seize market opportunities by helping customers achieve a healthy lifestyle through innovative IoT technology, products, and services.uCare Medical Electronics General Manager Tony Tung-Hung Lu said that the company focuses mainly on the healthcare and sports markets. For the health market, the company targets rehabilitation needs of hospitals or nursing units and provides solutions or systematic services using sports medicine to treat patients undergoing stroke, cardiac, and sarcopenia rehabilitation. For the sports market, the company leverages the technical background in optical, mechanical, electrical, and thermal technology, and software of Coretronic, its parent company, to help commercial gyms improve fitness outcomes through the integrated application of sensors, gamification software, gym management systems, and even AI.For example, both traditional and digital aerobic and strength training equipment can be outfitted with uCare's sensors to detect and track people's speed, stride rate, and stride length on treadmills or speed, distance, and cadence on fitness bikes. As for strength training equipment, uCare sensors can track the type of exercise, set weight, actual repetitions as well as the acceleration and force used during each exercise.It is worth noting that data like these can be of immense value for each member of the fitness ecosystem. For example, gym owners can check the collected data to track the usage rate of each piece of equipment and plan maintenance accordingly. Trainers can use the same set of data to analyze which clients may need personal trainer services. In addition, users can reference the data as a detailed record of their exercise status to understand the progress and effectiveness of their fitness routines.Gamified Sensors: Creating Safe, Fun, and Effective SolutionsDr. Lu concluded by saying that, roughly speaking, uCare's products can be divided into three categories, all of which are delivered via B2B sales channels to their final locations. The first category of products targets hospitals, which includes cardiac training and testing, sarcopenia preventative care and training, and other sport rehabilitation services. The second category targets gyms. While the focus was initially on high-end gyms, more recently the company has shifted its focus to community gyms and schools. And lastly, home products, which uCare delivers by working with content service providers to integrate sensor models, games, or apps into pre-existing services to make them safe, effective, and fun.For hospital products, uCare usually starts by assisting with vital sign assessments of patients, so that doctors can make exercise prescriptions accordingly. These prescriptions can then be fed into a uCare-developed system to be converted into computer-readable instructions for gym equipment, allowing patients to safely reach their prescribed fitness intensity.For gym products, the company's solutions mainly use force or flow sensors to detect user movement and extract information that can be used in various applications such as gamified interfaces. A good example of this would be uCare's rowing machine which was selected by the Industrial Development Bureau, Ministry of Economic Affairs to be one of the categories in this year's (2021) ITSPORT event.Home products are a new business opportunity that has rapidly emerged during the pandemic. Because user immersion is important for home users, uCare emphasized user experience in the design of home sports products. For example, users can integrate uCare sensors into exercise bikes or treadmills of different brands and then compete with friends remotely through a gamified software in a smart device, such as tablets."We use sensors as a means to collect data and analyze it to develop various types of sports games," said Dr. Lu. In other words, any sports equipment can be armed with uCare sensors to work with uCare-developed gamified software. uCare also works directly with equipment manufacturers to integrate solutions into fitness machines, so that users can interact with built-in gamified software when using the machine. This has the advantage of supporting two-way resistance, making interactions with the game's virtual world feel even more immersive. In addition, uCare's gaming cloud application service supports sports social application functions to help users connect with friends to exercise and communicate with each other. For fitness equipment manufacturers, such social platforms can also be used to facilitate maintenance, management, and participation in the community, and serve as a preliminary implementation of digital sports applications for the metaverse going forward.In a nutshell, uCare's biggest advantage lies in its vertically integrated solutions, from signal sensors to applications. Users need only install uCare hardware to gain access to the full catalog of uCare software. Furthermore, uCare medical and fitness applications place safety, effectiveness, and fun at the forefront, distinguishing the company from its competitors.uCare Medical Electronics Invests in Sensor Technology to Develop Smart Healthcare and Sports ApplicationsPhoto: Company

ADLINK EGX-MXM-A1000, EGX-MXM-A2000 and EGX-MXM-A4500 are the first modules to use NVIDIA's embedded GPUs based on NVIDIA Ampere architecture. ADLINK embedded MXM graphics modules offers high performance GPU acceleration in the compact, power-efficient MXM form factor, bringing edge computing and embedded AI to numerous vertical markets in healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and more. Rugged design built for severe temperature extremes, shock and vibration, and corrosion in harsh conditions.ADLINK Technology Inc., a global leader in edge computing, today introduced the industry's first embedded MXM graphics modules based on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, built for accelerated computing and AI workloads at the edge. The new embedded graphics modules deliver real-time ray tracing, AI-accelerated graphics and energy-efficient AI inference acceleration in the compact mobile PCI express (MXM) form factor. These modules enhance responsiveness, precision and reliability for mission-critical, time-sensitive applications in healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, gaming and other sectors."Computing and AI workloads are shifting from the cloud to the edge to shorten response time, enhance security and lower communication costs. With more and more data being processed at the edge, the performance requirements are getting higher while the power budget remains nearly unchanged. The NVIDIA Ampere architecture delivers a major boost in performance and power efficiency, which enables general computation, image processing and reconstruction, and AI inference at the edge to advance to the next level," said Zane Tsai, director of platform product center, ADLINK."The NVIDIA Ampere architecture delivers breakthrough performance and features, combining the latest generation RT Cores, Tensor Cores, CUDA Cores, PCIe Gen 4, and NVIDIA video codecs," said Scott Fitzpatrick, vice president of product marketing at NVIDIA. "As rendering and simulation become ubiquitous across industries, NVIDIA's latest embedded solutions offer up to 2x rendering performance, 2x FP32 throughput, as well as hardware-accelerated video encoding and decoding for significant increases in both graphics and compute workloads."Based on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, ADLINK's embedded MXM GPU modules offer up to 5,120 CUDA Cores, 160 Tensor Cores, and 40 RT Cores with support for PCIe Gen 4 and up to 16GB GDDR6 memory at up to 115 watts of TGP. These modules can satisfy compute-intensive, graphics-demanding, memory-hungry applications. They are one-fifth the size of full-height, full-length PCI Express graphics cards, and are hardened to operate under severe temperature extremes, shock and vibration, and corrosion resistance for use in size, weight and power-constrained edge environments. These embedded graphics modules offer longevity support for five years. Developers, solution architects and system integrators can innovate new solutions with confidence that the supply is steady through a product life cycle.Applications of the embedded MXM graphics modules include:Healthcare: Accelerated image reconstruction for mobile X-ray, ultrasound, and endoscopic systemsTransportation: Real-time object detection on railways or airport runways to enhance transport safety Retail and Logistics: Navigation and route planning for autonomous drones and mobile robots (AMRs) to assist with last-mile delivery Aerospace and Defense: Time-sensitive and mission-critical command, control, communications, computers (C4) applications; intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) applications Gaming: Immersive and stunning visuals experience for multi-display gaming machinesFor more information, visit the product page here.ADLINK launches first embedded MXM graphics modules based on NVIDIA Ampere architecture for edge computing and AIPhoto: Company

2021 has been an exciting year for the telecommunications industry: the buzz driven by 5G technology, the early rollouts of high-speed Wi-Fi 6E, the stunning rise of ultra-wideband (UWB) technology, and the revolution brought about by O-RAN white-box small cell installations are among some of the most exciting innovations of the year. To take advantage of these upcoming trends, LitePoint decided to hold the "Smart Manufacturing, Quality Manufacturing, Way to Victory" Innovation and Testing Technology Forum in Taipei and Hsinchu on November 9 and 11, 2021, respectively. As a major technology forum held at the end of 2021, a wide range of industry applications and testing solutions were presented at the event to showcase the brand competence of various wireless communication product vendors, as well as accelerate their production and time to market (TTM) to help them seize business opportunities.Seizing Business Opportunities with the Latest Wireless Communication TechnologiesElvin Ren, LitePoint's General Manager of Sales in Taiwan, India and South East Asia, began the forum by describing LitePoint's development strategy for various wireless testing solutions including 5G and Wi-Fi. To meet the testing challenges and seize the business opportunities brought by large-scale manufacturing of 5G products in 2021, LitePoint's strategy is to help the electronics supply chain accomplish effective mass production through multi-DUT testing, millimeter wave testing, and production line testing with automated test equipment (ATE).Adonis Lee, LitePoint's Sales Director, discussed how the recent trends of remote work and the metaverse have caused a dramatic increase in the demand for wireless transmission technologies and data bandwidth required for large-scale two-way communications. The trend has created new requirements and markets for various wireless products in the new spectrum used by 5G, Wi-Fi 6E, and UWB, giving rise to previously unseen applications. LitePoint is constantly keeping track of the advancement of different wireless technologies to quickly integrate upstream chip vendors' capabilities and provide faster, simpler, and more cost-effective testing solutions, as to help customers seize the best windows of opportunity for profit.Latest Developments in the Wi-Fi 7 EraEugene Chow, Senior Director of Broadcom's Engineering Technology Department in Asia, started by sharing the latest developments of Wi-Fi 7—a new technology that will debut in the market in 2022-2024, officially known as the IEEE 802.11be standard for wireless networks but more commonly called Extremely High Throughput (EHT). This technology is distinguished by its ultra-high bandwidth. It features a maximum transmission rate of 46.1Gbps delivered through 320MHz bandwidth, using 4096 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) and 16x16 multiple input multiple output (MIMO) technology, as well as offering support for multi-link operation (MLO) and multi-RU modes, and compatibility with the 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz bands. Due to cost considerations, Eugene predicted that the main products in the market will use 4x4 MIMO architectures with a transmission rate capped at 11Gbps. Draft 1.0 of IEEE 802.11be was already released back in May 2021, so the official standard is expected to be completed in 2024. Therefore, compatibility testing will likely start around December 2023.Eugene's presentation focused on several key features of the network protocol, starting with the development of the MLO specs. He explained that Wi-Fi 7 is currently being developed with augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) and metaverse applications in mind by leveraging the newly-released 6GHz spectrum. Despite its many advantages, Wi-Fi 7 demands a great leap forward in terms of the quality of service and latency (QoS/Latency), with each device needing to support at least 1Gbps transmission rate. MLO was created specifically to meet these demands.Eugene's second topic was the use of automated frequency coordination (AFC) to solve spectrum congestion. This works by consulting a spectrum allocation database to find an appropriate spectrum for the geographical area the devices are located in. Since one of the selling points of Wi-Fi 7 is the incorporation of a 320MHz bandwidth, it is likely to focus on the newly-released 6GHz band due to existing sub 5GHz bands being so heavily occupied. However, the allowed spectrum in the 6GHz band is quite limited, so the low power indoor (LPI) context poses many challenges. To overcome these, access point (AP) devices can use AFC to find an appropriate unoccupied spectrum in the 6GHz band to connect to Wi-Fi 7 indoors. AFC requires the GPS location of each AP device to function, so the new chipsets will need built-in GPS support. Eugene said that the relevant protocols and mechanisms will gradually be ironed out by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the technology matures and chip vendors continue to give active feedback on IEEE 802.11be. He concluded that the future development of the IEEE 802.11be product line will offer a lot of opportunities to tap into.LitePoint Demonstrates Mass-Production-Ready, High-Efficiency Wi-Fi 6E Testing SolutionsYoung Huang, Factory Applications Engineer at LitePoint, took the stage next. His talk focused on the challenges of Wi-Fi 6E engineering and mass manufacturing testing, as well as testing preparations going into Wi-Fi 7. The use of the 6GHz spectrum is currently the focus of the market, and the COVID-19 pandemic has further driven the adoption of larger bandwidths. Based on the current Wi-Fi 6 product segmentation, it is estimated that the global Wi-Fi 6E product penetration will grow to an impressive 30% by the end of 2021.As a result, the market is seeing intense competition in the struggle for dominance in the Wi-Fi 6E chipset segment. Because the 6GHz spectrum will continue to be used in the future Wi-Fi 7 protocol, the Wi-Fi 7 specs in draft 1.0 already include utilization of 4096 QAM and 320MHz bandwidth. Given the multiple overlapping 320MHz channels in the 6GHz spectrum, MLO functions like preamble puncturing can provide Wi-Fi 6 and future Wi-Fi 7 devices with more flexibility in the selection of bands and channels.Furthermore, in Wi-Fi 7, MLO enables simultaneous use of the 5GHz and 6GHz bands through the combination of different 160MHz channels. For example, although an AP device may only register one media access control address (MAC address), the connection may actually be taking place through either the 5GHz or the 6GHz bands in the port physical layer (PHY layer), depending on which is more stable or faster at that time. Alternatively, bands in both spectrums may also be combined to increase total throughput. Functions like this are designed to solve wireless congestion in public areas caused by a larger number of simultaneous Wi-Fi connections.The current Wi-Fi 6E already includes BW20/40/80/160 bandwidth options, bridging the likes of UNII-6 and UNII-8 bands, or Channel 119 of BW80 and Channel 111 of BW160. Countries have also set different power categories for the 6GHz spectrum, such as Standard Power, Low Power Indoor, or Very Low Power. Devices providing Wi-Fi connectivity, such as AP devices and routers, need to strike an optimal match between each source component to truly deliver excellent performance in the 6GHz spectrum, a goal with its fair share of challenges. For instance, the 6GHz spectrum covers the incredibly wide 1200Mhz band and components will likely have different performances in different frequencies. Another example would be accurate control of the power spectrum to achieve interference mitigation from coexisting bands within the 6GHz spectrum. All of these need to be supported by reliable testing solutions.LitePoint's IQxel series solutions, including IQxel-MW 6G, IQxel-MW 7G, and IQxel-MX, are designed to test BW160 and BW320 specs for Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, and the future Wi-Fi 7. Among them, IQxel-MX is a solution that supports all stages from engineering verification to mass production, IQxel-M2X deals with design validation and testing (DVT), IQxel-M8X is for Mobile (STA) mass production testing, and IQxel-M16X is aimed at AP mass production testing. These solutions utilize precise power control capabilities to complete complex testing and are indispensable for testing Wi-Fi 6E devices in the industry.UWB Precision Distance Measurement Helps NXP Target the Vehicle, Mobile and IoT MarketsThe afternoon session was headed by Allen Lee, Senior Engineer at NXP, focusing on solutions and applications of UWB technology. UWB uses time-of-flight (ToF) to determine distance with below 10 cm accuracy, making it highly suited for various security applications such as facial recognition, location-based services (LBS), and device-to-device mutual identification. With the latest trend of security-focused mobile phone applications and smart city applications—such as electric vehicle charging poles, traffic light duration control, crowd flow control, and many other emergent applications—still on the rise, UWB will come to permeate every aspect of life in the future.Allen said that NXP's UWB semiconductor solution is based on the Trimension product line, which provides security applications for vehicles and mobile devices. For instance, one can use a UWB key to open car doors when one's both hands are occupied. The company's solution also targets other smart home applications such as smart access keys, which are already utilized by international franchise hotels in Taiwan. In the U.S., UWB has also been integrated in distance warning applications in response to COVID-19.NXP makes it a point to incorporate Bluetooth and near field communications (NFC) technology as backups to UWB, a design choice crucial for battery-powered devices. UWB's precision and security advantages can also be used to detect object distances within or outside of vehicles to trigger corresponding in-vehicle smart applications for an enhanced user experience. In terms of security, NXP's solutions have also acquired complete China Compulsory Certificate (CCC) marks.LitePoint IQgig-UWB Precision Positioning Solution Perfect for UWB Mass Production TestingChris Chao, LitePoint's Manager of the Greater China Application Engineers, took the stage next. He started by commenting on the rapid growth of the UWB market, speaking of how UWB applications have been some of the few to prosper amidst the global economic impact caused by COVID-19. The technology has become a favorite among clients, with the number of UWB projects between Taiwan and China reaching a record high over the past six months in 2021, nearly matching the flourishing Wi-Fi market.The success of UWB can largely be attributed to the popularity of 3D positioning. UWB can achieve accurate 3D positioning with below 10 cm accuracy using only four sensors. The FiRa Consortium has also proposed three main uses for UWB: hands-free access control services, location-based services (LBS), and inter-device interactive services. UWB's precision positioning functionality and data transfer capability have triggered a surge of versatile applications in the market.There are three major requirements for UWB testing. First is regulatory testing, which means that the power spectral density needs to be in line with government regulations, such as FCC Part 15 compliance. Second is interoperability testing, that checks whether the software can interact with other software components and systems. The third is performance testing. LitePoint's IQgig-UWB tester is built to meet customer demands, featuring IEEE 802.15.4z specs certification with a complete suite of calibration utilities that cover the 5 to 19 GHz spectrum used by UWB. The tester uses the IQfact+™ ATE mass production assistance software and built-in standard testing functions, which can generate graphical data analysis of testing results through IQramp, making it the best solution for automated UWB measurements. The IQgig-UWB tester has been certified by the FiRa Consortium for PHY layer conformance testing, qualifying it as a standard tester for internationally accredited laboratories.5G Testing Solution Demonstrates Seamless Integration from Engineering Design to Multi-DUT Mass Production TestingAlex Hsieh, LitePoint's Director of Cellular Application Engineering in Asia, was the next speaker. His presentation focused on dissecting 5G development trends, explaining that LitePoint first entered the 5G testing solution market in 2017 and generated high revenues from the smartphone-centric 5G market. With the global 5G userbase estimated to grow to 3.5 billion users by 2026, the increasing variety of smart applications available is projected to cause the 5G market to grow to 4.7 times the size of the smartphone market. It is also worth noting that while Internet service providers (ISPs) from the U.S. and China are leading the globe in standalone (SA) 5G, a total of 12 ISPs from around the globe are also planning to adopt SA 5G architecture, setting the scene for even broader application scenarios.LitePoint's testing solutions cover everything from the initial chip design validation, chip mass production, and communication module testing, to the development, manufacturing, and mass production of the entire product system; all of the testing can be conducted under a single platform. LitePoint offers three main testers: the IQxstream-5G for the sub-6GHz spectrum, IQgig-IF for the 5-19GHz mid-band spectrum, and IQgig-5G for the 23-45GHz high-band spectrum. These solutions cover testing for the complete 5G spectrum, from FR1 to FR2, and use the IQfact5G (chip development testing) and IQfactATM (module development testing) software as ATE aids to simplify the setup of parameters and validate the characteristics of the test object, achieving cost-efficient and time-expedient testing for mass production.Real-World Testing Solutions Achieved Through Signaling Testing to Ensure 5G Product QualityMarcus Chen, LitePoint's Factory Applications Engineer, followed up with a presentation on IQcell-5G, a signaling testing solution that checks actual data exchange and transmission in usage scenarios after establishing a network connection. This solution is often used in end-of-line (EOL) testing, user experience validation, and communication product compliance validation to assess connection quality, antenna sensitivity performance, and data transmission performance, as well as for quality assurance (QA) stress testing. The IQcell-5G platform supports FR1-spectrum NSA and SA network testing as well as FR2 NSA networks. As for the corresponding ATE software, it uses IQfact-S as both a test aid and a built-in testing program.5G Small Cell and O-RAN Testing Systems Unveiled Amidst Booming Growth in the 5G Application MarketThe last speaker was Middle Wen, LitePoint's Product Manager, who finished the forum with a presentation titled "The Next Key Deployment in 5G Networks: Small Cell and O-RAN Radio Units". According to him, this is an emerging area with extensive prospective development opportunities for Taiwan's network and server supply chain.Middle explained that 5G technology has revolutionized telecom room layouts from the 4G era. ISPs are now embracing open-source systems for both efficiency and cost. Industry alliances like the O-RAN Alliance, Telecom Infra Project (TIP), and Small Cell Forum (SCF) have stepped up to set open standards and lead the radio unit revolution using small cell and O-RAN technology.Elvin Ren, LitePoint's General Manager of Sales in Taiwan, India and South East Asia

It has been many years since the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a reality, and system architectures have undergone many adjustments to meet the latest challenges. Because of these, the idea of edge computing was born. As the computing power of edge devices increases, the overall performance of systems has also improved. However, high computing power naturally increases power consumption. In addition, as the number of network devices gets larger, their locations more dispersed, and their deployment environments more varied, supplying power to devices has become increasingly challenging. As a power supply veteran, FSP foresaw new power supply demands and launched myriad products to meet the edge computing needs of customers. In recent years, the company has joined hands with partners of the 5G Ecosystem Alliance to create the most suitable solutions for different sectors.In its early days, IoT primarily operated using a centralized computing architecture, wherein an upper cloud platform was in charge of centrally computing the data returned from all the edge devices. This approach not only overburdened the upper cloud platform with heavy computing demands, but the greatly increased bandwidth requirements and signal travel time caused an increase in system latency, resulting in poor performance. To solve this problem, edge computing was introduced. With an edge computing architecture, edge devices and the cloud platform are both assigned important roles. Since the edge device has a certain degree of computing power, it is able to immediately respond and give feedback to user needs, while the cloud platform only needs to receive the filtered and processed data from the edge device then store that data for long-term analysis. This approach is able to enhance the overall system performance and efficiency. Many fields have already adopted an edge computing architecture. One notable example would be facial recognition devices, which are now commonly used in access control systems. Other fields, including transportation, manufacturing, retail, medical, gaming, and many others have also found ways to apply this architecture.While edge computing can significantly improve system performance, it also poses a challenge to the power supply design of end devices. FSP pointed out that under a centralized computing architecture, edge devices only need to acquire and transmit data; in addition, the relatively simple functions of the devices have kept power supply designs simple. Now in the edge computing era, however, existing general-purpose power supplies are increasingly unable to meet market demands. First, the hardware and software functions of edge devices under the edge computing architecture are very different due to the multiple purposes they serve. Second, as the number of connected devices continues to increase and the environments they are located in are more diverse, managing the devices has also become extremely difficult. Finally, edge devices are usually small in size, which makes it exceedingly challenging to satisfy the efficiency and heat dissipation standards for their power supplies. Thankfully, FSP's product layout can solve all these problems.In order to meet the needs of edge computing, FSP has developed three product strategies: small-volume PSUs with variable power density, high efficiency, and manageability. In terms of small-volume PSUs with variable power density, FSP has a complete product line from which equipment manufacturers can easily select power supplies that best meet their size and power density needs. In terms of high efficiency, FSP also works closely with partners to draw from their expertise and FSP's own design capabilities to provide solutions that can effectively dissipate heat in high-intensity operations to enhance system stability. As for manageability, FSP products support a wide range of mainstream industrial protocols in the market to facilitate the management of distributed edge devices.FSP further pointed out that the company not only engages in equipment manufacturing, but is also actively developing its own FSP-branded products. This proximity to market demands means that FSP's products can meet client demands both in terms of specifications and price. Additionally, the company's leading position in the market has been cemented by the breadth and depth of its product layout. This allows edge device equipment manufacturers to quickly create an edge-computing architecture solution that meets customers' needs by using FSP's one-stop-shop service. In addition to its own technical capabilities and product layout, FSP has actively engaged in cross-field collaborations. In recent years, the company has joined hands with partners of the 5G Ecosystem Alliance, including JPC, Chenbro, and ADLINK to integrate their products into solutions. According to FSP, the alliance members are all similarly positioned in each of their respective markets, which is why their combined efforts can create an even more impressive synergy. As for its future plans, FSP will continue to invest in R&D, expand its product line, and deepen collaboration with the 5G Ecosystem Alliance members to provide power supplies that excel in both performance and stability.While edge computing can significantly improve system performance, it also poses a challenge to the power supply design of end devices

JPC Connectivity is well known for its connectors and cables. However, as early as 2000, JPC stepped into manufacturing peripherals like mice and speakers, and then even expanded its product lines to the areas such as wireless charging. Today, JPC Connectivity is solid on the development of consumer IoT products.Four key techniques support JPC's success in maintaining a stable development of its IoT business for many years. They are wireless interfaces, energy management, sensors, and user experience (UX).Mastering 4 major niches and strengthening the design capabilitiesThe wireless interface is always the most critical part of an IoT product. This is why JPC continuously invests considerable huge resources into the development of wireless technologies like Wi-Fi, infrared, Bluetooth, LoRa, and NB-IoT. As for energy management, JPC also keeps a clear focus on improving the charging with high energy efficiency when JPC was developing its first wireless charging stations for smartphones and tablets back in 2007 and 2008.Even though the market of sensor modules is dominated by the major chip vendors, JPC still keeps the design capability on integrating the wireless parts with sensor components for flexible designs to meet different customization requests. Based on JPC's experience by working with major consumer electronic brands, JPC is highly capable of deriving a thorough understanding of product usage scenarios and creating the optimal user experience which matches best the user needs.An impressive product portfolio may support the evidence of JPC's success. For example, JPC worked with a major smartphone manufacturer to make the Qi charging docks and phone cases. JPC also manufactured the AC adapters for Russian telecommunication companies, designed the charging docks for name-brand tablets, and produced universal AC/DC adapters for laptops.JPC was also the first company to be certified by the Windows Media Center. As one of the pioneers in developing Infrared remote controllers, JPC develops products from its proprietary protocols to its modern Bluetooth frameworks. It built a wireless presentation remote controller, which was a multi-function pioneer in the remote market.From the early days of the 21st Century, JPC has acted mainly as a manufacturer of OEM and ODM products after it steps into the IoT industry.Innovative technologies enable local smart control sustained when the WAN is offline.JPC has great experience collaborating with major e-commerce platforms. Not only was JPC one of the first companies to make a bar code scanner that is equipped with both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but it was also manufacturing OEM smart buttons and IR blasters to improve the shopping experiences for end customers by creating a convenient smart home way.Currently, wireless modules, sensor modules, and 2-in-1 wireless accelerometers are the main products of JPC. JPC specializes in making customized proof of concept (POC) prototypes with those modules to help customers to accelerate product development or even to combine them with other products to form complete smart terminal devices.Recently, JPC also entered the market of consumer devices, such as smart plugs and sensor hubs, which can be used as fundamentals to meet more advanced needs such as the replacement cycle tracking for water filters or the water level detection of fish tank/bathtub.In addition, the sensor hubs are the pride of JPC, as they adopt a patented "Sensor Cube" technology, which allows for five different sensors to be controlled through one single control board unlike traditional one-to-one sensor control IC chips.Overall, JPC has a clear R&D focus on sensors as its IoT strategy, which includes both sensors and module products. In the future, JPC aims the vertical integration with smart edge gateways, cloud technology, user interface, and more comprehensive environmental monitoring solutions to move consumer applications onto industrial applications such as smart factories.The common environmental detection solutions in the industry nowadays rely on the instructions delegated from the cloud. The disadvantage to this approach is that once the device loses WAN connection, the user loses its ability to control peripheral devices, which does not meet the public's expectations of smart control. To overcome this, JPC combines network gateways, AI, and edge computation technology to fulfill meaningful smart control, so the users can keep the control capabilities and applications of smart home or smart factory functions locally the WAN connection is off.In conclusion, JPC demonstrates its capabilities from design to manufacturing from extensive experience. It plans to leverage its resources to maximize its developing capability and flexibility to build tailored IoT solutions for its customers.JPC Connectivity continuously enhances the capability on developing IoT products with its solid expertise and experiencePhoto: Company

In the post pandemic era, global supply chains are restructured and dramatically changed. As industries around the world accelerate their digital transformation to create new business opportunity, the technologies of 5G and AIoT are becoming the key driving forces. The mainstream sectors such as healthcare, retail and manufacturing continue increase the market demands. SYNNEX, an industry leader in IT distribution, hosts 5G and AIoT on-line event named "High speed connection to enable smart applications" in December 2021. The invited keynote speakers are from Microsoft Taiwan, Intel and ITRI. This event focused on several key topics including 5G, Robotics Operating System (ROS), Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Edge Computing to help industrial players to enhance global competitiveness by applying smart applications.Gartner has positioned Microsoft Azure IoT as a Leader of platformDaniel Li, the director of Taiwan's Microsoft IoT Center of Excellence, in his keynote speech session, noted that 5G and AIoT technologies accelerating digital transformation. According to 2021 Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms report, Gartner has positioned Microsoft Azure IoT as a Leader outperform other 11 industrial platforms. As Microsoft invested in capabilities to build Industrial IoT Platform, there were several key tenets including "Security first," "Open and Interoperable," "Edge and Cloud" and "Partner Led."Microsoft Taiwan teams are execution-focused. While a rare rise in Taiwan community COVID-19 transmissions starting mid-May in 2021, the Taiwan Technical partners and Microsoft join development to deliver several software projects for helping to combat the epidemic, Li highlights. The results are fruitful. The first is the intelligent face mask body temperature detection system. This software package is published in the Github sites for free. The second system is monitoring silent hypoxia phenomenon. The third is social distancing detector and object detection model to segregate humans warning system. The forth is the use of the HoloLens 2 mixed reality headset for critical patient care to reduce the pressures on burnt out hospital staff.In the other hand, he looks at 5G use cases with lots of viable high-speed data networking applications. Especially in the edge computing sectors, more and more AI-enabled inference systems emerge. The examples showing in his slides are ATTABOTICS's AGV systems, Tagtile's mixed reality training systems and Everseen's visual AI solution to detect and reduce customer errors at self-checkout gasoline stations.Talking about Microsoft Azure for Operators offerings, this is dedicated for Telecoms to drive digital transformation and turn 5G mobile networks into new service revenue with new business models. Meanwhile, in the Azure security offerings provide highly secure cloud security and compliance standards products for enterprises and government organizations.Azure IoT solution enabling more creative biz models for transformation5G technologies enable not only mobile business but also private networks and IoT applications. Terry Chang, Microsoft Asia IoT Partner specialist from Global Partner Solution Team, talked about Azure IoT well-architected framework and solutions with use cases sharing.The current Azure IoT framework provides multiple services including THINGS, INSIGHT and ACTION. These approaches will link IoT devices, platforms and applications. For example, the use of IoT Provision Services is very powerful platform to link massive devices. And Azure IoT Hub plays the role for bridging the key features such as DIGITAL Twins and IoT Edge in Action. There is a good example to show how MAERSK, a leading global integrated logistics company, using IoT Hub services to track container ship locations and schedules.The existing pace of development for IoT solutions are based on tracking events to get the data for enhancing insights to better process utilization and decision making. For best fitting this requirements, Azure IoT offers built-in security features with data privacy and protection from smart edge nodes to the cloud. Taking smart scenarios of office space utilization as an example, Once Azure IoT Hub detecting the connected devices, the systems will consolidate the data of the consecutive events including people, locations and objects from Azure Digital Twins and Azure Data Service. This design is transforming office space Into Smart Space applications with Azure for improving business process by increasing working efficiency of stuff members and having better interactive actions with customers.ROS with Azure showcasing AI edge applications for good landing use casesTommy Wu, Microsoft Senior IoT Technical Specialist from Global Partner Solution Team, gave his speech for the computer vision applications with ROS devices based on Azure AI/ML edge solutions. His focus is Azure IoT Edge to create a computer vision landing solution with trained AI models in the cloud environment. The benefits of an edge system are low latency performance and advantage. Computer vision leveraging the Azure AI spatial analysis feature offers the ability to understand people's movements in a physical space, significantly increasing efficiency to detect social distancing and object detection for counting humans across the different locations. Talking about AI model training, the Custom Vision Service is an image classifier that is trained in the cloud. This high efficient tools give the possibility to run AI model next to robotic cameras to recognize the objects for avoiding collision.Azure IoT Security with a Zero Trust security model builds secure architectureBurt Lien, Microsoft Senior IoT Technical Specialist from Global Partner Solution Team, talked about topic of Azure IoT Security. Microsoft has adopted a Zero Trust strategy to secure corporate and customer data from OT networks. It will help to protect data, people, devices and applications.In this event, there was one session to talk about Azure Digital Twins. Philip Chen, Microsoft IoT Solution Architect does the presentation. Azure Digital Twins is a platform that creates a digital representation of real-world things, places, business processes, and people. Chen highlights DTDL, the language to describe models for simulating, learning, analyzing and predicting. After Chen's talk, National Measurement Laboratory (NML) Senior Engineer Lin showcases medical use case to apply Azure Digital Twins in surgical operation room. .Intel offers ONNX Runtime to accelerate AI Inference from cloud to edgeThe last session is presented by Neo Wong, Intel platform R&D manager. He talked to use Intel OpenVINO Toolkit for developing ONNX models, which is an open format built to represent machine learning models. Intel and Microsoft form the software stack bringing Interoperability to machine learning frameworks for accelerating AI at the edge. The AI models that are trained in the cloud need to be optimized to take advantage of the combination of the AI hardware and software. Then, running ONNX Runtime will apply AI inferencing at the edge nodes. This approach enables current ONNX models could running on many Intel hardware platforms including CPUs, GPUs and VPUs with ONNX Runtime and the Intel OpenVINO execution tools.The combination of edge computing and powerful AI engines is becoming a key aspect of a successful digital business model for enterprises. And open source tools are at the heart of nearly every innovation in cloud computing. Meanwhile, the coming 5G and AIoT innovative business development environment and Azure cloud services empower enterprises to enable digital transformation. Leveraging Azure products and services to build applications make it easy to take advantage of this innovation and create the immense values.

World-leading PC brand MSI hosts virtual events to unveil the MSI-VERSE and the latest innovations for the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show. The online events allow MSI to provide consumers with an immersive and interactive experience beyond the limitations of distance and time.MSI Vice President of Marketing Sam Chern said, "The mystery of the origins of the universe, time, and space have always spurred our interest. With the help of aesthetics and science, we can begin to understand these mysteries. Combining aesthetics and technology to make cutting-edge products has always been our mission and core value. As a premium brand, MSI has continuously evolved its gaming and creator series lines to the next level. MSI infuses different domains, including aesthetics, science, and music, to create a strong immersive atmosphere, which expresses and even stimulates our understanding of the universe, leading us into a new era of the metaverse. By making best-in-class products for gamers and content creators, MSI is ready to help users go beyond their limits. No matter if you are a 2D or 3D designer, VR user, or building your own metaverse, you will find high-quality, low-latency performance in all of our selections."MSI-VERSEMSI-VERSE consists of three series: Gaming, Content Creation, and Business and Productivity. Users can explore the latest hardware & software solutions, join streaming activities, play games, earn virtual coins, and get a chance to win grand prizes in an immersive and interactive way through the MSI-VERSE.MSI latest products and innovations for CES 2022 include:MSI Stealth GS77 Gaming LaptopStealth GS77 is armed with the latest 12th Gen. Intel Core i9 processors and powered by NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics. Supreme performance with ultra-lightweight design, the Stealth GS series brings infinite possibilities for businesspeople-slash-gamers. Highlights include the Phase Change Liquid Metal Pad, 99.9Whr capacity battery and Wi-Fi 6E.MSI Raider GE76 Gaming LaptopRaider GE76's ultra-high performance and solid build provide a gaming experience beyond the limitations of space. Equipped with the latest 12th Gen. Intel Core i9 processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics and the Phase Change Liquid Metal Pad, Raider GE76 incarnates like a spaceship soaring through the boundless space. The Raider GE76, which represents the concept of MSI's continuous evolution, will lead gamers in their exploration of the unknown universe!MSI Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction Edition Gaming LaptopMSI has teamed up with Ubisoft's Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction to release the all-new limited Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction Edition. Unknown forces are invading, and the user is the last hope for mankind. They are armed with the discreetly developed advanced gaming weapon - Crosshair 15 Rainbow Six Extraction Edition. Equipped with up to the latest 12th Gen. Intel Core i9 processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics, get ready to aim, fire, and retake your position!MSI MEG Aegis Ti5 Gaming DesktopSetting the trends of the future and breaking through the traditional gaming machine concept, MSI MEG Aegis Ti5 will bring a new user experience. Inheriting the Aegis series' avant-garde design, the MEG Aegis Ti5 is even more futuristic. MSI designed the exclusive Gaming Dial, so users can view the status of Aegis Ti5 from the front panel. Moreover, MEG Aegis Ti 5 12th features the latest 12th Gen Intel Core processors, and the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card, so 3A games can run smoothly. Built with the latest technology, the all-new MEG Aegis Ti5 allows players to explore the new era.MSI MAG Trident S 5M Cloud Gaming DesktopMSI MAG Trident S 5M Cloud Gaming Desktop offers true immersion in cloud gaming with just one gaming controller. Through the exclusive "Game Stadium" application, gamers will enjoy cloud gaming, mobile games, PC games, and more on different platforms in the Windows system with one controller. And last but not least, there's a variety of entertainment software that awaits users to continue the fun!MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD Gaming MonitorOptix MPG321UR-QD gets users ready for the next level of gaming. The best solution for console gaming and PC gaming at 144Hz at 4K resolution, the Optix MPG231UR-QD is the experience users deserve.MSI Intel H670 / B660 / H610 Series MotherboardsThe latest Intel H670 / B660 / H610 Series motherboards provide both DDR5 and DDR4 versions to meet the demands of all users. The new motherboards feature mighty power phases up to 14 Duet Rail Power System, Memory Boost, and optimized thermal solutions which guarantee system stability along with high performance. The latest specifications such as 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 6E, and USB 3.2 Gen2 x2 are included to further improve the experience for gamers.MSI Intel H670 / B660 / H610 Series MotherboardsMSI's motherboard and PC case cooperate with EKMSI and EK released their first jointly-commissioned cooling part, debuting in early 2022. Designed in partnership with EK, MSI MEG PROSPECT 700 Series can install the EK-Quantum Reflection2 MEG Prospect 700R PWM D-RGB – Plexi and the MPG Z690 CARBON EK X and MAG Z690 TORPEDO EK X motherboard. It is a dream rig for the next generation.MSI x EVANGELION e:PROJECT Co-branding EditionMSI is also excited to partner with EVANGELION e: PROJECT to announce a collaboration for a motherboard, liquid cooler, power supply, and PC case. EVANGELION e: PROJECT is an e-sports brand that incorporates the world of EVANGELION. The design adopts the appearance of the Evangelion Unit-01, with its iconic purple and green color scheme that is worthy of helping DIY users build their own iconic Evangelion-inspired gaming system.EVANGELION e: PROJECTMSI SUPRIM Graphics CardThe MSI SUPRIM X graphics card intertwines performance and prestige in a culmination of decades of advanced circuit design and cooling development.MSI SPATIUM M480 PLAY SSDMSI SPATIUM M480 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 PLAY sports a sleek black aluminum heatsink that was designed for use with the PS5. With a lower profile, the new dual-finish heatsink ensures maximum performance across all gaming platforms. Compliance with PCIe Gen 4 and NVMe 1.4 standards unleashes extreme sequential read speeds up to 7000MB/s.MSI GK71 Sonic Gaming KeyboardMSI GK71 Sonic Keyboard is a mid to high-end gaming keyboard that aims to enhance the user's experience by focusing on comfort, practicality, and aesthetics. The exclusively-developed MSI Sonic Red mechanical switches so gamers can achieve "Light Touch, Instant Kill."MSI IMMERSE GH50 WIRELESS HeadsetMSI Immerse GH50 Wireless is MSI's first wireless gaming headset utilizing a small form-factor ceramic antenna to provide ultra-low latency, expanded wireless range up to 65ft (20m), a premium immersive 7.1 spatial audio experience with 50mm neodymium drivers, and an advanced software application.MSI IMMERSE GV60 STREAMING MICMSI Immerse GV60 Streaming Mic, MSI's first streaming microphone, brings the studio anywhere by incorporating all the core features streamers and content creators want – high-resolution sample rate, versatile pickup patterns, and real-time monitoring in a sleek matte-finished aluminum design. Product available in early Q1 2022.MSI Modern DM10 DesktopThe MSI Modern DM10 desktop PC pushes the boundaries of computing performance with incredible speed and intelligence. Designed with professionals in mind, the Modern DM10 brings users a powerful professional experience with technologies such as Neural Noise Suppression, audio background blur, video super-resolution support, and the latest in video codecs to foster productivity and add efficiency to critical tasks.MSI Creator Z16P LaptopThrough the beauty formed by the "Golden Ratio", the new Creator Z16P applies even more advanced technology than the last generation. It comes in a gorgeous Lunar Gray and CNC uni-body chassis with the latest 12th Gen. Intel Core i9 processor performance, up to the 16:10 golden ratio Display, pen support option, and smart vapor chamber cooling.MSI Creator Z17 LaptopThe Creator Z17 is the 1st 17-inch Pen Touch Laptop in the world, and comes in CNC uni-body chassis with the latest 12th Gen. Intel Core i9 processor performance. The 16:10 golden ratio Pen touch display and Trinity+ cooler boost that define the experience of Technology Meets Aesthetic.Personalized Your Surround Sound, Match Your UniquenessMSI's selected laptop speakers have been further optimized with Nahimic Audio by SteelSeries. Nahimic innovative surround sound personalization feature is designed to adapt to all types of ears and heads, thanks to a dynamic adjustment of the sound waves. Users can simply listen and choose one profile that fits their needs. Sound perception is forever changed.Laptop Launch Event – MSIOLOGY: MSI GAMEVERSEDate: Jan 4th 13:00PM PSTLocation: https://msi.gm/MSIology2022Virtual Event: MSI-VERSE:Date: Jan 5th 10:00AM PSTLocation: https://msi.gm/msi-verse2022

SYNNEX invited Microsoft IoT Center of Excellence and Intel to co-host event named "The Making of IoT Hackers" in Taiwan. This was for the purpose to cultivate talents using AIoT technologies and upgrade ecosystem value chains bringing together local partners and global tech giants. Market demand for increasingly sophisticated devices and applications plays to Taiwan's strengths by deepening Taiwan's talent pool in the fields of AIoT trends.This hackathon event took place from December 7 to 9, 2121 at Microsoft Taiwan headquarters in Taipei. There were total 10 teams joining the event. Through Azure IoT platform and services, Intel OpenVINO toolkits, and solution team experts with team coaching to bring hands to help them, the participants learned to collaborate on solving problems, generating new ideas and building business models.Daniel Li, the director of Taiwan's Microsoft IoT Center of Excellence, talked about the event and pointed out that 5G and AIoT technologies accelerating digital transformation. Leveraging the powerful Azure IoT services including Digital Twins, Azure IoT Hub to develop landing applications, AI technologies play an important role to introduce multiple scenarios into smart use cases. This momentum drives multiple talents across manufacturing, engineering, developing and healthcare categories together to bring new brilliant ideas for digital transformation into reality.HTC creates smart factory solution with MetaverseThe top three winner teams came up to stage receiving awards. HTC team, winning the first place, fires up smart factory solution leveraging Metaverse concept. The idea is applying virtual reality concept to demonstrate the usability of real and virtual scenarios with different view angels switching from production line workers and supervisors while implementing process simulation and monitoring. It is creating an environment where physical and virtual objects can exist and interact in real-time. With HTC's VIVE tracker device, the software will take the human tracings into account in the entire design flow. The team provides the software with features empowered by Azure Digital Twins services and tool sets. This makes the software to draw interests from other team members. Now, the next steps for the future development is looking at the use cases of smart applications that make virtual reality technologies a huge number of potentials. This is also the reason why the first award comes to HTC.CTCI REI builds construction safety monitoring platform improving safetyThe second prize-winner was CTCI Resources Engineering Inc. The company builds the sensor networks in the construction site using Azure IoT Hub and Device Provisioning Service (DPS). The massive collected data will include readings of rebar stress meter, strut strain gage, groundwater level observation well and piezometer etc. Leveraging Azure Digital Twins models, the system will apply the collected data to predict the risks and trigger the warning management control. Then it will present the warning situation by BIM 3D modeling tools for demonstration. This monitoring system will reflect the company's values of "Where There is CTCI, There is Sustainability and Trust".JelloX Biotech focus on AI-based Pathological examination solutionJelloX Biotech Inc won the third prize. The company is a startup looking for up-to-date healthcare solutions at AI-powered Pathological Examination that automates the recognition process of tumor tissues. Due to this AI-enabled solution requiring to analyze a large amount of 3D imaging data, the company uses 3x less time to run the AI inferencing tasks by taking the advantage of Azure cloud platforms and Intel OpenVINO systems. At the same time, the company builds edge computing systems for improving recognition outcomes by applying Azure innovative cloud platform and services to perform more complicated inferencing technologies. Azure platform is becoming popular in healthcare sector because the powerful API and software tools for helping startups ramp-up software production development.This event was hosted by SYNNEX and DIGITIMES together with Microsoft, INTEL, FET and IoT Edge solution partners including AAEON, AOPEN, ADVANTECH, Congatec and DFI. The 3-day hackathon program showcased desired outcomes. The skilled software developers create brand new business opportunities by introducing AIoT use cases and applications. And the most important thing is creating an opportunity to flex skills, demonstrate potential, and expand supply chain networks, as well as allow participants to reinforce their culture around innovation and technology.Leveraging Micorsoft Azure IoT cloud services and Intel OpenVINO development Kits, the successful event of "Making of IoT Hackers" showcases participating teams to create applications of Metaverse Smart Factory, Construction Safety Monitoring platform and AI-based Pathological Examination.

While the pandemic has changed many aspects of life, it has also accelerated the development of AIoT in different verticals. As more companies and developers dedicate themselves to deploying this new technology, it brings with new opportunities and emerged challenges. On October 30, Arm held the Arm DevTalks 2021 annual developer meetup. The discussions centered around "Development, Intelligence, and a New Future" and explored the diverse business opportunities in the rising AIoT era.Arm is paving a barrier-free way for IoT developers to innovate for global impactCK Tseng, President of Arm Taiwan, stated that this year marks the 31st anniversary of the company's founding. Arm is uniquely positioned to unite software and hardware developers; its technology is at the heart of the computing and data revolution. To address the future demands driven by AIoT, Arm is delivering full stack solutions to significantly accelerate IoT product development and improve product value. Arm believes these solutions will fuel a new IoT economy.Taiwan's position in the tech sector has been well known for its hardware manufacturing capability and mature supply chain ecosystem. The outbreak of the pandemic created an unprecedented demand for digital technology and diverse applications. In addition, hot topics like the reshuffling of the global supply chain brought by the geo-trade dispute and the semiconductor supply shortage all highlighted the importance of Taiwan in the global technology supply chain.Therefore, Tseng said with confidence, "The decade from 2020 to 2030 will be a golden age for Taiwan's technology industries."Which verticals will we next see AIoT chips adopted in? According to Tseng, smart factories, smart healthcare, and self-driving vehicles are all very promising. AIoT has rapidly developed and been applied to automated inventory management, automated guided vehicles (AGV), and smart logistics for smart factories. For smart healthcare, wearables that monitor physiological information and telemedicine might be popular soon. The development of self-driving vehicles is likely to boost battery management, crewless fleets, and the Internet of Vehicles (IoV).Grow talent with software & hardware capabilities through industry-academia collaborationA group of domain experts took part in the Arm DevTalks 2021 to discuss several topics, such as AIoT market trends and technology, talent development, and the ecosystems for incubation. The speakers included Arm FAE Director, David Hsu; iThome Deputy Editor in Chief & Lead Researcher of the Editorial Dept., Ray Wang; MakerPRO Editor in Chief and Co-founder, Owen Ou; Vice President of Microcontroller Application Business Group of Nuvoton Technology Corporation, Jason Lin, and Associate Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering at National Taiwan University, Yun-Nung Vivian Chen.With increasing demands for chip features, Jason Lin stated that the development environment should integrate software and hardware capabilities. Besides computing performance, lower power consumption, and security, the development platform should also provide hardware virtualization. As chip design becomes system-oriented, it is clear that application software development is more critical than ever. And this is one of the core advantages of Nuvoton that focus on software and system development. In addition to the chip design, there are development teams providing software development environment, unique development tools for the software and hardware, and handling the Linux and RTOS support, as well as upper layer middle-ware support to ease the development of IoT device makers to focus only on application development.From an academic perspective, Vivian Chen stated that even though enterprises hope to hire engineers with both software and hardware backgrounds, these two domains are managed differently in academia. For example, many computer science departments focus on developing software expertise rather than training students to meet specific job descriptions for existing job openings.Chen recommends a two-fold solution. First, enterprises should hire software-oriented talent, then offer on-the-job training to improve their understanding of hardware. Second, universities can partner with industries for designing curricula to ensure students obtain the knowledge from these two areas through the course.Tackling AIoT fragmentation through standardized platformsDue to a wide range of AIoT use cases, developers are often faced with challenges such as fragmented development and inconsistent industry standards, causing difficulty integrating resources. This will further block innovation."The fragmentation of the AIoT world was inevitable. In terms of technical specifications, there will be more considerations and demands for the different use cases where AIoT can be applied." Tseng stressed that Arm believes standardization is critical for scale and is now actively establishing industry initiatives to unify development environments, significantly reducing resource waste due to compatibility issues, and shortening development time when switching platforms.Take Arm's Project Cassini for example. It includes Arm SystemReady, a foundational compliance certification program to help software work across a diverse ecosystem of hardware, as well as the PSA Certified security certification program. By delivering a seamless cloud-native software experience to the edge for devices based on Arm Cortex-A, Project Cassini aims to accelerate IoT and infrastructure edge deployment. Jason Lin said that along with the progress of AIoT development, it had created higher demands for OS integration and middle ware, standardized API for the cross-platform development, network and device security, and related tools. Customers need not only chips but also an all-featured development platform. Nuvoton decided to participate in Project Cassini to shift its focus from the fundamental development environment provider to the higher level of eco-system engagement with standard defined API stack and jointly provide developers with a more comprehensive solution.Moreover, Arm announced Arm Total Solutions for IoT in October to lay the foundation for a new IoT economy. This includes Arm Virtual Hardware which removes the need for application developers to build and test software on physical silicon, bringing modern agile software development methodologies to IoT and embedded platforms, without developers having to invest in complex hardware farms. Arm Total Solutions for IoT also includes Project Centauri, which will drive the standards and frameworks needed to grow serviceable markets and scale IoT software innovation across the extensive Arm Cortex-M ecosystem. The offering will simplify and modernize software development, resulting in accelerated time to market for developers, OEMs and service providers at all stages of the IoT value chain and a reduction in product design cycles by up to two years.AIoT will undoubtedly play a key role in the golden age ahead. Lin stressed that Nuvoton would continue to work towards a more secure and more comprehensive environment for developers to meet the demands of the rapidly evolving AIoT application market. Tseng emphasized that Taiwan has a robust semiconductor industry and provides extensive chip manufacturing services, which gives Taiwan companies the opportunity to tap into the AI and IoT markets. Silicon design companies, hardware manufacturers, and system integrators can all take full advantage of the Arm ecosystem backed by an entire portfolio of Arm IP to spark developers' potential, leading to more innovation in an evolving and promising future of AIoT in Taiwan.From right to left: CK Tseng, Arm Taiwan President, and Jason Lin, Vice President of Microcontroller Application Business Group, Nuvoton Technology Corporation