Amiccom released 2.4GHz direct-sequence spread-spectrum wireless chip in June 2020, named A7157, which supports FSK and DSSS modulation operation modes.In FSK mode, A7157 is a high-speed (4Mbps) RF transceiver chip. The operation is fully compatible with A7190 and A7196. The maximum PA output power can be up to 17Bm.Via SPI interface user can control the operation mode and access to the built-in 512 Bytes TXFIFO and RXFIFO.When the DSSS modulation operation is enabled, the supported maximum data rate is 133.3kbps, the spread spectrum function can enhance the anti-interference ability of the A7157 and greatly increase the distance of wireless transmission.A7157 features 4Mbps mode high-speed transmission, 30 times DSSS function, built-in high-power PA and 512 Bytes TX/RX FIFO packets. Customers can configure the best transmission mode according to system application requirements. Suitable applications include Baby Monitor in the 2.4GHz frequency band, wireless audio and video transmission, high-fidelity wireless speakers, home security and drone. Using FSK modulation, 15 channels can be used. In addition, AMICCOM provides reference design modules, customers can quickly complete product designs and shorten the design cycle. The reference design module can meet the EMC specifications of the US FCC part 15.247 and the European ETSI EN300-440.In the RF performance, the reference design of the A7157 operates with DSSS 133.3kbps, 17dBm TX Power and RX sensitivity of -100dBm. Link Budget can reach 117dB. In addition, the built-in RSSI of the A7157 can help software engineers to select a clean channel for high-speed transmission (4Mbps) and a built-in Multi-CRC to enhance the packet error detection capability. The Auto Calibration mechanism inside the chip can overcome the semiconductor process variation and can work stably in various environments.In data processing, A7157 provides packet error detection (FEC and CRC), Auto ACK and Auto Resend mechanisms to reduce the burden of software development, the packet content also supports hardware AES128 encryption and decryption. Enhancing the confidentiality of data can reduce the complexity of MCU operation for data processing. The power management of A7157 supports Sleep, Idle mode and TWOR mode (Wake up by Radio Timer). The TWOR function provides A7157 automatic wake-up to extend battery life. In Sleep mode, the current consumption of A7157 is only 5.3uA. Overall, the built-in functions of A7157 can effectively reduce the development complexity and development cost.Supply and packagingA7157 is available in a QFN5x5 32L package, and is now available from Amiccom and its authorized distributors. Welcome to request IC samples and development kits and start development work. Amiccom 's FAE team also provides RF test tools for mass production of modules. Please contact Amiccom Electronics for details.

Around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the strict lockdowns which governments have imposed to try to control the spread of infection, have brought short-term upheaval to every aspect of people's lives.But looking ahead at the months and years to follow once the immediate crisis has passed, which changes in ordinary life are likely to endure? And how does a memory IC manufacturer such as Winbond ensure that it is ready to meet the changed requirements of electronics device OEMs?Winbond has worked hard to adapt its strategic product and technology plans in the light of the changed circumstances that it is now forecasting. This is the company's broad assessment of how the post-Covid world is going to shape up, and of the demands that this will place on suppliers to the memory IC market.Home working and home entertainment will become the new normalWhen governments imposed pandemic lockdowns, citizens were told that those who could work from home, should work from home. Companies scrambled to put in place new systems and processes which would allow for all or most workers to work from home.What was originally intended to be a short-term fix has turned out to be an efficient way of working. To most people's surprise, home working is one of the few positive changes to emerge from the pandemic. It turns out that people like it, and so do companies - it is a win-win. People save the time that they would otherwise have spent commuting, so have more time to spend with their families, or on leisure activities.And companies are now exploring the scope to save money on the provision of work spaces, particularly for office staff. They are also keen to make savings on business travel. Workers have discovered that they can achieve on video conference calls made on platforms such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Skype almost as much as they could in a face-to-face meeting, but without the cost, time and energy involved in business travel.For the sake both of people and of the organisations which employ them, home working is here to stay. And this means that there will be a surge in demand for the technologies which enable computing and communications equipment to work efficiently and effectively. Fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and Wi-Fi 6 routers will be particularly popular to meet the home worker's need for high internet bandwidth. We will also see higher demand for computing equipment for home use. As so often before, predictions of the death of the PC are set to be proved wrong. We also expect to see strong growth in the market for the peripheral devices which make home working more comfortable or efficient, and for high-performance smartphones.Many home computing and communications devices depend on robust NOR or NAND Flash for boot code storage. Winbond's investment in developing QspiNAND Flash technology is important in this context: the QspiNAND Flash devices are lower-cost alternatives to conventional NOR Flash for storing code bigger than 512Mbits. The QspiNAND Flash products provide high-speed Read and Write performance sufficient for Code Shadowing operation, and have a small package size and low pin count, enabling OEMs to reduce the size and cost of the board. Board and cost savings are also a benefit of low pin-count HyperRAM memory devices for use in space-constrained computing peripherals such as wireless headsets or True Wireless earbuds.Another lockdown phenomenon which looks set to continue post-Covid is the use of advanced technology for home entertainment. Streaming video services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime are now even more popular than before. But another effect that Winbond forecasts is the emergence of demand for 8K TVs for the ultimate home cinema experience. Here, Winbond's Low-Power DDR3 (LPDDR3) DRAM products are the ideal choice: in the T-CON module in an 8K TV, a single LPDDR3 replaces multiple alternative components to offer a substantial space and cost saving.Societies will accept greater intrusion into private lives in the name of disease preventionAccepted practice will differ from country to country. But the general trend that we can already see around the world is that citizens will grant permission to the authorities to acquire and keep data about their movement and their contact with actually or potentially infected people, provided that this intrusion into privacy is required to limit the spread of Covid-19 or other infectious diseases.This trend has already led to the use of smartphone radio technologies and apps to work out who has been close to known infected people. In future, we can expect to see greater deployment of potentially even more intrusive technologies, such as IP cameras in public places, and camera drones monitoring compliance with social distancing regulations in public spaces.But while citizens might accept the acquisition and use of personal data for strictly medical purposes, they will not accept misuse or mishandling of the data. This looks set to boost demand for proven security components which can protect electronics devices such as cameras from tampering or hacking attack.Security and encryption are commonly regarded as functions to be implemented in a high-end digital system such as a microcontroller, Secure Element or microprocessor. But system designs in which boot code and/or personal data are stored in an external memory also need to take account of security requirements. Winbond anticipated this requirement for secure code storage with the development of its TrustME family of Secure Flash Memory products. The latest TrustME memory product, the W77Q is "Security by Design" to prevent IoT devices from remote software attack. The W77Q provides hardware root-of-trust and secure, encrypted data-storage and data-transfer capabilities. By ensuring robust, end-to-end security in IoT devices it enables:* Secure code updates, including over-the-air updates, via an end-to-end secure channel between an update authority and the W77Q even when the host processor or SoC has been compromised.* Secure boot and root-of-trust* Authenticated and encrypted data transfer between the Flash device and the host* Execute-in-Place (XiP) of boot and application code* System resilience, featured by the key security functions of protection, detection and recoveryDRAM development also puts Winbond in prime position to meet the emerging needs of manufacturers of IP cameras and camera drones for surveillance and people tracking. As in 8K TVs, so in these video devices the latest LPDDR3 DRAM will provide the high bandwidth which high-resolution video systems require, while offering easier integration into end product designs than the LPDDR4 or LPDDR5 generations of DRAM technology.Robots and AI will replace human workers at an accelerating paceThe Covid-19 pandemic has demonstrated how vulnerable some companies are to the suspension of operations when workers become unavailable. In future, companies will be looking to implement more resilient systems which rely less on the physical presence of human workers in a specific location.In addition, by reducing the number of human workers required to operate on any given site, organisations will make it easier to maintain social distancing in the workplace.This trend for the adoption of robotics, backed by increasingly sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning technologies, will lead to rapid growth in demand for fast microprocessors (MPUs) and graphics processors (GPUs). The sophisticated and complex software which these devices execute will in turn drive the market for high-density, high-bandwidth code storage devices.Winbond's long-range strategic planning enabled it to detect this emerging requirement before the current market conditions caused interest in AI and robotics to flourish. One result was the development of its OctalNAND Flash memory.The first OctalNAND Flash device, the 1Gbit W35N01JW, sets a new benchmark for the Read performance of NAND Flash technology: a maximum Continuous Read throughput of 240Mbytes/s, three times faster than Winbond's earlier high-performance W25N-JW QspiNAND Flash family, and almost 10 times faster than general QspiNAND Flash products on the market.At this level of performance, OctalNAND Flash can replace Octal NOR Flash with limited loss of Read performance, and at a lower cost-per-bit at densities higher than 512Mbits. Winbond's OctalNAND Flash is thus an ideal replacement for Octal NOR Flash for storing large code bases, such as those of robots and other systems which take advantage of the capabilities of AI and machine learning.Anticipating the memory requirements arising from mega-trendsWhile the world's focus in 2020 is rightly on the immediate medical emergency of Covid-19, it is right to be looking forward to the changes in business practices and technology operations which the pandemic is likely to cause. By carefully analysing market requirements and understanding end user behaviour, Winbond puts itself in an excellent position to develop the memory products which will help its customers succeed in a post-Covid world. From QspiNAND Flash to TrustME Secure Flash memory to LPDDR DRAM, Winbond has memory products which are ready for the future, whatever it might bring.(Note: Johnson Chen is executive sales director at Winbond Electronics.)Three mega-trends for a post-Covid world

Hong Kong's reputation as a "free" global trading center and as the world's biggest exporter is at risk of being damaged with Beijing moving to abolish the "one country, two systems" framework. The city has been allowed to operate independently from the rest of the China and have certain democratic freedoms, which was a stipulation under which Britain returned Hong Kong to China in 1997.In response, many countries are agreeing that Hong Kong is no longer highly autonomous and should be treated equally to the rest of the China. The U.S., for instance, wants to impose high tariffs on Hong Kong imports and restrict the export of sensitive American technology. BBC states that the additional tariffs imposed would include those introduced as part of the US-China trade war.Under the "one country, two systems" framework, the city allowed countries to re-export goods freely and with less restrictions, making it an essential trading hub for global companies. Hong Kong currently accounts for almost 19% of the world's export of electronic circuit components. In 2019 alone, $134.5 billion worth of these components were exported through its port.With Hong Kong, a shipping giant, being such a critical part of global supply chains, disruptions could occur, including:*Trade deals being negatively impacted*Hong Kong assigning their own additional tariffs*New restrictions and regulations put in place that make it harder for foreign companies to conduct operations seamlessly*The implementation of economic sanctionsPaul Romano, COO at Fusion Worldwide states, "This situation brings uncertainty, and when there's uncertainty there's the risk for massive supply chain disruptions. With Hong Kong accounting for such a large share of the export of electronic components, many global businesses should prepare for potential hiccups to their operations."Because of the potential repercussions, global companies are considering paring existing operations in Hong Kong back or in some cases shifting operations out of Hong Kong. According to The New York Times, countries, such as Singapore, India and Japan, are becoming much more enticing investment locations. Singapore especially may be the big beneficiary of this situation.Fusion Worldwide, for instance, is moving inventory out of Hong Kong and into warehouses in other geographies to ensure reduced risk of market disruptions caused by the current changes in Hong Kong. Romano continues, "In order to maintain flexibility, we have repositioned our inventory to ensure that we aren't caught in a shutdown or freeze of product en route to a customer."Though some may be skeptical of potential ramifications, it is important to be aware of the situation in the event that tensions between China and other countries continue to escalate. Over-reaction could make the situation worse, but not preparing for the worst could be detrimental.With Hong Kong presenting increased risk, companies within the U.S. and Europe must now consider how to continue operating within the city.As tensions rise in Hong Kong, so does the possibility for supply chain disruptions

The world's population is aging. According to American Association of Retired Persons, 22% of the world's population will be 60 and older by 2050. At the same time, developers are making use of new technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing and big data analytics to design all types of systems to raise the quality and efficiency of healthcare. With the increase in both supply and demand, smartization is becoming an important trend for the healthcare industry. According to Jason Miao, business development manager, iMedtac, medical devices play a critical role on patient health and safety so system developers must have professional knowledge in both healthcare and technology to be able to build optimized medical systems. For this reason, iMedtac not only employs a team of technology and medical professionals but also partners with ADLINK, which has accumulated extensive experience in medical devices, to introduce complete smart solutions to suit hospital needs.Founded in 2016, iMedtac focuses on developing smart medical devices targeting medical treatment and healthcare. Going forward, it plans to expand its offerings to include health promotion products for use by the general public. As opposed to most other smart medical device providers, iMedtac starts with developing more technologically challenging products and then expands toward more straightforward healthcare and health promotion devices. Miao explains that iMedtac is able to implement the distinct product planning strategy thanks to its team with extensive industrial PC experience and medical background. Not only does the team have no problem communicating with medical professionals to fully grasp their needs, it can even think from the user's perspective and thereby actively propose suited solutions.Citing an integrated operation room solution iMedtac developed for a teaching hospital in southern Taiwan as an example, Miao points out that when doctors operate on a patient, they need to monitor the patient's ultrasound, CT scan or other medical images in real time to ensure a smooth and safe surgery. Imaging devices are generally mounted individually at different locations in the operating room (OR). Doctors often have to look up to find the image they need. To help improve efficiency, iMedtac has purpose-built a platform for the hospital, onto which all images are streamed and integrated. Surgical assistants can quickly switch to the image the surgeon needs to look at.Aside from the surgical image streaming system, iMedtac has also designed a surgical safety check system to help medical care teams keep track of surgical inventory count and surgical procedure checklist. As time and instrument control is a crucial part of OR management, iMedtac's solution can help medical care teams stay on top of tight OR schedules, thereby avoiding delays while enhancing patient safety and OR management efficiency.iMedtac's solutions are widely used by large medical institutions both at home and abroad as they closely match hospital needs and they can quickly be developed and ready-to-use by medical care teams. These features enabling iMedtac's solutions to be highly praised by hospitals are the result of close collaborations between iMedtac and ADLINK. According to Miao, iMedtac builds its solutions on the foundation of a 60% to 70% standardized architecture and customizes the remaining portion to suit specific customer needs, thereby speeding up the development cycle. ADLINK provides critical support for the 30% to 40% customization portion with its professionalism in smart medical devices.Having accumulated extensive experience in developing medical devices, ADLINK has a large portfolio of medical-grade products and is therefore in a good position to help iMedtac address user needs and design optimized systems. iMedtac's surgical image streaming system mentioned above is based on ADLINK's MLC 8-21 medical panel computer. Furthermore, iMedtac's medical cart for epidemic prevention uses ADLINK's compact MLC Lite. Both these products are enthusiastically embraced by customers.In light of the important smartization trend of the healthcare industry, iMedtac is picking up pace in its development efforts toward this sector. Going forward, it plans to expand its footprint to Southeast Asian markets. Leveraging ADLINK's global presence and service network in Southeast Asia, iMedtac and ADLINK will continue to engage in close collaboration to bring smart healthcare solutions with a fresh perspective to the market.According to iMedtac business development manager Chung-Sheng Miao, iMedtac's medical cart for epidemic prevention based on ADLINK's medical panel computer is enthusiastically embraced by customers

Japan announced that it would demonstrate its autonomous vehicle technology during the Tokyo Olympics as a demonstration of intelligent automobiles. Driven by 5G and artificial intelligence (AI), the ICT industry is heading towards an era of autonomous vehicles. The applications of ICT technologies in cars have been gradually shifted from entertainment videos, audio playbacks and navigation systems in early days to developing deep learning and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication in order to eventually make autonomous vehicles a commerical reality. To achieve this goal, semiconductor will undoubtedly be the primary driving force for any ICT technology.Advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) is the most popular application in the current automotive environment. It is composed of many functions such as Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC), Autonomous Emergency Braking (AEB), Blind Spot Detection (BSD) and Driver Monitoring System (DMS). Car vendors have been trying to work on more active safety protection and expect to reach the ultimate goal of self-driving cars. As such, more semiconductor manufacturers are cooperating with car OEM to boost device reliability.As mentioned above, currently there have been many actual semiconductors applications for automobiles, including the power semiconductors and video and audio playback and integration systems used in electric vehicles (including hybrid electric vehicles), micro-controllers/digital signal processor/semiconductor sensors used for vehicle and passive safety, and many other types of memories (such as NOR and DRAM). According to the statistics of IHS, the total output value of automotive semiconductor industry has grown at an average annual rate of about 7% in the past few years.DRAM applications in automobilesIn most systems in automobile, DRAM is responsible for storage of program codes and computing data, and it plays a more important role during the development of automobiles with more and more ICT functions, which include but are not limited to personal computers (PCs), servers, mobile devices and vehicles. So far, the primary memory-based automotive applications are information & entertainment system and ADAS, and they account for more than 80% of the entire output value of automotive DRAM industry.Among all ADAS applications nowadays, DRAM is mainly used for applications related to radar/lidar sensing and camera sensing in which large-size data of the environment has to be stored or processed by the domain controller in time. Therefore high bandwidth and high computing performance is required for controller and DRAM, and it will increase along with enhanced sensor resolution. To meet this requirement, LPDDR4/4x DRAM has become more and more popular in such applications because it supports data transfer rate up to 4266Mbps. In terms of information & entertainment applications, the major systems are instrument cluster, infotainment and telematics. DRAM is used in instrument cluster and infotainment systems for graphic function and is used in telematics system for data transmit function. The early development led to the long-term use of DDR (DDR2/DDR3) series. However, due to the power saving requirement of automobile, low power memory (LPDDR) has been gradually take the place of DDR, and LPDDR4/4x is becoming mainstream.It is interesting to see that, in addition to DRAM capacity, the performance is also a critical factor among these applications. Due to the large variety of automotive applications, not all of them require large capacity DRAM. More frequently seen applications actually require computation performance. For example, various automotive sensing technologies will rely on high speed computation to generate real-time results to be immediately used by on-board electronics devices. As a result, small-capacity LPDDR4x DRAM will play important roles in those applications.The importance of reliabilityComparing to consumer product, a major difference of automotive product is that not only the quality state of on-board electronics device upon factory delivery is concerned, but also whether it could operate normally for a long time. Cars are often driven in all kinds of weather and environment, so automotive semiconductor must withstand high and low temperatures in order to operate normally for many years. During driving, any mistake could result in extreme danger. That's why reliability of automotive semiconductor is so important. After all, the rebooting can solve most problems for consumer electronics products, yet for a moving vehicle this is not a feasible solution.Common hardware reliability issues of automotive semiconductor are errors in die and packaging. The possible errors in die include transistor instability, ion contamination, electromigration (EM) of metal conductor, and Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) while the reliability errors relating to packaging include warpage of packaging.In order to solve the aforementioned hardware reliability issues, the "High Temperature Operating Lifetime Test" (HTOL) will be conducted before product mass production to simulate the product operation status during high temperature acceleration. The "Burn In" process in the mass production line can be used for testing "Early Failure Rate" (EFR) of defective process component. As for the packaging, the warpage deformation can be solved via Board Level Reliability.Winbond has years of experience in fabrication of automotive memoryWinbond owns self-built wafer fabs, and is one of the top four IC makers that can simultaneously provide DRAM and NOR/NAND FLASH. The production lines of automotive DRAM include SDRAM, DDR/2/3 and LPDDR/2/4/4x with capacity ranging from 16Mb to 8Gb. It can meet customers' strict requirements of management of automotive memories, and provide longevity services. The capacity of Winbond LPDDR4/4x DRAM series is 1~8 Gb with 25nm technology node which is self-developed by Winbond, and the speed could be up to 4266Mbps. In addition to the supply type of known good die, Winbond also provides the standard 200BGA package with various kinds of automotive grade whereas AG1 grade will be ready at 3Q'20.With the products certified by IATF 16949 and AECQ-100 standards, Winbond has been a supplier of many automotive electronics devices manufacturers for many years. In the future, as more ADAS functions enter the car and gradually realize the self-driving cars, Winbond will continue to provide products with good performance and reliability to support customers in automotive industry.(Note: Hsiu-Min Lin is DRAM technical manager at Winbond Electronics.)Winbond LPDDR4/4x

For a few years now, experts and commentators have been foretelling an explosion in the growth of the IoT. The reality is they picked the wrong analogy and uptake of IoT technology is less like a big bang and more like a rising tide.And while it may have started small, IoT technology is now definitely making big waves as it sweeps through business and industry driven not just by the enabling network technology, but also by the availability of low-cost network edge devices.The upcoming roll out of true of 5G networks will add further to its momentum, but in the meantime, the global pandemic caused by the Covid-19 coronavirus, is also serving to bring IoT deployments to the forefront. Indeed, in these extreme emergency situations, the speed at which mobile IoT networks can be set up and turned operational will no doubt cause many companies to question the pace of their own IoT influenced digital transformation projects.Take the example of under-pressure healthcare facilities. Around the world we are seeing the transformation of convention centers, sports arenas and pop-up tented villages into state-of-the-art medical centers. These centers need more than just beds and a Wi-Fi network. They need advanced, high performance, high security, machine-to-machine and machine-to-control center communications over advanced, dedicated LTE mobile networks.Private Gigabit-LTE networks have been provisioned virtually overnight allowing these temporary healthcare centers to quickly become operational. These facilities house complex medical equipment and monitoring systems and they need to gather, and securely share, sensitive personal patient data both within the facility and back to the sponsoring healthcare provider.Modern IoT devices and network technology are underpinning this drive. We are talking high-speed gigabit class LTE connections, dual path wireless modems with link redundancy and traffic load management, edge security systems, firewall protection and internet content filtering. These are sophisticated, highly technical, enterprise-ready secure private mobile IoT networks that are being created and delivered in a matter of days.And it's not just within medical centers such as the pop-up facilities. The healthcare emergency has also led to increase in the use of remote telemedicine applications. Retired doctors are coming back online to help with more routine conditions and diagnosis; and hospitals in areas less affected by the virus are also making staff available on a remote working basis. Again, standard communications networks and devices are not up to the job required.These remote doctors need reliable and secure at-home and remote office connections that can isolate their extremely sensitive traffic from other local networks while also providing the bandwidth required to support real-time video and exceptionally large data files such as chest X-rays. Again, IoT devices and routers are very quickly provisioning and delivering this connectivity across multiple sites.Of course, the uptake of remote and home working has also become the new reality for millions of office workers during the coronavirus crisis. And while apps like Zoom, Blue Jeans, and Microsoft Teams have attracted attention and seen an exponential rise in their usage; not all that attention has positive.Questions have been raised about the security of some of the popular video calling services and with remote workers in both the public and private sector now often being asked to handle mission-critical data, and sensitive customer or citizen information, outside of their secure organizational networks; this new operating model is potentially too open to attack from hackers and fraudsters.IoT routers and edge devices are providing the firewall protection and secure virtual private network (VPN) connectivity that turns at-home networks into extensions of the secure enterprise network. This keeps the data safe and ensures that remote office workers can access everything they need quickly and efficiently.A crisis situation is often said to bring out the best in people. Maybe it can be said that it also brings out the best in technology as well. The speed at which the IoT industry, its devices and its network technology, has been able to respond to the heightened requirements caused by the global pandemic is remarkable.When the crisis finally passes it is unlikely that the world will return to operating in exactly the same way as before. The remote working genie is certainly out of the bag, and the value of video conferencing has received an awareness boost that its providers will no doubt welcome. Even the Mother of Parliaments in the United Kingdom is returning to work with a video conferencing flavor.And as business and industry resumes, those that had marked their IoT projects as too costly, too difficult and too slow to realize, might just be rethinking that verdict.(Note: Derick Tsang is SVP Sales APAC at Telit)Telit IoT solutions providing Gigabit level high speed data transmission technologies for fast responding the challenges of emerging pandemics and health security threats

AWS will be hosting the AWS Summit Hong Kong online. Designed to educate and inspire, the summit will include 40+ technical sessions covering the latest AWS cloud solutions. AWS has also invited 10+ customers to share stories on how they innovating within their companies and driving change for maximum social impact.What's on at AWS Summit online 2020?Learn new skills through deep dive sessions and hands-on labs, and discover best practices from AWS experts on topics ranging from cloud migration to AI & machine learning, data and analytics and security. Don't forget to prepare your questions early and get your answers live from our experts!Two keynotes will showcase organisations taking a customer-centric approach to organisational transformation, and individuals adopting new technologies and reskilling to drive change at speed.There are even more activities in the Skills Zone, the DeepRacer League Summit Online Race, the Industry Solution Zone and Partner Discovery Zone. We also have games where you can win badges and redeem a souvenir.Register now, and stay tuned for more details.AWS Summit online Hong Kong 2020

With an ever increasing plethora of distractions in our daily lives, it's no wonder catching others' attention has become difficult. Bigger and brighter - often means better. Enter NEXCOM's NDiS V1000 digital signage player, supporting high-definition graphics with superior bandwidth and processing capabilities, and bringing images to life with vibrant 4k resolution on multi-displays. Powered by AMD's V1605B APU microprocessor, the seamlessly integrated CPU and GPU result in a high performance yet lower-power device perfect for retail environments and even private uses.4k resolution is quickly becoming indispensable for quality graphic displays and not simply an option. The value-added and scalable NDiS V1000 supports individual 4K resolution for up to four simultaneous displays, ensuring that multi-displays pop with amazing clarity. In building the NDiS V1000 4k signage player, NEXCOM carefully selected AMD's Ryzen Embedded V1605 CPU and Radeon Vega 8 GPU SoC. The integrated SoC generates less thermal power than most others while achieving better graphic performance, all at a budget-friendly price point. With such outstanding capabilities, NDiS V1000 is tailored for retail businesses, such as shopping malls, department stores, and convenience stores. Yet output quality is so superb and processing so smooth that museums and business war rooms also love the signage player.The NDiS V1000 is the adaptable and suitable choice for a variety of needs. NDiS V1000's fanless design decreases excess noise to elevate customer satisfaction. The redesigned I/O layout is also simple and efficient, with all external connections located on the back panel. I/Os include a COM port for legacy devices, such as barcode scanners, so that they don't need replacing in order to connect to the most advanced computers. The digital signage player additionally provides four USB 3.0 ports for instances where connectivity speed is a priority, particularly factory automation and production monitoring/storage.Furthermore, two LAN ports are available for various tasks, perhaps one for transferring data and displaying information, and the other for private monitoring and security. The M.2 E key expansion slot is customizable to your specific needs but an excellent fit for a Wi-Fi module, which, for example, could help franchisees and stores send data to and receive data from a centralized cloud overnight. All of these redesigns have the added benefit of reducing power, thus saving potential expenses.NEXCOM-NDiSV1000

The petrochemical industry produces products of tremendous value through labor-intensive and complex processes. Any unexpected production equipment failure may result in production shutdown and significant losses. With Industrial 4.0 becoming a key development trend for manufacturing industries in recent years, the petrochemical industry is beginning to incorporate smart manufacturing and attach importance to data. Prowave, with three decades of experience in equipment vibration research, engaged in collaboration with ADLINK to develop a new machine condition monitoring system for a large petrochemical company in Taiwan to help ensure more reliable and safer production equipment operation.Concerns over cost and payback period no longer hinder adoption of machine condition monitoring solutionsProwave successfully helped a renowned petrochemical company in Taiwan incorporate a machine monitoring system operating across multiple production sites. The system not only enables the company to stay on top of the operating conditions of production line equipment but also generates additional benefits.Smartization in manufacturing remains in the initial stage, so many manufacturers hesitate to introduce smart systems into their production process. In particular, machine condition monitoring systems are not considered revenue-generating equipment. Moreover, in view of their high upfront cost and long payback period, manufacturers generally take a wait-and-see attitude toward their adoption. However, we will see a new side of things from a different perspective. If we look closely at current market developments, we will find market-leading manufacturers have long engaged in building up machine condition monitoring systems. This vouches for the value of these systems. From the use case of the petrochemical company in Taiwan, we see that the machine monitoring system has created four major benefits of machine condition monitoring as follows.Benefit 1: Maintaining reliable production line operationProduction equipment is the most valuable revenue-generating asset to manufacturers. A machine condition monitoring system helps ensure reliable operation of production equipment so that manufacturers can rest assured of their product quality and production yield. It can prevent unexpected equipment failure from resulting in production shutdown and shipment delay, which may damage business reputation.Benefit 2: Significantly reducing maintenance costA machine condition monitoring system will immediately issue an alert when detecting a warning sign of equipment failure. Factory managers can therefore take early action and root out the cause of the problem at minimal cost. Not only will it save manufacturers from the cost of replacing failed units but it can also effectively extend equipment life and maximize manufacturers' return on investment.Benefit 3: Ensuring labor safetyA machine condition monitoring system can use smart monitoring solutions to detect the conditions of machines operating in hazardous environments such as at high altitudes or with toxic gas. It therefore eliminates the need for human inspectors and reduces the chance of labor safety incidents.Benefit 4: Driving smart transformation using big data analyticsEquipment condition data collected by a machine condition monitoring system can serve as the basis for analysis by backend platforms to help factory managers make production plans and drive digital transformation for the corporation.The high-performance system precisely captures equipment conditionIn light of all the above benefits, Prowave built the machine condition monitoring system for the petrochemical company in Taiwan using ADLINK's MCM-100 and MCM-204. Featuring high resolution and high bandwidth, MCM-100 and MCM-204 meet the system's requirements for machine vibration detection. Their built-in RJ-45 Ethernet ports significantly shorten cabling distance and therefore minimize signal interference. With 4-CH 24-Bit 128kS/s simultaneous sampling analog input, different machines can easily be connected to form an Internet of Machines. MCM-100, powered by Intel Atom x7-E3950, is suitable for use as workstations at manufacturing sites. MCM-204, featuring ARM Cortex-A9, can perform edge computing. Its small footprint also allows easy integration with the production equipment on site.ADLINK's high-performance hardware enables Prowave's vibration detection technology developed through long-term devotion to work at its best. In the use case, the machine condition monitoring system Prowave built for the petrochemical company analyzes data collected from on-site production equipment in real time. The vibration thresholds at which the system will issue warning or critical events can be customized based on user requirements. Furthermore, Prowave provides complete maintenance service. It will perform annual system calibration based on on-site operation condition after the system is put into place. Prowave will also build vibration models for the production equipment to enable more precise analysis and maintenance going forward.Professional manufacturer selects the system for its high quality and high performanceA slew of global machine condition monitoring solution providers took part in the tendering process of the petrochemical company, which is also an equipment manufacturer and production line system expert itself. The system jointly created by machine condition monitoring solution specialists ADLINK and Prowave was approved and selected by the tender project managers over the other competing systems from global leading firms. They are now working together to put the system in place at the petrochemical company's plants. Aside from the petrochemical industry, the system is also ideal for the semiconductor, display panel, pulp and paper and other large-scale manufacturing industries. With the system, factory managers will be able to leverage real-time machine condition monitoring to stay on top of production equipment health and take the first step to smart transformation.With Industrial 4.0 becoming a key development trend for manufacturing industries in recent years, the petrochemical industry is beginning to incorporate smart manufacturing and attach importance to data.

Askey, a Taiwan-based ICT solutions provider for businesses and service providers, announced plans to develop 5G mmWave and sub-6GHz small cell products for public venues and private networks, working with Qualcomm Technologies. Askey plans to deliver 5G NR mmWave devices for indoor applications, which cover enterprises such as offices, university campuses, hospitals, hotels, shopping centers, and more.With Qualcomm FSM100xx 5G RAN platform, Askey aims to provide powerful, concurrent beamforming, and other advanced features to support indoor environments. When deployed with Askey's LTE residential and enterprise small cell based on the Qualcomm FSM99xx 4G RAN platform, mobile operators are expected to rapidly deploy 5G NSA mode.With continuous efforts in research and development, Askey is able to provide the latest technologies to fulfill the highly demanding needs of small cell applications. "Askey has more than 10 years of experience in design and manufacturing of femto/small cells for mobile network operators," said Robert Lin, CEO of Askey. "Our experience in small cell design and customization capabilities will benefit customers. With the leading technologies and customization from Askey and Qualcomm Technologies, we aim to provide affordable 5G small cells for mobile network operators.""Since announcing the Qualcomm FSM100xx 5G RAN platform in 2018, we've seen continually increasing adoption from leading global infrastructure providers and manufacturers. We are proud that Askey has chosen us to work with them on their 5G small cell solutions," said Puneet Sethi, senior director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies. "Our 5G RAN platform aims to help reach new customers and speed deployments, and because of its form-factor it is designed to help address a variety of both indoor and outdoor scenarios."