IBM, a trailblazer in quantum computing, chose the stage of the IBM Quantum Summit on December 4 to reveal a significant milestone in the field – its IBM Quantum System Two and its Quantum innovation roadmap to 2033.
Due to the chip shortage brought by export restrictions imposed by the US, China-based tech firms turned their eyes to computing rental service providers, leading to doubling fees charged by rental suppliers.
Acer Medical, a subsidiary of the Acer group, announced that its AI bone density abnormal screening software "VeriOsteo OP," in collaboration with Taichung Veterans General Hospital (VGHTC), has received approval from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA). In the future, it will be promoted to places like medical institutions. Acer Chairman and CEO Jason Chen stated that Acer currently has four smart medical products, obtained 10 certifications in 8 countries, and deployed in over 200 medical institutions. The company is starting to hit its stride in smart healthcare.
Seeing demand growth driven by edge computing and artificial intelligence (AI), microcontroller unit (MCU) manufacturers are making an effort to integrate AI into MCUs as well as advancing into the baseboard management controller (BMC) market.
At the 2023 Healthcare Expo Taiwan, President Wong Chi-Huey of the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry (IBMI) emphasized Taiwan's vital role in the evolving global health landscape. As declining birth rates and an aging population reshape societies worldwide, nations are crafting new healthcare models. Armed with cutting-edge technology, Taiwan stands at the forefront of this global medical revolution.
After the introduction of Generative Artificial Intelligence (Generative AI), it sparked a significant transformation in the global industry. As Generative AI continues to develop, there's a growing emphasis on cybersecurity and privacy to meet enterprise demands. The once emphasized cloud AI is now making a shift towards edge AI, with major tech giants introducing solutions that can operate locally without internet connectivity.
Taiwan-based Wonderful High-Tech, a dedicated provider of electronic wires and cables for diverse applications, is poised for substantial revenue and profit gains in 2024. The company cites sustained high demand for data centers and servers, expanding market shares in irradiation crosslink cables, the introduction of new products, and market diversification as key drivers of its optimistic outlook.
The generative AI application boom has caused many companies to believe that it will massively change human-machine collaboration interfaces. At its annual re:Invent event, leading cloud service provider AWS showcased the use of conversational interfaces to control drones and utilizing IoT technology in driving environment simulation to promote smart cockpit vision through cloud technology.
Nvidia intends to introduce a specialized AI chip for the Chinese market, potentially as early as the first quarter of 2024. Reports from Chinese media indicate that Nvidia's Chinese customers are seeking alternatives because of the significantly reduced performance of the China-focused chip.
Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang showed up at the AWS re:Invent conference and announced a strategic collaboration between the two companies. AWS will become the first cloud provider to bring Nvidia's GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips with new multi-node NVLink technology to the Cloud. The two companies also announced to co-work in an ambitious initiative called "Project Ceiba," which aims to create an AI Super Computer with over 10,000 GPUs.
Following the US tightening its controls on exports of high-end AI GPUs to China in October 2023, Chinese companies are turning to homegrown AI chips to build their computational infrastructure, leading to potential opportunities for Chinese AI chip startups. Most notably, Enflame Technology and Moore Threads Technology are leveraging the Chinese government's push for the "East Data, West Computing" strategy to propel their AI chip businesses forward.
US export restrictions aimed at curbing China's development in advanced semiconductors have hit the field of AI. With huge untapped potential in the AI market, distributors in the Asia Pacific region can target the mid-to-low range for the market in China, say sources in the IC distribution channels.
As the AI era arrives, cloud service providers (CSP) have increasingly recognized the importance of high-performance computing (HPC) chips, and system integrators, hardware manufacturers, and software providers have joined forces with dedicated foundries to craft their ASICs,
AI has driven demand for big data analysis and has jointly boosted the momentum of the storage industry. Storage provider Infortrend pointed out that in previous years, the storage industry has grown steadily by around 10% each year. With the influence of AI, this growth is anticipated to accelerate by 5-10%. Even the double headwind factors of high inflation and high interest rates will only have a limited impact on the storage industry.
At the recently concluded 2023 China International Semiconductor Summit held in Shanghai, senior executives from JCET and TSMC both emphasized the role of advanced packaging, yet with contrasting conclusions.
According to Mitac Holdings president Bill Ho, 2024 is full of uncertainty, including changes in geopolitical and economic development offering little visibility. Despite this, he maintains a positive outlook regarding the company's investment strategy and overall growth.
At the recently concluded 2023 China International Semiconductor Summit attended by more than 2,000 industry professionals, both Wei Shaojun, Director of the Institute of Microelectronics at Tsinghua University, and Yang Fang, Vice President and Co-Founder of Sensetime Group, focused on developing independent and controllable technologies in their talks.
Compeq Manufacturing, a major high-density interconnect (HDI) printed circuit board (PCB) producer, said its third-quarter 2023 sales revenues and earnings are showing early signs of recovery from the previous doldrums. Many customers are inquiring about the capacities of its Thai factory, according to Compeq spokesperson.
IC testing interface specialist WinWay Technology is full steam ahead with new products, holding a "very optimistic" outlook for the second half of 2024, according to the Taiwan-based company.
Gigabyte Technology will see its brand motherboard shipments rebound to 10 million units in 2023 and rise to 11.5 million units in 2024, according to industry sources. In 2022, shipments dropped to 9.6 million units.
Japan's government-funded AI research supercomputer, ABCI (AI Bridging Cloud Infrastructure), which was launched in 2018 and upgraded to ABCI 2.0 in 2021, is poised for another significant upgrade. The current investment plan of JPY400 billion (US$2.66 billion) aims to increase computing power to five times that of ABCI 2.0, with an expected launch by 2024.
The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operates the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Donna Gregory, the former director of IC3, highlighted in an online forum that artificial intelligence (AI) carries both positive and negative impacts. Unlawful individuals have already exploited technologies like text-to-speech and deepfake for fraudulent activities, warranting increased vigilance.
Silicon photonics (SiPh), the manufacturing of integrated photonics on CMOS platform, has been a buzzword in the recent two years, given the technology's promising prospect to deliver a faster, securer and more efficient solution to data centers increasingly burdened by the ever-growing transmission demand of AI. However, the potential of silicon photonics is not confined to the realm of conventional computing and communication.
