Taiwan's IC design and semiconductor industries are world-renowned, and its well-established vertically integrated supply chain has created an environment that facilitates innovative R&D. As the Institute for Information Industry (III) IoT Service Hub celebrates its fifth anniversary, the III executive team decided to hold a two-day "IoT Service Hub Annual Conference" with representatives from nearly 20 domestic IC/module companies, system integrators, and other key communities to share their R&D and product commercialization experiences regarding domestic ICs, and to display eight "MIT" IC AIoT solutions developed by Taiwanese IC manufacturers in collaboration with the IoT Service Hub. Such a rich content allowed participants to understand the current trends and exchange opinions with their peers; the event thus attracted more than 100 participants on a daily basis, demonstrating the thriving maker creativity in Taiwan.
Technology and Ecosystem to Assist Mass Production
In the past five years, the IoT Service Hub has assisted domestic startups to complete at least 480 AIoT products for pre-mass-production evaluation, of which more than 100 AIoT products have successfully entered the phase of mass production. Such abundant IC manufacturing R&D energy cannot exist without the technology ecosystem and community platforms painstakingly built by the IoT Service Hub in recent years.
The IoT Service Hub has integrated major domestic AIoT innovation resources with key manufacturers on board. The manufacturers specialize in different areas such as software, hardware, system integration, design, production, etc., and can provide key services such as "domestic IC manufacturing" and " manufacturing for products or industries". These services have undoubtedly provided the best and most-needed support for startups. In addition to promoting open source applications of domestic ICs, the IoT Service Hub also works with major domestic IC manufacturers, industrial manufacturing service groups, and local communities to connect local enterprises, maker bases, incubators, and colleges/universities to carry out business promotion, apply the mature model EVB, and assist startups to realize their concept into products.
To demonstrate industrial momentum and the latest applications, representatives from Sintegration Corp., iotTech Corp., AcSiP Technology Corp., and Winstec Corp. were invited to analyze the application examples of "MIT" IC solutions. In addition, experts in the Taiwanese AIoT community, such as the MQTT and AIoT integration/application communities and the OmniXRI (Omni-eXtened Reality Interaction) Studio, shared their own R&D experiences in applying domestic ICs, allowing more users to learn about domestic ICs and application trends in the innovative market.
Integrating Resources to Cement Collaboration
Chuang Yu-ju, Project Manager of Sintegration Corp., said that AIoT products can be classified into so many kinds. From IC selection, mechanism/exterior design to mass production, each stage the investment of various resources is required, so it may be difficult for a single startup to cover every stage of the process. Thus, he suggested the conducting of a feasibility assessment in advance; startups can make good use of mature domestic IC resources and choose a standardized software package, which can reduce the time for development and repeated revisions. If a development bottleneck is at hand, startups can seek support from the maker community or the IoT Service Hub.
On the other hand, iotTech Corp., a major module manufacturer focusing on domestic IC solutions, has used domestic ICs to mass produce many products, such as smart door locks, smoke detection alarms, wireless driving recorders, baby care devices, etc. General Manager Mr. Chen pointed out that in the era of "Internet of Everything", brand owners often have good ideas, but lack the technology and capabilities to implement them. In the development process, issues regarding cloud technology, implementation devices, and UI (such as an app) are bound to come up. It is recommended not to rely too much on high-end or dazzling technology; instead, practicality is always the key to stable mass production of the product.
Mr. Chiu, CTO of AcSiP Technology Corp., introduced the mode of cooperation between module manufacturers and IC manufacturers, such as system integration with SiP heterogeneous packaging and development experience in miniaturization capabilities, which can package key sensors, chips, or other components (Wi-Fi, voice assistant, etc.) that the IC manufacturer do not wish to disclose in the SiP module. In the research process, specific components can also be concealed in the SiP package solution. Chiu also reminded that in future product development, carbon rights and certification should also be taken into consideration. Developers can resort to the matching platform on the IoT Service Hub to find cooperative manufacturers, so that the key resources can be integrated and used more efficiently.
Another speaker Mr. Lin, General Manager of Winstec Corp., pointed out that Winstec and III jointly created the HUB 8735 AIoT development module, which can integrate AI edge computing, cloud data analysis, embedded platform sensing, and hardware sensing devices, so that domestic chips have a better niche in terms of market applications. Lin added, if a company chooses domestic chips, then they will not have to worry about information security issues, which is also beneficial to international sales. This is one of the advantages of domestic ICs.
Open Source Data and Software/hardware Resources
As for community ecosystem, the online guru Mr. Yang (nicknamed "Yishifu" on the MQTT and AIoT platforms) shared the current facts and examples of community promotion of domestic ICs, emphasizing that too high-end technologies will not be the focus in such communities, as they'd rather pay attention to teaching the concept of integration and application. He also called on university and college instructors to promote domestic ICs in their teaching plans so as to gather more talents to jump on the bandwagon of domestic IC EVB applications.
Last but not least, Dr. Hsu from the OmniXRI Studio shared how to construct the tinyML ecosystem and the international trends of tinyML. He also analyzed the development process of AI applications of different scales, and introduced the trends and advantages of small (MCU) AI application development. In terms of building the tinyML ecosystem, Dr. Hsu suggested that there should be enough chips with great diversity for developers to choose from, as well as integrated collaboration with software engineers and an easy-to-integrate development platform.
Hsu added that as the startup circles transition towards the open source option, Taiwan's domestic ICs should be, more than ever, bridged to global communities. Makers should not only focus on the hardware but not the software. In addition to high-quality IC EVBs, we also need to lay the foundation of good development platforms and supporting software. We can even start to develop small (MCU) AI application programs. With such endeavors, it is believed that Taiwan's IC technology will certainly be further improved, and a complete ecosystem will be created to drive Taiwan's smart manufacturing energy into other parts of the world.
The 2022 IoT Service Hub Annual Conference ended with great success after two days of exciting events. From the exhibited results and achievements, we can see the entire AIoT ecosystem gradually taking shape in Taiwan, thanks to the active promotion of the IoT Service Hub. In the next four years, the IoT Service Hub will continue to work closely with domestic IC and software/hardware manufacturers, and assist startups to enter the market, in order to demonstrate the vigorous creativity of Taiwanese makers