Lenovo Group (HKSE: 992) PINK SHEETS: LNVGY) today announced Group revenue in the first quarter of US $13.3 billion, up almost 7% year-on-year (up 10% year-on-year excluding currency impact). Pre-tax income grew 38% compared to the same quarter a year earlier, to US $332 million, while net income also increased by 31% year-on-year to US$213 million. Basic earnings per share for the first quarter were 1.80 US cents or 13.95 HK cents.

"Our outstanding performance last quarter proves that Lenovo has quickly regained momentum from the impact of the pandemic and is capturing the new opportunities emerging from remote working, education and accelerated digitalization," said Yang Yuanqing, Lenovo Chairman and CEO. "While the world continues to face challenges, Lenovo is focused on delivering sustainable growth through our core businesses as well as the new services and solutions opportunities presented by our service-led intelligent transformation."

Marvell today announced an integrated set of access, aggregation and core Ethernet switch and PHY solutions that intelligently enable secure and efficient data movement throughout enterprise networks. The new portfolio is purpose-built to address the specific requirements of the borderless enterprise as mobility and cloud applications extend the boundaries of the traditional campus environment. Today's enterprise IT organizations are tasked with delivering a seamless experience - including to an ever-growing remote workforce - with zero-downtime, higher bandwidth performance for video and content sharing, and data protection and security. Marvell's unified Prestera Ethernet switch and Alaska PHY solution set is architected from the ground up with insightful telemetry, flow-aware intelligence, scalable performance and advanced integrated security technologies that set the bar in switching.

With a complete line of GE, 2.5GE, 5GE, 10GE, 25GE, 100GE and 400GE platforms, the portfolio is designed to fit a variety of network architectures at different speeds, densities and scales at small, medium and large enterprise IT organizations. This latest generation of solutions, comprised of four cutting-edge Prestera Ethernet switches and corresponding Alaska Ethernet PHYs, create a clear path to upgrade enterprise networks to multi-gigabit Ethernet in support of Wi-Fi 6 and 5G deployments. Marvell's intelligent workload management enables optimized data processing at or near the network access edge, improving the performance of hybrid cloud architectures. Insightful telemetry capabilities enable the solution to produce data that facilitates network automation and expedites forensic analytics. Advanced security features underpin trustworthiness and provide network embedded protection from ever-evolving security threats. To support emerging use cases in retail, manufacturing, hospitality, finance and education, Marvell's switching family is built with flexibility and feature richness to address the imminent needs these networks face.

It was reported last week that NVIDIA is "interested" in acquiring UK chip-design firm Arm from Japan's SoftBank that holds a treasure chest of tech IP. Now Bloomberg reports that things are getting serious between NVIDIA and SoftBank, with the two reportedly engaged in "advanced talks" over the possible acquisition of Arm by NVIDIA. The graphics and scalar compute giant recently surpassed Intel in market capitalization.

With a few quick moves, NVIDIA stands a real chance of displacing Intel as makers of the world's most popular CPU machine architecture, driven mainly by smartphones, tablets, networking infrastructure, wearables, and IoT devices. The Arm architecture is also taking strides into the server space, and Apple recently decided to dump Intel x86 in favor of Arm-powered homebrew SoCs. Arm could cost NVIDIA an arm and a leg. New Street Research LLP estimated Arm's valuation at USD $44 billion if its IPO took off in 2021, and as much as $68 billion by 2025.

Synaptics Incorporated today announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire DisplayLink Corp., a leader in high-performance video compression technology, for $305 million in an all-cash transaction. The deal is expected to close in Synaptics' first quarter of fiscal year 2021, subject to customary closing conditions, and be financed from existing cash on hand. Synaptics expects the transaction to add approximately $94 million in annualized sales and be immediately accretive to non-GAAP gross margins, non-GAAP operating margins, and non-GAAP earnings post-close.

DisplayLink's high performance software compression technology enables universal docking and casting of high bandwidth video from any device to any display using any transport medium such as USB, Ethernet or Wi-Fi. For the Enterprise IT market, the solution supports multi-OS environments including Windows, MacOS, ChromeOS and Ubuntu Linux enabling a myriad of devices to seamlessly dock to multiple high resolution (4K, 8K) displays.

5G has been a trending topic in the recent times because of the big technological breakthrough and all the solutions that its major features will make a reality: Low latency, bigger bandwidth with higher frequency, and overall faster "real-time" connection.

With those features 5G will connect virtually everyone and everything together in a fast and reliable network through the air while protecting privacy and security issues, that will mean the era of real IoT: Smart cities and smart transportations; remote medical care and wirelessly connected Industrial devices, and high-quality video streaming, to say the least.

Axiomtek - a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted in the research, development and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is proud to introduce the NA346, a 4-LAN fanless network appliance platform designed in a small form factor. This ultra-small desktop network appliance is powered by the Intel Celeron processor N3350 (code name: Apollo Lake) featuring the lowest Thermal Design Power (TDP) of 6 W to meet the specific configurations of low-power requirement. The reliable NA346 is positioned as an entry-level SD-WAN, VPN and security gateway for industrial IoT security applications.

"The 5G network is foreseeable to transfer data with greater bandwidth, higher speed and boost the edge computing and AIoT application. The cutting-edge NA346 offers two mini-PCIe slots and SIM socket supporting 3G/4G/LTE communications and connectors to 5G modules," said Kiwi Lee, a product manager of Product PM Division at Axiomtek. "Space limitation is one of the constraints in today's industrial environment. Axiomtek's ultra-small NA346 can be easily installed in narrow spaces. Featuring fanless operation, this network security appliance is perfect to be used in noise-sensitive environments."

Synaptics Incorporated today announced the signing of definitive agreements under which Synaptics will acquire certain assets and manufacturing rights associated with the wireless IoT business of Broadcom for approximately $250 million in an all-cash transaction. Under the terms of the agreements, Synaptics will acquire certain rights to Broadcom's existing Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS/GNSS products and business in the IoT market as well as future roadmap devices designed in advanced process nodes. The acquisition further strengthens and accelerates Synaptics' position in the fast-growing consumer IoT market.

Synaptics expects the transaction to add approximately $65 million in current annualized sales and provide significant revenue growth potential. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to Synaptics' non-GAAP gross margins and non-GAAP earnings post-close.

Lattice Semiconductor Corporation, the low power programmable leader, today launched the new Lattice Certus -NX family of FPGAs. The devices lead the general-purpose FPGA market in I/O density, delivering up to twice the I/O density per mm2 in comparison to similar competing FPGAs, and provide best-in-class power savings, small size, reliability, instant-on performance, and support fast PCI Express (PCIe) and Gigabit Ethernet interfaces to enable data co-processing, signal bridging, and system control. Certus-NX FPGAs target a range of applications, from data processing in automated industrial equipment to system management in communications infrastructure. The Certus-NX devices are the second family of FPGAs developed on the Lattice Nexus platform, the industry's first low power FPGA platform using 28 nm FD-SOI process technology. With the launch of Certus-NX, Lattice marks the release of the second device family developed under Lattice's new product development strategy in just six months.

"Certus-NX delivers unique and innovative capabilities that set it apart," said Linley Gwennap, Principal Analyst at The Linley Group. "Compared to competing FPGAs of similar gate counts, Lattice offers a much smaller package, greater I/O density, and lower power."

The Internet of Things (IoT) is providing breakthrough value to businesses across every vertical, from manufacturing, to energy, to agriculture, to real estate, to healthcare and more. IoT provides real-time insights into assets, enabling businesses to reduce operational expenses, unplanned downtime and unnecessary servicing.

While the benefits of IoT are well established and significant, one of the biggest hurdles for customers is securing IoT devices - both for new digitization initiatives as well as for legacy Operational Technology and industrial control system environments. Two years ago, Microsoft announced a $5 billion investment in IoT to further our commitment to build a trusted, easy-to-use platform for our customers and partners to build connected solutions - no matter where they are starting in their IoT journey.

IBASE Technology Inc. (TPEx: 8050), a world-leading manufacturer of industrial motherboard boards and embedded computing solutions, has revealed its latest EC-3200 AI computing platform that is based on the cutting-edge power-efficient and high-performance NVIDIA Jetson Tegra X2 (TX2) processor. The NVIDIA Jetson TX2 pairs a dual-core Denver 2 alongside a quad-core ARM Cortex -A57 processor and provides 256 CUDA cores on the NVIDIA's advanced Pascal GPU architecture with up to 1.33 TFLOPS, delivering exceptional AI performance.

Designed to operate under an extended temperature range from -20°C to +60°C, the EC-3200 leverages the integrated GPU-computing power of the Jetson TX2 platform in building edge inference servers to analyze and better manage real time traffic flow in smart cities or to optimize the efficiency of operational processes in intelligent factories. "Current edge and cloud-based AI products require better computational and video analytics capability to perform demanding real-time data processing and overcome latency issues," said Wilson Lin, Director of IBASE Product Planning Department. "The EC-3200 is no doubt a durable solution, especially built with a fanless design for non-stop operation and takes advantage of the GPU-accelerated parallel processing of NVIDIA Jetson TX2 to handle data intensive and mission-critical workloads with power efficiency and unmatched reliability."

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., today announced the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform - the Company's most advanced, integrated, comprehensive offering designed specifically for robotics. Building on the successful Qualcomm Robotics RB3 platform and its broad adoption in a wide array of robotics and drone products available today, the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform is comprised of an extensive set of hardware, software and development tools.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform is the first of its kind to bring together the Company's deep expertise in 5G and AI to empower developers and manufacturers to create the next generation of high-compute, low-power robots and drones for the consumer, enterprise, defense, industrial and professional service sectors - and the comprehensive Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Development Kit helps ensure developers have the customization and flexibility they need to make their visions a commercial reality. To date, Qualcomm Technologies has engaged many leading companies that have endorsed the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform, including 20+ early adopters in the process of evaluating the platform.

New manufacturing processes powered by AI and big data reduce defects that can go unnoticed by human inspection, resulting in improved product quality and efficiency. With the advent of the AIoT era, ASUS has embraced new technologies and methods to develop advanced manufacturing capabilities. At the end of 2019, ASUS expanded the company's AIoT business unit to be able to develop more solutions for industries and, in the process, renamed it the AIoT Business Group (AIoT BG). After consideration and planning around the three major aspects of successful manufacturing - design power, technical ability and continuous profitability - ASUS transformed operations to achieve the flexibility, speed, productivity and quality required for supply-side Industry 4.0 upgrades.

Detecting defects by hand is a major pain point and cause of inefficiencies in manufacturing processes. By investing in smart manufacturing solutions that utilize AI for producing metal peripherals, fans, printed circuit boards and other computer components as well as for system assembly, ASUS was able to remove efficiency bottlenecks and reduce losses resulting from misjudgment of manufacturing defects by factory employees. Moving forward, ASUS will continue to use artificial intelligence and big data to statistically classify different types of quality defects, determine their causes and improve processes at the source of defects to further improve and push the boundaries of manufacturing quality.

VIA Technologies, Inc. today announced that it has received AWS IoT Greengrass certification for the VIA Mobile360 M820 in-vehicle safety system. AWS IoT Greengrass seamlessly extends AWS services to edge devices and allows the systems to act in real-time using locally generated data when an internet network connection is not available - a vital feature for vehicles on the road.

"AWS Greengrass IoT certification for the VIA Mobile360 M820 underlines our commitment to providing an optimized deployment path for operators to enable AWS services across their vehicle fleets," commented Richard Brown, VP of International Marketing, VIA Technologies, Inc. "This highly-integrated solution accelerates the integration of advanced fleet management and in-vehicle safety applications from the edge to the cloud."

Intel today introduced its new 10th Gen Intel Core vPro processors, built to power the next generation of business computing innovation for the increasingly remote workforce. The new mobile and desktop PC processors deliver increased productivity improvements, connectivity, security features and remote manageability - all to empower IT to deliver amazing experiences, helping employees stay connected, more productive, more secure and in the flow with minimal interruptions.

"Built for business, the Intel vPro platform is a comprehensive PC foundation for performance, hardware-enhanced security, manageability and stability. With our new 10th Gen Intel Core vPro processors, we've enhanced that solid PC foundation to help tackle not only today's challenges, but also those of future work environments across the PC lifecycle," said Stephanie Hallford, Intel vice president of the Client Computing Group and general manager of Business Client Platforms.

According to data from the GSMA, the world will see 3.2 billion cellular IoT connections in 2024. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today continues our legacy of leading wireless innovation by announcing a breakthrough new product to drive the growth of cellular IoT: the Qualcomm 212 LTE IoT Modem, the world's most power-efficient single-mode NB2 (NB-IoT) chipset.

Power efficiency is a top concern for IoT devices that have to last for years in the field. Requiring less than one micro-amp (1uA) of sleep current, the Qualcomm 212 LTE IoT Modem's cutting-edge power-efficient chipset architecture allows for extremely low average power consumption. To support wide range of batteries and longer life span of the device in the field, the modem couples ultra-low system-level cut-off voltage with provisions for adapting power usage according to varying source power levels - allowing end devices with power supply levels as low as 2.2 volts.

Google is planning to take the Apple route in designing its own SoCs for its hardware. The company kicked off "Project Whitechapel," an initiative with technical assistance from Samsung (and possibly silicon-fabrication), to design Arm-based SoCs with specialized hardware to power Google's machine-learning tech. The first such chip will be 8-core Arm SoCs powering next-generation Pixel premium smartphones, but in the future, Google could use Arm-based SoCs to power Chromebooks.

Google has, in the past, collaborated with Intel and Qualcomm to put specialized hardware on smartphone SoCs, although the resulting chips would still be supplied by the two. "Project Whitechapel" would see Google play a dominant role in the SoC's design, with Samsung only providing technical inputs. It wouldn't be far-fetched to predict Google using lightweight variants of the SoC on its own IoT hardware, such as Chromecast and Home smart-speakers.

UNISOC, a leading global supplier of mobile communication and IoT chipsets, today officially launched its new-generation 5G SoC mobile platform - T7520. Using cutting-edge process technology, T7520 enables an optimized 5G experience with substantially enhanced AI computing and multimedia imaging processing capabilities while lowering power consumption.

T7520 is UNISOC's second-generation 5G smartphone platform. Built on a 6 nm EUV process technology and empowered by some of the latest design techniques, it offers substantially enhanced performance at a lower level of power consumption than ever.

Today, Arm announced significant additions to its artificial intelligence (AI) platform, including new machine learning (ML) IP, the Arm Cortex -M55 processor and Arm Ethos -U55 NPU, the industry's first microNPU (Neural Processing Unit) for Cortex-M, designed to deliver a combined 480x leap in ML performance to microcontrollers. The new IP and supporting unified toolchain enable AI hardware and software developers with more ways to innovate as a result of unprecedented levels of on-device ML processing for billions of small, power-constrained IoT and embedded devices.

Intel Wednesday rolled out its NUC 8 Pro "Provo Canyon" line of compact desktops targeted at businesses. These NUCs are fit for enterprise client desktop role as some of the models feature Intel vPro, and are powered by 8th generation Core "Whiskey Lake-U" processors. Leading the pack is the NUC8v7PN, powered by a Core i7-8665U processor, followed by the NUC8v5PN powered by Core i5-8365U, and the NUC8i3PN, powered by Core i3-8145U. The NUC8v7PN and NUC8v5PN offer Intel vPro support. All three come in two chassis types, H and K. The H chassis features a 2.5-inch drive bay with SATA 6 Gbps interface, and measures 117 mm x 112 mm x 53 mm, while the compact K chassis lacks the 2.5-inch drive bay, and is 37 mm tall. The three are also available in bare board form-factors, so you can use your own NUC-compatible cases.

Connectivity features common to all three are dual HDMI 2.0b (HDCP 2.2) ports with in-built CEC; two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel memory; one Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps) port at the rear panel that includes DisplayPort 1.3 and USB 3.1 gen 2 wiring; and four USB type-A ports, from which three are USB 3.1 gen 2, and one USB 2.0. Networking connectivity includes 802.11ac through an Intel Wireless AC-9560 vPro WLAN card (NUC8v7PN and NUC8v5PN only) or Wireless AC-9560 (NUC8i3PN), and one 1 GbE interface driven by Intel i219-LM controller. The audio is completely HDMI-based, there are no analog jacks. The three are certified for Windows 10 IoT Enterprise and Windows Server 2019.

Home and small-business networking solutions major D-Link brought a constellation of 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) products to CES 2020, making the standard's mainstreaming. The company's new lineup includes everything from affordable mainstream Wi-Fi 6 routers to high-end routers for gaming, home mesh kits, and plug-in range extenders. The company also unveiled innovative new 5G routers. These are Wi-Fi 6 routers in which instead of just a 1 GbE wired WAN uplink, you connect to the Internet over 5G mobile networks. This makes your Internet access extremely portable and convenient.

The DWR-2010, DWP-1020, and DWR-978 are D-Link's first 5G-to-802.11ax solutions. The DWR-2010 is a 5G NR "Enhanced Gateway," supporting up to 4 Gbps 5G downlink over 5G NR sub-6 GHz, 802.11ax downstream, and a wired switch that features one 2.5 GbE and three 1 GbE LAN downlinks, and a 1 GbE WAN uplink. The DWR-978 is a 5G gateway with up to 1 Gbps 5G downlink, 802.11ac (up to 2600 Mbps) downlink Wi-Fi, four 1 GbE LAN, and one 1 GbE WAN. There's also an outdoor gateway for your lawn, which supports 5G NR Sub-6 GHz, a stellar 5 GbE LAN port, and can withstand a temperature range from -45°C to 55°C, and offers IP45 water resistance. The three will initially only be available through mobile network service providers and not off-the-shelf.

SK hynix Inc. presents its innovative semiconductor technologies leading the 4th Industrial Revolution at CES 2020, the world's largest trade show for IT and consumer electronics in Las Vegas, USA, from January 7-10, 2020. In line with its "Memory Centric World" theme, SK hynix depicts a futuristic city which effectively utilizes enormous amounts of data. The Company also showcases its semiconductor solutions across six crucial business fields - artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR), automotive, Internet of Things (IoT), big data and 5G.

Headlining at CES 2020 are SK hynix's memory solutions including HBM2E, DDR5 for servers, and SSD, which are already highly regarded and widely used in 4th industrial fields such as 5G and AI for their stability, speed, power consumption and density excellence. Other cutting-edge products set to make headlines in January are the Company's highly durable LPDDR4X and eMMC 5.1, which are optimized for automobiles. What's more, SK hynix is displaying its LPDDR5 and UFS that enhance the performance of 5G smartphones as well as CIS (CMOS Image Sensor) which is essential in establishing effective environments for AR/VR and IoT.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories is pleased to announce the launch of the ADATA IM2P33E8 PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 2280 SSD. Designed with 5G networking, cloud computing, AI, and IoT in mind, the SSD sports excellent performance, large storage capacities, wide-temperature resistance (-40°C-85°C), and security features. These capabilities combine to offer an ideal solution for applications such as data centers, surveillance, and transportation.

The IM2P33E8 PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 2280 SSD is NVMe 1.3-compliant and delivers read/write speeds of up to 3500/3200 GB per second, making it up to six times faster than standard SATA III SSDs. It is equipped with 3D NAND Flash memory and comes with storage capacities ranging from 256 GB to 2 TB. It is available in normal-temperature (0°C to 70°C) and wide-temperature (-40°C to 85°C) variants. For enhanced security, integrity, and durability the IM2P33E8 features E2E (End-to-End) Data Protection and RAID Engine. What's more, the IM2P33E8 utilizes AES and TCG Opal encryption to keep confidential data away from prying eyes.

The Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance is now available and delivers the best user experience with devices based on IEEE 802.11ax. The certification program brings new features and capabilities that enable substantially greater overall Wi-Fi network performance in challenging environments with many connected devices such as stadiums, airports, and industrial parks. With adoption of the latest Wi-Fi generation increasing, product vendors and service providers can trust Wi-Fi CERTIFIED will distinguish Wi-Fi 6 products and networks that meet the highest standards for security and interoperability. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 provides significant capacity, performance, and latency improvements to the entire Wi-Fi ecosystem, while ensuring products across vendors to work well together to deliver greater innovation and opportunity.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 supports a more diverse set of devices and applications, from those requiring peak performance in demanding enterprise environments to those requiring low power and low latency in smart homes or industrial IoT scenarios. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers nearly four times the capacity of Wi-Fi 5, and is an evolutionary advancement for Wi-Fi's ability to deliver high-performance infrastructure and optimized connectivity to all devices on a network simultaneously - bringing noticeable improvements in densely connected Wi-Fi environments. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6 delivers critical connectivity that supports cellular networks, and leverages high speeds, low latency, power efficiency, greater capacity, and enhanced coverage to deliver many advanced 5G services.

Western Digital today announced two new 96-layer 3D flash NVMe SSD families, the Ultrastar DC SN640 and Ultrastar DC SN340. Both are purpose-built for either mixed-use-case workloads or very read-intensive applications, respectively. The new Ultrastar drives help meet the evolving, and increasingly specific workload demands placed on data centers today, while building a strong, flexible foundation for the zettabyte-scale era of the future. Leveraging Western Digital's in-house SSD controller designs, firmware development and vertical integration, these new solutions underscore the company's strengths in developing innovations that allow customers' data to thrive, from edge to core to cloud.

NVMe is having a great impact on enterprises and what they can do with data, particularly for real-time analytics, M2M and IoT, and emerging technologies like composable infrastructure. Data center customers understand the nature of their data streams and application workloads and are realizing that today's general-purpose architectures are inefficient and can carry resource and cost overhead.

ADATA Technology (Taiwan Stock Exchange: 3260.TWO), a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories announces that it has upgraded the endurance rating of its industrial-grade 3D TLC solid state drives (SSD) to 3K P/E cycles, bringing their endurance, reliability, and stability up to par with 2D MLC SSDs. Combined with their ability to operate in a wide range of temperatures (-40° C to 85° C), they are excellent solutions that provide the durability and consistency required by applications such as Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things (IoT), Intelligent Transportation Systems, surveillance systems, data centers, network operations, defense systems, and energy exploration.

The continual improvements in NAND Flash design and manufacturing, as well as the ever-changing demands of the market, have driven 3D NAND to become a popular memory solution across many industries. Despite its growing prominence, 3D NAND has had two major deficiencies, namely the ability to operate in extreme temperatures and achieve higher endurance ratings. To fill this gap, ADATA has upgraded its industrial-grade 3D TLC SSDs to an endurance rating of 3K P/E cycles, which makes them comparable to 2D MLC SSDs. At the same, ADATA 3D TLC SSDs are also designed to operate in a wide temperature range (-40° C to 85° C), delivering a memory solution that is long-lasting, robust, and reliable.