Taiwan's electronics manufacturing services (EMS) providers are accelerating their North American production plans in response to tariff threats, but component shortages and capacity constraints at US chip plants could hamper the AI server market for years, according to industry sources.

"Since Trump's election, Taiwanese manufacturers have been strategically expanding their US presence," said Yen Chou, an analyst at DIGITIMES Research. "Most server manufacturers are concentrating in Texas, with Foxconn's FII already operating there and planning expansions."

Amid an AI revolution sweeping through trillion-dollar industries worldwide, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang will deliver a keynote address ahead of COMPUTEX 2024, in Taipei, outlining what's next for the AI ecosystem. Slated for June 2 at the National Taiwan University Sports Center, the address kicks off before the COMPUTEX trade show scheduled to run from June 3-6 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. The keynote will be livestreamed at 7 p.m. Taiwan time (4 a.m. PT) on Sunday, June 2, with a replay available at NVIDIA.com.

With over 1,500 exhibitors from 26 countries and an expected crowd of 50,000 attendees, COMPUTEX is one of the world's premier technology events. It has long showcased the vibrant technology ecosystem anchored by Taiwan and has become a launching pad for the cutting-edge systems required to scale AI globally. As a leader in AI, NVIDIA continues to nurture and expand the AI ecosystem. Last year, Huang's keynote and appearances in partner press conferences exemplified NVIDIA's role in helping advance partners across the technology industry.

The spirit of software pioneer Grace Hopper will live on at NVIDIA GTC. Accelerated systems using powerful processors - named in honor of the pioneer of software programming - will be on display at the global AI conference running March 18-21, ready to take computing to the next level. System makers will show more than 500 servers in multiple configurations across 18 racks, all packing NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchips. They'll form the largest display at NVIDIA's booth in the San Jose Convention Center, filling the MGX Pavilion.

MGX Speeds Time to Market
NVIDIA MGX is a blueprint for building accelerated servers with any combination of GPUs, CPUs and data processing units (DPUs) for a wide range of AI, high performance computing and NVIDIA Omniverse applications. It's a modular reference architecture for use across multiple product generations and workloads. GTC attendees can get an up-close look at MGX models tailored for enterprise, cloud and telco-edge uses, such as generative AI inference, recommenders and data analytics. The pavilion will showcase accelerated systems packing single and dual GH200 Superchips in 1U and 2U chassis, linked via NVIDIA BlueField-3 DPUs and NVIDIA Quantum-2 400 Gb/s InfiniBand networks over LinkX cables and transceivers. The systems support industry standards for 19- and 21-inch rack enclosures, and many provide E1.S bays for nonvolatile storage.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today unveiled the latest additions to the company's suite of premium wearable platforms, Snapdragon W5+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon W5 Gen 1. These platforms are designed to advance ultra-low power and breakthrough performance for next generation connected wearables with a focus on extended battery life, premium user experiences, and sleek, innovative designs. By using these platforms, manufacturers can scale, differentiate, and develop products faster in the continuously growing and segmenting wearables industry.

New enhancements to the flagship Snapdragon W5+ platform offer 50% lower power, 2X higher performance, 2X richer features, and 30% smaller size, compared to our previous generation, enabling wearable manufacturers to deliver the differentiated experiences consumers demand. Based on the hybrid architecture, the purpose-built platform is comprised of a 4 nm-based system-on-chip and 22 nm-based highly integrated always-on co-processor. It incorporates a series of platform innovations including new ultra-low power Bluetooth 5.3 architecture, low power islands for Wi-Fi, GNSS, and Audio, and low power states such as Deep Sleep and Hibernate.

ASRock joined the likes of ASUS, Gigabyte, and others, in missing its motherboard sales target for 2012. According to the latest figures with DigiTimes, the company shipped 7.5 million motherboards in 2012, which is quite a bit short of its modest target of 9 million, given its 2011 shipments of 8 million.

According to industry analysts, the Pegatron subsidiary is expected to see a flat performance at best, in 2013, despite the fact that Intel is launching a brand new socket (LGA1150), prompting higher motherboard sales. In 2012, Intel retained its LGA1155 socket from the 2011-launched "Sandy Brige" platform, and inter-compatibility between its 2nd and 3rd generation Core processors may have stunted sales of its 7-series chipset products.

Microsoft Corp. and Pegatron Corp. have signed a patent agreement that provides coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for a broad array of Pegatron products including eReaders, smartphones and tablets running the Android or Chrome platforms. Although the contents of the agreement have not been disclosed, the parties indicate that Microsoft will receive royalties from Pegatron under the agreement.

"We are pleased to have reached this agreement with Pegatron and proud of the continued success of our Android licensing program in resolving IP issues surrounding Android and Chrome devices in the marketplace," said Horacio Gutierrez, corporate vice president and deputy general counsel, Intellectual Property Group at Microsoft. "With this agreement, Microsoft has now licensed four of the top five Taiwanese ODMs."

ASUS and Pegatron are headed for a complete split as far as motherboards and notebooks are concerned. Following reports of ASUSTek divesting in its former part and partner after split, Pegatron, ASUS plans to end manufacturing of its motherboards by it. ASUS will find other ODMs, such as Cal-Comp, ECS, Global-Brands Manufacture, and Info-Tek Corp. Pegatron is a notable ODM of motherboards, notebooks, AIO PCs, and other PC components. ASUS is also working to get its notebooks manufactured by ODMs such as Foxconn, Quanta, and Compal, while reducing its orders to Pegatron. This move could see further independence of ASUS and Pegatron from each other.

ASUSTek plans to release its holdings in of a 24.5% stake Pegatron Technology, according to a report by Taiwanese business daily Commercial Times. This release is said to occur some time in May, according to the report. ASUS will generate an income of NT$2.8-3.8 billion (US$94.69-128.51 million), or NT$3.7-5 EPS, according to the report. This release will grant Pegatron more autonomy, which holds a sizable share of the notebook contract-manufacturing business, and channel brands such as ASRock.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Apple was conducting inspections of the manufacturing facilities of its foundry partners via independent agencies, to assess working conditions and well-being of workers. It requested the Fair Labour Association (FLA) to carry out the inspections. In addition to Foxconn, the FLA will inspect facilities of Quanta Computer Inc, Pegatron Corp, Wintek Corp and others. While the final report of its inspections will be released only by late next month, FLA revealed its first impressions of what it saw.

The FLA finds the working conditions in foundry partner Foxconn's facilities "above average". Auret van Heerden, president of the FLA commented on the Foxconn inspection: "The facilities are first-class; the physical conditions are way, way above average of the norm." He continued, "I was very surprised when I walked onto the floor at Foxconn, how tranquil it is compared with a garment factory," he said. "So the problems are not the intensity and burnout and pressure-cooker environment you have in a garment factory. It's more a function of monotony, of boredom, of alienation perhaps."

According to the New York Times Apple is going on the offensive to save face in a string of workers rights issues in Chinese factories.

Apple said Monday that an independent labor rights organization had begun auditing working conditions at Chinese factories where Apple products are made. Apple said the group, the Fair Labor Association, started its first inspections Monday at a factory run by Foxconn in Shenzhen, China, known as Foxconn City. Apple said the inspection had been led by a team of labor-rights experts including Auret van Heerden, president of the association. Apple said the group, at Apple's request, would also conduct audits of other factories where Apple products are assembled, including Foxconn's factory in Chengdu and others run by Quanta and Pegatron.

After seeing market success with 11-inch and 13-inch ultrabooks (ultra-compact notebooks), Acer began working on a new, larger 15-inch ultrabook, which it plans to sell at a price-point of US $699. According to sources, Pegatron is the upstream ODM behind this model. Acer's current ultrabooks are manufactured on contract by Wistron. The sales of ultrabooks are expected to reach 250,000-300,000 units by the end of this year. Pegatron's total notebook shipments to reach 18.99 million units by the end of this year, with an annual growth of 22%, which will make it the fourth largest ODM by volume.

Today ASUS announced that they will be outsourcing a portion of their motherboard manufacturing to Cal-Comp Electronics. The total amount is estimated to be around 5 or 6 million motherboards out of a total shipment forecast of 24.5 million units for 2012. This is somewhat a surprise move by ASUS as they originally outsourced its motherboard orders to Pegatron and other smaller ODMs in Southern China.

The reasons for the shift are unknown. Cal-Comp currently has production bases in Thailand, China, Malaysia, Brazil and Mexico and is mainly manufacturing PC peripherals and components such as printers, external hard drive and printed circuit board (PCB) as well as communication products such as set-top box (STB), handsets and Bluetooth earphones.

Issues of labour-welfare and ethical-sourcing are back to haunt Apple, as one of its key foundry partners, Pegatron, reported an explosion at its facilities of Riteng Computer Accessory Company, Shanghai. The explosion injured 57 workers in all, hospitalising 23, while leaving 34 more with minor injuries. No deaths are reported so far. This facility manufactures the aluminum bodies of iPad 2, the incident is similar in nature to a previous one earlier this year, caused by improper exhaustion of combustible bi-products.

Pegatron CFO Charles Lin confirmed to the press, the number of people injured, the extant of their injuries, and what is being done. He went on to detail the current state of the facility. "The factory has not started operations yet. Part of the facility is still under pre-operation inspection and part is running trial production." Meanwhile, Apple expressed its condolences. In a statement, it said "Our hearts go out to the people who were hurt in Songjiang. We are working closely with Pegatron to understand the cause of this accident." This incident could affect supply of iPad 2.

Today DigiTimes reported Acers Chairman JT Wang, announced that the company will be downsizing its product line two-thirds by the end of 2012. Mr. Wangs statement leaned this maneuver as more of a streamline process rather then a downsize citing he expected sales to increase by 10% or higher within the next year. Mr. Wang also stated that this downsize will not effect its outsourcing partners. However, Acer's major partners including Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Pegatron Technology have decline to comment. One cannot help but wonder how many other manufactures will follow suit in these hard economic times.

Windows (PC) will make its first transition to a machine architecture other than x86 in decades with Windows 8 Windows on ARM (WOA), and Microsoft wants to make absolutely sure that it has a well-oiled ecosystem in place to propel its growth. Currently, Microsoft picked three potent players among ARM processor vendors, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments (that have experience and can ship in Zerg volumes), and NVIDIA (which has demonstrated a lot of engineering potential with its latest Tegra products).

Microsoft reportedly asked the three ARM players to pick two notebook vendors each (one major, and one minor) with which they will work to develop some of the first WOA portable computing devices. Qualcomm selected Samsung and Sony, Texas Instruments chose Toshiba and Samsung, while NVIDIA chose Acer and Lenovo. Among these, Samsung, Toshiba, and Lenovo are the major partners. Surprisingly, Taiwan-based companies have an insignificant role in this ecosystem. ASUS, which has thus far been the largest client of NVIDIA for Tegra processors, has been left out. Now that downstream partners are selected, upstream ODMs such as Quanta Computer, Compal Electronics, Wistron and Pegatron Technology, which manufacture for those companies, are getting their R&D teams in shape to compete for the next-generation platform. The finishing line of ARM's marathon run to get into PCs is in sight.

Intel Corporation today unveiled its 2010 Intel Core vPro processor family to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes for PCs with greater, more flexible performance, theft prevention and cost savings in a rapidly changing business computing environment. These and several other capabilities are at the heart of many new Intel-based business laptop and desktop computers beginning to roll out from computer manufacturers worldwide.

The Intel Core vPro processors arrive as business computing evolves with the emergence of video, Internet telephony, social networking and other heavyweight applications - in many cases running at the same time - making a computer's performance an even bigger priority.

SiS today announced the SiS672/96/307DV chipset supporting the latest Intel Atom 230 CPU which has been adopted by PEGATRON to develop the Ultra Slim Atom NetTop project. SiS672 of low power consumption and fanless is equipped to bring Ultra Slim Atom NetTop into full play.

The PEGATRON Ultra Slim Atom NetTop platform, demonstrating its unique aesthetics and elaborate design with practical features to enhance the implementation of multimedia and video and to provide high quality of visual entertainment. The space-saving design is only 0.5L of the mini tower chassis with SiS672/968/307DV chipset on motherboard. The frequency of Wi-Fi wireless network options can reach up to 2.4~2.5GHZ for remote access. The ultra slim NetTop system is designed to perfectly link with various LCD monitor models so as to catch on the All-in-One LCD PC market.

Even though almost all of the netbooks as we call them today are using Intel Atom processors as their main processor and if not they use VIA CPUs, Freescale, a third company, is moving in on this fastest-growing segment of the PC market. The company said on Monday it is planning on introducing a new chip for netbooks that are priced below $200. Freescale's i.MX515 processor will run on super low-cost netbooks only, that are created mainly to perform basic tasks such as accessing the Internet and running office applications, with no gaming or performance CAD involved. Moreover, the i.MX515 won't support any Microsoft Windows OS at all, which leaves the door open only for Linux. The main strength of i.MX515 based on the Cortex-A8 core from ARM is its low power usage, which suggests extra long battery life of the machines equipped with this CPU. According to the company, the chip would allow a netbook with an 8.9-inch display to receive eight hours of battery life. Again, expect more information at CES 2009. There Freescale will showcase a working i.MX515-based netbook prototype made by Pegatron (ASUS spin-off company).

HP has been showing off its latest creation, the Touchsmart IQ518, an all-in-one PC with a 22" widescreen multi-touch panel. The expected launch price is to be around $1800 (US) and HP has said Pegatron Technology will be handling its manufacture. There have been no other details in terms of specification as yet but it is likely that systems such as this are preparing for the launch of Windows 7, as it has already been said that Microsoft will be implementing touchscreen technology as a key aspect of the upcoming OS.

ASUSTeK plans to promote and build the ASUS brand by splitting it into three distinct units. The new ASUS will only produce ASUS-branded computers while the second company, Pegatron, will handle all original equipment manufacturer (OEM), motherboard, and component manufacturing. The third and final company Unihan, will concentrate on casing, module, and other non-PC manufacturing. Both Pegatron and Unihan are expected to continue the former ASUS manufacturing tasks with little to no dropoff or transition.