The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday unveiled the world's first dual-network application services, hoping the innovative application would help Taiwan become a leader in mobile technology. The network also seeks to help communications equipment manufacturers become the nation's third trillion-dollar industry.
"Taiwan is changing its strategy from a follower in the past to a pioneer through integrating new technology and offering new solutions to stimulate new demands," Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh (何美玥) said at a press conference yesterday.
Dual-network integration refers to technology that combines cellular networks with wireless local area networks (WLANs), which means that WLAN and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or the third-generation telecom technology can be integrated into one dual-network mobile phone, allowing users to enjoy online services through both mode which complement each other.
The application can provide users with seamless communications through the combined advantages of both a cellular system's rapid switching, wide coverage and WLAN's fast transmission and lower cost.
Cooperating with over 10 information technology and communication service providers, including Acer Inc, Taiwan Cellular Corp (台灣大哥大), and Microsoft Taiwan, the ministry built a model in Taipei City's Nankang Science Park (南港科學園區) to demonstrate the new technology.
The service, for instance, provides workers in the park with various functions, including access to personal e-mails and instant messages or connection to any printer in the park through wireless transmission. Other services allow parents to view their children in the park's daycare center through a surveillance system. The launch of dual-network technology signals the inauguration of the M-Taiwan (mobile-Taiwan) scheme, Ho said, adding that the government plans to spend NT$7 billion to build seamless communication space across the nation in the next three to five years.
The program is expected to boost wireless Internet users to 8 million people and help the nation enter the world's top five in competitiveness of mobile commercial applications, she said.
It would also help propel the nation's communication equipment manufacturing sector to the trillion NT dollar mark by 2008, Ho said.
Taiwan's semiconductor and flat-panel display industries are already worth trillions of NT dollars a year. The nation's communication equipment makers generated production value of NT$463.9 billion last year, up from NT$311.4 billion in 2003, and are estimated to create NT$550 billion-worth of output this year, according to figures provided by the ministry's Industrial Development Bureau.
Betting on the potential of the dual-network technology, Taiwan Cellular is slated to roll out dual-network service packages with a variety of BenQ or Dopod-labeled mobile phones costing around NT$10,000 after the Lunar New Year holiday, said Lancelot Wang (
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
Qualcomm Inc is strengthening its partnerships with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and original design manufacturers (ODMs) in Taiwan as it expands its presence in the artificial intelligence (AI) computer market, CEO Cristiano Amon said in Taipei yesterday ahead of the annual Computex trade show. “Historically we’ve always been a very big customer of TSMC, and we continue to be,” Amon said during a media Q&A session. “For chip manufacturing, we’re among the largest fabless [semiconductor designers],” he said, noting that Qualcomm, a leading provider of mobile and AI-enabled chipsets, ships about 40 billion components every year, with TSMC being
‘FAILED EXPORT CONTROLS’: Jensen Huang said that Washington should maximize the speed of AI diffusion, because not doing so would give competitors an advantage Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday criticized the US government’s restrictions on exports of artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China, saying that the policy was a failure and would only spur China to accelerate AI development. The export controls gave China the spirit, motivation and government support to accelerate AI development, Huang told reporters at the Computex trade show in Taipei. The competition in China is already intense, given its strong software capabilities, extensive technology ecosystems and work efficiency, he said. “All in all, the export controls were a failure. The facts would suggest it,” he said. “The US
NEW PRODUCTS: MediaTek has been diversifying its product lines to minimize operational risks as mobile chips remain the company’s biggest revenue source MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest supplier of smartphone chips, yesterday said the tape-out process for its first 2-nanometer chip would take place in September, paving the way for volume production of its most advanced chip, likely to be its next-generation flagship smartphone chip, around the year-end at the earliest. MediaTek has been leveraging advanced process technologies from its foundry partner, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), to build its flagship mobile phone chips, a segment it once relinquished and then recovered four years ago as it released its Dimensity series. In the semiconductor industry, a tape-out refers to the
RSS