NSC plans for the post-PC era

The National Science Council (NSC, 國科會) has revealed its vision of the future of the country's high-tech sector in a white paper, staking out Taiwan's claim in the field of Internet appliances (IA). IA is believed to be the next evolutionary stage of consumer technology, successor to the era of personal computing.

"The 3Cs Integration Technology and Industry White Paper" (3C 整|X科?THORN>與2ㄦ~白皮書) illustrates the NSC's strategy to consolidate enterprises in computers, communications and consumer electronics.

Such a strategy would make Taiwan a leading country in the field of IAs, in terms of production volume, by 2005.

The 3C-integration white paper, prepared by the National Information Infrastructure Enterprise Promotion Association (NII), a government-sponsored organization, focuses on practical strategies to develop information technology in fields like system-on-a-chip (SOC, 3瘣1?蠿t2?/CHINESE>), a key component of IA.

"Taiwan will play a key role in the post-PC era if we wisely develop and invest in IA now," said the NII's president, Hsia Han-min (夏漢民), adding that the "miracle" of the traditional semiconductor industry could be attributed to the cooperation between government and industry over the last 20 years.

"Based on our achievements in the semiconductor industry, we definitely have an edge in producing a diverse range of cost-effective household and personal information appliances," Hsia said.

NII officials said that computers would be soon incorporated into ordinary electronic objects, such as cellphones, PDAs (personal digital assistants), microwave ovens, watches and TV sets.

They said that companies would be encouraged to generate software for the IA arena, encompassing such diverse services as Internet TV, Internet communication devices, and e-commerce facilities.

"During the first stage, we should focus on certain technologies, such as human interface technology, media processing and in-home digital network technology," said Wu Chung-yu (吳-垂B), a professor of electronic engineering at National Chiao Tung University and the leader of NII's 3C-integration team.

"To meet human resources demand in the 3C-integration field, we are proposing that universities train at least 750 professionals every year," Wu said, adding that the NSC will approve 10 integration projects involving 50 doctoral candidates and 100 graduate students yearly, beginning in August.

Wu said that the government would provide research and development grants soon and would call for assistance and investment from experienced professionals working in Silicon Valley in the US.

Taiwan could produce about 60 percent of the intellectual property contained in SOC appliances by 2005, he said.

NII officials said that the budget for the first year, earmarked at around NT$2 billion, would be spent on persuading the industry to join 3C-integration research and development projects, incorporating foreign talent from Japan, Europe and the US, while sharing government-owned high-speed Internet hardware technology with the industry.

"The 3C-integration project has been endorsed by other governmental agencies including the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA)," said NSC chairman Huang Chen-tai (黃鎮台), hinting at the possibility of greater budget allocations as the technology advances.

The MOEA has assigned the 3C-integration project top priority in order to encourage the private sector to develop SOC technology as soon as possible, Huang said.