Machine Access Control

 

When thinking about RFID being applied for access control, people think about readers located close to doorways either outside the building or within the plant. While those readers operate like the industrial readers, they frequently cannot communicate over an industrial communication protocol like Ethernet/IP, Profinet, or IO-Link.  With an industrial access control reader one can minimize access to HMIs, PLCs, and various control systems by verifying the user and permitting access to the appropriate controls.  This extra layer of security also assures operator accountability by identifying the user.

 

Machine Tool ID

 

RFID has been utilised in machining centers for decades. And yet, it was used mostly in larger scale operations where there were acres of machines and hundreds of tools. At this point it is being used in shops with as few as one machine. The ROI is dependent on the number of tool changes in a shift; not necessarily just the number of machines and the number of tools in the building. The greater the number of tool changes, the greater the risk of data input errors, tool breakage, and even a crash.

 

Content verification

 

Since RFID is ideal for reading through cardboard and plastic, it is commonly used to determine the contents of a container. Tags are fixed to the critical items in the box, like a battery pack or bag of hardware, and passed through a reader to verify their presence. If, in this case, two tags are not read at the final station then the box can be opened and supplied with the missing part before it ships. This helps prevent an overload on aftersales support and ensures customers get what they ordered.

 

While RFID is still extensively used to address Work in Process (WIP), asset tracking, and logistics applications, the number of alternative applications involving RFID has skyrocketed because of an increase in demand for actionable data.  Manufacturing organizations across the world have standardized on RFID as a solution in cases where accountability, reliability and quality are critical.

 

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The 5G communication module for vehicles refers to a component that enables data transmission between a vehicle and a cellular base station to provide wireless network connection using 5G mobile communication technology. It can also be primarily mounted inside the vehicle or in communication devices near the roof.

 

This is touted as the next-generation automotive mobile communication system to facilitate a vehicle to turn into fully autonomous, furnishing it with real-time traffic data, correct location information and vehicle-to-everything communication.

 

Companies have been in heated competition to develop modules that run on Qualcomm’s SnapdragonTM Automotive 5G Platform, a top presence in the 5G telecom chip market. LG Innotek said it managed to gain an edge thanks to its proprietary RF circuit design technology, high-precision and density modularized technology, and heat-resistant new materials.

 

The most current 5G module comes with tremendously reduced latency, about one-tenth of that of an LTE module, the company said. If an autonomous car driving at 100 kilometers per hour identifies an obstacle, the urgent braking function in a 5G module will start to activate after the vehicle moves 2.8 centimeters, whereas braking in an LTE module will start after it moves 1.4 meters.

 

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The Federal Network Agency catalog of conditions for suppliers of new 5G networks comprise of demanding certification of important components and assuring trustworthiness of manufacturers, without singling out Huawei for exclusion.

 

Huawei replied it welcomed the German government's step to ''create a level playing field'' for 5G suppliers, where ''all vendors are equally and fairly welcome to participate in the construction of 5G networks if they fulfill the security requirements.''

 

The U.S. has been lobbying allies in Europe to avoid Huawei, the world's biggest maker of networking equipment, over doubts its equipment may possibly help Chinese electronic spying, claims the company has over repeatedly denied. The Trump administration cut out its access to U.S. technology in May, part of a broader geopolitical feud between Washington and Beijing over technology and trade.

 

The top U.S. cybersecurity diplomat, Rob Strayer, declared that in addition to testing equipment and software for vulnerabilities, governments should also take into account the background of the manufacturer's home country, including whether it has independent courts and the rule of law.

 

U.S. officials worry that companies in China are required to cooperate with intelligence requests under a national intelligence law. ''If there's technology that's untrusted deployed in their networks, then we have to reassess how we share information with countries like Germany,'' Strayer told in a telephone media briefing, though he added he had not yet assessed the German rules, which are open for consultation and could become law by the end of the year.

 

Strayer also appreciated a European Union assessment of 5G security risks last week that alerted about several cyber threats including from hostile countries and ''state-backed actors,'' besides the fact that it avoided singling out China or Huawei. New 5G networks guarantee superfast download speeds and reduced signal delay that can power a wave of innovations such as for example factory robots and remote surgery, but their increased reliance on software raises the challenges of cyberattacks.

 

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South Korea at first plans to update the country's 5,500 km of highways, then improve the infrastructure on local streets in major cities also by 2024. The Asian country, which has taken the lead in to start ahead fifth-generation wireless communications, is staking out a position at the front of the pack in driverless car infrastructure as well.

 

Like for example, signaling devices installed at traffic lights will notify the autonomous vehicle directly when the light changes color, in the place of the car having to rely upon a camera to determine whether the light is red or green. Other signals will relay the width of lanes so that the vehicles can adapt accordingly. Besides, the government plans to work typically with domestic companies to develop detailed 3-D mapping data.

 

Significant South Korean agencies will create requirements for the signaling technology. Manufacturers will be given incentives to formulate the products. Wireless carriers KT and SK Telecom are conducting research and development in the area. The government's road map toward a driverless future will encourage development in the private sector.

 

Yet South Korea's private sector trails those from other countries at expanding autonomous technology in the vehicles themselves. Hyundai Motor, the nation's leading automaker, unveiled a driverless collaboration with Aptiv, a U.S.-based auto tech supplier, in a bid to catch up with opponents.

 

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In conjunction with Samsung Networks, Jio has built the world’s largest green-field and all IP based 4G LTE network, which supports over 340 million LTE subscribers by August 2019. At the event, the two companies demonstrate new business opportunities using 5G NSA mode, together with advanced 4G LTE and 5G technology used in combination as a dual-connected mode network. These will reveal how innovations from the latest technology can possibly benefit consumers, enterprises and the society.

 

“The unprecedented data growth and the mobile internet adoption and revolution that Jio brought to India has fundamentally changed the life of every Indian,” said Mathew Oommen, President of Reliance Jio Infocomm. “We as Jio, working closely with key partners like Samsung will ensure that we continue to help India leapfrog traditional technologies by advancing the existing 4G all-IP infrastructure and leverage the end-to-end fiber, 5G, and IoT ecosystems towards a digital infrastructure platform. This digital platform will deliver on the aspirations of all Indians, our businesses, and the emerging digital society that is fundamental to accelerating the digital economy and ensuring digital freedom for India.”

 

“Having superior LTE networks is a key asset for operators in moving towards the 5G era, and Jio has reached that compelling competency,” said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics. “Samsung has been working in close cooperation with Jio to bring a digital transformation including the transition to 4G throughout India for over seven years. Samsung and Jio will continue to join forces in bringing next generation innovation across the country, harnessing the full 5G potential in driving further growth of a ‘Digital India’.”

 

5G Use Cases for Digital India

 

Samsung and Jio mutually highlight immersive and live applications of 5G that will demonstrate the value that 5G has to offer in India. The trial will feature solutions from Samsung Networks’ 5G product portfolio, such as its 3.5GHz solution for 5G Massive MIMO Unit (MMU), its 28GHz Access Unit (AU) and CPE device, its virtualized radio access (vRAN) and core, and 5G mobile devices. Demonstrations will include:

 

- Virtual Classroom allows attendees to watch 360-degree virtual lecture taken from a classroom in Jio’s Reliance Corporate Park (RCP) in Mumbai.

- Massive Full High-Definition (HD) Content Streaming shows FHD video streaming on multiple smartphones (Galaxy S10 5G) simultaneously and 4K video streaming using multiple 5G tablets, which will showcase the unparalleled entertainment experience powered by 5G.

 

4G Use Cases for Public Safety Communications

 

Jio and Samsung are likely to demonstrate a live “public safety network over LTE” featuring Mission-Critical-Push-To-X (MCPTX) communication. Conceptualized as “OneNet”, a potential India’s Emergency Communication Network, this will empower first responders to connect with each other using a broadband network in a controlled and “geo-fenced” manner.

 

Public Safety LTE (PS-LTE) using MCPTX goes beyond what was possible through legacy technologies wherein they were limited to providing voice-oriented communications. By highlighting the use of LTE for real-time streaming of videos and high-definition images of scenes during emergencies, it enables multi-lateral communications to be connected at once to transfer video, images and voice all at once using multicast technology. As allowing the first responders and control towers to engage in highly effective communications, PS-LTE is enabled to make better decisions during time-critical situations.

 

As Jio has already built the largest and most advanced LTE network nationwide reaching every corner of Pan-India, MCPTX for PS-LTE is among the most effective ways to maximize the current LTE network to serve public safety for over 1.3 billion people. Samsung is one of the first companies to launch a 5G commercial network in Korea and the U.S. in the first half of 2019 using its end-to-end 5G solutions varying from chipsets, radios, core network solutions and smartphones for both mid-band and mmWave.

 

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The program, which Hyundai said included autonomous, connected and electric vehicles, comes after the company and two of its affiliates announced an investment of $1.6 billion in a partnership with U.S. self-driving tech firm Aptiv. Hyundai's plan also obtained a boost from the South Korean government, which said on Tuesday that it plans to spend 1.7 trillion won from 2021-27 to boost autonomous vehicle technology.

 

The government is expecting Hyundai to launch a nationwide service of fully autonomous cars to fleet customers in 2024 and the general public by 2027. This thrust is an important part of a blueprint for future cars President Moon Jae-in announced at an event at Hyundai Motor's research centre near Seoul.

 

The government said it was making a feasibility review for its proposed funding boost, which would probably include parts, systems and infrastructure. It said Korea lags behind in self-driving car software and key parts like sensors and chips, regardless of the country's advanced, fifth-generation mobile data network.

 

South Korea also said it would plan a regulatory and legal framework to assure the safety of autonomous cars by 2024. ''We will actively transition from combustion-engine cars to future cars,'' Industry Minister Sung Yoon-mo said at a media briefing on Tuesday.

 

The government also targets to lay the technological and legal groundwork for the demonstration of flying cars in 2025. Hyundai Motor's executive vice chairman Euisun Chung has said the company is thinking about developing flying cars, which could be commercialized well before the most advanced self-driving cars.

 

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Flashtalking CEO John Nardon said, “Our foundation is incredibly strong heading into the fourth quarter and the year ahead as we continue to build our global business.”

 

John added, “We’ve always operated profitably, while continuing to expand in all regions of the world and adding new offices by the quarter. Our clients and partners are excited by our momentum, benefiting from our meaningful strategic partnerships, such as ours with Adobe, and the constant evolution of our product suite and best of breed solutions. We also are seeing significant growth from existing clients who have been able to measure meaningful improvements in their return on media spend.”

 

Flashtalking’s Flashpoints in 2019

 

Many existing clients have considerably deepened their commitment to Flashtalking due to its ability to consistently drive high return on media spend (ROMS). As the only independent ad serving platform without media bias, Flashtalking unifies advertiser data with a privacy-friendly, MRC-certified, fully-encrypted measurement solution.

 

Moreover, Flashtalking successfully won a number of global advertisers who moved from distressed competitors. The company has accelerated primary ad server migration with a streamlined operational process executed by dedicated onboarding teams, making it easier than ever for advertisers to switch ad servers. These wins underscore the buy side’s desire for alternatives to Sizmek, facing an uncertain future post-acquisition by Amazon, and the Google stack, primarily with the deprecation of the Google ID.

 

John continued, “Flashtalking stands alone in our unique capabilities to help marketers and their agencies to measure and improve media performance across channels, at scale. We provide award-winning support backed by hands-on training to global agency teams. In fact, later this quarter, we will officially unveil our Flashtalking Certification Program, a major training and continuing education initiative designed to help clients navigate the ever-changing digital landscape with best-in-class creative solutions and campaign management tools. Be on the lookout for the new product enhancements, additional international office openings, key partnerships and strategic integrations we will be announcing over the coming months.”

 

A different remarkable 2019 milestone was Flashtalking’s debut of universal frequency signaling, a new feature that resolves a significant pain point for advertisers. This new capability allows Flashtalking to merge frequency management at the same time across all buying endpoints. The enhancement was launched with a number of major partners already on board, particularly Adobe Advertising Cloud, MediaMath and Amobee as inaugural partners.

 

In the upcoming months the company is likely to publicize deepened partnerships across the adtech ecosystem, its redesigned Flashtalking Decision Tree, and continued global expansion.

 

At the moment, Flashtalking platform leads the market with innovative products and services to ensure creative relevance and actionable insights all over channels and formats, powered by unique cookieless tracking, data orchestration and algorithmic multi-touch attribution. They support consumers at the crossroads where data, personalized creative and unbiased measurement intersect with expertise, service and a deep partner ecosystem to drive successful digital marketing.

 

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Data analytics leads to predictive analytics using accumulated data to forecast what might occur under certain situations. The estimations are developed from historical data and rely on humans to question data, authenticate patterns, create and then test the assumptions. These kinds of assumptions take for granted that the future will follow the same patterns. “What if” assumptions are developed through human understanding of the past, and the predictive competence is limited by the volume, time and cost restrictions of human data analysts.

 

Machine learning is a continuance of the perceptions around predictive analytics, except that the AI system is able to make assumptions, test them and study autonomously. AI machine learning has the ability to asses and reassess data to foresee every possible customer-to-product match, at a speed and competence no human could attain. AI concerns the selection of the ideal tools for the job.

 

There is a false impression that predictive analytics and machine learning are similar thing. This is far from the truth.

 

The science of predictive analytics can create perceptions of the future with substantial accuracy. Using state-of-the-art predictive analytics tools and models, any manufacturer can use past data together with current information to dependably forecast trends and behaviors days or years into the future.

 

With predictive analytics, manufacturers can find and take full advantage of patterns contained within data set in order to uncover risks and discover opportunities. For example, models can be designed to see the relationships between many behavior issues. These models aid in the appraisal of either the potential or the risk posed by a specific set of conditions, allowing for informed decision-making across a number of categories of supply chain and procurement procedures.

 

There are Classification models, that predict class membership, and Regression models that calculate a number. These models are made up of algorithms, which undertake the data mining and statistical analysis to figure out trends and patterns in the data. Predictive analytics software solutions have algorithms that can be utilized to make prognostic models. These algorithms are defined as classifiers, which identify the series of categories that contains the data.

 

There are multiple predictive models that are generally used, such as decision trees.

 

Decision trees are a simple yet efficient form of analysis of multiple variables. They are created by algorithms that recognize respective ways of separating data into segment branches. Decision trees distinguish data into subsets based on groupings of input variables, facilitating the understanding of a path of decisions.

 

Regression is another model. Regression analysis determines the relationship between variables, finding substantial patterns in large separate data sets and how they relate to each other.

 

Neural networks are developed akin to the action of neurons in the human brain.  These networks are a collection of deep learning technologies. They're most frequently used to solve intricate pattern recognition problems. They are perfect at coping with nonlinear relationships in data; and they work well when specific variables are unknown. A neural network learns the expected output for a given input from training datasets. They are adaptive and amend themselves as they learn from successive inputs.

 

Predictive analytics are used in the banking and financial services industry. They are used to diagnose and reduce fraud, determine market risk, identify prospects and more.

 

Because cybersecurity is at the top of every manufacturer’s agenda, predictive analytics plays a crucial part in security. Security institutions, as a rule, use predictive analytics to detect incongruities, discover fraud, understand consumer activities and improve data security. Manufacturers are using predictive analytics to better understand who buys what and where? These questions can be quickly answered with the right predictive models and data sets. This helps manufacturers to plan ahead and make products based on consumer trends.

 

There is a good relationship between predictive analytics and machine learning, but they are undoubtedly diverse concepts. Machine learning is much larger than predictive analytics.

 

Machine learning is an AI procedure exactly where algorithms are given data and asked to process it without predetermined rules. They use what they learn from their flaws to enhance future operation. Because data sustains machine learning, the results are at their best when the machine has access to great quantities of data to improve its algorithm.

 

There are two common types of machine learning. One is supervised where a training dataset is given to let the machine understand what kind of output is desired. The categorized data provides information on the parameters of the desired categories and permits the algorithm to decide how to tell them apart. Supervised learning can be used to teach an algorithm to differentiate spam mail from normal correspondence.

 

With unsupervised learning, no training data is given. The algorithm evaluates a mass of data for patterns or shared elements. Sizeable volumes of unstructured data can then be organized and grouped. Unsupervised learning is utilized in intelligent profiling to determine parallels between a manufacturer’s most valuable customers.

 

A couple of machine learning applications are the self-driving car; online recommendation offers by online retailers like Amazon; and knowing what customers are saying about your company on social media.

 

Machine learning and natural language processing is now being implemented to predictive analytics. The system uses information submitted in natural language. Subsequently, the system gets better at comparing results and supplying the ideal conclusions. The subsequent information is used for predictive analytics. Together all of these technologies and techniques give constructive information for forecasting, planning, predicting and testing theories and hypotheses for business growth and success.

 

The utilization of predictive analytics and machine learning has been expanding for some time now. They quench the demand for personalized service delivered more effectively. They can be modified to match a project’s scale, making this flexibility a crucial part of an executive’s digital tool box.

 

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That's in line with a leaked slide that comes courtesy of AdoredTV, which details that Intel will reduce the prices of its processor lines rather significantly, so much so that it could come with a $3bn cost.

 

But this kind of financial smack around the chops could be one way for Intel to ensure its Core and Xeon processors remain at a price that is competitive with AMD; we doubt the chipmaker would likely undercut Team Red, but cheaper Core CPUs would surely make the decision to go AMD or Intel more tricky once one balances cost and performance ratios.

 

As AdoredTV pointed out, Intel has the ''financial horsepower'' to take this type of revenue hit, as its long standing dominance in the chip world means that it certainly is not short on cash reserves; while Team Red isn't destitute, it doesn't have the net income of its main rival.

 

In the event that the rumours are real, we'd place a cautious bet that the biggest price cuts is going to be levied at Intel's Xeon data centre CPUs, as that is where the chipmaker is at its most dominant. But the rise of AMD's EPYC Rome 7-nanometre processors gives a new challenge to that arena, and one that Intel likely cannot sit idly by and ignore.

 

Sure, Intel might cook up some chips that offer substantially more efficiency than Team Red's rivals, but that's not simple to do; Intel hasn't precisely had an easy route to the 10nm process node basically. As such, in the short-term a price reduction pretty makes sense.

 

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The Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL phones took the main stage at a launching event here. They boast astrophotography-grade cameras, a better-integrated Google Assistant system, and such AI-powered features as a recorder that transcribes English speech in real time offline. Starting at $799, the new Pixels are also billed as the first smartphones with radar sensors, which facilitate gesture control.

 

''If Google's Android licensees didn't take Google's hardware endeavors seriously before, they will do now,'' said Geoff Blaber of CCS Insights, adding that ''the big story'' is the Pixel's expanded distribution through all major U.S. carriers.

 

Google also advanced smart-home offerings, now brought under the Nest brand, including a new smart speaker and mesh Wi-Fi router. The tech giant teased speech-recognition-enabled Pixel Buds wireless earbuds due out upcoming spring. Together these gadgets shape an essential strategy for Google to both leverage and keep users close to core products: the artificial intelligence powering the devices and the services accessed through them. South Korean competitor Samsung expanded a tie-up with Microsoft in August, embracing a similar strategy of interdevice connectivity to encourage user stickiness.

 

The search giant likewise has a 5G phone in test production, believed to be rolled out preceding rival Apple's, sources told the Nikkei Asian Review last week. This would make Google the first handset maker outside Asia to have a smartphone product with fifth-generation technology built in. The Pixel 4 launch also comes as Google ends Huawei's ''backdoor'' access to its Play Store, as the Chinese company remains on Washington's export control blacklist. So users of new Huawei handsets will no longer be able to download Google apps - a strong deterrent for consumers in markets outside China.

 

''With Huawei facing huge challenges, particularly in Europe, now is the time for Google if it's serious about moving the needle with Pixel,'' CCS' Blaber said.

 

Just as with Huawei, Pixel phones are admired for their camera capabilities. The new Pixel 4 adds a second rear camera and an improved Night Sight mode. So far the U.S. remains Pixel's main market, where Huawei is shut out but Apple and Samsung are way ahead by share. But Google is also making some headway. The Pixel doubled its share of the U.S. smartphone market to just about 5% in the first half of 2019, according to Strategy Analytics.

 

''More models and deeper distribution sparked record growth,'' Strategy Analytics' Neil Mawston said in a report. ''Alarm bells will be ringing at Samsung, LG, Motorola and elsewhere.''

 

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Augury, a company situated in Israel and the U.S., is transforming the conversation around machine health by combining advanced sensor technology, artificial intelligence, and reliability expertise to present accurate and actionable insights for a full ecosystem of production line assets. In accordance with Augury, every machine has a special acoustic fingerprint. By listening thoroughly and applying advanced analytics, manufacturers and machine builders can estimate faults before they occur.

 

“We are a machine health solution that makes sure machines that matter are always running for our customers,” said Jonathan Biagiotti, product marketing manager at Augury. “And the way we do this is by vibration analysis, temperature data analysis, and magnetic field data analytics.”

 

Augury was founded in 2011 by Saar Yoskovitz and Gal Shaul. Shaul was working for a medical device company at the time, and would have to fly out to customer locations to solve equipment that could have been corrected remotely with software and acoustics, the two concluded. So they collaborated to create Augury.

 

At first, the company developed a portable hand-held diagnostic tool with capabilities of Category IV vibration analysis. Recently, leveraging the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AI, Augury rolled out a product called Halo, a wireless platform that offers real-time and continuous advanced diagnostics that alerts personnel to even the slightest change in a machine’s health status, and delivers a detailed malfunction analysis.

 

“We give actionable insights to customers,” Biagiotti explained. “It’s not just, ‘you have high vibration,’ rather, ‘you have a problem on the drive end of motor which is a moderate misalignment problem, and we recommend you laser align the machine.’ It is specific and actionable and the people reading the results don’t have to be a vibrational analyst.”

 

That’s because Augury has certified Cat III and IV vibration analysts on staff who tag data and identify what the fault means. They are available to the customer as part of a turnkey service that includes reliability consulting.

 

Augury experts collect information on the magnetic field - one thing the company has pioneered, Biagiotti said. Plus, the algorithms are more sophisticated than what is currently out there for machine learning applications. “We are not just looking at vibration, but dozens of calculated values…The signals give an early heads-up when things change and detect anomalies based on past behavior.”

 

The goal is to check out the health of the system to improve the overall performance at the plant and in addition the larger supply chain. Augury executives recognize that machine health is about solving a bigger problem.

 

To illustrate, a beer manufacturer gets a pump because they need it to move beer from one place to another, but they are more interested in the performance of the pump vs. the maintenance of it. To that end, the company gave the example of a beer bottler that saved three hours of downtime, 180,000 bottles of production loss and $360,000 in retail value by knowing a motor was going to fail, before it did so – thanks to Augury’s cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering.

 

Halo has web and mobile dashboards that can be looked at on a PC, laptop, iPhone or Android providing KPIs and plant performance metrics. The company can also push text messages and e-mails to people to attentive them if there is a change to the status of a machine. Halo can also integrate with a company’s existing work order management system or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

 

Augury works with manufacturers in the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, CPG, water and wastewater treatment and power industries, and forms partnerships with OEMs.

 

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The study was compiled by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a public interest group, the nonprofit Environment America Research and Policy Center and Frontier Group, a clean energy organization. Battery-powered electric buses minimize diesel exhaust emissions and pollution and discharge far fewer greenhouses gasses that contribute to global warming than do diesel and natural gas-powered buses, proponents say.

 

Transportation is the nation's largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for just about one-third of emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. But the emerging electric bus technology is not without its pitfalls, said the report which looked at six U.S. test locations. Among them, Chicago Transit Authority's two electric buses were able to deal with cold weather, and the agency plans full-fleet electrification by 2040, it said.

 

But buses evaluated in 2018 in Albuquerque, New Mexico had shorter-than-expected battery life, insufficient range and a sensitivity to extreme heat, it said. ''We obviously want to see more electric buses on the road, but we're not going to say places that have tested them have had 100% success rates with no challenges,'' said Matthew Casale, a transportation specialist with the U.S. PIRG Education Fund.

 

''Places that are thinking about making a change now can be more informed about what they are facing.''

 

While some U.S. communities are looking to replace diesel buses, many transit agencies are cautious out of concerns that electric vehicles have limited range and are unproven on a mass scale. A report circulated in May by the World Resources Institute, a global research organization, found cities face technological, financial and institutional barriers to electrifying bus fleets.

 

Cities don't know enough about the buses' limitations and maintenance, and transit agencies may be unwilling to pay for buses that are more expensive up front but cheaper to operate than conventional buses, WRI said. ''Critics out there say the buses are not ready for prime time because of technology hurdles or cost hurdles or education hurdles,'' Casale said.

 

''At the end of the day, electric buses really provide significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and exposure to harmful pollutants,'' he said. ''It's certainly something worth pursuing.''

 

About half of America's close to 70,000 transit buses and 95% of its school buses run on diesel, the report said. Among major cities, New York City has announced plans to convert public buses to an all-electric fleet by 2040.

 

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“China is the ultimate conundrum,” says Stanford president emeritus and MIPS Computer Systems founder John Hennessy. “It’s a large market that U.S. companies need access to, together with being what will become a major technical competitor. We have never faced that.”

 

The combination of silicon manufacturing into two major foundries raises the threat level, pointed out Diane Bryant, former Intel and Google Cloud executive. “You really just have TSMC and Samsung left,” she said. “And TSMC is in Taiwan, so you have to be thinking about China and the threat to Taiwan, and what will happen to TSMC.”

 

China will take control Taiwan “the same time North Korea takes over South Korea,” quipped Hennessy, giving it control over most of the world’s semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. “What do you do tomorrow if TSMC and Samsung are off limits?” he asked his fellow panel members.

 

“You can’t go to Global Foundries,” which indeed has some U.S. semiconductor manufacturing capability, said Bryant, “unless you really want Moore’s Law to be dead.” (Global Foundries recently stopped developing the most advanced semiconductor processes.)

 

Rodrigo Liang, CEO of SambaNova Systems, argued that solving this problem can only be done at the level of the U.S. government. Pradeep Sindhu, founder of Juniper Networks and founder and CEO of Fungible, conformed. “The U.S. government needs an industrial policy,” he said, “and it doesn’t have one.”

 

The foundry issue is a long-term problem. Maybe a nearer term question is how the improving power of China’s tech industry will impact U.S.-based companies. “China is talking about becoming tech independent, becoming net exporters,” said Bryant. “We can talk about how many years [it will take], but it is inevitable.” Companies in China will catch up for various grounds, panelists indicated. For one, said Sindhu, they are very hungry to learn.

 

For another, said Navin Chaddha, managing director of the Mayfield Fund, China’s big market gives Chinese companies a boost. “Usually innovation happens when you are close to a market,” he said. To date, the U.S. companies and Samsung have benefitted from the boom” in the Chinese tech market, but now “we are seeing Chinese companies benefitting from their local market… and China is the biggest market when it comes to broadband users.”

 

A solution?

 

“Invest in that market,” says Chaddha. That strategy is not without pitfalls, Hennessy indicated. “What happens to your technology when you ship it over there?” he asked. “To the extent that we can protect it, we will,” Sindhu said. Hennessy remained skeptical. “Just wait until you sign the deal and send it over,” he said.

 

“This isn’t a redo of semiconductor wars with Japan in the 80s,” he concluded.  “This is a country that has scale, that has entrepreneurial zeal. They will give us a run for the money.”

 

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“We are not taking a pre-emptive decision to ban any actor, or any company,” German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told a news conference in Berlin on Monday.

 

The United States has piled pressure on its friends to exclude Huawei, the major telecoms equipment vendor with a global market share of 28%, saying its gear consisted of ‘back doors’ that would most likely allow China to spy on other countries. German operators are all customers of Huawei and have warned that excluding the Chinese vendor would add years of delays and billions of dollars in costs to launching 5G networks.

 

The Shenzhen-based company has refused the accusations by Washington, which imposed export controls on Huawei in May, hobbling its smartphone business and raising questions over whether the Chinese company can maintain its market lead. U.S. officials have also suggested that, under China’s national intelligence law, all citizens and companies are expected to collaborate in espionage efforts. Officials said Germany’s security catalogue was due to be published shortly, confirming a previous decision to keep a level playing field for suppliers to next-generation networks that will power lightning fast mobile broadband services or run ‘smart’ factories, offices and cities.

 

Along with billions of devices, sensors and cameras expected to be hooked up, 5G networks will be a lot more widely used than their predecessors. At the same time, the fact that 5G networks rely more on software that can be easily updated makes it harder to keep track of cyber threats. The German rules come after the European Union last week informed of the risk of increased cyber attacks on 5G networks by state-backed actors. A report compiled by member states stopped short, however, of singling out China as a threat.

 

Network operators Deutsche Telekom (DTEGn.DE), Vodafone (VOD.L) and Telefonica Deutschland (O2Dn.DE) are going to be required to identify and apply enhanced security standards to essential network elements, the Handelsblatt daily reported earlier, citing the draft rulebook. More broadly, suppliers should be certified as trustworthy, giving customers legal recourse to exclude them and seek damages if proof is found that equipment had been used for spying or sabotage.

 

Certification of critical equipment would for the time being have to be attained from Germany’s cybersecurity authority, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). Those requirements were in line with key ground rules set back in March ahead of the drafting of the full set of rules by the Federal Network Regulator (BNetzA) and the BSI.

 

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Samsung is in fact already in Vietnam manufacturing its various product lines. The Samsung Electronics factory in Thai Nguyen, in northern Vietnam, employs at least 60,000 people. It churns out more mobile phones than any other facility in the world. It and Samsung Electronics’ other factories in Vietnam produce almost a third of the firm’s global output. The company has invested a cumulative $17bn in the country.

 

The 5G technology is a must in the future especially for a country like Vietnam. Viettel is taking its early steps to accumulate the advantages that 5G will bring into the country. “The official broadcast of 5G in Ho Chi Minh City is an important milestone in Viettel’s strategy to make Vietnam one of the first countries in the world to commercialize 5G services,” Viettel deputy director Tao Duc Thang said in a statement.

 

The 10 stations will be used by Viettel, the country's largest telecom firm, to comprehensively check and assess its 5G service before launching it commercially next year. Military-run Viettel installed the first 5G station in Hanoi early this year and made the first 5G phone call in May. It was the first firm in the country to receive permit to trial 5G services in January, followed by MobiFone.

 

Last November, Information and Communication Minister Nguyen Manh Hung said at a conference that Vietnam should test 5G in 2019 and ensure nationwide coverage by 2020. “Vietnam should be one of the first countries to launch the network, at least in Hanoi and HCMC,” he had said. The country had been one of the last in Southeast Asia to roll out 4G services.

 

5G is said to give speeds 100 times faster than 4G, mainly used for smartphones and other similar devices. 5G is also expected to support new applications like remote medical procedures and autonomous driving.

 

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IQE, which makes semiconductor wafers for chips used in Apple Inc products, also manufactures for Asian customers in Taiwan and Singapore. It has banked on the region for big new orders amid the tariff dispute between the United States and China.

 

The partnership, CSDC Private Ltd, was formed in 2015 by its Singaporean unit MBE Technology with WIN Semiconductors and Nanyang Technological University to develop and sell compound semiconductor technologies.

 

Shares of IQE were up 5.5 per cent at 62.85 pence as of 0715 GMT.

 

US restrictions on China's Huawei had damaged the semiconductor industry's supply chain and IQE said it may possibly attempt a turn-around for CSDC as it takes full control, with benefits seen from being closer to Asian chip customers and original equipment manufacturers.

 

''In the current geopolitical context, Singapore represents a strategically significant site for IQE,'' chief executive officer Drew Nelson said. The three way partnership, which recorded deficits of S$8.9 million in 2018, will be purchased for a nominal fee of S$1 from WIN and S$1 from other stakeholders, the company said.

 

IQE said it plans its 2019 adjusted core profit and operating profit to take a £500,000 (S$843,000) hit post the acquisition. It documented a pretax loss of £3.7 mllion for the six months concluded June 30.

 

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South Korea does have some 1,500 energy storage system (ESS) facilities across the country and 23 have been damaged by fire and left inoperable. Based on Korea Electric Power Corp. (KEPCO), 30,232 megawatt-hours of electricity worth 6.5 billion won ( xxx) was lost. Samsung SDI said on Monday that the company has developed a special fire extinguishing system that would fundamentally stop fire from spreading even if there is a case of battery cell combustion inside an ESS.

 

New ESS facilities will be equipped with the new system. The company planned to pay for safety upgrades for some 1,000 existing ESS facilities. The upgrade will cost up to 200 billion won.

 

The new fire prevention system consists of high-tech chemicals applied with Samsung SDI's core technologies and materials that block heat from spreading. ''When an ESS' interior catches fire and its temperature reaches a certain degree, special chemicals are automatically sprayed to extinguish the initial flame,'' Samsung SDI's senior managing director Heo Eun-ki was quoted as saying.

 

Heo said that the new system would also restrict nearby cells from overheating. Other undamaged cells would cool off over a long period, keeping up its normal state. South Korean tech companies such as LG Chem has jumped into the speedily increasing ESS market. While LG Chem focuses on establishing a network of ESS grids using lithium-ion batteries, the Hyundai auto group joined with a state nuclear power company in September to use recycled electric car batteries in ESS facilities.

 

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Aaeon is the first company to publicize it is applying the KL520, while Kneron has already revealed customer wins for its facial recognition model, like systems integrator TIIS, which has built it into a security system for the public banks of Taiwan. Company sources said that Kneron made around $5 million in revenue in 2019, a stark difference to various edge AI chip companies who are not yet market-ready.

 

“Aaeon has used our chip and put it into a form factor that’s easy to insert into a pre-exisiting design,” said Kneron chief commercial officer Adrian Ong.

 

“We have other customers in the commercialisation phase,” he added.

 

The company has a good focus on AI at the edge and is directed at inference in computer vision applications that require low latency and low power, such as smart door locks. The flagship chip KL520, unveiled in May 2019, is optimized for image processing models based on convolutional neural networks (CNNs), including but not limited to Kneron’s own models for facial recognition. The KL520 runs 0.3 TOPS at 0.5 W (equivalent to 0.6 TOPS/W).

 

Kneron also has its very own neural processing unit (NPU) IP, neural network models for image processing, and a corresponding toolchain. “We started out developing models for face recognition, face detection and object detection,” Ong said. “But because [a lot of us] had a silicon background, we decided to develop our own IP and our own chips as well.”

 

Kneron’s is using a reconfigurable chip architecture to customize its silicon to specific models, assisted by a compiler which allocates resources successfully so the hardware can be best utilised to run the models. The compiler also uses compression techniques which Ong claimed can tremendously reduce the size of the models to allow them to run in resource-constrained environments to save power and cost.

 

Kneron’s facial recognition model was earlier recognized by NIST (the National Institute of Standards and Technology) as the best performing model under 100MB. “In fact, the model is 57 MB,” Ong said. “It even outperformed competitors’ models that were bigger than 1 GB. For embedded applications, it can be compressed even further, down to 32 or even 16 MB.”

 

Kneron was established in 2015, with its 110 employees based at headquarters in San Diego, a development office in Taiwan and a sales office in Shenzhen. It is backed by Horizons Ventures, Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Qualcomm and Sequoia Capital, amongst others. “The strength of the company is image processing, but we recognise that over time people are going to want to add audio capability as well, so we are developing IP for that,” Ong said.

 

Kneron’s second generation chip will be able to accelerate both CNNs and RNNs (recurrent neural networks), for vision and audio applications. Samples of the second generation chip are due in Q1-2020.

 

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Make Full Backups of Essential Business Data

 

Facilitate a full, encrypted backup of your data on each computer and mobile device a minimum of once a month, shortly after a complete malware scan. Store these backups at a safeguarded, off-site location. Save your encryption password or key in a secure location separate from where your backups are stored. Multiple software applications will allow you to encrypt your backups.

 

With your backups in place, if a computer breaks, an employee makes an error, or a malicious program infects your system, you will be able to restore your data. Without backups, you will have to manually recreate your business information from paper records and employee memory.

 

It is mandatory to back up data such as:

- Word processing documents and electronic spreadsheets

- Databases, especially customer relationship management (CRM), financial, human resource (HR), and accounts receivable (AR)/payable (AP) files

- Product design and manufacturing data associated with or related to CAD/CAE/CAM, process plans, tooling and other inventory information, production scheduling, inspection, maintenance, bid data, work orders, scheduling

- Other operational technology (OT) data such as machine and process condition monitoring and analysis

- System logs and other information technology (IT) information

 

Don’t be afraid about the software applications; simply focus on the data. Store your backups on an external USB hard drive, other removable media, or a separate server. Use caution when picking a partner if you decide to store your data online and encrypt all data ahead of storing it in the cloud. Hard-drive backups should be large enough to hold all your monthly backups for one year. Create split folders for each computer so you can copy your data into the appropriate folder on the external drive. After your backups are complete, test them instantly to assure your efforts were successful.

 

Make Incremental Backups of Important Business Information

 

Plan automatic incremental or differential backups a minimum of once a week. Because they will only record information since your last backup, you may need to schedule them daily or once an hour, depending on the needs of your business. Think about how much information was changed or generated between each backup and the impact to your company if that information was lost. So many security software suites offer automated backup functions that will do this on a regular schedule for you.

 

Check always your storage capacity. You should be able to hold data for 52 weekly backups, so the capacity should be about 52 times the amount of data you want to store. Take caution to back up the data for every computer and mobile device.

 

For extra redundancy, store your backups in multiple locations, such as one in the office, one in a safety deposit box across town, and one in the cloud. Remember that incremental testing is just as important as incremental backups to make sure you can read your data and use that information in the event of a security breach.

 

Consider Cyber Insurance for Increased Recovery Capability

 

Like flood or fire insurance, you can obtain cyber insurance for your facility. These services can help you recover from an information security incident more promptly and effectively and may cover the cost of: 

- Cybersecurity expertise to assist in identifying the extent of damage caused

- Consultation to help investigate the incident and report it to the appropriate authorities

- Loss of revenue due to downtime

- Legal fees, fines, and penalties incurred

 

In regards to any partner, select a cyber insurance provider with care. Do your due diligence by researching the company, the services they provide, the type of events they cover, and their reputation for meeting their contractual agreements.

 

Assess & Improve Your Procedures & Technologies

 

Take an honest look at your processes, procedures, and technology solutions and assess what improvements you need to make to lessen your risks. Try conducting training or tabletop exercises. These scenario exercises can simulate a major event, which will allow you to identify potential weaknesses and readiness. Then you can make corrections as recommended.

 

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The Galaxy S10’s Intelligent Wi-Fi uses machine learning to make sure that users’ Wi-Fi connections are both smart and safe. The innovation allows the device to recognize when a user has entered a space where Wi-Fi connections are usually to be unstable, and quickly switch to LTE connectivity to avoid network interruption. What’s more, Intelligent Wi-Fi allows the device to more promptly identify weaker Wi-Fi signals in locations which include elevators, allowing it to transition from Wi-Fi to LTE connectivity much more quickly. After connecting to a new network, the function even allows the device to examine traffic patterns and notify users if the network is suspicious, thus protecting them from dangers such as phishing and malware attacks.

 

The Galaxy S10’s Wi-Fi 6 capability produces smartphone support for next generation technology, boosting download and upload speeds by up to 20 percent in comparison with previous generations of Wi-Fi. When users are in crowded areas where Wi-Fi signals would usually be slow and unstable, Wi-Fi 6 enables for network connections that are about four times faster than those experienced by users of older Wi-Fi generations connecting in the same location. And shockingly, this added speed and reliability actually uses less battery power, not more, allowing users to conserve power for when they need it.

 

The WBA Industry Awards have been honoring great developments in Wi-Fi ecosystems globally for the past seven years. The awards acknowledge exceptional innovations in wireless networks, smart cities and remote wireless deployments in the interests of recognizing and encouraging excellence and promoting successful practices. Each shortlisted nomination is featured in a WBA Case Study so that the innovation may be shared with the wider industry.

 

The ‘Best Wi-Fi Innovations’ category acknowledges network operators and technology companies whose solutions are post-deployment, and “recognizes and celebrates innovations and deployments with Wi-Fi, which enable seamless and secure support, greater interoperability and/or transformational benefits to customers.”

 

Talking about the latest awards win, Jong-Mu Choi, Head of Convergence R&D Group at Samsung Electronics said, “Samsung is proud that its Wi-Fi innovations have been recognized in such a way. The company will keep working to enable its devices to make use of these new Wi-Fi capabilities, so that the improved usability therein reaches consumers as quickly as possible.  One example of this is the Galaxy Note10’s recent accreditation as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™, which saw it join the Galaxy S10 as one of Samsung’s certified Wi-Fi 6-capable devices. Going forward, Samsung looks forward to utilizing faster, smarter Wi-Fi connections as the foundation that will allow it to continue bringing added convenience to users.”

 

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