The embedded systems and industrial PC industries are driven by the invention of various vertical solutions and technologies with different kinds of microcontrollers and since then it has evolved into various forms, from primarily being designed for machine control applications to much broader ranges of fields such as smart medical or robotic systems. In recent years, however, there is a revolution in the domain of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and AIoT (the artificial intelligence of Things) embedded systems with the advent of increasingly powerful and more power saving processors. These trends make the embedded systems transforming themselves into really complex systems, thus creating newer opportunities and challenges to develop more powerful, energy efficient systems, peripherals and other accessories.
Founded in 1979, SECO is an Italy-based embedded system and leading industrial solution provider with dedicated focus on designing standard solutions up to custom embedded systems fulfilling the needs of customers. The product matrix is ranging from board-level controllers to a complete system. SECO provides the engineering services over the entire design cycle to mass production of embedded solutions. In an interview, Marty Chen, vice president of SECO Asia Pacific, talked about SECO's development in Asia's embedded system market sectors.
Meanwhile, during Computex Taipei 2018, SECO will showcase a full range of products at Nangang Exhibition Hall 1, booth No K0102. The live demonstration will include the solution of Qseven, COM Express and SMARC product lines to allow visitors to have a good chance to see the advanced solutions provided by a leading European embedded solution vendor.
Having a wide processor range is the key to a successful business for SECO. The new tiers of supporting listings are from NXP i.MX8, Intel Apollo Lake and Coffee Lake, AMD V1000 embedded CPUs. The most popular product series of SECO is the small form factor computer on module (COM), such as Qseven, COM Express and SMARC. It embraces a cross-platform philosophy with the modular design aiming to provide flexibility to switch between different processors with the same form factor standards
Customers could select the CPU chips from x86 to ARM-cored processor, or change different grades of ARM-cored chips. These COM boards come with SECO's very unique bundle design layout of carrier boards, which gives the freedom to switch CPUs without adjusting any dual inline package switch (DIP switch) or changing jumper settings. The benefits of this design satisfy the versatile applications with intensive computing requirements in various embedded systems, which allows both extreme flexibility and vast scalability. And most of all, system makers save the development time and tackle the cost consideration, meeting dynamic demands of end customers.
During Computex 2018, SECO also showcases at its booth its new UDOO platform, an educational DIY electronics and open-source hardware board. UDOO is now used by tens of thousands of users all over the world, including universities and marquee research groups. This newest creation of UDOO single-board computer board is the fourth generation version combined with an Arduino-compatible platform to support both x86 and ARM cored CPUs. The new feature sets are for sensing and programming the physical world dedicated for developer communities or creators of Kickstarter. The newest UDOO provides an outstanding computational power with 4K resolution display features, which comes in handy for applications like edge computing, computer vision, virtual reality, augmented reality, client-side 3D rendering and real-time analysis of big data.
One of the most important factors for embedded solution providers is the capability of vertical integration. SECO maintains its own factory operation in Italy. But for entering Asian markets to service fast growing embedded customers, SECO is planning to leverage Taiwan's strengths in the electronics industry and build cooperative projects with Taiwan system makers. It is counting on the SECO flexible and fast time-to-market solutions. Furthermore, Chen highlights that SECO will establish a solution center in Taiwan and recruit more engineers to service Asian customers.
In recent business development of the European market, SECO has successfully introduced various medical solutions covering the computation modules of ultrasound equipment to complete healthcare tablets. For entering Asia, Chen added, the current development will continue towards smart medical solutions. Over the past few years, SECO has been keen on building partnerships with targeted first-tier customers in Japan and South Korea; it will gain the benefits of sales performance in next few months. And it is further expanding its operations to China at a rapid pace, Chen noted.
SECO is participating in Computex 2018. SECO's booth is at K0102.
Marty Chen, vice president of SECO Asia Pacific
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