Reporting from Taipei, Taiwan: Computex 2018, organized by TAITRA, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council and TCA, Taipei Computer Association, concluded with great success. The five-day event attracted 42,284 international visitors from 168 countries, up almost 1% from last year. According to TAITRA, the top 10 countries or regions with the highest turnout, in order, are: the USA, Japan, China, Hong Kong, S. Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, Germany, India, Philippines.
Computex 2018 featured six themes, including “AI”, “5G”, “Blockchain”, “IoT”, “Innovations & Startups”, and “Gaming & VR”. Through a series of exhibitions, forums and procurement meetings, the event connected industry value chains by providing technology companies and startups the best platform for promotion and interaction. Moreover, InnoVEX attracted 17,687 visitors in a short 3-day period, an increase of over 18% from last year.
As AI technology matures and IoT applications proliferate, two technologies converge and become the rapidly emerging AIoT, and Computex 2018 responded to this trend. In addition to servers designed for AI computing and big data storage, Gigabyte leveraged software resources of its partners and rolled out a hybrid cloud for AI and data analytics, carrying out the company’s AIoT roadmap into practice. Compal introduced an all-around solution that combines professional advanced design and cloud computing.
The company also demonstrated various product lines for smart homes and smart healthcare, offering users a brand new sensory experience that is more personalized. VIVOTEK’s next-generation smart camera with image analysis capabilities and built-in deep learning algorithms can generate added value for the retail sectors, as it can accurately calculate the number of people and the length of time they stay in a shop.
At the Computex Forum, leading companies shared the latest trends and insights on AIoT as technology propels the global technology industry into a smarter future. Deepu Talla, Vice President and General Manager of Autonomous Machines at NVIDIA, said as AI is adopted in more scenarios, GPU is not just about speeding up supercomputers, but it can also be used in the development of AI to make big changes in the technology industry.
In particular, NVIDIA sees great potential for GPU in the manufacturing market. Allan Yang, Chief Technology Officer at Advantech, said since the manufacturing sectors account for an average 30% of GDP in most countries, introducing IoT or AI into smart factories or other smart manufacturing scenarios will increase the world’s overall output value.