ICube Participated at China IC Expo 2014

Posted by admin on M j, Y in News | 25 comments

May, 2014.  The Shenzhen (International) Integrated Circuit Technology Innovation and Application Expo, a.k.a. China IC Expo (CICE), is the dominant cross-application-discipline IC trade show held yearly in China.  In this year’s trade show, ICube show-cased its IC3138 SoC chip targeting the smart home appliance and internet of things market segments, and its touch-screen UI reference design solution based on the IC3138.  The touch-screen UI solution runs on top of Android 4.2, and demonstrates how traditional hard-key controls on appliances can be seamlessly and aesthetically replaced by touch screen operations, elevating user experiences in home appliances to an unsurpassed level. This first exposure of IC3138 and IC3138-based UI solutions for smart home appliances to the general public attracted numerous visitors to ICube’s exhibition booth at China IC Expo 2014.  The visitors include people from numerous professions, including IC design, industrial control, home appliances and investment companies.  They were impressed by the on-site solution demonstrations while ICube’s staff catered to their numerous questions and inquiries. During the exhibition, an often-raised question was how IC3138 came about, and why it chose the smart home appliance market as its first application domain.  The secret about the origin of IC3138 was in fact exposed the first time at this exhibition: As the mobile internet brings about an elevation of communication among devices, it is a matter of time when the internet of things era will eventually arrive. The age of internet of things will bring about a replacement cycle for everyday electronic devices, and home appliances will be the market segment where the impact will be felt first.  As home appliances are upgraded, the indispensible features include the ability to communicate, displays via LCD screens and touch screen controls on the display screen.  Such features cannot possibly be realized using traditional 8-bit or 16-bit MCUs as they are limited by performance.  On the other hand, solutions based on SoC chips designed for smart phones and tablets are expensive and may lack some necessary features.  In view of this, ICube’s engineers adjusted their core processor technology based on their intellectual property in UPU to come up with a special processor chip to cater to this new chip segment.  The result is the IC3138 SoC chip that excels in cost-performance and competitiveness among chips targeting the same market segment. ICube’s participation in China IC Expo 2014 has raised the awareness of ICube and the latest development in its indigenously developed UPU technology.  Judging from initial feedback, ICube’s exhibition at China IC Expo 2014 was a huge success.