TOKYO, JAPAN: Renesas Electronics Corp., a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced the availability of its lineup of five low-loss P-channel power metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) products, including the µPA2812T1L, optimized for use in charge control switches for lithium-ion (Li-ion) secondary batteries of notebook PCs and power management switches for power supply switching with AC adapters.

Demand has increased in recent years for notebook PCs with lower power consumption by the overall system, longer running time when using battery power, and smaller and thinner form factors. Power MOSFETs are used in charge control switches for Li-ion secondary batteries and power management switches for power supply switching with AC adapters.

They must handle the large current flows needed to operate the system overall, and this has brought demand for reduced operating resistance (on-resistance) in order to lower system power consumption. At the same time, there is strong demand for smaller and thinner Li-ion battery packs as notebook PC bodies become slimmer and more compact.

This means that power MOSFET products with smaller packages than the conventional SOP-8 are needed. In response to this demand, Renesas has developed a new fabrication process employing ultrafine process technology, among other innovations, that reduces the on-resistance by half for the same effective area compared with the earlier process used to fabricate MOSFETs for similar applications. The five new products, including the µPA2812T1L, deliver low on-resistance in very compact packages.

Exciting news! Two of Ubisoft’s biggest games are, in fact, launching eventually. It wasn’t all some cruel, multi-million dollar practical joke after all. More specifically, Far Cry 3′s going mad for madness on September 4, and Assassin’s Creed 3: Goodbye, Obnoxious Subtitles is taking a stab at renewed greatness on October 30. Which would be cause for cake and pinatas shaped like Desmond’s dumb face, except that Ubisoft doesn’t exactly have the best history with PC and on-time release dates. Somewhat encouragingly, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations only slipped one month instead of the usual three, but we’re not getting our hopes up. It’s not all bad, though. For instance, there’s a snazzy new Far Cry 3 CGI trailer after the break, and we’ve done a really good job of not making fun of it for starring Nathan Drake from Uncharted yet. Wait.

J&W has now jumped on the Cedar Trail bandwagon in releasing a pair of mini-ITX motherboards for HTPC users in particular.

Falling under the company’s Minix line, the D2700-DC and D2500-DC are essentially the same board in terms of layout and specs, only they differ in the Atom chips embedded as indicative by their names. The D2500-DC uses Intel’s dual-core Atom D2500 CPU which runs at 1.86GHz, while the D2700-DC uses the Atom D2700 CPU with a 2.13GHz core clock speed.

Both boards are entirely passive cooled (using a chunk of metal that covers most of the PCB space) which is a highly attractive attribute in line of building a completely silent HTPC. To assist in the limited amount of space available on these mITX boards, the decision to go with two SO-DIMM memory slots instead of regular DIMM slots was made. On that subject, it’s possible to install up to 8GB 2 x 4GB) of memory on these boards.

Other features of the boards include two SATA 3Gbps ports, a PCI-E x1 slot, two USB 3.0 ports on the rear I/O thanks to the implementation of a third party (Renesas) controller, four USB 2.0 ports, dual PS/2 ports, dual Gigabit LAN ports and 5.1 audio support. Both D-Sub and HDMI outputs are also found on these boards along with a DC power input which allows the system to be powered using an external AC/DC adapter.

Pricing and availability details are yet to be disclosed on the Minix D2700-DC and D2500-DC mini-ITX motherboards from J&W.

In related news, the company is also planning to release to market a barebone PC based on these new boards. Measurements for it come in at 192 x 186 x 60mm which isn’t as small as some nettops out there, but for one using an mITX motherboard it’s not too shabby at all. There’s room for a 2.5-inch HDD/SSD inside and it will ship with a VESA mount.

According to ViewSonic’s product marketing director in the Asia Pacific region, Max Liu, ViewSonic is planning to expand on its ViewPad line of Android-powered tablets and bring some Windows 8-based models to market a bit later this year.

During his brief discussion with Digitimes, Liu also made mention of the first Windows 8-running model in that it will use a 10-inch sized display running a high resolution (we’re hoping this means 1920 x 1200 and not 720p) and possibly be out as early as the second quarter of this year.

All other details at this point are scarce and we’re still yet to determine if ViewSonic will base these upcoming Windows 8 tablets on x86 or ARM. No doubt by the time Computex comes around, the cat should be out of the bag.

TAIWAN: According to the latest price survey conducted by LEDinside, the LED research division of TrendForce, due to the inventory closeout, the LED price dropped by 10 percent in 4Q11 averagely. As for 1Q12, the price downtrend is expected to alleviate following the steep fall in 4Q11 and the releases of new products.

Notably, 7030 will become the new LED specification for the mainstream LCD TV in the market in 2012. In regard to the lighting sector, as 5630’s price drops to a certain point, it will take up a bigger market share in the mid and low-power LED sector of the LED lighting market, where 3014 and 3020 are currently the popular choices.

Price in 4Q11
On account of the stagnant demand and the inventory closeout, certain applications’ prices plummeted with the ASP sliding by 10 percent. As for the lighting applications, affected by the inventory pressure facing the LED makers and the mid and low-power LEDs’ price cut stemming from the fierce competition, the high-power LED’s price took a serious hit.

Prediction on LED price in 1Q12
According to LEDinside, the price downturn started to alleviate in 1Q12: 5630’s price fell by 4 percent, and 7030 has not entered mass production, which resulted in its less competitive price. However, if it enters mass production smoothly, the price is expected to drop considerably by the year end.

In terms of MNT, LED package and brightness have both reached the mature stage and the price has already hit the rock bottom; the price in 1Q12 merely dropped by 3-4 percent. In regard to NB, fueled by the increasing popularity of Ultrabook and tablet PC, more and more LED manufacturers make their way into this sector, which causes the price of 0.8t LED to plunge by 8 percent. As for mobile phones, whose LED specifications are more mature, the price drop averaged 5-6 percent.

As for high-power LED, as the manufacturers are dedicated to upgrade the specifications and close out the older specifications, the price fell by approximately 10 percent.

LED TV backlight at turning point
Global major brand names’ new LCD TVs have gone into production in 4Q11, and the old ones have been closed out. The 5630, whose price fell by 4-5 percent in 1Q12, will be adopted in the next-generation LCD TVs and hit the market in 12’Mar at the soonest. In regard to the price gap between CCFL backlight module and LED backlight module, it is possible to see the gap further narrow on certain models, which will play an integral role in terms of LED TV reaching 70 percent penetration rate in 2012.

In 2012, the panel makers still prefer LED light guide plate with the size of 3mm. Hence, 7030 is expected to be the mainstream choice in 2012. At present, South Korean makers are the forerunner in this sector. However, the specifications, including drive current, LED chip volume and phosphor, every LED package maker adopts differ.

The mainstream specifications will become clearer after the products hit the market for some time. Compared to the price in 4Q11, the price in 2H12 will likely fall by 15-20 percent.

Mobile phone, NB, MNT enter mature stage; price relatively stable
Mobile phone backlight is the first LED application to reach the 100 percent penetration rate, and is also the most mature application; its price decrease remains 3-5 percent per season. Smartphone will adopt fewer LED and start using LED with higher brightness. Therefore, 0.6t LED’s brightness will be improved to 2700mcd. Currently, smart phones with brightness of 2400mcd and above are mainly from Japanese and South Korean makers; Taiwanese makers will have a hard time competing with them.

Moreover, Netbook begins to lose its place following the tablet PC’s product release, which causes many brand vendors to leave the netbook market. According to LEDinside, the market mainly consists of 12-inch (and bigger) notebook, 11-inch tablet PC (and smaller) and Ultrabook. The mainstream Ultrabooks adopt low voltage LED (0.8t LV), whose price plunged by 7-8 percent due to the increasing Ultrabook makers. As for LCD displays, some brand vendors started to adopt 3014 in 1Q12, which can reduce the LED usage volume by half.

High power LED makers develop new specs and lower prices to compete with South Korean companies
The maturity of 5630 results in its sharp price drop, which causes more and more lighting companies to use 5630 to make LED light tubes and light bulbs. The high power LED makers not only launches new specifications and enhance their products’ brightness in order to compete with South Korean manufacturers, but also lower their products’ prices to stimulate the market demand. The price decrease is expected to be about 10 percent in 1Q12.

Perspectives from LEDinside
The LED industry will remain oversupplied in 2012. Although the releases of new LCD TVs fuel the TV backlight demand, the growth momentum for the market is limited. In light of the intensifying competition, the players will either survive or be forced to quit; manufacturers with good market development and technology strengths will obtain bigger market shares.Source: LEDinside, Taiwan.