Technology Special: Freescale forum: Driving innovation and collaboration

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World-leading chipmaker Freescale Semiconductor kicks off the Freescale Technology Forum (FTF) China today in Shenzhen.

This is the third time for the forum to be staged in the city. But it would mark the first time in FTF's history to have its opening keynote session in a concert hall, and the first FTF China after the company returned to being a publicly traded company after its IPO.

At the opening session, Freescale Chairman and CEO Rich Beyer, who is in China especially for this forum with his group of senior executives, would discuss transition and evolution of the company, as well as how embedded processing would be the fundamental driver of the new era of connected intelligence.

The forum would be kicked off with a spectacular laser music show. While the concert hall would be a great place to demonstrate Freescale's industry-leading audio solutions, it was primarily chosen to meet the popular demand from customers in Shenzhen. In the past years, every seat for the opening sessions was filled.

"We are delighted to be hosting FTF again, as it is truly a premiere technical training event for embedded engineers, ranking third among industry events attended by engineers in the '2011 Embedded Market Study' just released by EE Times," said Henri Richard, senior vice-president and chief sales and marketing officer for Freescale.

"It provides a unique opportunity for attendees to view and interact with the Freescale ecosystem - a global community comprised of Freescale and its partners, customers and universities."

The FTF China 2011 program features an interactive technology lab with more than 80 demonstrations from Freescale and its partners. The event also includes more than 100 hours of technical training sessions organized into five tracks: automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and enabling technologies.

The theme for the global FTF 2011 program is "Powering Innovation." Freescale will emphasize not only its leading technologies and products that help embedded developers differentiate their designs - but also the comprehensive, market-focused spectrum of enablement solutions.

Created to drive innovation and collaboration, the Freescale Technology Forum has become the developer event of the year for the embedded systems industry. It has drawn more than 40,000 attendees at FTF events worldwide since its inception in 2005.

Program highlights

At the Shenzhen event, a theme of connected intelligence for our connected generation resonates through demos and discussions that define Freescale Vision of the world that can be healthier, smarter, safer, greener and connected.

At the opening session, Dr Ming-Jeh Chien, chairman and founder of First International Computer (FIC), will join Beyer on stage to discuss the implications of the dramatic explosion in smart mobile devices which many of them are enabled by Freescale i.MX technologies.

Founded in 1980 by Chien, FIC designs and manufactures computer products and electronic components for leading electronics equipment manufacturers worldwide.

And Alcatel-Lucent Asia-Pacific Product Manager Jerome Meyer will demonstrate the lightRadio cube which is a game changer in wireless architecture, taking the RF capabilities currently handled by base stations and shrinks this down to a cube that will fit in your hand. This is the industry's first multimode wireless base station on a chip working in tandem with the breakthrough QorIQ Qonverge multicore technology from Freescale.

There will also be a demonstration of the VGo telepresence robot enabled by Freescale's i.MX microprocessor to show how connected intelligence and remote monitoring can save lives.

Studies show that remote monitoring for individuals with chronic conditions can reduce office visits by 65 percent, shorten the length of hospital stays by up to six days on average and, most importantly, reduce mortality anywhere from 35 to 56 percent.

On the second day, there will be a luncheon keynote titled "Technology and the Human Spirit: Merging Body and Machine", led by athlete, scientist, innovator and futurist Hugh Herr.

 

This session is going to provide inspiration for many. An avid rock climber, engineer and biophysicist, Professor Herr will share his story about losing his legs in a climbing accident nearly 30 years ago and how technology has inspired him to design state-of-the-art prosthetics that allow him to go beyond human capabilities.

Athlete, Scientist, Innovator and Futurist Hugh Herr, with his computer-controlled knees using Freescale sensors.

He is currently director of the biomechatronics research group at the MIT Media Lab where he focuses on developing wearable robotic systems that serve to augment human strength, endurance and agility. His computer-controlled knee, continually senses the joint's position and the loads applied to the limb, was named to the list of top 10 inventions in the health category by Time magazine in 2004 and 2007.

Two panels

There will also be two panels on the industry's hottest topics.

At the "Powering Innovations with Connected Intelligence in Smart Cities" panel this afternoon, five industry leaders would discuss how businesses and technologies would play a role in facing the challenge as Asia is expected to experience the largest urban population boom in history in the next 15 to 20 years.

In the region, the trend of smart cities is taking off big time. The prime motivator is the desire to make cities more livable, more workable, and more globally competitive.

At the "Smart Devices for China's Digital Evolution" panel moderated by Liu Jiang, - chief editor at CSDN Programmer Magazine - on the second day, six top executives from companies covering the market spectrum - hardware, software, service and technologies - would convene to shed lights on the latest trends and market outlook.

 

(China Daily 08/30/2011 page17)