13
November 2015
B
oards
& M
odules
B&S:
You mentioned test & measurement and
automation already. Which other market seg-
ments and application areas are of strategic
importance for you today and tomorrow?
Jim Liu:
The already mentioned vertical mar-
kets are characterized by low volume, such
that we have to look at more demanding
markets with higher volume, like medical or
infotainment systems - especially for gaming
- and also telecommunication. Why infotain-
ment and gaming systems? Especially when
building gaming machines can be quite chal-
lenging? Because it requires very long-term
certification processes and robust security. If
you actually look at gaming systems, they are
essentially a multimedia systems, combining
board computers, I/O, display, lighting, and
other functions, all combined in a single box.
This can easily become very complicated, actu-
ally making it is a difficult platform to realize.
I’ve been told by many embedded computing
vendors about gaming, while a very important
market, is never an easy one.
So why would we choose it? At the moment the
highly ruggedized T&M and automation mar-
kets demanding maximum accuracy are our
focus. If you look at future business opportu-
nities, more and more effort is being expended
in digitizing everything, from medical to info-
tainment to high speed telecommunications
which very soon will go to 5G. All of these
areas require very robust systems. Recently
we’ve been devoting a lot of our energy to
high end power computing used in the field.
This is what we call the edge server. Personally
I believe that if you are going to need, in the
future, a very, very high performance system,
you have to advance more and more content
from the back end (centre office), forward to
the field, right to the edge. If you want to use
that superior computing power to move that
data to the edge, you need an effective server
at the edge site. But the major challenge for the
edge server provider is to build high comput-
ing power servers which can physically with-
stand the harsh environments encountered
there. You need durability, the structural integ-
rity to survive extremes of temperature, vibra-
tion, contaminants, moisture, and all the other
environmental challenges these applications
present. This is exactly what we address with
ADLINK technologies. This is the direction in
which we are heading.
B&S:
You are mainly a hardware driven com-
pany, but now you are moving into the direc-
tion of providing more complete solutions
for vertical markets. I guess, that means you
have to invest more in software and not just
in hardware.
Jim Liu:
Yes, but I have to clarify that. We
have no intention of doing business on the
system software or application software level.
We have a clearly-defined line which we never
cross, nor even approach, and that’s the busi-
ness domain of our customers. Even so, what
kinds of utilities do we need to develop and
invest in to fully support our customers?
There are two important areas here. The first
is what we call intelligence, meaning that most
of our computers and platforms are installed
in ways to which users do not have direct
access. This enables our products to deliver
effective diagnosis, improving reliability and
consistency. The monitoring and diagnostics
are the most important functions. We call
this remote measurement software, and it’s
critical for our customers so they can take
full advantage to connect to the internet and
the back-office, all from the remote side. This
means they can immediately monitor the sta-
tus of this machine or that controller. This is
one of software area in which we’re invested.
The other is the more general mobile device
management (MDM) field of applications,
well known in the mobile device industry.
Actually we’re just now entering the area of
deeply embedded controllers. We write the
firmware to monitor, for example, the CPU
temperature, memory, or hard disk, to report
the status. This is another software-based
benefit we offer to our customers. It’s set up
They’ve
known
and valued each
other for many
years:
ADLINK
Founder & CEO
Jim Liu and Ken-
neth
Ragnvald-
sen, CEO of Data
Respons – one of
ADLINK’s Top 3
customers. “We
share the same business philosophy, says
Kenneth Ragnvaldsen. “Our partnership
is characterized by long term commit-
ment, deep trust and investment from both
sides. We are both solution-oriented. Data
Respons is driven by the mission to provide
better solutions to our customers - rather
than just delivering building blocks. And
ADLINK is supporting us to realize these
solutions.”
Data Respons is a full-service, independent
technology company and a major player
in the embedded solutions market. Data
Respons provides products, R&D services
and embedded solutions at all levels of
complexity to different customers in a wide
range of market segments.
Sharing the same business philosophy
