Taiwan's ITRI Q-water mobile system for disaster relief
ITRI was probably most responsible for Taiwan's industrialization. It was established in 1973.
By 1980, ITRI had spun-off UMC which is the world's third-largest foundry. In 1993, UMC spun-off MediaTek. Ironically, MediaTek (US$6.5 billion) has more in current annual sales than its former parent UMC (US$4.5 billion).
In 1983, ITRI developed an IBM PC-compatible computer.
In 1987, ITRI spun-off TSMC. Today, TSMC earns a gigantic US$10 billion in annual profit and has 60% of the worldwide foundry market. TSMC is also leading in technology. TSMC manufactured 16nm FPGA for Xilinx in September 2015. Intel still can't manufacture 14nm FPGA for Altera.
In 1990, ITRI established Taiwan's Notebook Computer industry.
In 1995, ITRI created Taiwan's CD-ROM industry.
In 1996, ITRI created Epistar to anchor Taiwan's LED industry. Today, Epistar is Taiwan's largest LED manufacturer.
ITRI was also vital in Taiwan's machine tool, electronics, and semiconductor industries. The list is too long to keep itemizing.
ITRI is still at the forefront of innovation in Taiwan. ITRI's latest invention of a mobile water system is pretty cool. It's a short video and the second half is impressive when Q-water is in operation.
"Published on Aug 17, 2015
ITRI’s mobile water system, known as Q-water, is one of its disaster relief technologies. The video shows you how the system provides clean water within a short period of time."