Blog Review: Aug. 8

Cadence’s Meera Collier provides a primer on the basics of quantum computing, including how quantum gates work using superpositions and how it could impact chip design.

Mentor’s Dennis Brophy shares a list of resources to help you get up to speed on the recently-approved Portable Test and Stimulus standard, which enables test scenarios to be run across different execution platforms.

Synopsys’ Richard Solomon points to a wealth of knowledge for PCI-SIG members with a trove of video recordings of all the sessions at this year’s US Developers Conference.

SEMI’s Ajit Manocha argues that AI’s reliance on new architectures and compute platforms is creating a resurgence of the semiconductor industry, bringing it back into the investment spotlight.

Arm’s Andrew Hopkins digs into creating resilient and functionally safe systems with a more scalable way of designing diagnostic capability across the components of an SoC to detect faults.

Applied Materials’ Mike Rosa explains how demand for thinner, lightweight mobile devices is boosting new wafer-level packaging schemes, which are expected to reach a market value of more than $30B by 2020.

UltraSoC’s Stewart Randall considers the growing interest in RISC-V in China, how companies hope it can help reduce over-reliance on foreign IP, plus an interesting new player.

Lam Research’s Kris Kendall checks out how the latest advancements in technology are driving improved weather forecasting, from early uses of radar to supercomputer-powered predictions.

Nvidia’s Isha Salian provides a primer on the differences between supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised, and reinforcement learning models for deep learning and which datasets and problems work best with each.

A Rambus writer takes a look at an illegal cryptocurrency gambling ring worth 10 billion yuan (US$1.5 billion) in bets on the World Cup that was recently busted by Chinese police.

Ansys’ Marine Tixier explains how an artificial intelligence can learn to predict a material’s properties from a static image and why that’s useful.

Intel’s Cisco Minthorn introduces the U.S. government’s new commission focusing on advancements in AI, machine learning and related technologies as they relate to national security and defense.

And don’t miss the latest blogs from the recent IoT, Security & Automotive and Packaging, Test & Materials newsletters:

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling predicts big changes when the IoT begins tapping into patterns.

Executive Editor Ann Steffora Mutschler contends that a key ingredient for the autonomous driving ecosystem is mutual understanding, including terminology.

Arteris IP’s Ty Garibay finds an uneven path leading to the current state of AI, with a lot of work still ahead.

Mentor’s Andrew Macleod explains why autonomous cars are only one part in creating a transportation revolution.

Synopsys’ Robert Vamosi points to the latest 5G release and what that means for testing and deployment.

Achronix’s Volkan Oktem examines the advantages of CPU, Serial Flash and JTAG configuration modes in eFPGAs.

Flex Logix’s Geoff Tate focuses on why a government agency opted for an embedded FPGA.

Arm’s Dipesh Patel focuses on the necessary ingredients to transform businesses.

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling argues that complexity, advanced nodes, harsh conditions and safety concerns will make testing more time-consuming and expensive.

Advantest’s Judy Davies questions what it will take to make machines process information in the same way that we do.

Brewer Science’s Yongqing Jiang explains how to identify and track impurities before they make it onto the wafer.

Technology Editor Jeff Dorsch contends that TestVision 2020 may need a new moniker.