Blog Review: Feb. 21

Mentor’s Colin Walls posits that one part of the reason modern code has so many bugs may be the way we talk about them, and it’s time for a change in terminology.

Following up on a post about the challenges of bringing digital literacy to an area where many are unable to read, Cadence’s Madhavi Rao looks at the impact agriculture-focused IoT technologies could have on rural areas in India.

Synopsys’ Richard Solomon takes a look back at the evolution of PCMCIA cards and how one of the first mixed-standards combining USB and PCI Express still has an impact today.

Ansys’ Michael Kuron explains the different modeling approaches for characterizing the thermal properties of IC packages, from a simple 2D source to thermal resistor networks and detailed models of package geometry.

Rambus’ Aharon Etengoff details a new attack in which security researchers were able to successfully bypass Faraday cages to monitor low-frequency magnetic radiation emitted by air-gapped electronic devices.

NXP’s Ruediger Stroh argues that IoT security is beyond the capabilities of individual actors, and that mandatory standards and regulation are necessary to make sure that security technology is actually applied in the field.

Arm’s Tim Hartley explains the Arm NN software that aims to translate existing neural networks to a format that can run on the edge.

Samsung’s Bita Sistani highlights the major changes ahead for the automotive semiconductor industry, from soaring investment in electric vehicles to 5G and more advanced ADAS.

Nvidia’s Lisa Lahde profiles an unusual use for AI: a company focused on letting you try on new hair colors before dying, using face-tracking technology.

Is your browser mining cryptocurrencies? Synopsys’ Taylor Armerding warns of a recently compromised browser plugin commonly employed by government websites and the larger problem it points to.

Mentor’s James Paris looks at interface DRC check requirements and how they remove false errors, shorten DRC runtime, and simplify the verification flow.

In a video, Cadence’s Marc Greenberg takes a look at reducing DDR power dissipation by examining the non-linear relationship between frequency and power consumption and the power implications of fast burst transmission.

For more good reading, check out the highlighted blogs from last week’s Manufacturing & Process Technology newsletter:

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling argues that technology leadership is becoming a matter of national pride and survival, with semiconductors at the epicenter.

Executive Editor Mark LaPedus looks at fake nodes, fan-outs and robocars.

Technical Editor Katherine Derbyshire questions what is the ideal memristor for neuromorphic computing.

KLA-Tencor’s Moshe Preil predicts that adoption of new litho will enable scaling for a few more nodes, but with caveats.

Lam’s Alex Yoon dives into different memory types and how they work.

Semico Research’s Rich Wawrzyniak expects AI to drive steady growth of third-party semiconductor IP.

Applied Materials’ Max McDaniel finds screen innovation is exploding in a very big way.

SEMI’s Emir Demircan points to R&D programs in the EU, why they have produced unparalleled collaboration opportunities, and how they could be improved.

Helic’s Anand Raman and Magdy Abadir dig into the reasons for unexplained design failure or performance degradation.