Blog Review: Jan. 14

Ansys’ Bill Vandermark flags the top five engineering technology articles for the week, leaning heavily on CES. The 3D scanner is intriguing because of the link to 3D printing.

Mentor’s Robin Bornoff returns to the drawing board to design a better water heater. Unfortunately, you probably won’t be able to find one of these in your local Home Depot—ever.

eSilicon’s Jack Harding defines what it means to be competitive in the chip industry these days. The new emphasis is on “why” rather than “what.”

Cadence’s Paula Jones lists her top 10 observations from the Consumer Electronics Show. Check out No. 7.

Rambus’ Aharon Etengoff has some observations of his own. One very interesting point: 30% of wearable electronics will be completely unobtrusive to the eye within the next couple years. This redefines cool.

And also from CES, NXP’s Drue Freeman looks at how to know what’s around you even if you can’t see it. Bottom line: Connected cars can “see” better than people.

Synopsys’ Mick Posner provides a glimpse into a world surrounded by sensors. The car diagram looks like something out of a James Bond film.

Verification expert Guarav Jalan concludes that Steve Jobs was correct about the tight coupling of hardware and software. Get ready for some bare-metal software development.

If you have any lingering doubts about the need for security, check out the warning from ARM’s Alban Rampon. Or at least we think the warning came from Rampon.

Carbon’s Jason Andrews has three tips for using Linux Swap & Play with ARM processors. If you work with this stuff, it might be a good time to sharpen your pencil.

Ansys’s Margaret Schmitt applies chip-package-system considerations to wearable devices, where heat is a product killer and new architectures and interfaces will be required.

Mentor’s Joe Hupcey flags three notable conference papers on formal verification. Formal is finally getting the attention it deserves in the verification world.

Synopsys’ Bernie DeLay takes a different slant on verification with verification IP. Whatever saves time in verification is good.

Cadence’s Axel Scherer finds a new use for Google Glass—online lectures. Don’t try this while driving.

ARM’s Brad Nemire points to five videos shot at CES. In case you weren’t there, or even if you were there and missed this stuff, here are some interesting gadgets and trends to watch out for.

And in case you missed last week’s IoT & Security newsletter, here are some noteworthy blogs:

Technology Editor Ernest Worthman looks at a wide-open playground for hackers as everything moves online.

Executive Editor Ann Steffora Mutschler finds that widespread concern about privacy and security, but that won’t stop people from buying new technology.

And NXP’s Laurent Dardé points to the fourth revolution in manufacturing and why this is so important.