Blog Review: Jan. 24

Mentor’s Rich Edelman shares some tips for debugging complex UVM testbenches containing multiple agents, multiple checkers, and new HDL.

Synopsys’ Prasad Subudhi K. S. explains the PCIe PIPE 4.4.1 specification and the major improvements since 4.3, including better optimization in data flow and ultra-low power operations.

Cadence’s Paul McLellan steps back to before the Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities with a look at the difficulties of trust and Ken Thompson’s ultimate Unix hack.

Rambus’ Aharon Etengoff takes a look at the origins of GDDR and why the latest iteration, GDDR6, is poised to move beyond PC graphics and into automotive and data centers.

Arm’s Vikas Chandra dives into optimizing neural network architectures for implementing keyword spotting on Cortex-M processors.

A Lam Research writer provides a high-level look at the basics of how memory technologies work.

NI’s Jeffrey Phillips checks out the key areas the automotive industry was focused on during CES, from sensors to different views on autonomy.

Ansys’ Sandeep Sovani checks out the many types of simulation needed to design electric vehicles.

ON Semi’s Marek Bek digs into Low Drop-Out voltage regulators and why it’s important to consider real world operating situations.

Intel’s David Houlding checks out how blockchains could be applied in the healthcare industry to improve interoperability between organizations.

Cadence’s Meera Collier shares highlights from CES and considers how the world of the future shown there can coexist with the joys of the past.

Mentor’s Colin Walls shares five tips for embedded software development, from setting pointers to the danger of recursive code.

Synopsys’ Sean Safarpour peeks behind the curtain at the magic of formal with a DVCon tutorial.

Cadence’s Darin Ten Bruggencate recounts an ironic tale of the results of poor data management.

And don’t miss the blogs featured in last week’s Manufacturing & Process Technology newsletter:

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling questions when current transistor structures will run out of steam.

Executive Editor Mark LaPedus takes a hard look at a tumultuous memory landscape.

Coventor’s Michael Hargrove points to shifting perceptions about FD-SOI, from a controversial technology to a contender that could capture the low-power/high-performance market.

KLA-Tencor’s Rob Cappel explains why automotive semiconductors shouldn’t be treated like consumer devices.

SEMI’s Ajit Manocha contends that despite last year’s success, there’s plenty of work needed to keep the good times rolling.

Lam Research’s Elizabeth Pavel finds what used to be considered science fiction preparing to move into the home market.

GlobalFoundries’ Bami Bastani reports there will be an estimated 8.4 billion connected devices on the network by 2020.

NI’s David Vye notes that investments are pouring in as companies race to commercialize 5G.