Blog Review: March 23

How exactly does a giant fire behave in space? NASA plans to find out, in the latest top five tech picks from Ansys’ Justin Nescott. Plus, never scrape ice off your car again and a pangolin-inspired motorcycle helmet.

Cadence’s Paul McLellan investigates the growing impact of dark silicon as Dennard scaling breaks down and the number of cores in a chip grows.

Mentor’s Harry Foster presents a library of verification patterns aimed at sharing knowledge gained from solving a specific problem with the wider community, and the philosophy behind gathering it all together.

Synopsys’ Graham Etchells considers one way to recoup layout productivity lost due to the complexity of the FinFET process.

Building a profitable business model for the IoT requires certain key areas be addressed, agreed a Bluetooth World panel. ARM’s Brian Fuller takes a look at two: fragmentation and security.

It’s not just a kid’s toy: Synopsys’ Robert Vamosi looks at the problems created by out-of-date software on off-the-shelf devices.

As cybersecurity upgrades become increasingly critical for vehicles, Mentor’s John Day sees a boon for software companies supporting OTA updates – and a challenge for car dealers.

Ever been frustrated by long waits to check your bags at an airport? Erik Harkes, CEO of DS Tags, proposes a more streamlined solution to luggage management in this blog for NXP.

Rambus’ Aharon Etengoff reports on colleague David G. Stork’s visit to Egypt for the country’s National Science Week where he discussed the history of optics and the latest imaging revolution.

And don’t forget the blogs featured in last week’s Manufacturing, Design & Test newsletter:

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling questions what comes next, now that advanced packaging finally is beginning to roll out.

Executive Editor Mark LaPedus sits down with Toppan’s EVP to talk about masks and strategy.

Mentor’s Valeriy Sukharev, Jun-Ho Choy, Armen Kteyan and Henrik Hovsepyan dig deep into how to optimize power consumption for mobile devices at advanced nodes.

Coventor’s Mattan Kamon compares SAQP and DSA using virtual fabrication.

Calibra’s Jan Willis looks at why the industry is changing and what challenges still need to be resolved.

Michael Watts examines how to build sub-wavelength structures using photons, and using 3D printers to create scaffolds for human cells.

Semico Research’s Joanne Itow predicts new features and chips will boost wafer demand, but not enough to offset a slowdown in this market.

SEMI’s Shanshan Du observes that China’s packaging houses have developed strong expertise over the past two decades.