Blog Review: May 29

Cadence’s Meera Collier traces the evolution of computing through the series of bottlenecks the industry has needed to overcome and what’s being done to address the latest one.

Mentor’s Rebecca Lord checks out the use of differential signals to mitigate the effects of electromagnetic interference, noise, and crosstalk in PCBs.

Synopsys’ Taylor Armerding considers whether Ireland’s slow enforcement of GDPR will result in a stronger future for the privacy regulation.

Arm’s Jean-Philippe Betoin takes a look at the rollout of smart meters, where hurdles still exist, and how embedded SIM can play a role in greater deployment.

VLSI Research’s Dan Hutcheson chats with Mukesh Khare of IBM Research about the company’s long-term AI roadmap, the demands of workloads as traditional scaling slows, and what else is happening in the AI Hardware Center.

A Rambus writer considers whether it’s too early to talk about regulating AI and whether that would ensure society sees the maximum benefit.

Intel’s Casimir Wierzynski explains why an optical neural network engine could provide both lower latency and higher energy efficiency AI and the efforts to build them.

ANSYS’ Annapoorna Krishnaswamy argues that to make the most of low-power finFET and 2.5D/3D-IC packaging, engineers need to adopt multiphysics simulations.

And don’t miss the blogs highlighted in last week’s Manufacturing, Packaging & Materials newsletter:

Editor In Chief Ed Sperling sets the record straight on what’s really going on behind the scenes.

Editor Mark LaPedus polls experts about the impact the U.S.-China trade war has on semi and materials sectors.

Coventor’s Pradeep Nanja lays out how to improve yield by recognizing and preventing defects at the wafer’s edge.

Brewer Science’s Luke Prenger explains why combining a curable adhesive and laser release layer into one material makes for easier handling and processing of thin wafers.

VLSI Research Europe’s Julian West observes that although critical subsystem revenue is expected to see a sharp drop, lots of money is still being made.

Semico Research’s Joanne Itow examines the wafer market and questions which segments have seen the largest declines and when demand will get back on track.

Applied Materials’ Shinsuke Mizuno shows that back-scattered electron imaging can detect, image and measure critical defects buried within multiple layers of films.

Cadence’s Frank Schirrmeister argues that the best option for users is simply to use processor-based emulation and FPGA-based prototyping in a combined flow.