Blog Review: Oct. 22

What is UX? The User Experience, of course. Rambus’ Aharon Etengoff notes that the IoT UX is now the subject of a Harvard Business Review article.

A long list of hurdles are expected at the 10nm process node, including multiple levels of local interconnects, more complex layout rules, timing problems, and a slew of others. Cadence’s Richard Goering puts it all in perspective.

Mentor’s Robin Bornoff looks at the stats for lighting and what can be done to save the planet. One oddity: Cooler LEDs perform better.

Synopsys’ Mick Posner questions which came first, the chicken or the egg. Either way, it didn’t look anything like the picture he posted. This may be a new wrinkle on abstract partitioning.

Ansys’ Justin Nescott ferrets out the top five engineering technology articles of the week. Of particular note: A battery that can recharge to 70% full in 2 minutes and last 20 years. Also of interest: Tesla’s plans for a new speed record.

ARM’s David Maidment finds the first thin, non-boxy smart watches. Battery life: more than a week.

Cadence’s Arthur Marris runs a four-minute whiteboard session on configurable 10/40G Ethernet in Whiteboard Wednesdays.

Sonics’ Drew Wingard finds much to praise in Accellera’s Open Core Protocol tutorial.

Mentor’s Michael Ford observes that mass production relies on some of the same basic ideas as human survival. This is a completely different twist on “group think.”

Atmel’s Paul Rako takes a look at the social side of ARM TechCon. Where else can you win a pair of custom Converse sneakers?

NASA is working on printable spacecraft, automated robotic construction using regolith, and self-replicating large structures, writes Tom Kalil, a blogger for the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy. Apparently the 3D printer was just step one.

Cadence’s Brian Fuller reports on a speech by TSMC’s co-CEO, who predicts a fast ramp for 16nm and 10nm. Quarterly numbers will tell if he’s right.

Mentor’s John Day examines what really goes into a car design. It’s not just a bunch of parts.

And in case you missed last week’s Manufacturing, Design & Test newsletter, here are some noteworthy blogs:

Executive Editor Mark LaPedus contends it might be time to take another look at SOI, especially for the next round of planar and finFET devices.

Mentor Graphics’ David Abercrombie observes that multi-patterning is here to stay because without it Moore’s Law Scaling would be over.

Contributing writer Michael Watts finds the future of factory variation depends on managing data and schedule.

Maglen’s Tony Luo looks at what comes after optical inspection in a video tutorial.

Semico Research’s Jim Feldhan predicts a slow Q4 but a much better 2015.

SEMI’s Lara Chamness analyzes the semiconductor materials market and growth drivers for next year.