Features Articles
How the industry standard revolutionizes PCB collaboration.
Last month’s column talked about a simpler way to exchange stackups with manufacturing partners. This month, continuing the theme of migrating from handoffs to bidirectional design data exchange, we will talk about electronic exchange of technical queries with design/manufacturing partners through IPC-2581’s DfX module. The module may be included within the design data or exist independently, such as a stackup exchange module that can be shared separately.
AI investment shows no signs of slowing, prompting concern about what happens when it eventually does.
Victor Huang has described ChatGPT’s arrival as AI’s “iPhone moment,” when the technology’s potential to change the way we live became clear to all. Indeed, the publication of large language models (LLMs) is arguably the most powerful innovation we have seen so far, enabling widespread user engagement spanning personal and professional purposes. Resulting from this, acceptance has snowballed and more and more of us have come to trust and rely on AI assistants. In turn, mainstream use has driven further improvements, as successive updates have delivered more humanlike interactions and additional capabilities.
You’re going to make some mistakes!
Having led different-sized sales forces over the years, I’ve made some massive hiring mistakes. This isn’t a “how to avoid all hiring mistakes” piece; everyone will make hiring errors over a long and active career. It is how you respond to those mistakes that can make a big difference in your company.
Memory chip shortages and PCB order spikes signal strength, but history suggests caution amid the hype.
It appears that possibly, as baseball legend Yogi Berra would have said, it’s déjà vu all over again.
A simpler, smarter way to get stackups right the first time.
For years, we talked about “handing off” design data to manufacturing partners. Many still do. The handoff model is simple: design sends “build intent” in one direction, usually through a mix of emails, spreadsheets, PowerPoints and Word documents.
The switch to renewables is about energy security and climate change.
While climate change is obviously the big-picture issue in the global drive to decarbonize, energy security is an important aspect that is shaping governments’ policies worldwide. From either perspective – strategic or environmental – Europe and the US are far behind China in the race to adopt renewables. China reported installing 198GW of solar capacity between January and May. Effectively, that’s the equivalent of adding 100 panels every second!
