Blog Review: Dec. 31

Mentor’s J. VanDomelen zeroes in on the two most interesting discoveries from the Philae comet landing. So what was that “eerie cyclical clicking” sound?

Synopsys’ Ray Varghese digs into basic coherent transaction testing for AXI/ACE compliant interconnects. You might want to put on another pot of coffee.

Cadence’s Brian Fuller offers some deep insights into synthesis, verification and test, courtesy of the Front-End Design Summit. There are links to a bunch of videos, too, which should keep you busy for hours.

Ansys’ Bill Vandermark points to the top five engineering articles in 2014. Check out the human hamster wheel. This should help redefine progress.

ARM’s David Maidment links to a teardown of the Microsoft Band, a wearable fitness/health/sleep-tracking device that’s sure to raise some questions about security.

Speaking of security, check out FIDO. Rambus’ Aharon Etengoff points to the new Fast Identity Online Alliance spec and why it’s important.

NXP’s Thomas Suwald sheds some light on biometric smartcards. These are starting to show up in high-security environments and support handwritten PIN codes and fingerprint scans.

Verification expert Gaurav Jalan looks back on the top 10 DV events in 2014 and why they’re significant. No. 4 is particularly interesting.

Synopsys’ Richard Solomon unleashes the wrong kind of mouse for holiday poetry, along with a Magic 8 Ball prediction for USB Type-C.

Mentor’s Boris Marovic uses computation fluid dynamics software to determine why Rudolph’s nose stays so red.

Ansys’ Dan Hendrickson points to a new service that will physically send your messages to the moon. Why?

ARM’s Stacy Smith digs into stereoscopic 3D graphics, including how to calculate the image properly.

And in case you missed the last System-Level Design newsletter, here are some noteworthy blogs:

Technology Editor Brian Bailey looks back on Semiconductor Engineering’s first year and top 10 most popular stories of the year.

Arteris’ Kurt Shuler provides a gift to anyone working with functional safety standards—a glossary of terms.

Open-Silicon’s Kalpesh Sanghvi walks through the various design phases and how they can contribute to costs.

Cadence’s Frank Schirrmeister explains why UML-based scenarios are so important for SoC-level verification.

Synopsys’ Tom De Schutter finds that the impact drought and flood can be minimized with proper planning and perspective.

And eSilicon’s Mike Gianfagna points to new tools that have been lit up for the holidays.