I-Connect007 Editor's Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

This week, we have a little bit of everything. There’s quite a bit of new technology news, along with an I-Connect007 eBook on thermal design techniques, trade show talk, and an interesting take on trading in capital equipment.

We’ve been following the “digital twin” for the past few years, and when Siemens released a webinar on the topic this week, Happy Holden got a sneak peek and wrote a review. It turned out to be one of our most popular recent articles. Likewise, Dan Feinberg has been waiting for news about NVIDIA’s upcoming GPU, and this week, he discussed the announcement by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, detailing the new GPU’s features.

In trade show news, Messe München held out as long as possible, but finally threw in the towel and announced that electronica 2020 would be a virtual event. There’s just no way to do a live international trade show this year. Manncorp announced a new program that allows customers to trade in their equipment without losing their shirts in the process. And Dan Beaulieu spoke with American Standard Circuits’ Anaya Vardya about his latest book The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to…Thermal Management: A Fabricator’s Perspective.

Next week, Nolan Johnson will bring you his top five picks.

What Is Digital Twin Technology, and Why Is It So Important?
Published September 9, 2020

Siemens and I-Connect007 launched a webinar titled Implementing “Digital Twin” Best Practices From Design Through Manufacturing, and Technical Editor Happy Holden was one of the first to view this webinar. In this article, he delves into the true meaning of “digital twin” and breaks down what this means to the PCB manufacturing and assembly segments. This was one of our most-read articles this week.

NVIDIA’s Three Next-Generation GPUs Excite Consumers
Published September 9, 2020

Technical Editor Dan Feinberg is also our consumer electronics guru and an avid computer builder and virtual reality fan. Dan has been eagerly awaiting more information about NVIDIA’s upcoming GPU, which the company would have announced at CES during any other year. But with CES 2021 now a virtual event, NVIDIA decided to release the details of the RTX 3000 Series GPU this week. Like a kid in a candy store, Dan discusses the new GPU and some of NVIDIA’s other game-changing technology.

electronica 2020 to Be Held Digitally
Published September 5, 2020

I have to give Messe München credit for holding out this long. They tried their hardest to keep electronica 2020 a live, in-person event, but the universe had other plans. Most of the countries in Europe have travel restrictions in place due to COVID-19, and the last time I checked, Americans are banned from traveling anywhere except Mexico, the Balkans, and Turkey. The next electronica is a virtual event. Messe München fought the good fight.

American Standard Circuits’ New Book Covers Thermal Management From a Fabricator’s Perspective
Published September 10, 2020

American Standard Circuits CEO Anaya Vardya recently authored another I-Connect007 eBook, The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to…Thermal Management: A Fabricator’s Perspective. In this interview, Dan Beaulieu and Anaya discuss the growth in the market for thermal PCBs and the challenges related to designing and fabricating these boards. With the market for automotive and LED PCBs continuing to expand, the need for thermal design information will likely keep growing as well.

Manncorp Launches Trade In/Trade Up Program
Published September 10, 2020

Here’s a great example of a company trying to shake things up a bit and help their customers out during a year that has been, well, interesting. Manncorp’s Trade In/Trade Up Program allows customers to move up to a newer, faster pick-and-place machine, oven, or stencil printer. Since the company’s MC series feeders fit every MC machine, customers can save money by trading in only the machine itself. We need more companies in this industry to think creatively like this.