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

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

We just emerged from the holidays, and boom, we’re right back into trade show season. I’m getting ready to leave all the snow and 10-degree weather behind and head for DesignCon in Santa Clara, California, Jan. 29–30. This is the 30th anniversary of DesignCon, and they have some fun events planned to help the industry celebrate this critical event. 

This week’s round-up includes a variety of valuable articles, columns, and news items, focusing on the future of the industry, global markets, and more. Don’t forget to peruse our latest book, The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to... More Secrets of High-Speed PCBs, by Martyn Gaudion of Polar Instruments. 
I hope to see you at DesignCon! 

I-Connect007 Releases The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to... More Secrets of High-Speed PCBs by Martyn Gaudion
Published January 23
We’ve published a number of books by Polar Instruments; Managing Director Martyn Gaudion has been known to hand out hard copies of Polar’s books at industry events, almost like a business card. This new book builds on the principles introduced in Secrets of High-Speed PCBs, Parts 1 and 2. I edited it, and it’s free to download, so check it out.

The Promising Future for CEE PCB in Thailand
Published January 22
There’s been a big focus on Thailand lately, especially with the advent of the China Plus One strategy. Nolan Johnson brings us this interview with Tom Yang, CEO of CEE PCB, who discusses current market conditions, the need for companies like his to respond to industry changes, and why the company moved into “The Land of Smiles.”

It’s Only Common Sense: The Customer Isn’t Always Right
Published January 20
Dan Beaulieu is known for telling it like it is. He’s not afraid to call the baby ugly, as we say in Atlanta. In this column, he points out what many of have been reluctant to say in public: The customer is not always right. If you’ve always wanted to tell a certain customer that they didn’t know what they were talking about, read on. Dan is always fun to read, but especially when he has a bone to pick 

SMT Perspectives and Prospects: Artificial Intelligence, Part 4—Prompt Engineering
Published January 22
Columnist Jennie Hwang is back with Part 4 of her series on artificial intelligence. This month, she focuses on a new term: prompt engineering. What is prompt engineering and what its impact? Jennie explains how prompt engineering can help optimize the use of AI models and get faster, more accurate responses. We’ve just scratched the surface of AI’s capabilities. Where will AI be in 10 years? Will we all be ruled by Skynet?

Beyond Design: Electro-optical Circuit Boards
Published January 22
We asked Barry Olney to peer into the future of this industry, and he crafted this great column on electro-optical PCBs. He starts off by discussing the potential role of NVIDIA’s new Blackwell B200 GPU. I had no idea that NVIDIA’s Superchips run at 720 petaflops, or 1 quadrillion operations per second. NVIDIA is definitely one of the coolest companies around.