Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1307491
78 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I NOVEMBER 2020 Regarding board design, IPC has been busy. IPC-2581 (Generic Requirements for Printed Board Assembly Products Manufacturing Description Data and Transfer Methodology)— often referred to as DPMX—is currently being updated to the C revision. At the time of this writing, it is undergoing the final typeset- ting necessary for publication. IPC-2231 (DFX Guidelines) is also receiving an upgrade with an A revision that is currently entering into the final draft for industry review. And finally, we have listened to your con- structive criticism regarding IPC Design and how it can better serve the printed board design community. We are revamping it to be more lightweight and user friendly. We will be unveiling the new IPC Design model before the end of November. These developments are exciting, and they will each get their own column in the coming months. However, for this month, I wanted to step back from IPC and the advancement of its printed board design offerings and instead focus on the advancement of electronics and technology in general. Hopefully, I can offer some nuggets of insight, inspiration, or at least a fleeting thought of, "Oh, that's kind of cool." In 1962, the late Sir Arthur C. Clarke penned and published Hazards of Prophecy—an essay that is now considered to be one of the foun- dational texts of 20 th -century futurism. As its name suggests, Hazards of Prophecy describes how past "prophets" of science and industry failed to predict their immediate future as it related to advances in technology. Clarke delin- eates these failures into two kinds: a failure of nerve and a failure of imagination. As Clarke defines it, a failure of nerve "occurs when even given all the relevant facts, the would-be prophet cannot see that they point Failures of Imagination: A Column of Caution Design Circuit by Patrick Crawford, IPC–ASSOCIATION CONNECTING ELECTRONICS INDUSTRIES