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40 SMT007 MAGAZINE I MARCH 2023 standing how to properly develop AI processes, and where they might be of use, is a significant learning curve for all. A unified product plat- form design approach can take advantage of AI functionality, improving inspection qual- ity and automation through the addition of advanced intelligent programming. Already a successful AI inspection plat- form has been delivered to a Tier 1 automo- tive customer. e practical application of the same platform to EMS customers still has some obstacles to overcome thanks to the vari- ation of the products and components. is has led Saki to reevaluate and redevelop these functions. Instead of passing the inspection itself over to the AI, Saki has been working to make the AI platform function more as an operator assistant, easing much of the work- load while still involving a human element for improved accuracy through experience. Tests at customer sites have proven positive so far, and further work is currently underway in the field. ough we are in the early stages of inte- grated AI technologies, the benefits through- out Saki's systems are already showing. e need for maintenance has dropped signifi- cantly, with the soware able to assess pro- spective issues before they arise and advise the operator accordingly. Operator time is also reduced thanks to AI-assisted assessment of results, with initial set-up and programming also swier. Listening to the feedback from customers is the key to success. Already, our approach is resulting in significant improvements to manu- facturing around the world. e required num- ber of costly machine operators and mainte- nance staff has lessened, the cost involved in the supply of parts has diminished despite geo- political difficulties, and inspection time across the range is significantly lower. is has made EMS production cheaper and more efficient in every way. rough automation and flexibility, the inspection process for both present and future EMS customer needs is being modernized. SMT007 Norihiro Koike is president and CEO of Saki Corporation. Quantum computers hold the promise of per- forming certain tasks that are intractable even on the world's most powerful supercomputers. In the future, scientists anticipate using quantum comput- ing to emulate materials systems, simulate quantum chemistry, and optimize hard tasks, with impacts potentially spanning finance to pharmaceuticals. However, realizing this promise requires resilient and extensible hard- ware. One challenge in building a large-scale quantum computer is that researchers must find an effective way to interconnect quantum informa- tion nodes—smaller-scale processing nodes separated across a computer chip. Because quantum computers are fundamentally different from clas- sical computers, conventional tech- niques used to communicate elec- tronic information do not directly translate to quan- tum devices. However, one requirement is certain: Whether via a classical or a quantum interconnect, the carried information must be transmitted and received. To this end, MIT researchers have developed a quantum computing architecture that will enable extensible, high-fidelity communi- cation between superconducting quantum processors. In work pub- lished today in Nature Physics, MIT researchers demonstrate step one, the deterministic emission of sin- gle photons—information carriers— in a user-specified direction. Their method ensures quantum informa- tion flows in the correct direction more than 96 percent of the time. (Source: MIT News) New Quantum Computing Architecture for Large-scale Devices