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Ultimate Products
As the sun sets on 2007, qualified readers of EE Times and eeProductCenter (www. eeproductcenter.com) once again have selected the best of the best-the top products in each of seven categories in our quarterly Ultimate Products survey. As always, the categories are analog ICs; RF and microwave; logic and programmable logic; test and measurement; processors and memory; power; and interconnects, packaging and electromechanical. The results highlighted here are for products introduced during the third quarter. Read on to find out what products are rising to the fore of today's electronic designs.
The processors and memory category yielded an interesting contrast between the latest dual-core ARM implementation from NEC Electronics and a quad-core device from Intel Corp. While Intel grabbed kudos for sheer power, the wide-ranging applicability of the NEC ARM device took the prize for usability. In the field of logic and programmable logic, Analog Devices won with its ADV7520NK low-power HDMI v1.3 transmitter for devices capable of supporting highdefinition audio and video content. As one reader said, This is great for helping HDMI grow in the mobile application space."
In test and measurement, the WaveExpert 100H from LeCroy Corp. was the handsdown winner. The device is the industry's first sampling scope capable of acquiring, measuring and processing signals that cannot be physically probed. Not lost for words, one reader said: "More than luxury, it's need-driven. Next-generation-networking needs truly require this kind of innovation." Allegro MicroSystems Inc. took the power category with its A6281 LED driver with on-chip oscillator for programmable brightness control.
The murky, black-magic realm of analog is never without its debates, and this installment's winner is no exception. While Old Electric's ML86V7665 video-decoder LSI combines all major standards, to the applause of many readers, others questioned the relevance of including a "dying" standard such as NTSC. Put bluntly by one reader, "This product is not very relevant, as analog television is going away."
In RF and microwave, GCT Semiconductor's GDM7003 RF chip won for receiving media broadcast from both S-DMB and TDMB, while in interconnects, packaging and electromechanical, the trend toward "green" design helped Osram take gold with its Ostar headlamp LED. "High-efficiency LED lighting will become more important in an increasingly energyconscious world," said one reader.
So there...