|
 |
EN-Genius Announces 2007's Product of the Year Winners
 January 14, 2008....EN-Genius Network today announced the recipients of their annual "Product of the Year" awards. A total of 29 different products in the categories of data acquisition, audio/video technology, green technology, green-power engineering, dsp, wireless, connectivity, networking, passives, low power and high power were selected, from among the hundreds of products reviewed in 2007 by EN-Genius.
"As always this process, which we started when we were still analogZONE, is very undemocratic," offered Editor-in-Chief Paul McGoldrick. "We will give our readers the chance to vote, later in the year, for the best TechNotes published in 2007, but for Product of the Year awards we offer our personal opinion; and we don't involve the vendors or allow (or demand, as other publications do) an essay with explanations as to why their products should win. As always at EN-Genius, we put our money where our mouth is with every review we write." McGoldrick went on to note that he and editorial colleagues Lee Goldberg and Alex Mendelsohn believe the products selected "will make significant bottom line numbers for the companies involved" because of their strong technical merit, design innovation and marketability.
We also have a new acknowledgment category this year with a number (eight) of Honorable Mentions to products that very nearly made it to a full Award category.
EN-Genius would like to congratulate all the winning companies and the product/design teams involved.
Product of the Year Award recipients are as follows, in alphabetical order:
Best Value High-Performance FPGAs:
Altera Arria GX Family of Low-Cost SerDesTransceiver-Equipped FPGAs
Arria 2.5 Gbit/s transceivers coupled with its Stratix-class logic places the devices in the sweet spot of the market to catch PCIe, GbE, SRIO applications and many products that are candidates for hardware DSP accelerator blocks. Their lower pricing structure should allow them to play in the potentially huge mainstream market for PCIe-equipped low-cost FPGAs to serve as bridges, custom I/O and specialized hardware accelerators.
Best Portable Synthesizer:
Analog Devices AD9913 Direct Digital Synthesizer
The second 1.8 V single rail 10-bit DAC resolution DDS from ADI reduces the master clock frequency to 250 MHz, shaves 10 mA off the quiescent, reduces the compliance range to 0.8 V, and adds parallel programming capability. The output can be a frequency-agile analog sinusoidal signal of up to 100 MHz with resolution better than 0.058 Hz for frequency and 0.022° for phase. Low power and size make it ideal for equipment such as portable spectrum analyzers.
Best Development In Light Sensors:
Avago Technologies APDS-9007 Ambient Light Sensor with Logarithmic Output
This product could also have been a greentechZONE Award winner. In a city like San José all the traffic lights are LEDs. During the day the light output is fine; at night it can be blinding – they need dimming, just the sort of application that the part was designed for. The spectral response very much follows that of the human eye. There are also huge potential power savings in automating both residential and commercial lighting.
Smartest Commercial Move in Switching Regulators
Catalyst Semiconductor CAT4201 7 W Buck LED Driver in TSOT-23
With the whole automotive market poised for high-current LED lighting at the front end of vehicles, the need to power them effectively has become a big deal. Using linear regulators, going forward in time, is just not a good engineering solution. This converter has good efficiencies, is in a great package with no need for a heatsink. The price must be totally scary for the competition.
Most Innovative USB Product:
Fairchild FSUSB30 Dual-Port USB Switch
By allowing a single USB connector to handle two different interface tasks, the switch saves space, BOM costs, and helps simplify things for easily-confused consumers like me. Fairchild is to be congratulated on a well-designed well-targeted product that has just enough features and healthy performance margins to recommend them for nearly any application where a USB interface is doing double-duty.
Best Development in Power Modules:
Fairchild Semiconductor FSBB30CH60B Motion-SPM Power Modules For Up to 3 kW
This family of modules from Fairchild has gotten better and better. They are so specialized that as a motor or appliance OEM you have to truly buy into them, and expect to be treated with long-term respect and support. Fairchild has shown that this is what they are willing, and happy, to do. This version comforts existing customers that this is an ongoing line and will persuade potentials that it is safe to get into the water.
Best RF Power Amplifier Implementation:
Freescale MRFE6S9205H 58 W (average) 865–960 MHz LDMOS Doherty Power Amps
William Doherty is probably laughing from his grave about his 1936 Staten Island Ferry architecture for RF amplifiers being back in fashion. Back then it was for power level increases from shortwave senders; now it is for efficiency in basestations. The architecture is a great deal easier to implement today but the gain devices need to be optimized for it. With more than 30% drain efficiency Freescale has a family of winners.
Best PCIe Bus Product:
IDT PCIe System Interconnect Solution
IDT's switch family will help move PCIe technology from desktop environments to carrier/enterprise-grade applications. By adding multi-processor capability support for in-band inter-processor communications, and extremely consistent low-latency connections, IDT switches allow PCIe to realize its potential to deliver many of the advantages that Intel's late, unlamented Advanced Switching (AS) technology attempted to deliver.
Best LAN Product:
Ikanos Fusiv integrated VDSL2 Gateway Processor
The Vx180 and Vx170 PON help CPE makers double-edged challenge to provide multi-service-capable products that help boost their revenues while keeping their equipment costs under control.
Most Innovative Audio Amplifier System
International RectifierIRS2092 Integrated And Protected Class-D Audio Chipset
By scaling supply rails and output MOSFETs a range of solutions can provide up to 500 W output power. Of course, IR is interested in selling MOSFETs: they make some very good ones for audio, but this combination is a sensible one. The scaling allows a vendor to solve multiple solutions with a single MOSFET driver to be kept in inventory. That flexibility, the performance and care over protection make this a surefire, high volume, success story.
Best Progress In Low-Noise Voltage References:
Intersil ISL21009 Low Current Consumption, Low-Noise Voltage Reference
The first Intersil-numbered FGA reference, the ISL60002 (an EN-Genius Product of the Year Award winner in 2004) was the result of work done at the acquired Xicor. The only real negative going for the initial parts was noise, reduced here by 87%. Initial product problems are history and the price premiums sought will be paid.
Best Example of Green Design Practices in a High-Volume Consumer Product:
Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e Small Form-Factor Desktop PC
Whether or not you’ll forsake this compact, eco-friendly unit for a more watt-hungry, less-recyclable, but oh-so-sexier gamer PC, you should take note of the many green design features that the Lenovo ThinkCentre A61e packs because it provides a very clear look at the future of computers.
Best WLAN Product:
Lightstorm Networks Brooklyn-10 Carrier-Grade 20Gb Layer 2 Switch and Hudson OAM Service Accelerator
I have had my doubts as to whether Ethernet could ever deliver the reliability and manageability it would take to displace TDM technology in carrier-grade access and transport applications, but some of the emerging standards and the emergence of silicon from vendors like Lightstorm are starting to make a believer out of me.
Best RF Power Detector:
Linear Technology LT5570 rms Power Detector
We can blame high crest factors on the designers (mostly digital) of the complex modulation schemes that exist, and more that are on the horizon. Analog engineering finds solutions to these self-created problems. The existence of these sorts of true rms measurements is critical in system design and the power management of. Linear has priced the LT5570 to take a chunk of the market, and it will do so because of the numbers, and the DFN packaging: much more attractive than the competition.
Best High-Speed ADC Driver Amplifier:
Linear Technology LTC6400/01-20 1 GHz & 2 GHz Fully-Differential Amplifiers
There's no point in having a high-speed ADC, with terrific specifications, if you cannot drive it properly. The long term winner of the very high value communications ADC markets is going to offer a solution that requires little to no analog/RF skills from the system designer. Enter the LTC6400. I'm not usually in favor of fixed-gain amplifier offerings but there is a lot to be said in letting the vendor solve noise problems. This family will be hugely successful, and they are great tools for the FAEs for design in with the high-speed ADCs out of the same stable.
Best Solid-State Lighting Product:
Linear Technology LT3517/18 LED Drivers
Linear’s versatile LED drivers ability to work from the low-cost, readily-available 12-V and 24-V supplies found in most low-voltage halogen lighting systems should greatly accelerate adoption of solid-state lighting in architectural applications.
Best Progress in High-Speed ADCs:
Maxim Integrated Products MAX109 8-bit 2.2 Gsample/s ADC
This has been a fascinating 8-bit ADC product family to follow: from the 250 Msample/s MAX100 through the 1000 Msample/s MAX104 to the 1500 Msample/s MAX108 and now up to 2.2 Gsample/s with the MAX109. The latest offering has an increase in package pin count because of the move to a 1:4 demultiplexed LVDS output system. The ac specifications remain the best in class. Price is unimportant to buyers of this product.
Best Wi-Fi Product:
Metalink WLANPlus 802.11n-Capable Chip Set
Metalink is to be complimented on trying to focus the market on performance rather than blindly pursuing the absolute lowest possible solution cost. Its superior range, throughput, and packet loss rates are due in equal parts to the fact that they use a separate SiGe radio chip and a well-designed digital baseband section that uses a maximum-likelihood receiver architecture to provide 3 to 5 dB worth of coding gain.
Most Innovative Passive Device:
Microbridge Technologies MBW-303 Wheatstone Bridge Offset Conditioning Network
Every now and again a practical development comes along that alters the way things have been done for a hundred years. The low-cost surface-mount MBW-303 fits that description. Designed for Wheatstone bridge sensor systems, a single passive device compensates for offset errors and offset drift, solving these problems at the source.
Best Value in Embedded DSP:
Microchip dsPIC33F Digital Signal Controllers
For two-and-a half-bucks and a handful of milliwatts, Microchip enables designers to deliver sophisticated filtering, analysis, and waveform generation capabilities in even the humblest applications. Now, by cramming up to 32 kbyte of Flash storage in the same tiny 6 mm x 6 mm QFN form factor, they’ve given those developers a chance to get even more creative, as well as giving TI good cause to cast a nervous eye in the rear-view mirror.
Most Innovative in PGAs:
National Semiconductor LMP8100A: High-Precision Programmable Gain Amplifier
You probably cannot imagine how many requests I receive asking for a source that can describe how to span the input range of an ADC. A precision monolithic PGA that can help set that spanning range is a much needed device. Here there is no compromise in the norm of gaining an attenuated input. The LMP8100A makes for a new era in sensor accuracy over the full temperature range of -40°C to 125°C.
Most Innovative DSP Product:
Octasic Vocallo Multi-Core Media Gateway DSP
The asynchronous logic technology used in the Octasic Vocallo processing chip gives it high levels of channel density and low power-per-channel that put it in some rarified company with only a handful of chips to compare it to. This and an easy-to-use development suite could make it a disrupting factor in the voice processing market.
Best Simplified Approach to Portable Charging
ON Semiconductor NUS3116 Charging and Power Switching Solution for Portables
There are many solutions for alternate USB/wall-wort battery charging, but they are all smarter, which many OEMs don’t want to pay for. This way avoids buying three separate parts (a power MOSFET and two transistors) probably in three TSOP-6s (because of the currents involved) in WDFN-8 instead. A clean budget-priced part for those who want to continue to do things their own way but with a low profile device. Volumes will be huge.
Most Innovative Solution For Spanning ADCs:
Semtech SX8724 Sensing Platform Device
The ZoomingADC technology was acquired by Semtech with the purchase of Xemics and its purpose is to maximize the span of an ADC input. We see, regularly, the purchase of unnecessarily higher resolution ADCs because the design engineer cannot get the numbers in order. The implementation is superb. The part should do fabulously well and we will see it in many pressure and temperature sensor applications, particularly portable.
Best Value in a Memory Interface Product:
STMicroelectronics Five-Function Memory Card Interface
The reduction in cost, complexity and space requirements this integrated SD memory interface chip provides to any mobile product packing a SD, MiniSD, or MMC interface makes the decision to use it in your next design a no-brainer.
Most Innovative Fluorescent Lighting Product:
STMicroelectronics L6585 One-Chip Electronic Ballast
The L6585 integrated electronic fluorescent ballast and power factor correction circuit is a great example of an electronic product that makes sense both economically and ecologically. Its efficiency, tight power factor correction (0.99) and low standby power round out a list of must-have features for a high-efficiency ballast, but ST has added a bunch of other clever improvements that set it apart from its competitors.
Best Operational Amplifier Development
Texas Instruments OPA369 Zero Crossover Op Amp
Here we have a rail-to-rail input op amp with no perceivable crossover and, therefore, no crossover distortion. The input offset voltage is just flat right through the complete common-mode range. At the same time the part has not achieved this performance by throwing current at the problem. This part and, more significantly, this architecture are going to be big money spinners for TI.
Best Green Tech Toy:
Thames and Kosmos Power House Sustainable Technology Experiment Kit
Packaged as a sort of sustainable version of a Barbie Deluxe Dream House with a much better story line, T&K Power House should provide both young geeklings and more technically-challenged youngsters with hours of play that's almost guaranteed to keep the TV off and their minds in high gear.
Most Innovative Low-Cost FPGAs:
Xilinx Spartan DSP Series
Xilinx has made a bold bet by making a large subset of the hard DSP core technology they developed for their high-end Virtex FPGAs available in their value-oriented Spartan series.
And the Honorable Mention Awards, in alphabetical order:
Honorable Mention for Best IP Upgrade:
Actel Low-Power IGLOO FPGA Family
Actel’s latest ultra-low-power FPGA family challenge conventional notions about programmable logic by adding a new processor plus a bunch of application-specific cores to their IP library.
Honorable Mention for "the product I’ve been waiting for all year":
CSR RadioPro Wi-Fi Internet Radio
RadioPro’s low cost, high performance and versatility give it the potential to be an industry-changing product that could really put Internet radio in direct competition with broadcast radio and encourage a revolution in music, culture and news distribution.
Honorable Mention for Innovation in Buck Controllers:
Intersil ISL6228 High Transient Response Dual-Output Buck Controller
When I first read that the ISL6228 had a PWM changing frequency according to the load I thought it would be a compromise solution for the two channels. But that is not the case: the channels are completely duplicated, a major plus. It is an extremely clever arrangement with a nominal frequency range from 200 kHz to 600 kHz and, at lower loads, the part switches to a diode-emulation mode. This will be a huge winner in the market.
Honorable Mention for Safe Power in Audio Amplifiers:
National Semiconductor LM49100 Mono Speaker/Stereo Headphone Amplifier
First combination amplifier from National to include the True-Ground technology on the headphone outputs. Kudos for first using a charge pump for safe headphone grounding goes to the Maxim MAX4410 headphone amplifier (Product of the Year Awardee in 2002) but the move to totally safe headphone outputs is to be welcomed in combination amplifiers, and the market will also embrace it. The LM49100 will do extremely well.
Honorable Mention for Green Power:
ON Semiconductor GreenPoint ATX Power Supply Reference Design
ON's GreenPoint/80Plus-certified reference design strikes a smart balance between the environmental imperative for extreme energy efficiency and the sometimes unpleasant realities of commercial electronics manufacturing. Its wide operating band enables it to run at near-maximum efficiency whether it’s powering a sub-100 W econo-PC or an up-armored, multi-processor gaming unit pushing the upper limits of its 300 W capacity.
Honorable Mention for Continuing Development
Texas Instruments SRC4392 Dual Channel Professional Audio Sample Rate Converter
TI has taken their 2003 Product of the Year Award-winning SRC4190-93s and turned them into a dual-channel product, also adding a digital audio interface receiver and transmitter and a pair of serial ports. The outstanding dynamic range and low distortion numbers of the earlier parts are retained and the power consumption (per channel) reduced over 40%. The part continues TI's dominance in the professional and broadcast markets.
Honorable Mention for delivering DSP Without Tears:
Texas Instruments F28335 eZdsp Starter Kit for S32F2833x Digital Signal Controllers
TI’s DSC development platform packs the right level of features and usability to help engineers make the transition from traditional embedded systems to embedded signal processing.
Honorable Mention for Sexiest Green Tech Product:
Vectrix Electric Super Scooter
What if breaking the oil habit didn’t require sacrifice, just a motorcycle license and a willingness to arrive at work every morning with a silly grin on your face?
General qualifying criteria for Product Of The Year consideration can be found here.
|
|
|
|
|
