Once again, qualified readers of EE Times and eeProductCenter have selected the best of the bestýthe top products in each of seven categories in our quarterly Ultimate Products survey. The categories are analog ICs, RF and microwave, logic/programmable logic and interface products, test and measurement, processors and memory, power products, and interconnection/passives and electromechanical components.

The results reported here are for the the best products introduced during the first quarter of 2006. Diverse products made the cut.

In the analog category, Wolfson Microelectronics' WM8960 codec with a filterless Class-D stereo speaker driver topped the list. The highly integrated codec also packs stereo analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, a headphone driver and an internal phase-locked loop (PLL). The device is intended for use in portable electronic devices such as mobile phones with stereo speakers and personal video players that require high-quality audio performance with high efficiency to extend battery life. Power consumption is said to be only 10 milliwatts in playback mode.

Avago Technologies' ADCC-3000 image sensor took the top slot in the components category. Avago raises the price and performance bar with its 1/4-inch optical format, 1.3-megapixel CMOS image sensor for camera phones. Leveraging the company's enhanced-performance pixel architecture and image-pipe processing (I-Pipe) technology, the company has been touting much better picture quality than existing megapixel sensors for camera phones.

Claiming the power products lead slot was Power Integrations' TinySwitch-III off-line switcher IC. With its high level of integration and robust feature set, TinySwitch-III enables simple, flexible designs with far fewer components than alternative discrete and integrated solutions. TinySwitch-III features a 700-volt MOSFET alongside low-voltage control circuitry on a monolithic IC. Other features include integrated auto-restart, input under-voltage and output over-voltage protection, hysteretic thermal shutdown, and frequency jittering to minimize EMI.

Seagate Technology Corp.'s Momentus 5400.3, a 2.5-in hard disk drive ran away with the votes in the processors and memories category. The Momentus 5400.3 has a top capacity of 160-Gbytes. With more than 60% of the notebook market expected to be at 80-Gbytes and above this year, there should be a huge market for the new 2.5-in hard disk drive.

In the top spot the in the Test & Measurement category was Yokogawa Electric Corp.'s DL7400 Series FlexRay Signal Analyzers. The Signal Analyzer enables users to simultaneously perform both protocol analyses and waveform observations for FlexRay, an in-vehicle control network that is expected to come into wide use. This analyzer is the first measuring instrument in this industry to integrate both functions.

Silicon Labs Si5040 XFT Transceiver captured the dominant position for RF & Microwave. With a package size of only 5 x 5 mm, the Si5040 is the industry's smallest solution offering low power and low jitter for space-constrained XFP applications. Additionally, the Si5040 is the only transceiver to support continuous operation with jitter attenuation across all telecom and datacom protocols between 9.9 and 11.4 Gbits/s, including OC-192/STM-64, 10 GbE, 10G Fiber Channel and their corresponding forward error correction data rates.

In the logic/programmable logic and interface products category, Agere Systems took the top spot with its TrueStore read-channel device. This 90-nanometer read-channel targets 2.5- and 3.5-inch HDD applications in desktop and notebook PCs, consumer electronics, and enterprise applications such as blade servers.

Here's how Ultimate Products works: Our editors select up to 10 of the most significant products posted at eeProductCenter during the calendar quarter. Then, using an electronic balloting process, we submit the products with the accompanying editorial reviews to selected, qualified readers. Those readers score the products by technical significance and usability on a scale of 1 through 5, with 5 being the highest score. The product ranked No. 1 in each category was judged as most technically significant for that category. Relative usability rankings and selected reader comments are also reported.

More than 1,000 of you helped to choose these products. As always, we are grateful for your enthusiastic participation.

Marty Gold
Executive Editor, eeProductCenter
mgold@cmp.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Analog ICs

Processors & Memory

IP&E

Logic & Programmable Logic

Power

RF & Microwave

Test & Measurement

THE RANKINGS

Readers ranked products for technical significance and usability on a scale of 1 through 5 (with 5 as the highest score). However, the product rankings reported in this issue are relative to other products within the category-not absolute scores. The product ranked 1 in each category was judged as most technically significant for that category. Relative usability rankings and selected reader comments are also reported.