Once again, qualified readers of EE Times and eeProductCenter have selected the best of the best--the top products in each of seven categories in our quarterly Ultimate Products survey. The categories are Analog, RF & Microwave, Logic/Programmable Logic and Interface, Test & Measurement, Processors and Memory, Power and Interconnection/Passives and Electromechanical. The results highlighted here are for products introduced during the fourth quarter of 2006. Read on to see which products you and your peers deem worthy.

For RF & Microwave, Jennic's JN5139 ZigBee reference design wins out for being, as one designer put it, "a practical way to reduce the implementation cost." For Analog, ADI's ADA4937-1 and ADA4938-1 differential drivers won out with distortion levels 10 dB below the competition.

For Processors & Memory, Adtron's Flashpak family's latest member, a 160-Gbyte, 2.5-inch SLC NAND flash disk, has designers abuzz, though reader feedback indicates that pricing clearly remains an issue for early adoption. In the category of Logic and Programmable Logic, Broadcom wins out with its BCM7118 cable set-top box chip with support for DOCSIS and EuroDOCSIS 2.0 cable modem specs. As one voter said, the fact that it was designed using feedback from operators as well as customers is a big plus when it comes to acceptance.

In the world of Test and Measurement, Link Instruments takes first place this quarter with its USB-based, 2-channel PC-hosted 'scope, the DSO-8502. The device combines usefulness and functionality with increased speed and low cost. Under Power, FDK Corp.'s beefed up Senapai Series of non-isolated point-of-load DC/DC converters win out. As one voter puts it: ""These converters sound perfect for small to medium size mobile electronics that require significant amounts of power. I really like the fact that it is rated to industrial temp range with little loss of power."

Finally, for IP&E, Planar Systems won out with its PD520, PD470, PD420 and PD370 1080p high-definition LCDs, though voters expressed some skepticism over cost and performance relative to DLP monitors.

In case you were wondering, here's how Ultimate Products works: Our editors select up to 10 of the most significant products posted at www.eeProductCenter.com 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.

TABLE OF CONTENTS<

RF & Microwave

Processors & Memory

Analog ICs

Logic & Programmable Logic

IP&E

Test & Measurement

Power

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