eeProductCenter Ultimate Products 4.4

Analog Boards / Buses DSP Electromechanical Embedded Tools Interconnects Microprocessors Memory Logic and Interfaces Passives / Sensors PLDs / FPGAs Power Components Power Sources RF / Microwave Test / Measurement

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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 2007. Read on to see which products you and your peers deem worthy.

From the always popular world of Analog ICs, ON Semiconductor's NB3N3002 and NB3N5573 clock generators take top honors. For Microwave & RF, NXP Semiconductor's software-defined radio (SDR) solution walks away with the prize. One voter says: "Pretty neat technology compared to the "old-world" method of RF design. It seems that it is taking the "black-magic" out of RF design and replacing it with digital technology.

For Logic and Programmable logic, Semtech's SX8724 sensor interface device is the top product while Intel wins hands down with its Z-P140 PATA solid-state drive (SSD) for Processors and Memory. While the emerging ultra-portable device market is hot for SSDs, voters are looking for higher capacity: "Consumers look more for capacity rather than speed and sizes. For them it's nothing more than a 4G flash disk with high MTBF but it's a good start at creating smaller devices. I'm looking forward for higher capacity in the future." Another voter says: "I think the market will need such devices with more than 4 GB capacities."

For IP&E components, Cree's 70-percent brighter green XLamp XR-E LEDs are the clear winner. For Power, Murata Power Solutions' 78SR series of 2-A switching regulators are number one. Finally, in Test & Measurement, Strategic Test's UF2e-2031 oscilloscope PCI Express card is ranked the top test product. While impressed with the stats some voters aren't too happy about the pricing. One voter says: "The list of SO supported is impressive. So is the cost."

In case you were wondering, here's how Ultimate Products works: Our editors select up to 10 of the most popular 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 10, with 1 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.

Patrick Mannion
Editor-in-Chief, Techonline Network and eeProductcenter.com
pmannion@cmp.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Analog ICs

IP&E

Power

Logic & Programmable Logic

Processors & Memory

RF & Microwave

Test & Measurement