EDN's editors offer up their annual list of the year's 100 most significant ICs, components, buses, boards, EDA tools, power devices, test instruments, and more.
It’s time once again for EDN’s annual Hot 100 Products list. Each year, manufacturers announce thousands of new products and technologies. EDN’s editors spend countless hours narrowing that massive list to 
the hundreds of items they consider innovative and newsworthy enough to report on both in print and on the Web. The list on these pages represents the best of the best—the products and technologies that in 2008 really grabbed the attention of our editors and our readers.
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Analog ICs
Analog Devices AD7190 ADC
Analog Devices AD7626 ADC
Catalyst Semiconductor CAT9534 GPIO (general-purpose input/output) expander
Linear Technology LTC2274 ADC
Melexis MLX75305 light-to-voltage sensor
National Semiconductor ADC12EU050 octal ADC
Summit Microelectronics SMB119 power-management IC
Texas Instruments AFE5805 analog-front-end ADC
Wolfson Microelectronics WM8903 audio codec
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Applied Systems
Adlink Technology cPCI-3600 processor blade
Aitech Defense Systems M590 graphics and video module
Ampro Computers ReadyBoard 830 single-board computer
Apollo Display Technologies ArtistaMedia network media player
BeagleBoard.org Beagle Board open embedded computer
Connect One Mini Socket iWiFi serial-to-Wi-Fi module
Critical Link LLC MityDSP-Pro customizable processing platform
Digi International XBee-PRO XSC embedded RF module
Digital View DVS-1600 interface controller
MEN Micro Inc M36N analog-input mezzanine board
Micro/sys Inc USB1700 GPS receiver board
National Instruments cRIO-907x CompactRIO
Pentek Inc Model 7142-428 digital transceiver
United Electronic Industries DNA-AI-211 analog-input board
VersaLogic Corp Cougar single-board computer
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Communications and Networking
Avnera Corp Wireless audio chip set
SST MelodyWing wireless audio chip set
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Components
Analog Devices ADXL001 industrial vibration and shock sensor
Five Star Technologies ElectroSperse S-540 ink
Freescale Semiconductor MMA6700/1EG MEMS (microelectromechanical-system) accelerometers
Freescale Semiconductor eXtreme Switch Gen III N-channel MOSFET switches
Infineon CoolMOS 900V superjunction MOSFETs
Kodak KAI-02150 image sensor
Mobius Microsystems MM8511 spread-spectrum-clock IC
STMicroelectronics FC30 3-D orientation sensor
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Data Storage
Apricorn DriveWire universal hard-drive adapter
Intel X18-M and X25-M (MLC) and X25-E (SLC) SSDs
Micron Technology 1.8- and 2.5-in. SLC and MLC flash-memory-based SSDs
Samsung 256-GB, 2.5-in. MLC flash-memory-based SSD
Seagate Technology 1.5-TB, 3.5-in., 7,200-rpm HDD
Western Digital 10,000-rpm, 2.5- and 3.5-in. VelociRaptor HDDs
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Digital, Memory, and Programmable ICs
Achronix Semiconductor Speedster FPGAs
Actel RTAX FPGAs
Altera Stratix IV FPGAs
eASIC 45-nm structured ASICs
IDT VPP1600EMG DisplayPort receiver
Intel 80579 microcontroller family
Samsung 64-Gbit MLC NAND flash memory
SiliconBlue Low-power FPGA
Spansion-Virident Server-memory architecture
SPMT (Serial Port Memory Technology) Group Low-power serial-DRAM interface
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EDA
Cadence C-to-Silicon tool
Ciranova Helix
Infinisim RASER real-time adaptive simulation product
Magma Design Automation Hydra
Magma Design Automation Titan
Sequence Design PowerArtist
Synopsys Orion
Tela Innovations Fixed, preoptimized, lithography-clean topology
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Power
Advanced Analogic Technologies AAT1282 flash driver
Ericsson BMR453 series dc/dc converters
HVVi HVV1214-25 HVVFET (high-voltage-vertical-field-effect transistor)
International Rectifier IRS2530D and IRS2158D control ICs
JM Energy Lithium-ion capacitor
Linear Technology LT3755 LED controller
NVE IsoLoop IL500 series nonoptical digital isolators
Picor PI2121/3/5 Cool-ORing family
Power Integrations LinkSwitch-II ac/dc-power-conversion ICs
Summit Microelectronics SMM151 power-supervision IC
TDK-Lambda NV-Power power supplies
Texas Instruments bq24150 USB (Universal Serial Bus) switch-mode battery-charge-management IC
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Processors and Tools
Advanced Micro Devices Phenom triple- and quad-core CPUs
Advanced Micro Devices Radeon HD 3800 GPU series
Analog Devices ADSP-21469 SHARC DSP
Atmel XMEGA processor
Cypress Semiconductor PSOC (programmable-system-on-chip) CyFi
Freescale Semiconductor QorIQ processors
Intel Atom CPU
Intel Centrino 2 core-logic chip set
Intel 45-nm Nehalem CPU
Microchip Technology PIC USB microcontrollers
MIPS Technologies MIPS32 1004K multiprocessor system
Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 and 280 GPUs
Tensilica Trax-PC nonintrusive real-time-trace processor and tool enhancements
Texas Instruments OMAP35x processors
Via Technologies Nano CPU
Xelerated HX300 network-processor family
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Semiconductor Processes and Intellectual Property
Fujitsu eShuttle
Nextreme Thermal Solutions Active cooling technology
Sonics System interconnect
Samplify Systems Lossless data compression
Sun Microsystems OpenSPARC T1
TSMC 40-nm process
Virage Logic DDR3 DRAM interface
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Software
Google Chromium open-source Web browser
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Test and Measurement
Agilent Technologies VNA (nonlinear-vector-network-analyzer) capabilities for PNA-X microwave network analyzer
Keithley Instruments KTEI (Keithley Test Environment Interactive) version 7.1
LeCroy Voyager protocol analyzer for USB 3.0
National Instruments LabView 8.6
Tektronix SA2600 battery-operated, 6.2-GHz, real-time spectrum analyzer
Vitesse Semiconductor VScope technology for IC-signal access
By Staff -- EDN, 12/15/2008