TechInsights announces finalists for Insight Awards

OTTAWA, Ontario, April 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- TechInsights, the leader in technology and IP consulting, is pleased to announce the finalists for the Insight Awards.  "In our 25th year of business, we are proud to celebrate the 11th Annual Insight Awards, allowing us the opportunity to acknowledge major innovations in a few of the key technology areas that we support every day," said John Day, CEO.  The Insight Awards is one of the few industry-recognized programs that celebrates the performance and functional improvements in today's electronics.

Representing the latest innovations in semiconductor manufacturing, this year's nominated award categories include: Application Processors, Logic Processors and Memory, with the Most Innovative yet to be announced. "With a few notable exceptions, it was a fairly quiet year for new product introductions in logic and memory.  It was however a banner year for the introduction of new application processors," said Jason Abt, VP Technical Services.

In the Logic Processor category there were several notable achievements.  Intel impressively secured two out of three nominations. "Intel continues to lead the way, with FinFET implementations of both SoCs and eDRAM," elaborates Jason Abt, VP-Technical Services.  The nominees in the Logic Processor category are the:

• Oracle T5 16 core processor - Fabricated by TSMC, the Oracle T5 16 core processor shows an inspired layout, fitting on a massive 480 mm² die, could be the world's fastest microprocessor to date. The new chip features up to two times more cores than its predecessor.
• Intel 22 nm Valley View SoC – An Atom resurgence with far greater graphics, it features multiple versions of their exclusive Tri-gate transistors for low-voltage and high-voltage functions.
• Intel 22 nm eDRAM - Their GT3 integrated HD graphics device has embedded DRAM (eDRAM) integrated into their 22 nm Tri-Gate process. The Intel eDRAM is a significant industry milestone and boasts of Intel's return to DRAM production.

In the memory category, although a light year, we did see some note-worthy technologies.  The nominees are:

• Micron 16 nm flash - The advanced 16 nm node is not only the leading flash process, it also solidifies Micron's leadership position in storage technology development.  We expect Micron to continue with their very thin poly floating gates and complex (oxide/HfO2/nitride oxide) interpoly dielectrics in the NAND cell structure.
• Hynix 21 nm DRAM - Hynix has stepped up efforts to scale up production on the new 21 nanometer silicon fabrication process and may be an early entrant to the 2Y nm class DRAM. We expect to find a shrink to their stacked capacitors and tungsten buried word lines. 

One product that didn't necessarily fit into traditional product categories but is well-deserving of candidateship was LSI's SSD controller.  We found the design concept to be novel, scalable and forward-looking.

• LSI SF3700 SSD Controller - A complete architectural change from the previous SF2200 series, the SF3700 family has been designed to scale (by supported firmware features for differing application needs) from entry-level client to enterprise storage, consolidating LSI's elite position in the SSD controller market.

Architectural and process technical innovations deliver significant performance benefits in the Applications Processor category that may prove to be critical to market success.   A competitive category this year, TechInsights' short list of nominees for new Applications Processors are the:

• Apple A7 – Apple's design teams surprised the market by introducing the first-ever 64-bit architecture that could prove to be the key to achieving scalable performance as mobile applications become increasingly sophisticated.
• Intel Bay Trail - Historically challenged by relatively high power consumption vs. performance, the long-awaited introduction of Intel's mobile offering using its newest 22 nm SoC process has the potential to surmount the competition in this mobile space.
• Samsung Exynos 5 Octa - Raising the bar with parallel cores, Samsung introduced the 8-core applications processor.  As always, performance benchmarking needs to be taken in context, but without a doubt Samsung's 8-core architecture is a major leap over competitor's 4 and 5 core offerings.

In another notable year for the Insight awards; TechInsights would like to thank all design teams who submitted entries, and we look forward to announcing the overall winner.

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We possess the world's most comprehensive technical body of knowledge gained from a quarter century of reverse engineering excellence in semiconductors, electronics and software. Our experts in understanding and mapping technology to patents have helped clients, including over half of the top 50 US patent holders, get the most from their IP assets. TechInsights helps IP owners maximize the value of their patents through portfolio assessment, understanding cross-market applicability and advising on development, assertion and divestment strategies. If you need assistance in managing your most complex technology or IP challenges, turn to TechInsights for assured results.

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