The International Engineering Consortium (IEC) has announced the finalists of its 2010 DesignVision Awards program naming the design tools and products judged as the most unique and beneficial to the semiconductor industry.

The finalists were selected by the DesignCon 2010 Technical Program Committee, consisting of industry experts in the semiconductor and electronic design engineering community. The IEC will announce winners on Tuesday, February 2 at 11:50 a.m. in the Main Theater.

"We are very proud to honor the work of individuals and companies who have shown outstanding commitment to advancing the electronic design and semiconductor industry with the DesignVision Awards," stated IEC President, John R. Janowiak. "We also thank the members of the Technical Program Committee for judging the exceptional submissions received this year."

The 2010 award finalists include the following companies and products in each of the eight categories respectively:

IC Design Tools

Cadence Design Systems for the Encounter Digital Implementation System;
Altera Corporation for the Quartus II Software version 9.1; and
Xilinx for the Xilinx ISE Design Suite 11.

Design Verification Tools

Agilent Technologies for the ADS DDR3 Compliance Design Kit;
DFT Microsystems for the DV1600 SerDes Validation Tester; and
Synopsys for the VCS 2009.09.

Interconnect Technologies and Components

Samtec for BullsEye;
Molex Incorporated for the EdgeLine CoEdge Connector; and
FCI for the High Performance High Density TwinMezz.

PCB Design Tools and Technologies

Altium Limited for the Altium Designer;
Rogers Corporation for the RO4000 LoPro Series Laminate;
Simberian Inc. for the Simbeor 2008.01; and
Semiconductor Components and ICs.

PMC-Sierra for the HyPHY 10G & 20G;
Maxim Integrated Products for the MAX2078; and
SiBEAM for SiBEAM's Second-Generation SB9220/SB9.

Semiconductor IP

Cadence Design Systems for the Chipestimate.com Semiconductor IP Customer Testimonials;
Coreworks for the CWda60 - Sideworks Dolby Digital Professional Encoder IP; and
Rambus for the Rambus and Kingston Threaded Module.