National Semiconductor's Smart SerDes and SIMPLE SWITCHER Family Named Finalists in EDN Magazine's 18th Annual Innovation Awards

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Feb. 5  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- EDN Magazine selected two National Semiconductor entries from a field of hundreds as finalists for this year's EDN Innovation Awards.  Instituted in 1990, EDN's Innovation Awards honor the people, products and technologies that have shaped the semiconductor industry over the past year.

In the mixed-signal application-specific standard products (ASSPs) category, EDN chose National's serial digital interface (SDI) smart SerDes. The multi-rate 3 Gbps LMH0340 and LMH0341 are the industry's first discrete SDI serializer and deserializer to support the new Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) 424M specification.  They enable the broadcast equipment industry to develop systems that support transmission and processing of serial, uncompressed 1080p60 high-definition (HD) video.

The chipset's innovative architecture uses a proprietary technique to reduce the parallel bus between the serializer and field-programmable gate array (FPGA) from a 20-bit single-ended interface to a 5-bit low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS) interface. This breakthrough reduces electromagnetic interference (EMI) and simplifies board layout by reducing the number of traces between the serializer, deserializer and FPGA.  In addition, the LMH0340 and LMH0341 deliver industry-leading performance in jitter tolerance, jitter transfer, integration, flexibility and physical size.  For more information on National's smart SerDes, visit http://www.national.com/news/item/0,1735,1249,00.html.

National's LM5574/5/6 and LM25574/5/6 SIMPLE SWITCHER(R) buck regulators are finalists in the Power ICs category.  Combined with the WEBENCH(R) suite of tools, the products feature a unique combination of high performance, flexibility and ease-of-use for DC-DC power supply designs.  The six new SIMPLE SWITCHER regulators offer a maximum voltage input range from 6V to 75V at 3A and switching frequencies of up to 1 MHz.  A rich set of enhanced functionality includes adjustable soft-start, synchronization and internal slope compensation.  Also included is guaranteed robust performance with cycle-by-cycle current limit, short-circuit protection, and thermal and remote shutdown.  The combination of wide input range, enhanced functionality and robust design enable these SIMPLE SWITCHER regulators to be designed into a wide variety of systems.  For more information on National's SIMPLE SWITCHER regulators, visit http://www.national.com/news/item/0,1735,1227,00.html.

Selection Criteria

Nominees for the Innovations of the Year category must demonstrate innovation that resulted in a significant advance in technology or product development and have shipped in volume in the 2007 calendar year.

In the next few weeks, EDN's worldwide audience of electronics engineers and engineering managers will use an online ballot to select the ultimate winners from among these finalists.  The deadline for voting is February 29. To review each of the nominees and vote, visit http://www.edn.com/innovation18. Winners will be announced at a dinner and awards ceremony on April 14, 2008, in San Jose, Calif.

About EDN and EDN.com

EDN serves the vital information needs of design engineers and engineering managers worldwide.  EDN.com delivers a three-dimensional view of the electronics industry via news coverage, strategic business information, and in-depth technical content. (http://www.edn.com/). EDN is published by Reed Business Information (http://www.reedbusiness.com/us), the largest business-to-business publisher in the U.S. and a member of the Reed Elsevier Group plc (NYSE:RUKNYSE:andNYSE:ENL) -- a world-leading publisher and information provider.

About National Semiconductor

National Semiconductor, the industry's premier analog company, creates high-value analog devices and subsystems.  National's leading-edge products include power management circuits, display drivers, audio and operational amplifiers, interface products and data conversion solutions.  National's key analog markets include wireless handsets, displays, communications infrastructure, medical, automotive, industrial, and test and measurement applications.  Headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., National reported sales of $1.93 billion for fiscal 2007, which ended May 27, 2007. Additional company and product information is available at http://www.national.com/.

SIMPLE SWITCHER and WEBENCH are registered trademarks of National Semiconductor Corporation.  All other brands or product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

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