Not many news have made it to the surface after NVIDIA's big success with the G80 series of video cards, nothing tangible I mean. There has been a lot of information regarding their 8600 series, and Shamino from VR-Zone.com has overclocked the core of an 8600GTS to more than 1GHz on air-cooling alone, even though the card is still under a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). But other than that, it's been common knowledge of the company's whereabouts and future plans, and we're all just waiting for the actual products to become available on the market an test them rather than just getting to know more and more details about them.

So, part of this ongoing cram session for an exam, I didn't know we needed preparing for, in which we learn all about the company and their most private secrets, is the news that NVIDIA got a brand new shiny award from EE Times. The EE Times Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Award for Company of the Year - Large was offered in recognition of "a company with more than $750 million in sales that exhibits the highest degree of professionalism, staff development and retention, customer focus, technical excellence, and profitability."

Brian Fuller, editor in chief of EE Times said: "NVIDIA is an innovation leader in creating industry-changing products for computing and consumer electronics. The company invented the GPU, or graphics processing unit, which today is used for a range of applications, from cell phones to high-performance computing. We are pleased to bestow this high honor on a company that pushes the boundaries of technology and imagination."

Chris Malachowsky, NVIDIA co-founder and senior vice president of engineering and operations replied: "We are very honored by this award, which salutes NVIDIA's passion for innovation, execution, and leadership. NVIDIA has some of the most talented engineers in the semiconductor industry and this award recognizes their commitment to building a great company that is making a difference in the world."