Fabless Semiconductor Association (FSA - yes, such an organization actually exists) represents the voice of the global fabless companies (fabless means that the manufacturer does not possesses any factories and relies on other partners to produce its own chips), announced this year's winners for its Most Respected Private, Public, and Emerging Public Fabless Company Award. The 2006 FSA Awards Dinner Celebration was held Thursday, December 7, 2006 in Santa Clara, California. It seems that the prize goes to NVIDIA which keeps its winner position this year too although Sandisk and Altera were both favorites.

The industry's Most Respected Public Fabless Company award is quite an awkward thing. It does have something to do with the respect that a fabless manufacturer gains throughout the year but it seems that the "respect" term means something different than in the real world. In the IT business the word translates into which company has the biggest contract, which one is more successful and in some cases it can also relate to the biggest bang of the year. Fortunately, Nvidia had quite a hit with its 8800 series and that seems to have pushed it ahead in this "contest".

FSA was formed in 1994 and since then it had positive impacts the in growth of invested capital and logistics. The association provides a viable platform that is being used for global collaboration between fabless companies and their worldwide partners. FSA uses a system of on-line voting to choose the title currently held by Nvidia. I somehow can't help but wonder whether the voters really appreciated Nvidia or they simply voted with the "biggest" name.