Venture Development Corporation (VDC) has announced its annual Platinum and Gold vendor rankings for the categories of Single Board Computers (SBCs) and Embedded Motherboards. The awards are part of VDC's annual market research on off-the-shelf computer boards for embedded and real-time applications.

And the winners are . . .

Single Board Computer category awards . . .

• Platinum Vendors

  • Force Computers, Inc.
    
  • Kontron AG
    
  • Motorola Computer Group
    
  • VMIC

• Gold Vendors

  • Advantech
    
  • Intel EID
    
  • Performance Technologies
    
  • RadiSys Corporation
    
  • SBS Technologies
    
  • Synergy Microsystems
    
  • Thales Computers
    
  • Themis Computers

Embedded Motherboard category awards . . .

• Platinum Vendors

  • Force Computers, Inc.
    
  • Motorola Computer Group
    
  • VersaLogic Corporation

• Gold Vendors

  • Advantech
    
  • American Predator Corporation
    
  • Ampro Computers
    
  • Intel EID
    
  • Kontron AG
    
  • RadiSys Corporation
    
  • Thales Computers
    
  • WinSystems, Inc.

Rating methodology

According to VDC, the ratings are derived through an impartial model, developed by VDC, which takes into account such factors as breadth of product line, on-line resources, trade association membership, ISO certification, and user perceptions. Users were first asked, via an on-line survey, to identify those non-product criteria that they considered most important in evaluating a vendor. These criteria included elements such as availability and delivery, price, and a variety of service and support factors. They were then asked to name up to five vendors from whom they had purchased SBCs or Embedded Motherboards, and to rate each of these vendors on the same non-product criteria, on a scale of one to four. This data was then aggregated and appropriately weighted to reflect the relative importance of the various criteria, and combined with other data indicated above. Platinum status was awarded to the 5% of VDC-identified vendors in each category achieving the highest numerical value from the execution of the model. Gold status was awarded to the next 10% of these vendors. The model was adjusted and executed separately for each category.

“Because the model was heavily weighted toward user perception of non-product vendor selection criteria, those achieving platinum or gold status may feel comfortable that their firms are highly regarded in these respects by their customers,” noted Eric Gulliksen, Practice Director of VDC's Embedded Hardware Research Group. “Other vendors may wish to pay more attention to these factors,” he suggested.

The Platinum and Gold vendor awards are part of VDC's year-long study, “Year 2002-2003 Planning Service on Computers in Embedded and Real-Time Applications,” which includes the following reports: Volume I: Embedded CPU Boards; Volume II: Next-Generation Platforms; Volume III: Utility and I/O Cards; Volume IV: Mezzanine Cards; Volume V: PC/104, PC/104-Plus Cards; Volume VI: Embedded CPUs and Chipsets; Volume VII: Global Embedded Market Overview and Outlook.

 
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