The EE Times List of 60 Emerging Startups, first published in April 2004, has been updated to version 9.0, highlighting the hottest new companies and technologies.

Seventeen companies have been added to the list, replacing 17 companies that either fell by the wayside or matured gracefully to bigger and better things. Forty-three companies survived as emerging companies that are still worth watching.

The Silicon 60, now in its fifth year, highlights some of the most important startups involved in semiconductor technologies for analog circuits, memory, logic, power, MEMS, optoelectronics, EDA software, foundry manufacturing, semiconductor production equipment, electronic subsystems, packaging and materials.

The latest version focuses on EDA synthesis, analog and RF in CMOS and LTE wireless technologies. The humble microcontroller is represented as well as network processing and exotic memory technology. Organic and printed electronics companies make their way into the Silicon 60 as do proponents of novel display technology, embedded software and asynchronous and configurable logic.

It is a truism of market research that predicting the future is easy, but getting the timing right is difficult. For many of the entrepreneurs behind the Silicon 60 emerging startups, that is the challenge.

They are convinced their technology will be make it to market some day, and they have convinced their financial backers that it will be soon. Management guru Peter F. Drucker has said the best way to predict future is to make it happen, and EE Times salutes the member companies of the Silicon 60 who are attempting to do just that.

To find out which companies made the latest Silicon 60 list, click here.