TI took the top honor, best brand of the year, beating out finalists Analog Devices, Freescale Semiconductor, ON Semiconductor and Xilinx at the event, hosted by EE Times China, sister publication of EE Times.

"This is big honor for TI in a very important market," said Jeff Smith, TI's marketing director for China. "It reflects the dedication of our growing workforce here."

Apexone, a five-year-old fabless startup making mixed-signal devices, beat out Analogix Semiconductor, Montage Technology, Shanghai Jade Technologies and Teralane Semiconductor in the newcomer category.

Accepting the award was Apexone chief operating office Ben Lee, a former China-based executive with Altera Corp. "We're thrilled to be honored by EE Times China," Lee said.

NXP Semiconductors was honored for outstanding service for the year in the region.

Other winners recognized during the two-hour dinner ceremony at the Marco Polo Hotel included:

A/D and D/A converters: Analog Devices (AD7980) and Texas instruments (ADS1232);

Amplifiers: ADI (AD8250) and National Semiconductor (LM4562);

Interface ICs: Analogix Semiconductor (ANX9021/ANX9011) and National Semiconductor (SCAN25100);

Logic and programmable logic: Altera (Stratix II GX FPGAs) and Xilinx (Virtex-5 65nm FPGA);

Microcontrollers: Freescale Semiconductor (MC9RS08KA) and TI (MSP430F20xx);

Memory: Cypress Semiconductor (nvSRAM) and Freescale Semiconductor (MRAM);

Power: Linear Technology (LTM4600) and ON Semiconductor (NCP1337);

Processors and DSPs: ADI (SoftFone-LCR chip set) and TI (TMS320DM644x);

RF and microwave: Freescale (RFX300-20) and RDA Microelectronics (TD-SCDMA/GSM/GPRS RF IC);

Test and measurement: Agilent Technologies (16800 series portable logic analyzers) and National Instruments (LabView 8.20).

Complete listings of the 36 finalists and winners can be found at www.eetchina.com.