The three design teams along with teams from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Tufts University go through to the second phase of the competition where the cash awards total $50,000 and will be presented in September 2006. The ultimate winner of the SoC Design Contest will have an opportunity to see its design fabricated in silicon using an advanced manufacturing process at a Mosis production facility.

The first phase winning design could increase the portability and lower the cost of medical ultrasound equipment, according to SRC, although no mention was made of whether there are plans to realize the design. The SoC Design Challenge is sponsored by SRC and the SIA together with Advanced Micro Devices, AMI Semiconductor, Analog Devices, Cadence Systems, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Intel, MOSIS, National Semiconductor and Texas Instruments.

"This contest, focused on integrated circuit System-on-a-Chip design, challenges engineering students across the country to create innovative designs while working on all aspects of the extremely complex chip and design and manufacturing process," said Larry Sumney, president and chief executive officer of SRC (Research Triangle, North Carolina), in a statement. "The winning teams, selected by industry judges, have demonstrated the capability to meet and overcome the most difficult aspects of today's SoC design environment. This unique contest gives young engineers an opportunity to compete to see their creative designs turned into working devices," he added.

The Phase One winning University of Virginia team is led by Professor Mircea Stan. Its entry, "An SRAD Image Processor as a Reconfigurable, Temperature-Aware SoC Designed for Low-Power Operation," was designed for portable, low-power ultrasound systems. The design uses an efficient algorithm to increase signal-to-noise performance.

The second-place team from Harvard University is led by Professor Gu-Yeon Wei. The Harvard entry, "Design and Implementation of an Ultra-Low Power Event Driven System Architecture for Sensor Network Applications" was designed for extreme energy efficiency in remote sensor applications.

The third-place team from Michigan State University is led by Professor Peixin Zhong. Its entry, "Adaptive Sensor Network Platform Chip," creates a platform with a flexible sensor interface suitable for scanning an array of inputs of different types for a broad range of applications. Designs from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville team led by Professor Don Bouldin and the Tufts University team led by Professor Sameer Sonkusale are also eligible for the Phase Two competition.