Sun Microsystems Wins Top Technology Innovation Award 2006 For DTrace Software

The DTrace trouble-shooting software from Sun Microsystems was chosen as the Gold winner in The Wall Street Journal’s 2006 Technology Innovation Awards contest, the second time in three years that a Sun entry has won the top award. Bryan Cantrill and a team of engineers at Sun Microsystems Inc. created DTrace which allows you to rapidly diagnose problems in live applications.

For the awards, now in their sixth year, the panel of judges, representing industry as well as research and academic institutions, considered novel technologies from around the world in several categories: medicine and medical devices, wireless, security, consumer electronics, semiconductors and others.

A Wall Street Journal editor initially screened more than 600 applications. The judges then considered 121 of the entries, selecting 12 category winners and 37 runners-up. Among the category winners are the top three award winners. In selecting winners, judges considered whether the technology truly represents a breakthrough from conventional methods, rather than just an incremental improvement.

The Silver award went to HelioVolt Corp., of Austin, Texas, which has come up with a way to make lightweight solar-energy panels that are powered by an alternative to the more common silicon solar material and that can be applied to glass or other building materials.

Pfizer Inc. of New York and Nektar Therapeutics, of San Carlos, Calif., won the Bronze award for their development of a powdered, inhalable insulin designed to replace shots for the treatment of diabetes. Link

It is a crowning achievement of Sun Microsystems to bag the top honors in this exceptionally tough competition. Sun has also done exceptionally well in this quarter and appears to be flourishing under Jonathan Schwartz. Is this the beginning of yet another sunshine?