ken@turtlevax.UUCP (Ken Turkowski) (07/18/85)
Are there any parts that you've seen in IC manufacturers data books or
spec sheets that are real hot, but not out yet? How about IC
architectures that you've never seen, but you believe to have an
astounding impact on designers everywhere?
One of my favorites is the 74F779 (and related 74F579), single-port
8-bit bidirectional binary counter (with tri-state, but you knew that
because it is single-port) in a 16-pin package! 4.5 ns propagation
time, 80 MHz minimax clock frequency! Can you see me drooling?
Could you imagine using the same architecture, but making it a 16-bit
counter in a skinny 24-pin package? Gadzooks! Seven packages, (4
counters, 2 tranceivers and a dual 2-to-4 decoder) and you'd have a
file of 4 autoincrementing memory address registers. Leapin' 'lectrons!
--
Ken Turkowski @ CADLINC, Menlo Park, CA
UUCP: {amd,decwrl,hplabs,nsc,seismo,spar}!turtlevax!ken
ARPA: turtlevax!ken@DECWRL.ARPAbill@persci.UUCP (07/19/85)
>Are there any parts that you've seen in IC manufacturers data books or >spec sheets that are real hot, but not out yet? Yeah. And some not-so-astounding ICs, too! I got badly burned by TI about 3 years back. I needed an RS-422 (differential) transceiver for a *cheap* (hardware < $20) local-area network interface I was designing for a little microcomputer company, and found a marvelous 8-pin DIP transceiver from TI that fit the bill perfectly. It was even in a three-year old catalog and *not* labeled "preliminary", with a complete set of specs. The quotes from TI?/the distributor? were low, so I designed it in. (..time passes..) Time to buy some parts. The distributor can't get them (fast enough, they say), so we call the factory. Many (transferred) phone calls later, we get a marketeer who says that they have shut down the line right now, but will start it up again in a few months. (..more digging..) We finally get a high mucky-muck in TI, who says he knows where some parts are, and will send them to us so we can get our prototype networks running. The parts arrive, 10 of them, labeled "1", "2",...,"10". Very curious. We call TI. It turns out that they scrounged through their engineers' desks to send the entire world's supply of this part, the only 10 ever made! Remember, this was a three-year old data catalog (we found the part in their latest book, too!), not marked "preliminary", and with complete specs!! We quickly changed the design to use two 14-pin DIP driver/receivers, available from several sources!! There's a lesson or two in here, somewhere.. -- Bill Swan {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,...}!uw-beaver!tikal!persci!bill
phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) (07/22/85)
In article <245@persci.UUCP> bill@persci.UUCP (Bill Swan) writes: >Yeah. And some not-so-astounding ICs, too! I got badly burned by TI about 3 >years back. I needed an RS-422 (differential) transceiver for a *cheap* >(hardware < $20) local-area network interface I was designing for a little >microcomputer company, and found a marvelous 8-pin DIP transceiver from TI The Am26LS31 and Am26LS32 are real devices and should do the job for you. --