[HN Gopher] Chipmaker Analog Devices to acquire Maxim Integrated...
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Chipmaker Analog Devices to acquire Maxim Integrated for $21B
Author : gkolli
Score : 181 points
Date : 2020-07-13 15:55 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.reuters.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.reuters.com)
| sleavey wrote:
| Part of my job (scientific researcher) involves designing high
| bandwidth circuits with analog electronics (op-amps, transistors,
| LCR filters, etc.). I really enjoy this part but it's not really
| my core responsibility. Thinking of potential (long in the
| future) career changes, does anyone know if this sort of stuff is
| still done commercially in more than just a few niche fields? Or
| is it all FPGAs/ASICs these days? And are there any tech
| companies employing people to mix this sort of thing with
| software and firmware development too? A sort of "full stack"
| developer where the stack also includes the hardware side.
| pjc50 wrote:
| It's definitely done commercially. It's "niche", in the sense
| that you'll have to go where the jobs are, but those niches can
| be huge. Audio, power, and RF electronics all need analog
| design.
| jpm_sd wrote:
| Look into software-defined radio. An opportunity for you to
| learn something about FPGAs and ASICs, but good analog design
| skills are vitally important to make it all work in the end!
| topspin wrote:
| AD got Linear and Hittite. Now Maxim.
|
| Who does that leave for high performance ADC/DACs? Texas
| Instruments. Microchip has a limited selection. That's about it.
|
| Lovely.
| neilmovva wrote:
| Latest in a trend of silicon industry consolidation. A few other
| major moves in the embedded market over the last five years:
|
| NXP + Freescale in 2015
|
| Microchip + Atmel in 2016
|
| ON Semi + Fairchild in 2016
|
| Infineon + Cypress in 2020
| nudgeee wrote:
| Also Intel + Altera in 2015
| deelowe wrote:
| I was going to point this one out. Pretty huge.
| halo wrote:
| Couldn't you say the same for most industries?
| ohazi wrote:
| It's interesting to note that none of the merged companies are
| fabless.
|
| Analog and low-to-mid complexity digital designs don't usually
| use the smallest, newest, most expensive silicon processes that
| you need for processors, GPUs, and FPGAs. You generally need
| capacitors, precision resistors, and wider voltage ranges more
| than you do billions of transistors.
|
| Maybe now that these older fabs are being forced to run as
| actual businesses rather than as bleeding-edge science
| projects, semiconductor design companies are able to bring them
| back into the fold to avoid dealing with the headaches of being
| fabless.
|
| It's too bad though, because this adds a huge capital cost to
| what would otherwise be a really ripe opportunity for a new
| competitor. This consolidation has definitely brought higher
| prices and reduced the diversity of available parts.
|
| The unit economics of analog ICs should be very good -- a
| product that needs 1/100th the silicon surface area and sells
| for 1/10th the price, using a much cheaper node than a modern
| digital IC. There should be plenty of room for a company to
| compete with Analog Devices on price while still making a
| killing.
| panabee wrote:
| could you kindly elaborate on some of the headaches of being
| fabless?
| ohazi wrote:
| The design cycle time is longer. Every prototype requires a
| formal agreement with one of the fabs you work with, and
| usually involves a few million dollars changing hands. A
| few months is usually the minimum.
|
| Even if it's expensive, owning a fab means you have the
| _option_ to make prototypes of a design, or of parts of a
| design. You will never, ever do this if you 're fabless.
|
| We're good at simulating digital logic, but simulating
| analog designs is more difficult, and each process tends to
| have unique quirks. You want your designers to be familiar
| with these quirks, which is easier to do when everybody
| designing and using a process is under the same roof.
|
| If you're making a chip that has exotic needs (voltage
| ranges, threshold voltages, RF performance, noise, thermal
| properties, bipolar + cmos, etc.) you will have more
| ability to tweak the process. Foundry type fabs typically
| offer a smaller "menu" of options that they're comfortable
| they can support. For example, I think you might have a
| hard time competing with some of AD's more expensive ADCs
| as a fabless semiconductor company.
|
| Don't get me wrong... there are plenty of headaches to
| owning and operating a fab too.
| formerly_proven wrote:
| Can't say I like the prospects of all these companies
| consolidating and throwing out "redundant parts".
| segfaultbuserr wrote:
| +1. This can be terrible. When Avago acquired Broadcom (and
| kept Broadcom's name), initially they continued selling
| existing components for a while, then suddenly discontinued
| hundreds of discrete RF/microwave parts (some were inherited
| from Agilent and even Hewlett-Packard's days) because they
| are "legacy parts". No! It was a huge pain. Many of those,
| despite their old age, are still good and useful, it's just
| because the demand and profit from discrete parts are low,
| and the new management decided it's not worth keeping them.
|
| On the other hand, after Analog purchased Linear, many of the
| high-performance Linear parts are still sold side-by-side
| with competing Analog parts today, Analog even created a
| "Powered by Linear" product line for selling Linear power
| converter chips. It was a wise decision, apparently the
| management knew those parts from Linear are of great value. I
| hope Analog will adopt a similar solution for these Maxim
| parts.
| madengr wrote:
| Yeah, I was using a 30 dBm, L-band part that they
| discontinued, and had to redesign a PA section. Didn't HP
| acquire Avantek back in the 90's? I used to use a bunch of
| ATF-xxx parts.
| markrages wrote:
| In this same market: Analog bought Linear Tech, TI bought
| National.
| andromeduck wrote:
| I'm waiting for them to buy Vicor
| tyingq wrote:
| Intel + Altera 2015
|
| And, not in your scope, but AMD acquires ATI, 2006, still has
| some echos.
| borner791 wrote:
| Dont forget Avago and Broadcom
| repiret wrote:
| And LSI => Avago before that. And PLX => Broadcom.
| segfaultbuserr wrote:
| The early age of the semiconductor industry was definitely much
| more interesting than today's world of oligopolies and company
| consolidation. It's quite disappointing to see the big names in
| the industry have all vanished.
|
| * Motorola => Freescale & ON Semiconductor
|
| * Fairchild Semiconductor => ON Semiconductor
|
| * Dallas Semiconductor => Maxim
|
| * Signetics => Philips Semiconductors => NXP
|
| * Freescale => NXP
|
| * National Semiconductor => Texas Instruments
|
| * Linear Technology => Analog Devices
|
| * Atheros => Qualcomm
|
| * Intersil => Renesas
|
| * Atmel => Microchip
| amelius wrote:
| > today's world of oligopolies and company consolidation
|
| How long until we have to sign a license agreement before we
| can use an OpAmp? Oh, and the license is only valid for
| consumer applications. Want to use the OpAmp for enterprise
| applications? That'll cost you more.
|
| That's if we're lucky. In a darker scenario, all OpAmp
| designs have been bought by Apple, and you can't even use one
| if you opened your iPhone because the function has been
| integrated into the CPU.
| segfaultbuserr wrote:
| Fortunately so far we don't need to sign a license
| agreement to use an Intel CPU, yet. OpAmp EULA doesn't look
| like something currently on the horizon. But if an EULAed
| CPU ever became true, so will an EULAed OpAmp...
|
| > _In a darker scenario, all OpAmp designs have been bought
| by Apple, and you can 't even use one if you opened your
| iPhone because the function has been integrated into the
| CPU._
|
| Scary, because many microcontrollers already have OpAmps
| built into them...
| jononor wrote:
| Gonna be left with just 2-3 major players soon...
| rmrfstar wrote:
| What are the good reports/journals to read if you want to learn
| more about the competitive landscape here?
| nudgeee wrote:
| eetimes.com[0] is usually a decent place for general
| electronic industry news.
|
| Tip: scroll down to pass the sponsored content to see the
| full news section below the fold.
|
| [0] https://eetimes.com/
| markrages wrote:
| Does this mean that Maxim will finally have reasonable lead times
| and availability?
|
| If so, that's a pretty big change to the industry.
| jeffbee wrote:
| If you'd told me in, say, 2005 that old-line semiconductor
| businesses like TI and ADI would be trading at all-time highs in
| 2020, I would have said you were nuts.
| ThePhysicist wrote:
| It seems ADI still hasn't surpassed its all-time high of 108 $
| (which it reached in 2000), though it's awfully close. Then
| again if we add the inflation we are still nowhere close the
| earlier valuation.
| jeffbee wrote:
| It closed at $124.50 last week.
| guenthert wrote:
| Do we actually know where we're at in terms of inflation
| after the $2T were pumped into a lame economy earlier this
| year?
| dragontamer wrote:
| Someone's gotta make IGBTs to support all those fancy new
| electric stuff, be it batteries, cars, transformers, etc. etc.
| IGBTs have had incredible process gains, leading to improved
| efficiencies (and therefore: less waste heat / waste power) in
| many applications.
|
| The march of progress continues forward. Its not computer tech
| per se... but power-tech and analog-tech is incredibly
| important still.
|
| I'd argue that without modern IGBTs, it'd be impossible to make
| an electric car today. Its probably one of the most major
| sources of efficiency in the modern electric vehicle. The
| power-switch that controls "on" vs "off" needs to be incredibly
| efficient when you're shoving 200+ kW of energy through it!!
|
| Case in point: lets say 200kW of power is being used by the
| motor at 375V. That's 500+ Amps of current. A resistance of 0.1
| Ohms would waste 25,000 Watts of energy (power == current^2 *
| resistance)... in the switch / transistor itself before the
| motors even got the energy.
| hwillis wrote:
| > I'd argue that without modern IGBTs, it'd be impossible to
| make an electric car today.
|
| Er, everybody switched to SiC MOSFETs, so... definitely not.
|
| > The power-switch that controls "on" vs "off" needs to be
| incredibly efficient when you're shoving 200+ kW of energy
| through it!!
|
| Even before SiC became economical, FETs were edging out IGBTs
| in most applications. The voltage drop across IGBTs is just
| too high.
|
| In fact SiCs have _worse_ on /off efficiency, but are still
| preferred because they can switch more quickly and in the end
| that makes them more efficient, overall.
|
| > Its probably one of the most major sources of efficiency in
| the modern electric vehicle.
|
| I would give that to the battery or the motors before the
| controller. Controller have been >97% efficient for ages and
| ages, but motors are another thing entirely and better
| computers, salient rotors and permanent magnets, and better
| characterization have led to bigger gains than the switching
| elements have seen.
|
| Neither hold a candle to batteries though. The resistance of
| switches is <10 milliohms, and motor resistance isn't much
| higher. The resistance of a 400 volt, 250 Ah NiMH battery is
| around 180 milliohms. The same battery built with venerable
| NCR18650Bs (original model S) is 68 milliohms. That's a full
| 7x improvement, or an 86% reduction in loss, and by far the
| biggest inefficiency besides aerodynamics and rolling
| friction.
| jeffbee wrote:
| My bull case on CREE was their silicon-carbide rectifier tech
| was important for power supplies, but I can tell you without
| even glancing at the chart that CREE is not trading at an
| all-time high :=)
|
| I always thought of ADI as a company with ASICs like PLLs and
| MEMS and whatever. Are IGBT drivers an important line of
| business for them (I don't follow the company closely).
|
| If you look at another company that makes a shitload of power
| semiconductors, like Infineon, they are struggling.
| dragontamer wrote:
| > I always thought of ADI as a company with ASICs like PLLs
| and MEMS and whatever. Are IGBT drivers an important line
| of business for them (I don't follow the company closely).
|
| IGBTs were more of a TI-comment. I see TI as more of the
| power-company.
|
| I like talking about IGBTs because its superficially a
| simple subject. It just a switch: power turns on, power
| turns off. But when you really consider the shear level of
| efficiency being developed today, its mind-boggling.
|
| -----------
|
| You're right that I don't see ADI as an IGBT (or similar)
| company. But I just sorta went on a tangent, hooking into
| your TI-comment more so than ADI.
| NovemberWhiskey wrote:
| I think it's AD/DA conversion product lines that are really
| driving profitability - and I suspect mainly the RF stuff.
| hristov wrote:
| You should look again. CREE is very near all time highs
| actually (especially if you ignore the 2000 bubble).
|
| CREE is a large but shrinking LED business tied to a small
| but growing SiC business. At some point the SiC part will
| overshadow the LED part and CREE will be seen as a growing
| successful tech company again.
| phkahler wrote:
| The power-switch that controls "on" vs "off" needs to be
| incredibly efficient when you're shoving 200+ kW of energy
| through it!!
|
| Yeah, when I was working in EVs everything was about reducing
| losses. Not just for efficiency but because a few percent
| loss is a LOT of heat.
|
| I ran an inverter at 200kW that was not rated for that. The
| weak point was actually the DC connector. I didn't find that
| out the hard way, just looked it up as I was closing in on
| 600 Amps DC.
|
| BTW I just needed to find 2 values empirically and was unable
| to because of that DC current. Strange enough I figured
| running at a lower voltage would reduce max power and I could
| get my values. Unfortunately half the voltage is half the
| power but still the same current. Higher speed had similar
| issues. Project got cancelled before I found that motors
| limits.
| dragontamer wrote:
| I've actually liked Analog Device's documentation as a hobbyist.
| Their chips are a bit of a premium compared to others, but Analog
| Devices often have LTSpice and PSpice models that I can play with
| in a simulator before buying.
|
| I guess Analog Devices makes LTSpice, so it makes sense that
| they'd be all in for that kind of support.
| phendrenad2 wrote:
| As a hobbyist, I'm blown away by datasheets in general. Can you
| imagine if the software world woke up and hired a few technical
| writers from the Electrical Engineering world to document our
| APIs and other various systems?
| pjc50 wrote:
| Software has long tried to copy the EE model of selling
| "components", but the market has never really worked - most
| libraries are either written on zero budget by volunteers, or
| are forced on you by the platform.
| ISL wrote:
| AD is my benchmark for datasheets.
| hatsunearu wrote:
| I personally like TIs datasheets the best. They always have
| the same layout and has the right amount of detail.
| madengr wrote:
| It used to be my benchmark for data sheets, but it has gone
| downhill. An example is the datasheet for the HMC6300, which
| has some wrong register values, and other errors. Of course
| that's Hittite pedigree. The ADI website still sucks; I wish
| they would have kept LTI or Hittites. Obvious the web
| designers are not EE.
| mercurywells wrote:
| Linear Technologies makes LTSpice - Analog bought Linear in
| 2016.
| segfaultbuserr wrote:
| While Analog Device's datasheets are surely good, on the other
| hand, many of Analog's excellent datasheets are inherited from
| Linear Technology, which was also known for its excellent
| documentation. Linear's engineer Jim Williams had a huge
| reputation of writing the best datasheets and application notes
| in the industry, see [0].
|
| [0] http://web.mit.edu/klund/www/jw/jwbib.pdf
| jeffbee wrote:
| "Analog Dialogue" contains an approximation of all human
| knowledge. Download the archives today.
| _Microft wrote:
| Thanks for pointing this publication out, looks pretty
| interesting!
|
| https://www.analog.com/en/analog-dialogue/archives.html
| mindentropy wrote:
| You would also love Xilinx Xcell journal.
|
| https://www.xilinx.com/about/xcell-publications/xcell-
| journa...
| dantle wrote:
| Here's a trivial python script to download them, for the lazy
| among us.
|
| https://gist.github.com/dantler/f26d75f1051db13649aaedf73f7d.
| ..
| x87678r wrote:
| It was 30 years ago but I still get nice warm memories from AD
| documentation.
| russh wrote:
| My dad would occasionally bring home an AD databook from
| work. I read through them like my friends read through HotRod
| magazine.
| rathel wrote:
| A bit of a premium? I'd say their prices are an insult to their
| customers. It's not even new chips where you'd expect this as
| they need to recoup NRE. Oh no, they price gouge on designs
| that are decades old.
|
| Avoid them at all cost.
| dragontamer wrote:
| AD's opamps are like $5 instead of $2.
|
| Since my home electronics projects are one-off things... the
| 250% increase for better documentation and better LTSpice
| models is well worth the $3 cost increase.
| xondono wrote:
| They're expensive until your application require that level
| of performance.
|
| The idea that prices should depend in any way of costs is
| ridiculous.
| syedkarim wrote:
| Yes, they are expensive, but their products are generally of
| really high performance. In some cases, there are no actual
| competitors. Just take a look at the AD936x-class of RF ICs.
| What is the alternative to a part like that?
|
| ADI's documentation--relative to many chip makers--is
| outstanding. They have EVBs for almost all of their parts,
| open source hardware designs as well as firmware--and support
| that does not require you to tell them you'll order 100,000
| pieces next year.
|
| I wish as much as anyone else that they sold their products
| for less, but the market clearly supports their existing
| prices.
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| Yeah, AD (and LTC, before AD bought them) had the best
| documentation. And for low volume hobby production the
| added BOM cost isn't a big deal, it's definitely worth the
| time saved in reverse-engineering the part due to
| incomplete documentation. Due to that it sometimes even
| saves money, since you're less likely to destroy the part
| when trying to figure out how to use it.
| ohazi wrote:
| They really are.
|
| $5 for a $2 op-amp or a regulator is one thing, but when you
| need something slightly special, it goes to $10 or $20, just
| because TI doesn't have a comparable part. If you need more
| than a handful in your design, you're screwed.
|
| Yeah, their parts generally are very good, but the industry
| isn't healthy if they're the only company with good designs.
|
| All this consolidation has left a lot of room for a good
| competitor. We're not seeing one here in the US, because
| students today think analog stuff is terrifying black magic
| and avoid it like the plague, but I'm a little surprised we
| haven't seen any serious competitors out of China, since
| analog designs don't usually need the crazy expensive silicon
| processes that digital designs do.
|
| Also, for the same $20, would you rather sell a 0.5 cm^2
| microprocessor at 45 nm, or a 0.1 cm^2 analog to digital
| converter at 130 nm? Analog ICs _should_ be a really good
| business.
| phkahler wrote:
| >> Yeah, their parts generally are very good, but the
| industry isn't healthy if they're the only company with
| good designs.
|
| >> All this consolidation has left a lot of room for a good
| competitor.
|
| Which will come from Asia. US companies seem to avoid
| competition as much as possible. The rather obvious outcome
| of that is they end up uncompetitive. The thing is, new
| stuff has to be developed while you are still profitable,
| not after someone is winning away your business.
| krapht wrote:
| Students don't avoid it because analog is black magic, they
| avoid it because there's only a handful of places you can
| work at with that skill set.
|
| In the United States, today, an RF design engineer's job
| prospects are mostly limited to military contractors.
| cpach wrote:
| Are there good and cheap alternatives? (Asking out of
| curiosity, I know almost nothing about this kind of
| hardware.)
| dragontamer wrote:
| Chip costs are pretty low, all else considered. Yeah, AD is
| more expensive but I spend way less time reading
| documentation.
|
| If you're a hobbyist like me, you don't really care about
| spending $5 on a chip instead of $2 on a chip... especially
| when you're paying multiples of that for the PCB and other
| parts of the equation.
| joezydeco wrote:
| I'm working on a pretty expensive piece of measurement
| equipment and the $12 AD7193 I'm using seems expensive
| until you see how crazy accurate this thing is. It's
| worth every penny.
| flywheel wrote:
| Hobbyists don't make up even a tiny sliver of their
| revenue. And if you're a hobbyist and paying any money at
| all for Analog Devices (or other semiconductor
| manufacturer's parts) then you're kinda doing it wrong -
| most of them have free samples:
|
| https://www.analog.com/en/support/customer-service-
| resources...
| jeffbee wrote:
| Part of the fun of hobby building is you can design your
| stuff any way you want. Maybe nobody will mass-produce an
| audio preamp with $20 opamps inside, but you can DIY one
| if you feel like it.
|
| I built a digital audio interface with an ADI ultra-low-
| noise clock generator. It was a $20 part. That's a
| ridiculous price but it's also only $20.
| boojums wrote:
| Do you have any information on your digial audio
| interface you can share? Seems like an interesting
| project.
| jeffbee wrote:
| Not that exciting really. I built an instrument that
| could measure very small levels of harmonic distortion
| induced by converter phase noise. Then, being so
| equipped, I made a converter with immeasurable phase
| noise. The instrumentation was the exciting part, in all
| honesty. $1000 off-the-shelf pro converters now exceed
| its performance.
| formerly_proven wrote:
| Also especially for audio stuff it's not like all op amps
| have to be high spec. At the edge (input/output)
| components matter much more than inside the circuit,
| where levels and impedances can be designed in. A low-
| noise BiFET op amp makes a ton of sense for pre-amp, but
| as a generic buffer or whatever amplifier between stages,
| not so much. Even in 2020 a NE5532 is a fine choice in
| those places.
| dragontamer wrote:
| In general, you can always substitute a high-quality,
| expensive op-amp for a cheap op-amp.
|
| From the perspective of a hobbyist with limited space:
| you want to minimize the SKUs that you stock in your
| personal shelves. Buying a higher-end op-amp and spamming
| it everywhere (even when its specs aren't needed) is far
| simpler than buying 10x different op-amps at the $0.50,
| $1, $1.50, $2, $3, $4, and $5 price points.
|
| Just keep a supply of higher-quality $5 rail-to-rail low-
| bias op-amps at the voltage-level (3.3V for most Arduino
| projects).
|
| Yeah, there's probably a $0.50 op-amp that does the job.
| But do you really want to keep another SKU on your shelf
| and keep track of it? There's simplicity in just buying
| over-specced parts for personal hobby projects.
|
| --------
|
| Well... maybe keep a stock of the $0.50 stuff too (EDIT:
| Ah right, LMV358. That's the cheap part I keep around).
| But I think you get my gist. Personal-supply closet
| management is certainly a problem for the personal
| hobbyist.
| ris wrote:
| > I've actually liked Analog Device's documentation as a
| hobbyist
|
| Even reading their datasheets, I often felt like I was being
| taught a full lesson on the topic, which is great when you're
| an amateur and lack some of the foundational knowledge.
| pjc50 wrote:
| Analog have one of the greatest "app notes" ever by one of the
| great engineers. It's practically an EE course module on its
| own, a huge volume of useful information with examples and
| scope traces to prove points.
|
| https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/appl...
|
| "High Speed Amplifier Techniques
|
| A Designer's Companion for Wideband Circuitry
|
| Jim Williams
|
| This publication represents the largest LTC commitmentto an
| application note to date. No other application noteabsorbed as
| much effort, took so long or cost so much."
| ballooney wrote:
| 'Bought' one of. I'm still bitter about TI buying BB tbh.
|
| More of his app notes for the curious:
| http://readingjimwilliams.blogspot.com/
| ptarmigan wrote:
| More as background to ADI's acquisition of Linear Tech, but often
| these acquisitions come down to one chipmaker's desire to offer a
| full system. Take for instance Analog Devices' RF converters:
| https://www.analog.com/en/applications/technology/rf-convert...
|
| These chips cost hundreds or thousands of dollars and are meant
| for base stations. Analog Devices wants to get a contract with
| Nokia or anyone else and then also be able to sell the LDOs,
| PLLs, and clock devices that go along with it
| (https://www.analog.com/en/products/AD9213.html#product-tools).
| Linear Tech was the leader in power and the name is still used
| for new power products under the "Power by Linear" name with ADI.
| Hittite offers a number of RF chips. If you're paying $1k for a
| data converter, what's an extra $50 for all the analog/RF support
| circuitry? They may even throw it in for free. If you have a
| complex system with analog/RF/digital circuitry, offering a full
| reference design with other parts from your own catalog is a
| great way to ensure that those parts are used.
| cpach wrote:
| I must admit I'm not familiar with these companies. Is anyone
| willing to explain the significance of this merger?
| R0b0t1 wrote:
| They focus on slightly different markets. Analog devices
| produces passives and semiconductors as well as processors and
| ASICs targeted at data acquisition and digital signal
| processing as well as power electronics. Maxim tends to produce
| special purpose devices and processors that are analog front
| ends with some minor forays into the other areas.
|
| There is overlap, but the portfolios are complementary. It
| seems to be a good acquisition save the sticker price seems too
| high.
| asn0 wrote:
| Recent HN post about counterfeiting of Maxim Integrated DS18B20
| temperature sensor
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23815839
| simias wrote:
| I guess they're companies you might not hear a lot about if you
| don't deal with designing electronics but if you do they're all
| over the place. You probably have at least a dozen components
| made by these companies within one meter of you as you're
| reading this message.
|
| If you want practical examples of what they do, go to
| digikey.com, search for the company names and click randomly on
| one of the thousands of hits.
|
| Here's a microcontroller: https://www.digikey.com/product-
| detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...
|
| Here's an I2C temperature sensor:
| https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...
|
| Here's an RF amplifier: https://www.digikey.com/product-
| detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...
|
| Here's a 3v3 DC-DC: https://www.digikey.com/product-
| detail/en/linear-technology-...
| nickff wrote:
| I know a lot of people like to search Digikey (or Mouser) for
| new parts... but please just use the manufacturer website.
| Digikey doesn't always carry every part, and their
| categorization is usually a bit messed up.
|
| As an aside, AD has a large number of parts which are non-
| public. You will not find the part numbers (or any
| information about them) without an NDA and personal
| assistance from an AD rep.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| > You will not find the part numbers (or any information
| about them) without an NDA and personal assistance from an
| AD rep.
|
| As a hobbyist, this sucks so much. With PCB manufacturing
| reliable enough for high speed signalling being affordable
| and hackerspaces with soldering ovens in every major cities
| (and there was some startup - in NYC I believe - that you
| could give Eagle files and a product order list and they
| would buy you the components at Digikey and manufacture the
| board for you... anyone remember their name?!), it really
| really sucks that all the interesting stuff is hidden
| beyond such obscure walls.
|
| You won't even find Intel Thunderbolt datasheets on obscure
| Chinese sites. Wtf? And then Intel complains about why
| people aren't adopting it?
| duskwuff wrote:
| > and there was some startup - in NYC I believe - that
| you could give Eagle files and a product order list and
| they would buy you the components at Digikey and
| manufacture the board for you... anyone remember their
| name?!
|
| I don't know about that specific startup, but there are
| tons of firms in China which will manufacture and
| assemble PCBs for you. Most of the big hobbyist firms,
| like JLCPCB, Elecrow, and PCBWay, offer some form of PCBA
| service. JLCPCB in particular is closely integrated with
| LCSC, and will source parts directly from them.
| mkarr wrote:
| > (and there was some startup - in NYC I believe - that
| you could give Eagle files and a product order list and
| they would buy you the components at Digikey and
| manufacture the board for you... anyone remember their
| name?!)
|
| Are you thinking of MacroFab (https://macrofab.com/)
| located in Houston? I believe they have been featured
| here before.
| nickff wrote:
| The unlisted AD parts are not ones that you'd be likely
| to use as a hobbyist. Everything that you're likely to
| know how to use is public. I wish I could be more
| specific.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Was more of a general rant, sorry if it came across
| personal :/
| simias wrote:
| Fair enough, but often I'm looking for a part not by
| manufacturer but by functionality. Skimming through all the
| vendor's websites to find what I'm looking for and
| comparing the various products is a bit of a pain.
|
| I agree that the categorization can be a bit tricky at
| times, but once you're used to it it's not terrible.
| mNovak wrote:
| This exactly. I'm looking for commodity parts, I don't
| want to preemptively narrow that search.
|
| Also often times you'll find some great component on e.g.
| Maxim's website, only to find no one distributes it, so
| it's effectively useless in the immediate sense.
| markrages wrote:
| > Here's a microcontroller: https://www.digikey.com/product-
| detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...
|
| Not a microcontroller.
| simias wrote:
| You're right of course, I opened a bunch of tabs with
| random components and got confused. It's actually an
| "RS-485/RS-422 Transceiver".
| nickff wrote:
| Analog Devices tends towards making specialty integrated
| circuits, often used in very demanding, high-heat, high-
| accuracy, high-efficiency applications. Many AD parts are
| analog interfaces or power-management related, and very
| expensive, often used in military or space applications.
|
| Maxim tends to make a bunch of almost generic odds and ends,
| are middle-to-low prices, with fairly large volumes. They
| compete directly against Texas Instruments for a lot of
| interface products.
|
| This acquisition is especially interesting in light of AD's
| (relatively) recent acquisition of Linear Tech, which was
| basically a consolidation of the high-performance low-volume
| integrated circuit market.
| segfaultbuserr wrote:
| Chips in hardware is like programming languages and libraries
| in software, chips make the world turn around.
|
| Does your hardware need power? It needs power controller and
| converter chips, such as a MOSFET driver, a DC-DC converter, a
| charge pump, a linear regulator, a voltage monitor, or a power
| multiplexer (if it has multiple power sources). Does it have a
| battery? It needs a battery charging controller, or a battery
| gauge. Does it need to communicate via a data interface or a
| cable? It needs interfacing chips, such as I2C chip, SPI chip,
| IIO chip, RS-232/RS-485/RS-422 chips, CANbus chipss, LVDS
| chips, voltage level translation chips, and I/O extending
| chips. Does it have USB? It may need a USB multiplexer chips to
| switch between different signal sources (for example, USB
| Type-C can be an audio port or a data port), or a USB charging
| controller chip. Does it need wireless communication? It needs
| RF front-end chips, RF amplifier chips, RF frequency
| synthesizers, and SoCs for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. Does it
| need data acquisition capabilities? It needs ADC chips, DAC
| chips, amplifier chips, and signal conditioning chips. Does it
| need NFC/RFID? It needs NFC and RFID chips. Does it have a
| screen or a LED light, like a screen backlight or a flashlight?
| It needs LED controller chips and power chips. Does it need any
| kind of software control? It needs a microcontroller. The list
| goes on.
|
| And Maxim's products cover almost _all_ of these applications.
|
| So does Analog Devices' products, but with an emphasize on
| high-precision, high-performance components.
| mNovak wrote:
| AD sells chips at quite a premium.. Really hoping they don't
| drive up Maxim prices.
| raverbashing wrote:
| Wait, but this morning the speculation was $17Bi
|
| https://www.marketwatch.com/story/chip-maker-analog-poised-t...
|
| Crazy values nonetheless
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