IC Data Catalogs

"eric"

They were normally given away to customers and potential customers.

I see a few sites offering to sell used copies of such books from the 80s and 90s.

.... Phil

Not really. They are all seperate datasheets, it's just easier that way and saves bandwidth and storage space etc. Only downlod what you need when you need it. Smart cookies would be able to write a script to leech an entire site of every PDF, but that's pretty drastic. Doesn't help when some manufacturers don't name their PDF files sensibly, like "AGHS275.PDF" when it's actually a 74HC00 etc. Really annoying.

Before the Web there used to be companies that supplied (usually as a rental thing) massive CD sets (like hundreds of) of almost every datasheet imaginable. Well heeled companies would have this in a special corner on it's own machine and you took your turn at the oracle. Type the number or parameter into the search engine and it said "Please insert Disk #251" :->

Get that fixed, seriously. Hard to do serious engineering without a good internet connection.

You could argue there isn't such a thing these days. Maybe for hobby use still, if so get yourself some old paper databooks. Got to be people out there still throwing them out. One for 7400 series, one for 4000 series, and a couple of general analog ones (National are the classics). Many of us kept a few of these key databooks when we threw out or gave away our collection of books when the web and PDF came along.

Jaycar have a smallish collection here, but seperate files as usual:

Good luck.

Dave.

People still sell'em on ebay by the looks of it.

Dave.

eric,

Um... I have a couple of suggestions.

Manufacturers like Texas Instruments have whole programs set up to get designers to use their components, and this includes data books, white papers, & etc. in their design support department. Here's a link to TI's site:

For companies that specialize in a family of logics or components, the problem is that electronics logic families evolve fairly quickly (at the data book design level), and so it's expensive for them to reprint their entire lines bench data every couple of years. This said, when fairly novel logics are introduced as a new "family", the manufacturer will print up their lines data-books for the wholesale distributors... these aren't likely to be current, but do you really need the latest greatest version? If not, the wholesalers always have extra data- books they'll give you if you place a reasonable order with them.

Lastly... if you download a program like Blue Crab, you can use that to download everything below a particular sites url, including the PDF bins (although it'll probably take a night or two if your connection is slow). Frankly, I think you're better off just getting a huge catalog (try

Good Luck,

Grouchy

TI has the pdf version of their TTL Logic Databook available

Otherwise, it may work best to simply use the web as your catalog and then save the datasheets that you want to have handy in some organized fashion.

The One Big Directory approach doesn't work very well -- trust me on this ;-)

Whenever you find a data sheet its worth backspacing the URL to see if the site allows access to the folders, some don't but you soon get to remember which ones they are.

When you find a fat juicy folder bulging with data sheets, you can rip it with a download manager like DAP from Speedbit, this adds your "select all" selection to a queue - some files support resume so if your connection fails you can resume the download later when your connection recovers.

Sometimes if I find a particularly good datashet hoard I post the link for others to use but all that I have recently seem to have expired.

Here's a couple to get you started:

When you get to a semiconductor company web site, one buzzword to search for is 'Selector Guide', an abbreviated catalog, usually sorted by device families. (They might even still print them on paper). At least with the part number, you can search for the datasheet.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Compartmentalization of large companies has led to the sales staff (somewhat nontechnical folk) maintaining the datasheets as web downloads. So, there's no chapter-on-instrument-amplifiers book, just a home page and (maybe) a selection guide.

It's "just easier" for the sales folk, it's dreadful for designers. I print out datasheets and put 'em in some kind of order in

Some kinds of tasks are easier on the new system, but not many. And, things that go obsolete VANISH from all data repositories when the sales force no longer has 'em for sale; remember those three-terminal current mirrors from TI? You better remember, they don't show up on searches now!

Thanks for all the information. It at least got me pointed in the right direction, and prevented me from looking for information that was not there.

-Thanks

-Eric

I rarely print out datasheets, or even save them most of the time. If I do print, it's almost never the full thing, just the pinout page usually. And as I have 3 monitors at work (2 portrait, 1 landscape), it's easy to keep the datasheet on one screen and work on the other screens. Usually just as quick to search and download them again as needed. Although we attach PDF datahsheets to all our EDA library components which saves a bit of time searching. Printouts are still handy for when in the lab building/troubleshooting though.

Dave.

National Semi sent me a Linear catalog a few years ago. I'm not quite sure how I got it. I clicked on some box most likely. I'd try the manufacturers web sites and not data-sheet sites.

George H.