Is the DAC7558 still popular?

The DAC7558 is a modern low-voltage low-cost quad DAC that should be around for a while, plus TI hasn't shown themselves to be in the habit of prematurely discontinuing their Burr-Brown analog ICs. Mouser has 1956 in stock, although strangely they want a 250-piece minimum order. DigiKey has long been a premier TI outlet, which could tend to reduce the activity of other distributors for the TI stuff. If you should get into trouble someday, you can purchase directly from TI. Just be sure to leave yourself 12 to 16 weeks of leadtime to be safe.

I wonder, why does the DAC7558 have an exposed thermal pad, when the entire IC only draws 1.8mA max? Do they imagine surviving four 50mA short-circuits at once with a 5-volt supply = 1000mW? Acckk?

No idea. The package is one major drawback. I wonder why they didn't stick it into a wide TSSOP or if the die is still too large at least a leaded flatpack. Plus a thermal shutdown isn't exactly rocket science these days. It's an octal BTW.

What do you think about the AD converter ADS7841? I find it's readout pattern a bit clumsy but it is otherwise nice and compact. I wish they had some mode where it would keep converting round-robin on a fixed clock like the auto-scan on some MSP430. Then one would not have to write a formal conversion request to it on SPI, wait, and finally read. The interface guy might throw his coffee mug at me when I tell him about that interface "ceremony".