Worst data sheets?

That pre-supposes that they are able to design a web site at all. Seems the kids today often are unable to do so.

In medical we need to archive the datasheet the instant we use the part in a design. It all becomes part of the design history file and that better be complete. FDA guys can become quite miffed if it takes more than a couple of minutes to retrieve stuff such as a datasheet. It's not a good thing to have a grumpy auditor on your premises.

I tend to use jelly-bean parts wherever possible, often even for circuits where there would have been a more integrated solution. Clients are usually quite unaware of that. They just don't run into obsolescence issues 10-20 years later. Another aspect to know about is which chips are used in defense gear. Like ye olde LM331, it will probably still be available when I put my teeth in a jar but it'll never come in SMT.

Even if a device goes end-of-life, the datasheet still needs to be available for those products with long life cycles. In a current contract I am doing some stuff for an aerospace outfit, where lifecycles are measured in decades. If I can't be sure of the datasheet (at least for comparison to upgrade repair units) I won't use the part.

Cheers

PeteS

snip

from

On Monday, NXP, which is owned by KKR, Bain Capital, Apax Partners, AlpInvest and Silver Lake Partners, revealed a net loss of ?266m for the quarter and falling sales.

martin

Gee, maybe they need to build a nice website to advertise their products to design engineers?

No surprise at all. And I can tell them exactly why (I actually did) but they do not seem to listen. Oh well, we can get our stuff from others, there are lots of competitors.

Maybe the NEXT owners won't need such a big tax write off, and will actually try to sell lots of semiconductors?

I somehow get a feeling of schadenfreude when I see this happening, which I normally reserve for politicians

martin

Tax write off or not, letting a company slip out of hand that far is never a good thing. What baffles me is that today's owners seem to be so blissfully unaware of what's going on. Or rather, what's not going on anymore.

This often happens when decisions are reached in isolation in some ivory tower. IMHO there is a stunning disconnect at NXP between corporate management and the base that really drives their sales, the engineers out there in the field. The (mostly medical) companies I deal with would never let that happen. We are out at the doctors and clinics all the time.

I don't. Philips is the company that got me hooked into the world of electronics when I received their EE20 kit at age 7 or so. Then at the university they were quite generous with parts and databooks. Consequently my design-in share for Philips used to be about 30% early in my career. Today for NXP it is close to zero.

To see a company like that go down the tubes is just sad.

I doubt that even this bad news will bother them enough to fix their problems.

Its like the music industry in the US. All the companies are run by people with no talent, and apparently, no taste. Do you know who Porter Wagoner is? Do you have any idea what label his last record is on? Its an alternative rock label called Anti-. All of the Nashville based country labels said he was too old to cut a record and that no one would buy his style anymore. Its getting a lot of airplay anyway. Of course, the managers at those Nashville labels grew up on heavy metal and MTV, and wear expensive suits to work. Not like the good old days when Chet Atkins was the head of one of the record companies. He would leave his office to sit in, and play on a recording session. His unique style of management and music are long gone. :(

Hands on is good. As long as you listen to the customers needs, and do your best to fill them.

If the top managers don't listen, who will? Well, maybe I'll write to Henry Kravis about it. Maybe. After all it's KKR folks who will sit there with egg in their faces when NXP really tanks.

Just like in electronics. After Max Grundig died in 89 it went downhill. All the way. AFAIR by 93 Philips had accumulated enough shares to control it, then pawned it off in 98 because the business shriveled up. IIRC bankruptcy followed in 03. Luckily old Max didn't have to see that.

That's why we go there ;-)

Sometimes doctors are invited to discuss what can be newly engineered or improved. Along with a nice stipend and all expenses paid. Yup, including first class travel. Does any of the electronic companies do that with engineers? I doubt it. It's part of the road to success but they do not understand.

Didn't Philips used to make tubes? None of the tube guys have survived into the semiconductor age: RCA, GE, Sylvania, Mullard, Tung-Sol, all the rest.

John

Yes, they did. AFAIR they bought that in though. Valvo in Hamburg was a huge tube manufacturer and later made semiconductors, then became part of Philips. I still have some of their databooks which now really helps after NXP's self-destruction of their web site. Well, not for everybody because they are in German.

Some tube mfgs are still be around: Thomson, Siemens, Eimac? Also, I believe most Japanese companies made tubes back then and for some reason none of those croaked. They must be doing something right.

Siemens? Motorola?

Does Siemens still make semis? Moto spun off ON and Freescale, and all they do now is sell cell phones... stock is down about 30% in the last

John

Siemens spun at least most of their semi business to Infineon. There may be something left, dunno.

While neither may be in the semi business today, both certainly "survived into the semiconductor age".

Hitachi, JRC, Mitsubishi, NEC, Oki?

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

A week or two ago RIM surpassed Motorola in market cap. Hard to believe.

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany