Hi

LM741 was designed by Fairchild Semiconductor's employee Dave Fullagar (later Fairchild was sold to National Semiconductor and later Texas Instruments bought National Semiconductor). Let's compare the situation with the development of 8051 by Intel. Intel originally made the 8051 and called it MCS-51. Later Intel allowed other manufacturers to manufacture the 8051. The designation "8051" is a generic one. One of the versions of 8051 made by Atmel is called AT89C51. Now coming back to the original question. I had always thought that the label "LM" always refers to a series of National Semiconductor. But as you can see here TI also makes LM741. So, what does it mean? Is the designation "LM741" a generic one? Kindly let me know. Thank you.

Regards
PG

 

The original Fairchild designation was actually μA741. 741 is the generic designation with the two letter prefix determined by the manufacturer. TI uses the LM designation because they bought National Semiconductor and just continued to use the same designation.

 

So, before National Semiconductor was bought by TI, they didn't allow anyone else to manufacture LM741? Kindly let me know. Thank you.

Regards
PG

 

The LM designation was only used my National I believe, but many others made their own version of the 741. For example here's one that uses a UA prefix.

 

Thanks a lot, Carl.

But I think National's LM741 is the most popular 741.

Regards
PG

 

Perhaps, but a 741 is a 741 is a 741. It is a lot like the 555.

In addition, the 741 set the standards for pinouts, so many other superior op amps still use the classic configuration.

 

It's a general rule with IC numbers that the number is registering what the IC actually is, and the letters before the number are showing the manufacturer.

Generally. And it used to be common for manufacturers to buy the rights to whole series of numbers even if they had not yet designed chips to use those numbers.

These days I think it's a bit more flexible with many manufacturers making up their own numbers as they like (maybe Asia) but I think in the more regulated countries the numbers are still sacred.

 

Hello,

The following page has a nice story on the 741:
http://sentex.net/~mec1995/gadgets/741/741.html

There are also some circuits there.

Bertus