Hi guys

I have read about/heard over a conversation like this a few times:

someone just designed something and then he/she find out one the key chip he/she used in his/her design is no longer in production without much notice, or something like that.

Does anyone have experience like that, or know about this?

Which semiconductor company have done so? what company should be aware of for young player.

any opinions/info/thoughts are welcome

 

I use all of them,
except the ones that are gone:

RCA
Burr Brown
Harris
Philips
Signetics
Motorola
Dallas Semiconductor
National Semiconductor

 

I am not sure if the concern is using "wrong" suppliers or, more likely, obscure devices. If you stick with the mainstream parts made by multiple companies ("dual sourced"), then you will usually not have a problem. If you are concerned, call the supplier and ask to talk to the Product Manager of what ever product line you need information on (e.g microcontrollers, amplifiers, discrete transistors, ...). Then simply ask if this part is scheduled for deletion. It is probably not necessary to ask unless the DATASHEET has not been updated within the past five years or if inventory at distributors (usually posted) appears to be unnaturally small. The one category that seems to have a very short life cycle lately is high power LEDs. Cree, Osram, Philips-lumiled, Epistar and Toshiba are the majors and they seem to have lifetimes of 18 months or less. The smaller suppliers are worse, they seem to make one campaign and off to the next highest power LED next week.

 

Yeah. Once upon a time I had a fantastic design that would make me rich using an Intel 4004 chip.
Too bad they ran out of stock and can't get any more.

 

I use all of them,
except the ones that are gone:

RCA
Burr Brown
Harris
Philips
Signetics
Motorola
Dallas Semiconductor
National Semiconductor

Thanks for the list, didn't know Motorola is gone, my school is still teaching one of its chip...

 

Many of those companies have been absorbed by others such as:

Harris \(\rightarrow\) Intersil
Burr Brown \(\rightarrow\) TI
National \(\rightarrow\) TI
Motorola Semi \(\rightarrow\) ON Semiconductor
Dallas Semiconductor \(\rightarrow\) Maxim
Signetics \(\rightarrow\) Philips \(\rightarrow\) NXP

and many of their parts are still built by the takeover companies.

 

Sorry, I chose this list specifically to show that even big companies come and go.
These have all been taken over by other companies, the most notable one, of course, is National Semiconductor which has be absorbed into Texas Instruments.

Motorola chips are now manufactured by either ON or Freescale.

There are some very useful chips that have been produced in the past by big name companies that are now obsolete or difficult to find.

Examples:

TI SN76477 Complex Sound Generator
Exar XR8038 Waveform Generator

 

If you are looking for obsolete components, you can still find them from places that buy unused inventory from the big supply houses. Google a search for "obsolete electronic components" and you will get around 3.1 million hits. Here are a few examples:
http://obsolete-electronic-components.com/
http://www.4starelectronics.com/obsolete-components/index.asp
http://www.ecompbiz.com/