[sdiy] Interesting Pease column in ED issue 50-14 (July 8,2002)

[Brock Russell]

>   I think I will write him and ask *why* the LM13600 is obsolete.  I won't
>let him get away with the answer "because we have the LM13700" because he
>thought it was obsolete too.  Obsolete, to me, means something is replaced
>by a better performing part.  What exactly is the better OTA that NatSemi
>offers that makes the LM13600/13700 'obsolete?'

For the big guys such as National and Motorola 'obsolete' means no
longer able to sell enough parts to keep it as a viable product, which is
usually in the range of a million parts a month or a year. It has nothing
to do with the performance of the part but whether it is being designed
into new products for large volume production. Curiously, the fabless
guys such as Maxim and Linear Tech can keep most, if not all of the
parts they have ever made available, because they don't have to worry
about the fab operating costs.

Brock - who has faced device end of life more than once.