[sdiy] selecting a semiconductor manufacturer

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Tuesday 17 May 2005 09:24 pm, Andrew Sanchez wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> I had a question about this very thing (NTE parts). The place where I work
> has a stock of NTE ICs that are used for repairs. I was under the
> impression that NTE sold parts that were "borderline" in terms of the
> original part specs. Is this true? What about ECG (is ECG still around?) or
> Radio Shack parts? Are they sub-standard in any way?
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew

I was of the impression that ECG had been bought out by NTE,  which is a shame 
as I always tended to favor ECG,  and never liked NTE all that much -- when 
they first came out they got into some kind of a legal hassle from copying 
somebody else's cross-reference stuff.

RS -- definitely lower quality on at least some stuff.  I bought a bag of what 
was then being sold as "2n2222" transistors and on putting some in a test 
setup with a curve tracer found them breaking down at voltages as low as 6 
volts!  Not very useful,  those parts,  and I notice they've changed the 
labeling since then,  now saying "similar to" or somesuch nonsense.

I've not had a problem with their chips,  though.

> On 5/17/05, James Patchell <patchell at cox.net> wrote:
> > I am also dubious about the quality of parts that NTE sells...definitely
> > correct me if I am wrong in my impression...
> >
> > As far as the other in the list...I have never noticed anything
> > significantly different between the major manufacturers.
> >
> > At 03:21 PM 5/17/2005 -0500, rkmoore at memphis.edu wrote:
> > >Hi everyone,
> > >
> > >I know that many common IC's and transistors are produced by several
> > >makers. Fairchild, Vishay, STmicro, NTE, and TI seem to have a pretty
> > >good amount of overlap. Do any of these companies outshine the
> > >others? Do any need to be avoided? I know that NTE seems to be
> > >unreasonably expensive, otherwise I'm kind of in the dark. Please
> > >share your opinions/experiences.
> > >
> > >Thanks,
> > >
> > >Richard Moore
> >
> > -Jim
> > ***************************************************************
> > http://www.oldcrows.net/~patchell
> >
> > ***************************************************************