CompuServe Messages

There are manufacturing variations between different vendor's versions of THE SAME CHIP! This is unfortunately not uncommon in the electronics industry. It can be quite revealing to look at the actual published specs of a chip, particularly the timing or loading tolerances. All too often engineers can get spoiled by using a good manufacturer's chips and pushing them to the limit. Then someone decides to switch to another vendor with a lower priced chip that meets that published spec but may be far beyond what had been delivered by the first manufacturer (in fact). I've seen this several times in cases where research instruments are developed by a careful engineer in a lab environment, then are turned over to someone else to produce at a lower cost – not even the 'lowest bidder' of legend. Sigh … Mike