NXP now changed

[spec]

It is a downer, to me anyway, when some of the great companies get taken over or change direction: National, Motorola, Fairchild, Harris, Burr-Brown, International Rectifier, Siliconex, Phillips, SGS-Ates... The latest is that NXP (Phillips) standard products has been spun off into a new company: Nexperia- where do they get the names from! https://assets.nexperia.com/documents/data-sheet/74HC_HCT595.pdf

spec

 

[OBW0549]

It is a downer, to me anyway, when some of the great companies get taken over or change direction: National, Motorola, Fairchild, Harris, Burr-Brown, International Rectifier, Siliconex, Phillips, SGS-Ates...

...and Signetics. I miss them; they used to publish some useful, informative application info. GE and RCA, too.

Nexperia- where do they get the names from!

I think they pull them out of someplace the sun never shines...

 

[schmitt trigger]

It is a downer, to me anyway, when some of the great companies get taken over or change direction: National, Motorola, Fairchild, Harris, Burr-Brown, International Rectifier, Siliconex, Phillips, SGS-Ates... The latest is that NXP (Phillips) standard products has been spun off into a new company: Nexperia- where do they get the names from! https://assets.nexperia.com/documents/data-sheet/74HC_HCT595.pdf

spec

Don't forget Unitrode, Telefunken, RCA, Siemens, and so many others.
Like yourself, I also become upset because this essentially means that many classic ICs are obsoleted by the acquiring company. Look to what happened to the many products Texas Instruments has removed from the National Semi portfolio after acquiring it.

Speaking of names, at least Nexperia bears some resemblance to NXP. Other tech companies have had to endure terrible new names.

The worst name change by far is the old Hewlett Packard test equipment division. And they have done it twice now. I can't even recall what they are named nowadays.

 

[spec]

...and Signetics. I miss them; they used to publish some useful, informative application info. GE and RCA, too.


I think they pull them out of someplace the sun never shines...

Don't forget Unitrode, Telefunken, RCA, Siemens, and so many others.
Like yourself, I also become upset because this essentially means that many classic ICs are obsoleted by the acquiring company. Look to what happened to the many products Texas Instruments has removed from the National Semi portfolio after acquiring it.

Speaking of names, at least Nexperia bears some resemblance to NXP. Other tech companies have had to endure terrible new names.

The worst name change by far is the old Hewlett Packard test equipment division. And they have done it twice now. I can't even recall what they are named nowadays.

Hi Both,

I could not agree more with your sentiments. PMI used to do some fantastic audio chips and some equally fantastic application reports.

Great shame they are all gone.

spec

 

[Mikebits]

The worst name change by far is the old Hewlett Packard test equipment division. And they have done it twice now. I can't even recall what they are named nowadays.

I think they are Keysight for now. Maybe ScopenOopsi next

 

[schmitt trigger]

What those executives that decide to change the names, is that once that a company has established a reputation, the brand names and logos have lots of value.

Nothing embodies that value better than Hewlett-Packard.
If one ever had the pleasure of using one of their myriad pieces of equipment, you knew it would perform superbly, and would continue to do so for decades, even after being abused.
Having a bench with equipment that had the slanted hp logo, you knew you had the best equipment money could buy.

The only exception were scopes, in those instances Tektronix was the king.

 

[Mikebits]

Two of my favorite IC companies are Linear Tech and Analog Devices, Now that ADI has acquired LT I fear what will become of the LT brand. To me the LT branding is a biggie and ADI would be wise to keep it.

 

[AnalogKid]

Signetics > Phillips > NXP

Signetics published *hard-bound* analog, digital, and memory applications books, some of the old bibles mentioned in another thread. Rereading them is like having a sit-down conversation with an old friend.

ADI still makes Solid State Music parts with the original SSM part numbers, so there's hope for LT.

ak

 

[spec]

One of the big problems with take-overs, reorganizations etc, is that innovation can get lost.

Very often the innovations come from a single person- Bob Widlar for example at Fairchild and National- or a small group of people, and these innovators tend not to thrive in big corporations, where, procedures, analysis, and control reign.

At one time National were introducing ground breaking products ever couple of months, but sadly they are no longer.

spec

 

[AnalogKid]

At one time National were introducing ground breaking products ever couple of months,

More like every couple of weeks. Each planet has a limited supply of ground-breaking stuff to be had, and National blew through their allotment in record time.

ak

 

[audioguru]

NXP still makes the older analog Philips ICs and some transistors.
Nexperia makes the newer digital ICs.

Fairchild Semi was recently taken by ON Semi.

 

[large_ghostman]

Unilever-craft

silicon labs- Gecko

You lose the company vibe and end up with a huge blob and no choice. Microchip - Atmel....

Google + Facebook - everyone else..........But thats ok, at least we can look back and say we watched it happen .

 

[large_ghostman]

Oh nearly forgot my favourite, Weurth Elektronic owns Philips and some 320 over electronic related companies. mostly keep the same brand names, but size wise is a monster.

 

[audioguru]

Oh nearly forgot my favourite, Weurth Elektronic owns Philips and some 320 over electronic related companies. mostly keep the same brand names, but size wise is a monster.

I could not find a Weurth company. Wurth (with two dots above the "u") is German, Philips is Dutch. I worked for Philips in the sixties and never heard of Wurth until now.

 

[Ian Rogers]

Reading through this thread.... NXP is still NXP (NeXPeria)... They have just released some power to investors in China..

Also Unilever said no to Kraft!!

I cannot find any evidence that WE owns Phillips.... Phillips is still a Dutch company in its own right in Amsterdam... They have sold divisions to here there and everywhere, but not the main consumer portion...

It would seem that Nexperia is still a division of Phillips...

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

Keithley is now part of Tektronix. Fluke, Keithley and Tektronics have the same parent company. https://www.oregonlive.com/silicon-forest/index.ssf/2015/12/tektronixs_new_parent_company.html which is why Fluke, Keithley and Tektronics have all gone down the tubes.

 

[Mikebits]

Fluke, Keithley and Tektronics have all gone down the tubes.

Why would you say these guys have gone down hill, or the tubes? I own a couple Keithley instruments and they still maintain high quality design.

 

[spec]

Why would you say these guys have gone down hill, or the tubes? I own a couple Keithley instruments and they still maintain high quality design.

My understanding is that companies like Keithley and Fluke have re-baged Chinese instruments and also their own designed instruments, but also manufactured in the far east.

In the case of one Fluke multimeter the instrument is identical, apart from the badges, but the manual is written by Fluke and is much better- also you get Fluke's guarantee and support.

And as I have mentioned before, most equipment and components are now manufactured 'overseas'.

spec

 

[KeepItSimpleStupid]

For instance, Keithley had all of their manuals and easy to locate of old instruments on their website. Try finding them now. Schematics got removed from their manuals. Older manuals for the same instrument contained more info about the parts. Fluke wanted to charge a repair fee which is about 1/2 the cost of the Instrument for a "battery door".

In my day, I got really nice tech support from Fluke, HP and Keithley. A brand new instrument from Keithley was destroying our devices. Keithley didn't believe me at first. They did verify my claim and sent us a "temporary fix" that disabled functions of the instrument until a permanent fix could be made. It delivered 100 V spikes when the range changed.
I have a bunch of the older stuff at home too.

The 236 quad voltage source had no servicing info at all. Neither did a generation of their SMU's. Iotech supposedly had the same, or similar, 236 instrument under their model number. I think the IOTech one outputted a true zero with a relay, but not sure. Keithley parts costs are thru the roof. Fluke is non-existant.

 

[spec]

For instance, Keithley had all of their manuals and easy to locate of old instruments on their website. Try finding them now. Schematics got removed from their manuals. Older manuals for the same instrument contained more info about the parts. Fluke wanted to charge a repair fee which is about 1/2 the cost of the Instrument for a "battery door".

In my day, I got really nice tech support from Fluke, HP and Keithley. A brand new instrument from Keithley was destroying our devices. Keithley didn't believe me at first. They did verify my claim and sent us a "temporary fix" that disabled functions of the instrument until a permanent fix could be made. It delivered 100 V spikes when the range changed.
I have a bunch of the older stuff at home too.

The 236 quad voltage source had no servicing info at all. Neither did a generation of their SMU's. Iotech supposedly had the same, or similar, 236 instrument under their model number. I think the IOTech one outputted a true zero with a relay, but not sure. Keithley parts costs are thru the roof. Fluke is non-existant.

Good points Keep,

unfortunately this sort of scenario is all to common now.

spec