On Tue, 16 Oct 2007 00:10:37 GMT, Joerg
wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
This allowed us to replace a discontinued SO-8 part.


The 9691 is non-stock in all versions at Digikey. Are you still not
tired of this mfg?

The original design used a MAX9690, an SO-8 1 ns ECL comparator, and
there were two other sources, for slightly slower parts. The 9690 had
a bad fab problem and began failing after about a year of use. By that
time, the other sources were gone.

Maxim replaced it with the "drop-in" 9691, except that they added
back-to-back diodes across the inputs... on a COMPARATOR! So we had to
do the kluge board, with added diodes and stuff. As I mentioned, they
did sample us 3200 pieces of the 9691.

Analog Devices makes the best comparators lately, down in the 200 ps
sort of range. But none of this sort of stuff is multi-sourced.

John