On Apr 2, 8:26*am, "N_Cook" wrote:
not printed as LM2940CT /12 say.
Any other awkward ones like that, hopefully to lodge in memory, or just a NS
thing.
Not being familiar with that range the 9 in the type number triggers a
mental connection with 79 series negative regs

Uh, because that is the part number?
The LM2940 family are low drop out POSITIVE regulators with the
voltage shown as a suffix.
Sure, the 79xx series were the negative regulators of the early
series, but before that they had other numbers such as LM340 [I
think].
Surely you cannot expect that they will avoid vaguely similar numbers
to old devices just because someone MIGHT confuse them for a much
older device numbering? It is also not National's fault that the dash
and the minus sign happen to look very similar.

Neil S.