On Tue, 6 Jan 2004 21:05:04 +0000, geoff wrote:



I do hope you've kept some old RS catalogues from the days when they
used to print their part number on ICs etc, I have.

I was surprised that they are still printing the paper catalogue, but
they do. I had a package with half a tree in it from them the other
day.

Regarding legends on ICs, this reminds me of my early career,
designing control systems for mobile radio applications using some of
the early microprocessors. The only suitable options for program
storage were bipolar proms, which at the time cost £35 each for a
1kbyte one. Since these weren't eraseable, it did mean that you
checked your code. Even so, we got through hundreds of them...

For the interface logic, it was necessary to vendor select because
some vendors components, although meant to be identical, were made by
a different prduction process slightly and the radiated RF from them
could vary considerably.

There were interesting tales here, because as design engineers for the
product, we held the authority on which vendors were approved and
which were not.

One vendor, who shall remain nameless, but whose logo is a bat wing
symbol, had one of the cleanest ranges, RF-wise. Unfortunately, in
the countries of the middle east where a lot of the products went,
that particular vendor at the time, was very definitely persona non
grata. To get around this, we sourced the self same components from
RS which had had the logo removed and the RS one on there instead.

Another vendor shot himself thoroughly in the foot by the way that he
operated. The smarter reps would come in and visit the engineers and
discuss their projects as well as introducing new products. They
brought data books, of course, and the really smart ones would ask
about the "homers" that engineers might be doing. Samples of
suitable components would then appear in the post or on the following
visit. Occasionally, they would invite a group out for a pub lunch
which was always appreciated.

One particular rep really hadn't checked into how the game was played.
He had made numerous visits and a few of his products had been
designed in. However on one particular occasion he showed up just
before lunch with none of the items promised previously and then made
a thing about having to rush off to take the buyer for lunch. By the
time they returned, the few qualified items had been deleted from the
approved list. Despite the later protestations of the buyer, the
vendor never did sell anything into this product range.....




..andy

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