Avago just made it to my permanent fecal roster.

A few years back an obsolescence notification came out on the HCTL-1100
general purpose motor control IC. It said that the HCTL-1101 would be a
drop-in compatible alternate. The data sheet looked identical to the
original (substitute 1101 for 1100)...

I finally got to look at real silicon for the 1101 and found that the motor
would not even power-up. About this point, Avago released a new obsolescence
notice saying that the 1101 had been found to not be equivalent. In as many
words, they said that the product was being offered only as-is and no
further support would be available. No work-arounds or anything!

Evidently, there is an ASIC available from Mektronics
http://mektronixtech.com/ that is largely compatible with the original
HCTL-1100. Even has some performance improvements for new software.

Has anybody tried this ASIC or is aware of any other options for the 1100? I
have a legacy design that we are trying to avoid re-engineering.

Thanks - Oppie

"Oppie" wrote in message
...
Avago just made it to my permanent fecal roster.

A few years back an obsolescence notification came out on the HCTL-1100
general purpose motor control IC. It said that the HCTL-1101 would be a
drop-in compatible alternate. The data sheet looked identical to the
original (substitute 1101 for 1100)...

I finally got to look at real silicon for the 1101 and found that the
motor would not even power-up. About this point, Avago released a new
obsolescence notice saying that the 1101 had been found to not be
equivalent. In as many words, they said that the product was being offered
only as-is and no further support would be available. No work-arounds or
anything!

Evidently, there is an ASIC available from Mektronics
http://mektronixtech.com/ that is largely compatible with the original
HCTL-1100. Even has some performance improvements for new software.

Has anybody tried this ASIC or is aware of any other options for the 1100?
I have a legacy design that we are trying to avoid re-engineering.

Thanks - Oppie


Interesting - I just got a phone call from Avago customer service
(Americas).
Guy apologized for not getting back to me and proceeded to tell me that the
1100's designers were long retired and they contracted out for the design of
their 1101 device. Evidently the new chip works in some applications and not
at all in others. No work-arounds have been devised yet. Not sure if they
even know the root cause of the failure.

In my last letter to Avago support, the Mektronix ASIC was mentioned. In the
phone call today, guy said that they were not aware of any other solutions
and that marketing had not offered any alternates. Sounds like things are
heating up at avago and there are a lot of very irritated former customers.
I said that I had just gotten two samples of the Mektronix chip and was
getting ready to test them. Avago asked if they could call me back next week
to find my results. Probably should have told him something along the lines
of their last obsolescence notice and stick it to them. Just not in my
nature...