Hacker News Reader

Comment by cpach | Hacker News Reader

I must admit I’m not familiar with these companies. Is anyone willing to explain the significance of this merger?

I guess they're companies you might not hear a lot about if you don't deal with designing electronics but if you do they're all over the place. You probably have at least a dozen components made by these companies within one meter of you as you're reading this message.

If you want practical examples of what they do, go to digikey.com, search for the company names and click randomly on one of the thousands of hits.

Here's a microcontroller: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...

Here's an I2C temperature sensor: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...

Here's an RF amplifier: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...

Here's a 3v3 DC-DC: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/linear-technology-...

I know a lot of people like to search Digikey (or Mouser) for new parts... but please just use the manufacturer website. Digikey doesn't always carry every part, and their categorization is usually a bit messed up.

As an aside, AD has a large number of parts which are non-public. You will not find the part numbers (or any information about them) without an NDA and personal assistance from an AD rep.

> You will not find the part numbers (or any information about them) without an NDA and personal assistance from an AD rep.

As a hobbyist, this sucks so much. With PCB manufacturing reliable enough for high speed signalling being affordable and hackerspaces with soldering ovens in every major cities (and there was some startup - in NYC I believe - that you could give Eagle files and a product order list and they would buy you the components at Digikey and manufacture the board for you... anyone remember their name?!), it really really sucks that all the interesting stuff is hidden beyond such obscure walls.

You won't even find Intel Thunderbolt datasheets on obscure Chinese sites. Wtf? And then Intel complains about why people aren't adopting it?

The unlisted AD parts are not ones that you'd be likely to use as a hobbyist. Everything that you're likely to know how to use is public. I wish I could be more specific.

Was more of a general rant, sorry if it came across personal :/

Do those unlisted parts constitute the majority of Analog Devices products?

> and there was some startup - in NYC I believe - that you could give Eagle files and a product order list and they would buy you the components at Digikey and manufacture the board for you... anyone remember their name?!

I don't know about that specific startup, but there are tons of firms in China which will manufacture and assemble PCBs for you. Most of the big hobbyist firms, like JLCPCB, Elecrow, and PCBWay, offer some form of PCBA service. JLCPCB in particular is closely integrated with LCSC, and will source parts directly from them.

JLC/LCSC isn't exactly aiming to be a hobbyist firm, they have over $30M USD from Sequoia China and other VCs.

Whether they're aiming to or not, they are very hobbyist-friendly and popular.

> (and there was some startup - in NYC I believe - that you could give Eagle files and a product order list and they would buy you the components at Digikey and manufacture the board for you... anyone remember their name?!)

Are you thinking of MacroFab (https://macrofab.com/) located in Houston? I believe they have been featured here before.

I believe you are thinking of PCB:NG

Fair enough, but often I'm looking for a part not by manufacturer but by functionality. Skimming through all the vendor's websites to find what I'm looking for and comparing the various products is a bit of a pain.

I agree that the categorization can be a bit tricky at times, but once you're used to it it's not terrible.

This exactly. I'm looking for commodity parts, I don't want to preemptively narrow that search.

Also often times you'll find some great component on e.g. Maxim's website, only to find no one distributes it, so it's effectively useless in the immediate sense.

> Here's a microcontroller: https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/maxim-integrated/M...

Not a microcontroller.

You're right of course, I opened a bunch of tabs with random components and got confused. It's actually an "RS-485/RS-422 Transceiver".

They focus on slightly different markets. Analog devices produces passives and semiconductors as well as processors and ASICs targeted at data acquisition and digital signal processing as well as power electronics. Maxim tends to produce special purpose devices and processors that are analog front ends with some minor forays into the other areas.

There is overlap, but the portfolios are complementary. It seems to be a good acquisition save the sticker price seems too high.

Analog Devices tends towards making specialty integrated circuits, often used in very demanding, high-heat, high-accuracy, high-efficiency applications. Many AD parts are analog interfaces or power-management related, and very expensive, often used in military or space applications.

Maxim tends to make a bunch of almost generic odds and ends, are middle-to-low prices, with fairly large volumes. They compete directly against Texas Instruments for a lot of interface products.

This acquisition is especially interesting in light of AD's (relatively) recent acquisition of Linear Tech, which was basically a consolidation of the high-performance low-volume integrated circuit market.

Recent HN post about counterfeiting of Maxim Integrated DS18B20 temperature sensor

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23815839

Chips in hardware is like programming languages and libraries in software, chips make the world turn around.

Does your hardware need power? It needs power controller and converter chips, such as a MOSFET driver, a DC-DC converter, a charge pump, a linear regulator, a voltage monitor, or a power multiplexer (if it has multiple power sources). Does it have a battery? It needs a battery charging controller, or a battery gauge. Does it need to communicate via a data interface or a cable? It needs interfacing chips, such as I2C chip, SPI chip, IIO chip, RS-232/RS-485/RS-422 chips, CANbus chipss, LVDS chips, voltage level translation chips, and I/O extending chips. Does it have USB? It may need a USB multiplexer chips to switch between different signal sources (for example, USB Type-C can be an audio port or a data port), or a USB charging controller chip. Does it need wireless communication? It needs RF front-end chips, RF amplifier chips, RF frequency synthesizers, and SoCs for Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, etc. Does it need data acquisition capabilities? It needs ADC chips, DAC chips, amplifier chips, and signal conditioning chips. Does it need NFC/RFID? It needs NFC and RFID chips. Does it have a screen or a LED light, like a screen backlight or a flashlight? It needs LED controller chips and power chips. Does it need any kind of software control? It needs a microcontroller. The list goes on.

And Maxim's products cover almost all of these applications.

So does Analog Devices' products, but with an emphasize on high-precision, high-performance components.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com