I've been experimenting a lot lately with CMOS ICs and was asked the question by one reader which chips should he buy for his war chest?
This lead me to ask the question "which are the most popular ICs?"
Here is a list of not just CMOS chips, but other chips I commonly reorder & use in my
DIY projects (and for the electronic history buffs, chips that I think changed the world).
You probably won't ever need to buy the old microprocessor chips, but its fun to see how
things develop over the years.
The list will probably change over time.
Let me know if you think I have missed any important chips.
1. 555 Timers. The 556 is a dual 555.
The Signetics NE555 was nvented in 1971 by Hans Camenzind. More than a million are sold every year.
The 555 is a simple IC that can function as a timer or an oscillator.
2. 741 & LM324 op-amps
The 741 was invented in 1968. It requires both positive and negative voltage.
The LM324 was introduced in 1972 & consists of four separate op-amp
circuits
The LM324
doesn’t require a bipolar power supply.
3. Texas Instruments 5400 & 7400 logic family (these have been in production since 1964)
TTL -- transistor transistor logic.74-series logic is such a important part of today's digital world.
4. 78xx / 79xx voltage regulators.
5. The 40XX CMOS family
6. µA723 linear regulator (Bob Widlar, Fairchild, 1967)
7. Fairchild Semiconductor μA741 Op-Amp (1968).
Designer: David Fullagar
8. Intel 4004. (1971)
The world's first microprocessor. This led to the famous 8080 CPU and then
the IBM PC's
8088,
80286,
486 etc.
9. Motorola 6800 (1974). 8-bit microprocessor
Synthesizers using the 6800 & its variants:
The 6800 was used in the Fairlight CMI series II. The IIx used the later 6809.
The Fairlight series III used the 6809 & 68000
Ensoniq EPS-16 (68000),
Oberheim Xpander, Oberheim Matrix, ( 6809)
PPG Wave 2.x , PPG Waverterm A (6809)
Ensoniq SDP-1 , Ensoniq ESQ1, Ensoniq SQ80 (6809)
Quasar M8 (6800)
10. Intel 8080 (1974)
The first "real" microprocessor. This 8-bit CPU ignited the PC revolution
as a part
of the MITS Altair 8800, the first mass-produced
personal-computer kit.
11. MOS Technology 6502 Microprocessor (1975)
It's the main brains of computers like the Apple I & II, the Commodore PET, and game
systems like the Nintendo and Atari.
12. Zilog Z80 microprocessor. This was used in many home computers of the early 1980s
like the Dick Smith System 80 which was my first computer.
The z80 CPU is an 8-bit microprocessor (1976)
It was also common in military applications, musical equipment,
such as synthesizers, and in the computerized coin operated video games of the
late 1970s and early 1980, the arcade machines or video game arcade cabinets.
Synthesizers that used the Z80 include: Roland Jupiter 8,
Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 & 10,
Sequential Circuits Prophet 600, Roland MC4,
E-mu 4060, Roland MSQ700, Oberheim OB-8,
MemoryMoog, Emulator I and II, Akai 2700, E-mu SP-1200, E-mu Drumulator,
Sequential Circuits Drumtraks.
13. Texas Instruments TMC0281 Speech Synthesizer (1978).
The TMC0281 was the world's first single-chip speech synthesizer
14. Intel 8088 Microprocessor (1979).
It's a 16 bit CPU that established what is today known as the x86 architecture.
Almost all the world’s PCs are built around CPUs that can claim the 8088 as an ancestor.
15. Motorola 68000 (1980). 16-bit.
Initially this powered Unix servers and workstations but its
breakthrough application was the Apple Macintosh in 1984.
The processor also saw significant use in the Atari ST and Amiga computer lines.
The Buchla 700 used this processor in 1978.
The Atari ST was used to write the Buchla 700's software (called MIDAS VII).
16. Texas Instruments TMS32010 Digital Signal Processor (1983)
17. Intersil ICL8038 Waveform Generator (circa 1983).
The chip generates sine, square, triangular, sawtooth, and pulse waveforms
It's used in the Moog Synth. It's great for DIY function generators and theremins.
18. Acorn Computers ARM1 Processor (1985)
More than 10 billion ARM cores have been manufactured over the decades.
It's used in all sorts of equipment including one of Apple’s iPhone.
19.
Toshiba NAND Flash Memory (1989).
Designer: Masuoka-san.
NAND flash is found everywhere... USB drives, caneras, smartphones, etc etc
20. Microchip Technology PIC 16C84 Microcontroller (1993)
The PIC 16C84, used a new type of memory called EEPROM
(electrically erasable programmable read-only memory).
21. AMD Opteron 240 (2003)
This marked the move from a 32-bit world to 64-bit.
All desktop-PC microprocessors manufactured today use Opteron's x86-64 instruction set.
You will find this type of memory used in lots of drum machines from the 90's
This is by no means a full or comprehensive list of important or useful ICs. There are many more to list.
