Looking for a M8330 or a couple of SN74194's - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

29 Mar 2008

Dwight wrote:

...
   I expect that someday, the supply will run dry. There
are a few
 parts that are already getting hard to find. 74S38 are one of them.
  The ones that are really bad are the custom parts. The ROM chip
 for the KIM is a good example.
  I have a board that is waiting for a bus inteface chip. I watch
 but don't have a lot of hope. 
One can still find UV-201 tubes/valves for sale.  I expect to be 
fertilizer by the time that the world's source of TTL runs dry.  But 
even now, SMT and programmable logic has progressed far enough that 
some sort of accommodation can be made if one wants to mount 
components on DIP-sized PCBs.

The problems that I see are with the  very special-purpose chips 
whose function and pinout aren't well understood.  If you know what 
should be in a ROM, for example, there should be no problem cobbling 
something up that will work.  The problem arises when you don't know 
what the contents are--and the ROM goes bad.

Cheers,
Chuck