September 5, 2009

dear analog ic designers

Dear Analog IC Designers,

I know you think it’s terribly clever to squeeze 20 features into an 8-pin package, but please—PLEASE!—stop combining other functions (standby, shutdown, etc.) with the inverting input pin. You probably think it’s totally cool if the current flowing through my loop compensator briefly triggers overvoltage protection at turn-on. But did you think that, because of the clever way I’m using your chip, it prevents the damn supply from coming up at cold temperatures? Of course you didn’t!

Freddie (September 8, 2009)

Problem solved! Well done Scotticus, well done.
rsw (September 9, 2009)

C’mon now, Scott. We have to justify our existence somehow. Plus, we probably felt just as clever when adding that last feature as you did when discovering how to do something we never intended.

If it’s something that really should work and the part is just subtly broken, complain to your local FAE about it, or email the apps guys at HQ. Maybe they’ll read your email and think you’re totally insane for wanting to do whatever it is you’re doing, but probably if it’s a nice clever thing that other people would also want to do they’ll help you get it working.

(Also, “we” is a bit strange since the parts I work on don’t really fall into the category you’re discussing here—they’re usually 50 pins and have an embedded DSP, dozens of op-amps/DACs/ADCs/&c, and two or three dc/dc converters—but there it is.)
Fred (September 28, 2009)

Dude. It sux. Expecially when TI gets to have 16 pins to try and think of everything under the sun. Yikes. You spend most of the time disabling most “features.”