Modern equivalent of The TTL Data Book?

[jayeye]

How do people search for specific parts these days? I've been using Digikey's search feature for a long time, definitely since they stopped producing a printed catalog (!), but about half the time it's an exercise in frustration, and sometimes I cannot even find a part by searching though the menus even though I know the part should exist, since I saw it in someone else's design.
I also don't think the problem is that I don't know how to use their selection menus

Back in the mists of time, when I was a young lad, there existed such things as "data books". Not that there were many alternatives, but one of the benefits of having, say, every existing 74xx series IC in a single document was that one could eyeball the table of contents and discover parts that one did not know existed. Fast-forward 30 or 40 years, and I just spent several hours scouring www.ti.com looking for a recent document comparing all their technology families (the most recent one I found was from 2017, and it was missing some of the low-power ones), and *definitely* not a single list of all their parts.

Any suggestions?

How do people discover new parts that may have come into existence? Digikey's parts search feature is awfully buggy; 

[temperance]

Fast-forward 30 or 40 years

Many different logic series became available with all kinds of input/output configurations. Single gates, dual supply with partial power down options to interface between voltage domains, logic of which the inputs can be driven without VCC applied,...

For an overview on what's available in terms of specifications of different series there is this guide from Nexperia (Philips):
https://assets.nexperia.com/documents/brochure/Nexperia_LOGIC_Handbook_201029.pdf

But this book isn't complete and not all what is listed is available from other manufacturers. Some manufacturers offer improved solutions with a different naming scheme...

[shapirus]

there's also this wiki article, I find myself using it quite a lot when I need to use a discrete logic (or a mux etc) chip: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_7400-series_integrated_circuits

[MrAl]

How do people search for specific parts these days? I've been using Digikey's search feature for a long time, definitely since they stopped producing a printed catalog (!), but about half the time it's an exercise in frustration, and sometimes I cannot even find a part by searching though the menus even though I know the part should exist, since I saw it in someone else's design.
I also don't think the problem is that I don't know how to use their selection menus

Back in the mists of time, when I was a young lad, there existed such things as "data books". Not that there were many alternatives, but one of the benefits of having, say, every existing 74xx series IC in a single document was that one could eyeball the table of contents and discover parts that one did not know existed. Fast-forward 30 or 40 years, and I just spent several hours scouring www.ti.com looking for a recent document comparing all their technology families (the most recent one I found was from 2017, and it was missing some of the low-power ones), and *definitely* not a single list of all their parts.

Any suggestions?

How do people discover new parts that may have come into existence? Digikey's parts search feature is awfully buggy;

Hi,

Back when I worked in the industry, we had a big library of data books.  Some were very thick too.  I remember the National Semi TTL book was very thick and hard bound.

It's truly amazing how things have changed.  Some things were put down for good, but other things have popped up.  Because of this there is a sort of trade off.  We accept faster access to new data and we don't have to have a huge library sitting around, in exchange for loosing the convenience of having those books right there with us all the time.
I have accepted this and have thrown out many of my own data books.  It just doesn't make sense to keep them anymore.  There are far too many parts out there anyway to fit them all in a book or even a library.  It's almost like being a lawyer now ... lots of stuff to look up and know, and there are new parts coming onto the scene every day.  The internet is the only thing that can handle that kind of information load, and although it's not perfect it's usually good enough.

I had trouble finding maybe only one or two parts in 20 years.  That's a good track record for the internet.  Now theory, that's another thing altogether.  Some more advanced stuff you can't find online at all, and some other stuff is not accurate with a lot of typos and whatnot that screws up the whole reason for posting the information in the first place.  Plenty of room for improvement there.  I've found errors in a lot of stuff I downloaded.  It can be very frustrating.  I often have to start from scratch and develop the theory all over again myself if I really want to understand it, and that takes a lot of time.

[westfw]

The major logic vendors still have equivalents of the "TTL Data Book" and assorted selection guides.Here's TI "Logic Pocket Data Book" (all ~800 pages.  Hope you have big pockets!)

[MrAl]

The major logic vendors still have equivalents of the "TTL Data Book" and assorted selection guides.Here's TI "Logic Pocket Data Book" (all ~800 pages.  Hope you have big pockets!)

Oh that sounds very cool.  I kind of miss the old books but I do not miss the total space they take up.  I have perhaps 200 books stored away just so I dont have to keep them near me and take up so much space.  I only keep the ones I liked the very best, and some you can not get in digital form even now in the present age, so if I wanted to review something I'd have to buy them all over again, and prices of paper books has gone up enormously over the last 30 years.  A book I paid $30 for, a very good book on some theory perhaps, would now cost 5 times that no kidding, even though it would be a newer edition not much more would have been added in many cases that I really would need to know.

[donlisms]

My first unix manual was version 6 essentially from Bell Labs through Berkeley.  One binder, eight sections, and concisely written.  The whole OS was in there; everything you needed, and it was possible to be familiar with all of it.

I guess I'm just reinforcing the "times have changed!" concept!  When 74xx was, I guess, 00 to 99, and that was enough.  Or when Google searched websites, rather than searching searches of websites. 

[westfw]

I'm also not fond of the way that vendors currently categorize "logic."  TI, on their web site, divides "logic" into:     

• Buffers, drivers & transceivers
• Configurable & programmable logic ICs
• Flip-flops, latches & registers
• Logic gates
• Specialty logic ICs
• Voltage translators & level shifters

I think Digikey/etc follow similar schemes.  I guess that's not AWFUL, but I'm not sure where "counters" are, and there are some chips that I don't know whether I'd call "buffers" or "voltage translators" (although perhaps chips show up in both sections.)

It doesn't help that there are something like 32 different "logic families" these days, so even if you decide you want a 7474 flipflop, you still have a bunch of selecting to do.

I took the "pocket guide" and a PDF editor, and cut it down to only 68 pages of "pin assignment" diagrams.
(Unfortunately, the diagrams have pictures, so the file size is about half the size of the full document.)