Analog/Linear EOL wave incoming?

[rssd]

Being hit from behind multiple times over the last few weeks by EOL notifications from Analog about LT(C) parts. This is so annoying. The same thing happened with Atmel/Microchip, where just a few weeks ago we ended one of our major transitions. And now it comes again.

Especially for parts with A LOT of time invested in making them work the way you want them to, or even worse for those with no known alternative existing.

Why?? Just why?

[SiliconWizard]

They are "rationalizing their offering".

[tszaboo]

Probably because they realized that they cannot sell buck converters/opamps for the same price as the target price of your entire BOM.
The parts are good, the price is bad. And instead of lowering it and selling 100 times more, they do like Zara and "burn the clothes".

[floobydust]

It's the usual consequences of the MBA playbook. Acquire companies for the illusion of growth. Then decimate and outsource everything, jack up prices and reap rewards for stockholders.

Analog Devices closed LTC's Hillview plant, laid off the staff, sell the plant/land. Then outsourced the fab and packaging to Asia. All the ref IC's. A terrible loss for quality, stock, flexibility and 100 other reasons.

This in a time when the Biden administration is fumbling around to on-shore semi fab, second round of subsidies.   
They should actually penalize some American semiconductor companies like ADI for doing this shit. Instead of lying that it's about "redundancies" and then spending $100's millions investing offshore. 

I also note ADI jacked up the prices on LTC parts. Nobody I know, including me designs that stuff into production now because of the prices. LT317 USD $4.81 in 100-lot as a primitive example. Hahaha.
What was the fucking point of the acquisition? Oh yeah max. profit and nothing else, screw American tech and manufacturing.

Vanguard International Semiconductor, Taiwan subsidiary of TSMC is now doing the fab. Philippines or Singapore for packaging.
We can discuss Maxim as well, they also got the MBA treatment.

[David Hess]

I also note ADI jacked up the prices on LTC parts. Nobody I know, including me designs that stuff into production now because of the prices. LT317 USD $4.81 in 100-lot as a primitive example. Hahaha.

So it was not my imagination that everything from ADI seemed to cost twice as much since the last time I looked.

[Kleinstein]

The shortage 2 years ago is a good excuse to increase the prizes and with less competition this is also easier.

It is no surprize that quite some parts go EOL. There are just a lot of similar parts from the old ADI, LTC and Maxim. In most cases there should be direct replacements from ADI, though maybe at a higher pirce.
Closing down a facility can also come with a few parts no longer available even if there is no direct alternative.

[David Hess]

Luckily Texas Instruments has better precision parts now at less cost, at least if their datasheets can be believed.

[floobydust]

Semiconductor pricing is pretty high, to me it looks like a bubble or a consequence of the Two Giants.
They've obsoleted many products and packages, BOM costs are really stressful now.  I can't justify $15 for that op-amp and neither can you ADI lol.
Add in the mess created by TI and ADI in their portfolios after these acquisitions, as well as the approach to outsourcing everything and Wall Street's greed mantra...
Nothing is stable - spec'ing a part, then wiped by the EOL wave.
Parts out of Asia are priced as expected, so it's really ADI profiteering that we are seeing.

I felt sad reading the PCN about the LTZ1000, LTFLU/SZA263, 399 etc. all being outsourced and LTC layoffs and fab/plant closure- all in the name of generating max. profit as quickly as possible. They were a legendary company, National Semiconductor as well. Fluke will also have problems, as their ASIC's were by LT. Goodbye  :'(

Will ADI put out top quality in their ADR1000, ADR1001 by outsourcing? We all know how that's going to go.

[SiliconWizard]

Yes, I noted that for FPGAs, but it's really a general issue with semiconductors, prices have literally exploded, sometimes close to twice the price they were a couple years ago. We're not talking about just a few %, but 100% or more.

Yes, LT parts in particular, they've always been pretty pricy (but good) before ADI's acquisition, but this is getting out of control.

[tszaboo]

Yes, I noted that for FPGAs, but it's really a general issue with semiconductors, prices have literally exploded, sometimes close to twice the price they were a couple years ago. We're not talking about just a few %, but 100% or more.

Yes, LT parts in particular, they've always been pretty pricy (but good) before ADI's acquisition, but this is getting out of control.

They have, but we are getting alternatives made in China more and more by the day. There are buck converters for 2 cents, motor drivers for 10 cents, microcontrollers that are 15 cents, and 24 bit ADCs for 20 cents. The same parts are also cheaper there. There has to be a wake-up call for the industry here, because we are not going to be competitive on the long run with their pricing.

[tom66]

I remember when I worked for EchoStar and we had set top boxes.  We started with TI parts for the DC-DC converters, but they jacked their prices up so we moved to Richtek who made pin-compatible equivalents for all of the buck converters we used.  I recall the BOM for one STB went down by $10.   Compete or die.