555 shirt is a conversation starter

[c4757p]

Sort of.

So far I've worn my 555 timer shirt to school twice. Both times, my Signals prof made the exact same comment: "I like your shirt. One of the greatest ICs invented. Did you know the guy who designed that died recently?"

Word-for-word. I think the guy's rehearsed this a few times...

I told him "Yeah, you said that last time!" and I think he took offense...

I asked him who it was (sorry, I didn't know, I'll do my penance!) and he didn't know either

[Wytnucls]

He did a great interview at some stage, saying that the 555 wasn't all that good and that he was amazed no one had made an effort to improve on the chip yet. (Hans Camenzind) (I had to look it up) (Swiss engineer with 20 patents to his name)

[c4757p]

Hmm. Not sure what he meant by "improve on it", would the ICM7555 count? Or did he want a completely different timer chip?

I actually really like the 555. It's good for a huge number of analog timing applications, makes a decent flip-flop in a pinch, has a sturdy output driver and works over a wide voltage range. I've even used them as very cheap boost and buck converters. I think it's a great jellybean. Sure, it's not used all that much anymore, but that's just because analog in general is often passed over in favor of digital designs for timing purposes.