Insane DAC price on RS Taiwan

[Hypernova]

http://taiwan01.rs-online.com/web/p/general-purpose-dacs/7592357/
That's about 18K USD



At the cost of the average annual income in TW this thing better come with a nude virgin who would plug it into the breadboard for you.

[Psi]

Happens automatically.
The big component retailers have a list of suppliers programmed into their computer system, often multiple suppliers for each part. So when it comes time to order they can pick the supplier with the best price.

The systems are often mostly automated, so stock levels and price update in real time.
Sometimes a supplier runs out of item X so the system automatically drops back to displaying the next cheapest supplier price for that product with active stock.

What most likely happened for that product is all of the suppliers have dropped off except one, and they're
- Hording their remaining stock and hoping someone will need it *now* and be willing to pay.
- A military/aerospace/medical supplier who do custom runs of components. Maybe ultra low power or with guaranteed specs etc..

[gxti]

It says "In Stock in the UK.", and when you look at the UK site the price is a more reasonable £142.73. Digi-Key and Avnet list similar prices of about $160 although they have no stock and RS has a stock of only 1. CDIP means military/aerospace, but $18K is still a liiiitle too much for a 12-bit DAC.

[Hypernova]

Maybe the thing is so fragile the TW office have to dispatch a special expedition to UK to retrieve it, holding it in their hand all the way while they take a slow trip by sea on the Queen Mary.

[SteveyG]

At least you'll qualify for free delivery. *troll* 

[AndyC_772]

Just for fun... who can find the most expensive individual IC anywhere - pricing error or otherwise?

I'll kick off with an Altera Stratix V EP4S100G5F45I1 FPGA from digi-key, a snip at at mere US$ 24,269.99 each with an minimum order of 3 pcs. And no, I don't think that's an error, the chip is a total monster!

[amyk]

AD's own site ( http://www.analog.com/en/digital-to-analog-converters/da-converters/ad7237/products/product.html ) says it's $116.86 USD in quantity 100. The non-military versions are around $20, so not a cheap IC either way.

I'll kick off with an Altera Stratix V EP4S100G5F45I1 FPGA from digi-key, a snip at at mere US$ 24,269.99 each with an minimum order of 3 pcs. And no, I don't think that's an error, the chip is a total monster!

No kidding... http://www.buyaltera.com/scripts/partsearch.dll?Detail&name=544-2637-ND

[Hypernova]

The most $$$ ones are probably the photo sensors for space telescopes, if you consider the massive CCD chips used on the Hubble you can get prices into six figures and beyond depending on how you do the accounting.



95MP goodness from Kepler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler_(spacecraft)#Camera

[johnnyfp]

That might be the most expensive, but can you buy one from digi key?

[andersm]

I'll kick off with an Altera Stratix V EP4S100G5F45I1 FPGA from digi-key, a snip at at mere US$ 24,269.99 each with an minimum order of 3 pcs. And no, I don't think that's an error, the chip is a total monster!

All programmable logic vendors have those, and it's always the largest members of the latest and most bleeding-edge family, right at the start of the product cycle. I've always assumed the yield at that stage is so low you're essentially paying for a whole silicon wafer to be put through production, and that they're essentially product previews for special customers like the oil industry, financial institutions, Three-Letter Agencies and the like.

Not nearly as exciting, but I've always liked this 31-bit ADC from TI, costing about $220@100 pcs. No free samples, the stingy bastards.