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The Fairchild 9960 & Counter MicroLogic - DCTL

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AllTheGearNoIdea:
Hello All

I am currently repairing an old nixie tube timer counter unit made by the Advanced Instruments company here in the UK around 1970s vintage.   Not being very familiar with old logic families I came across some multi-legged T0-5 packages that I thought at first glance were op-amps. However it turns out they are a very early form of 1960 logic devices "DCTL" designed for counting applications and driving nixie tubes. 

In my search for information about these I found what I think is an interesting article about the production of these and have attached a PDF etc. 

I am currently making a YT Video about repairing the counter and if anyone has any knowledge about the DCTL or The Fairchild  Counter MicroLogic family I would be interested hear about it as an interresting side story to the repair

Many Thanks

Regards Chris – AKA AllTheGearNoIdea



Google Found This: The Fairchild 9960 & Counter MicroLogic

The 9960 is something of an odd device. It is part of a small series of ICs Fairchild produced in the 1960s called Counter Micrologic. The series included 4 ICs - a decade counter (9958), 4-bit latch (9959), NIXIE decoder/driver (9960) and a less-frequently-seen base-16 counter (9989). The series was intended for decade counter strings in instruments such as frequency counters and other digital meters. The electronic design puts the series in the RTL class and they typically operate with a 3.6V supply, although they are rated for V+ up to 5.5V. The 9960 has been found directly driven by TTL devices and 5V supply. The 9960 inputs sink 1.3mA @ +3.6V (high/logic-0) and open-circuit is equivalent to low/logic-1.
The ICs of this series may be confusing to identify as the labelling can vary in form. The 9960 for example, may be identified as type 960 or may have a longer label such as "F 996079" or "U6B996079X".

SnoopyPaladin89:
I'm working on a Heathkit with the same chips. I found a pinout for the DIP versions its not TO-5 but its a start

I found this while googleing the chips in the service manual.

http://madrona.ca/e/nixieref/


Edit: I found a scan of a 1969 Fairchild Databook  It looks like it has the chips in TO-5 and DIP.

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/components/fairchild/_dataBooks/1969_Fairchild_ch1-5.pdf


Alex Eisenhut:
Ouch, that databook cost 25$ in 1969 which supposedly is 176$ today.

Makes you appreciate instant free data, hm?

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