>> Dallas Semiconductor has a small-order desk that will take 1-10 piece
>> orders charged to credit cards.  Call +1-214-450-0448.  I've only used
>> them once, but found them very friendly.
>
>The number I've used is 800-336-6933 which is very convenient for the US
>folks.  The direct number is still needed internationally.   I've used this
>number a couple of times and found them very responsive and prompt.  Dallas
>is to be commended for providing this level of service to the "little
>guys."

[mount soapbox]

Dallas Semiconductor commentary:

Just to put in my two cents: I usually advise against using most any Dallas
semiconductor compenent (YMMV). In particuar, I had bad experiences with
their digital pot, their power manager chip, and ther real time clock (a
bunch of which I have languishing/sitting around in SMT if anyone's
desperate to buy).

[as an aside: when i first started dealing with DS, i too thought they were
a cool, small company, willing to proving service to the "little guy." but
this initial impression was eventually overcome by technical problems we
had with their parts, seemingly haphazard design of their software
protocols (look at the register arrangement for their clock cips) all of
which was compounded by unhelpful customer "support."]

In our last oceanographic instrument, we went through a prototyping run
using several DS components. We we also using a 6811. By the time we went
into our first generation, we had abandoned all the Dallas chips (still had
te 6811). Instead, we were using custom power management, and a Harris ICM
7170 RTC. The Harris part worked quite well. In particular (as I recall off
the top of my head), the Dallas parts would sometimes start, sometimes not
depending on the minute vagaries of the reset condition. It also took more
power and was less accurate than the Harris part. The communication
protocol for the Dallas part was particularly arcane, and just plain
annoying. Oh yeah, the Dallas part would only let you set these incremental
alarms (1 week max interval) while the Harris part let you set an alarm at
any set point. The Harris part was also a bit cheaper than the DS part, but
that could vary. Read throuhg the two data sheets carefully (and look for
oter alternatives as well, of course).

A little PIC vs 6811 commentry:

By our second (and present) generation of the ocean sampler hardware (which
must keep time for up to a year in a harsh environment), we had new
electronics based on the 16c84 in which we got to bag all of the power
management stuff (the pic takes so little power!) as well as the RTC (it
was easier to just do the clock stuff on the pic - and we didn't need to
sleep all the time due to power restraints). We went from over 150
components, to less than 2 dozen with a huge simplification in programming
(no need to interact wth the real time clock chip, or del with power-saving
through powe downs, etc).

[dismount soapbox]

-jory