>> TI TTL Data Book (vol 2). Cover's got some curling edges, 
>> but otherwise in
>> good condition. Just pick up the shipping cost (~$3 for 
>> media mail in the
>> U.S.) and it's yours.

> I guess that most/all of that info is available
> in the online PDF data books. As a collectors
> items maybe...

Yes.
No definitely not.

Some people still find that occasionally a "real" book 
serves a need better than online alternatives. It may depend 
on how much engineering one does.

In my case I had just such a need about 3 days ago.
I went and found my ?1989? National CMOS databook and spend 
a happy while poring over its pages. What I was doing was 
attempting to (entirely legitimately) reverse engineer a 
product developed for and owned by a client of mine. It had 
only one IC in it. All I had was a Protel PCB top view. No 
circuit diagram. No component values. No explanation. The 
task it did was a 'mongrel' one in that it used several RC 
timing filters and some analog/digital diode feedback to 
achieve a result which was close to what the IC designers 
intended, but only close.

I went through the data book comparing pins used to the 
likely ICs. I found perhaps 20 candidates out of hundreds of 
74Cxxxx and CD4xxx ICs but finally felt that it felt like a 
CD4017. BUT I only had the top side PCB view (and no 
component values). So there may have been bottom copper. And 
I could see no way of making a 4017 do what it must do with 
what was shown. So I went back to the paper book and 
searched again. 4017 still the best candidate.

So I designed a circuit in my head as I would do it with 
what they had and immediately realised that the PCB had an 
error ! :-) - a track went to an adjacent pin from where it 
was intended. Obviously the PCB image was not a production 
one.

AND:    The ability to use the paper book and flick rapidly 
between a LARGE number of possibles, look at pinouts of 
several devices almost simultaneously, juggle all open pages 
while looking at indexes by number and function and more, 
would have been far harder on any sensibly conceivable pdf 
based system.

It's not every day or even every year perhaps that one needs 
such books now, but they can still serve a purpose. I have a 
TI TTL databook as offered so I'll not be asking for this 
one. But I won't be giving my one away either.


        Russell




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