On Fri, Oct 30, 2009 at 12:19, Herbert Graf wrote: > On Fri, 2009-10-30 at 02:04 -0400, solarwind wrote: >> Hey, what exactly are "counterfeit" parts and how do you know which >> ones are counterfeit and which ones are not? > > Depends. The simplest cases are binned parts being sold as "new", or > stolen parts sold as new. > > I've heard of some people actually taking parts off of old boards, > reballing them (in the case of BGA) and selling them as new (obviously > this only makes sense for expensive parts). > > I've even heard of some cases where parts are relabeled with a more > expensive part number, change a few numbers on say an MCU (many MCUs > have multiple parts in the same package, so if you take an MCU with 2k > RAM and label it as if it were a part with 64k RAM you can sell it for > more). > I've heard of even worse: I was told of an op-amp (I think?) that had been relabelled with the part number of a multi-GHz cable equalizer at a company I used to work for. Somehow it wasn't quite up to snuff. Another favourite of the shadier vendors is to change the temperature / reliability code, remarking consumer-grade parts to look like extended-temp parts, or even military-grade parts. -Randy -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist