On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 9:33 PM, Herbert Graf wrote: > Maxim has a WIDE variety of great, interesting and different parts. They > are awesome for samples. > > They are not awesome when you need anything more then samples and > anything less then massive numbers. > > Massive lead times (that get bigger every day), tons of unresponded to > messages. > > Because their parts are often quite unique it's almost impossible to > second source many of their newer parts (their more popular older parts > often get second sourced by other manus quite quickly), this is an > automatic "no way" for many companies. All the lead analog companies (ADI, Maxim, TI, Linear Tech) are kind of like this -- they offer unique parts. ADI seems to be better in terms of lead time and they are our preferred analog provider. And high performance analog parts are kind of very difficult to have second source, similar to the MCU case. > As a student/hobbyist Maxim is great, I'd highly recommend them. > Otherwise, I often think twice and end up going with another manu. > > Haven't used a Maxim part in a few years now. My experiences with Maxim tell me that they are getting a bit better now with the strong competition from ADI, TI (getting stronger with its National Semi acquisition) and others. We still use tons of Maxim parts but I tend to try to use ADI more often, then try TI and Maxim. Linear Tech is strong in the power area but TI (+NS) is catching up. --=20 Xiaofan --=20 http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .