I suppose it always depends on how big you are, and how much you purchase b= ecause face it....no vendor has enough resources to handle everyone. I do = agree that when the National/TI merge occurred, I was nervous about support= and it has changed a little for the worse for me. However thru the years = I've made some good contacts in both TI and National and both FAE's are sti= ll with the company. These guys are the genius ones at least I think but u= nfortunately it wont do you any good because your not in the area they cove= r (Rocky mtn area). The sales side went a little sideways....the National = guy who was already stretched thin....got the TI accounts as well. Now its= worse for him, and I feel bad because there is no way one guy can cover it= all. However we still get pretty decent support from the disty's. The lo= cal TI rep had to drop the line as well. That being said.....there is the TI forum, where its moderated/monitored by= TI plus all the users. Check it out, might be helpful. Second, for another vendor have you looked at IR? They came in yesterday a= nd I never really thought of them for controllers, just FETs but they have = some pretty impressive parts. Of course nothing that can be hand soldered = anymore and tiny packages but depending on what your doing.... They also have an online tool for design http://mypower.irf.com/supIRBuck Another source for controllers that I really like is Micrel. I don't know = about the tools for them, I actually hardly ever use them, I just follow th= e data sheet as a design guide. And another is MPS, they have some pretty nice stuff as well. Good luck! -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of= veegee Sent: Thursday, August 29, 2013 10:38 PM To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Subject: Re: [OT] TI support for Nat Semi parts...ugh! On 2013-08-29 7:04 PM, RussellMc wrote: > AFAIR they started off with a separate switcher simulator=20 > (Switcher-CAD) which was rolled into LTSPICE. I do not knoiw anything=20 > about their phone support but, 'as they are still themselves' and have=20 > created an image and reality of technical excellence and superb=20 > support tools, I'd guess it was good. Regarding the phone support: they actually took the time to call me to ask = if they can help with the part I was sampling. I live in (near) Toronto, so= they had their Toronto guy give me a call. In a city of a few million peop= le, their attention to customers must be worth /something/. -- http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/chang= e your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclis= t This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may be privileged. A= ny unauthorized use, copying, disclosure or dissemination of this communica= tion is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please notify = the sender immediately and delete all copies of the message and its attachm= ents. --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .