As pointed out above, TI disabled the email notifications because they were being abused by grey market vendors to buy up all the stock as soon as it became available.
Whenever someone here has mentioned that TI has parts in stock I've seen "out of stock" when I looked. In one case I think we looked ten minutes apart. Either the stock is disappearing fast or TI is only offering up the available stock to those who haven't bought in a while. Or there's a glitch in the system.
Tom
It appears to me the LM3886 is not out of production but TI did put production aside it in favour of their own class-D for undefined time. That's a pity because there is not a real replacement for it. It is quite unique in its protection design. I did use it for over 25 years now in many active systems and when not too severe abused it has proven to be almost indestructible.
How many times does this tread veer back to this conspiracy theory? Like any major semiconductor company, TI have a formal obsolescence process where their intent is announced ahead of time, customers are given opportunity for lifetime buy, etc. Since none of this has happened, i.e., it is still listed as 'active', the likely answer is that the wafer fabs and/or assembly/test capacity remain constrained as they have been for the past couple years.
I'm curious where you get that from.
When I worked at National Semiconductors it was my clear impression that active parts (i.e., current production parts, including the LM3886) went through the fab at a pretty slow and steady rate that probably matched pretty close to the run rate of the parts. There was some inventory to deal with surges in demand, but nobody likes keeping inventory. It's dead money. There were ways to get priority treatment in the fab but those priority slots were few and far between. The only time the fab was ever shut down was over the X-mas holiday when we usually had a forced shutdown to save money.
As far as I know the fabs are running at near 100% utilization. But there's only so much capacity. And, honestly, it does make sense to prioritize new products, strong sellers, and high-revenue parts when there's limited capacity.
Maxim is now owned by ADI so maybe you can start using their parts again...
Tom
Why is that strange? Could it simply be that they're slower sellers so what's being sold today is inventory from the pre-COVID days or from a fab run shortly after the world reopened?
Tom
From their representative those days who was not happy either with complaining customers. But whatever, checking inventory of the major suppliers of LM3886, in-obtainability is extended for another year. Looks LM3886 is becoming a yearly April fools joke
Pjotr, don't be desperate, the Chinese are always ready to supply whenever there is demand. On the contrary what I read on this website, called fake, counterfeit, shite etc, they are redesigned with two decade advanced technology sold at very low cost. I tried the LM1875/TDA2050, they are same, about $1.5/10pcs. It has unity gain stability, no Zobel necessary, and has lower dropout than LM but higher than TDA. Has no short circuit protection but has thermal. You can hear comparative to the LM original,
I also tried the TDA7294 genuine Sanxin, $1.5/pc, it has superior sound than the STm.
The LM3886 patents are now in public domain and any manufacturer can propose legally a generic version. The problem with the Chinese, they are selling original ones but defective, this is to avoid.
The LM3886 patents are now in public domain and any manufacturer can propose legally a generic version. The problem with the Chinese, they are selling original ones but defective, this is to avoid.
I think the minimum order needed for a fab production run has not been achieved for the 3886, it would be in the 100,000 unit range.
To make a chip, you have a lot of stages, and below a minimum quantity, it is not commercially viable.
TI is under pressure from the big customers, they are struggling to meet demand, all the finished goods are flying off the warehouse shelves.
In a situation like this, diverting capacity to stock up on a slow moving product, without firm orders, would be bad business practice.
It may take years to sell so many chips...
The posters here are asking quantities far below that.
And the main consumers have switched to Class D for the most part.
That is the main issue for the erratic supply, according to me.
The chip was used in powered speakers, TV sets, and other places, and some of those products, and their makers, are no longer around.
So, like I have said earlier, you can wait around at the station, or take another train.
There is a member here from India, he has said that Chinese 3886 copies are indeed available here. But so far as I know, he has not tested them.
The generic 1875 / 2030 /2050 chips are 15 Rupees retail, the TI 1875 is 400+ here in small quantities from big name suppliers.
If I am a maker, my volumes are at least 10,000 monthly...the cost changes drastically, I cannot compete, and the Chinese chips are pretty reliable.
No contest, you use the cheapest...just like Marantz, and Bang & Olufssen. At least these sellers are not claiming audiophile lineage.
To make a chip, you have a lot of stages, and below a minimum quantity, it is not commercially viable.
TI is under pressure from the big customers, they are struggling to meet demand, all the finished goods are flying off the warehouse shelves.
In a situation like this, diverting capacity to stock up on a slow moving product, without firm orders, would be bad business practice.
It may take years to sell so many chips...
The posters here are asking quantities far below that.
And the main consumers have switched to Class D for the most part.
That is the main issue for the erratic supply, according to me.
The chip was used in powered speakers, TV sets, and other places, and some of those products, and their makers, are no longer around.
So, like I have said earlier, you can wait around at the station, or take another train.
There is a member here from India, he has said that Chinese 3886 copies are indeed available here. But so far as I know, he has not tested them.
The generic 1875 / 2030 /2050 chips are 15 Rupees retail, the TI 1875 is 400+ here in small quantities from big name suppliers.
If I am a maker, my volumes are at least 10,000 monthly...the cost changes drastically, I cannot compete, and the Chinese chips are pretty reliable.
No contest, you use the cheapest...just like Marantz, and Bang & Olufssen. At least these sellers are not claiming audiophile lineage.
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I would never support counterfeiting no matter how cheap or how good they're instead i'll look for good 2nd source like UTC or KEC made components if availability of original product is a problem. Recently i purchased UTC TDA2050 & their price is next to nothing but reliability is guaranteed.
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which country Store was it, I had checkk USA yesterday but it emptyLM3886 current variants avaialble at TI website and looks like stocked in small quantities... correct for today anyway