back to article TI acquires National Semiconductor for $6.5bn

Texas Instruments has agreed to purchase rival National Semiconductor for $6.5 billion, a deal would combine two of the world's largest chip makers. TI said the pact would expand its portfolio of analog chips, processors that create a bridge between the worlds of analog and digital. Whereas digital chips can only handle 1s and …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Combat Wombat
    Badgers

    Welcome to...

    tech sector boom 2.0

    *sigh*

  2. Matt Bucknall

    Yay

    More supply chain issues to worry about.

    1. Michael

      nope

      TI have been buying up fabs over the last year or so. They have now got massive capacity. So it is more an issue of chip shortages for everything but TI parts...

  3. Charles Manning

    Digital Engineering 101

    All digital electronics is analogue - just driven to clipping.

    TI already has a good portfolio of analogue devices and interface chips. Perhaps they're really after IP.

    1. Christian Berger

      @Charles Manning Digital Engineering 101

      > All digital electronics is analogue - just driven to clipping

      Not when using ECL. :)

    2. Tim Parker
      Happy

      @Charles Manning Digital Engineering 101

      "All digital electronics is analogue - just driven to clipping."

      ..and all analogue electronics is digital - just averaged out so you don't see the teeny-tiny steps

  4. Efros

    Must be

    another merger that will attract the attention of various regulatory bodies in various countries.

    1. Robert E A Harvey
      Unhappy

      off the radar

      Even a decade ago no-one would have dared to imagine this. Now the importance of the component industry is lost in the glare from Intel, Apple, et.al, and the politicians are less likely to cut up rough.

      To their eternal shame.

      This deal is as significant as M$/Nokia as signalling the decline of the west. Lights out, lads.

  5. easyk

    complaint and company impressions

    "Whereas digital chips can only handle 1s and 0s, analog chips can read and process varying signals..."

    Did you think we didn't know that? Furthermore, like was said above, digital chips can be characterized as analog differential comparators: comparing the input vs a threshold.

    My EE impression of TI, gathered from talking with numerous laid off TI employees, is a company without a focus. I've seen that they have the best options for IEEE 1394 chips and 74LS04 in DIP packages. I don't imagine they make a whole lot of money on either of those. And lets not mention the shame that is their calculator line.

    National, though, has some products that really make an engineer's life easier. Their Simple Switchers are easy to design with. For me they also have some very interesting ADC chips that I would love to get into a research project some day. They seem more inovative to the casual observer engineer.

  6. david 12 Silver badge

    Why is TI doing so well?

    I've never used TI for anything. Nat Semi blamed the US Financial Crisis for their downturn: What is TI doing different that they have the capital Nat Semi doesn't?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      The troll is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

      Perhaps those little ARM/DSP chips that are used in some devices? I think one range is called OMAP?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "What is TI doing different"

      ARM-cored SoCs for mobile products (see OMAP*)

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Gates Horns

      TI has money because.....

      ....their legal department has historically been very good at making other people pay them for violating their patents. At one time their income from law suits and licensing was a considerable portion of their total revenue. I doubt this leopard has changed its spots.

  7. E 2

    LM3886

    Will this make LM3886 power amp chips cheaper or more expensive?

  8. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Unhappy

    But TI do DSP's and that neat flipping mirror video projector technology

    Both of which I suspect are fairly high margin parts.

    TI's 320 series for DSP were the must have parts, especially with built in telecomm interfaces.

    Nat Semi have not been known for any kind of processor for a *long* time.

    IIRC they both make LS7400 standard chips and their CMOS versions so I'll guess there's some room for consolidation.

    so plenty of room for redundancies.

  9. LesC
    Coat

    Bye bye Nat Semi..

    Anyone else here remember the INS 8072 SCAMP w/ 64k RAM & the 2.5k ROM ANSI Basic?? Cut my teeth on this device before the Z80 hit the streets. Lives on in PIC, especially with that handy serial output.

    Mines is the one with the ANSI BASIC manual in the pocket.

    1. Robert E A Harvey

      Blimy, yes

      I built a controller for a rising-quadrant receipt printer out of a scamp. I think it was a 8050 SC/MP-1. No stack pointer, no subroutine calls-and-return. Good enough though.

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like