First IC you came in contact with? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Blofeld
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 12:32:55 pm
content: Post the first IC that you came (conciously) in contact with. Either using it in a circuit, or (in case it was a microprocessor or -controller) programming it in assembly. I guess it would be boring to talk about an x86 that just executed the stuff you programmed in a high-level language.In my case it was the LM324. It was sitting on a socket (as can be seen in the pic) as part of the Kosmos E200 electronics kit (year was 1980).

author: mikeselectricstuff
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 12:40:14 pm
content: LM3909 LED flasher. This was back when LEDs were cool, flashing ones more so, especially from a 1.5v battery!

author: niflheimer
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 12:59:54 pm
content: 555 timer.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:06:35 pm
content: I can't remember if I became intimate with the 6502 or Z80 first, though at a guess I'd say the 6502. The one I knew best and can remember most nowadays though is the 68000.EDIT: The 68000 was the first thing I ever took a soldering iron to too...

author: technix
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:11:16 pm
content: TA7642 single chip AM receiver/amplifier. Although that chip is in TO-92 package hence does not look like one.The first IC-shaped chip is 74LS00 and LM358 from a kit I owned in primary school.Then in college I am greeted with the antithesis of TA7642 packaging: IRF7401, which is a single MOSFET in a chip-like SO-8 package.Nope I remembered the first chip I ever came in physical contact with: Intel i486DX. Ceramic PGA with a gold-colored cap and gold plated pins (ouchie)If the chip survives to this day I will try to design a board embedded style with that as its brain and boot a Linux kernel off it.

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:12:52 pm
content: First contact with: 1458.First penetrating foot injury from: 1458 (about an hour later)

author: deephaven
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:18:28 pm
content: TO5 canned logic can't remember if they were RTL or DTL. Could only get JK flip flops and 2 input NOR gates. I made a 625 line SPG with some and also a caption generator using a load of reject 1N4148 diodes for the character ROM.

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:19:33 pm
content: Another vote for the LM3909., followed shortly by the 555 timer and various 7400 series logic chips. All found on the pegboards at the local Radio Shack in the late 70s.

author: philipz
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:22:27 pm
content: When I was young (35 years ago) I made for my bicycle siren with SN7400.

author: Blofeld
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 01:28:24 pm
content: Quote from: Mechanical Menace on May 14, 2015, 01:06:35 pmIn my case it was the 6510 that was used in the C64. It was a close relative of the 6502.At about the same time I was drooling over a manual of the 68000, it seemed to be such a cool architecture. When I actually got a 68000 (inside an Atari ST 1040) a few years later there was so much distraction (I was studying EE, was learning Modula-2 on the ST 1040, playing with the flight simulator, there was so much free software for it....) that I hardly did any programming in assembly of the 68000. And I never dared to approach them with a soldering iron.

author: Mechanical Menace
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 02:13:53 pm
content: Quote from: Blofeld on May 14, 2015, 01:28:24 pmToo young to be know any better. I had a 520STFM and I got one of them 4 meg ram upgrades that came with a board that could take 4 1 meg simms, at the time it was amazing lol. I can't remember what but something hooked straight up to the CPU instead of the MMU and that's where I started.In the long run it ended up with a blitter, fpu, switchable TOS versions etc, etc. Still works to this day even if the keyboard and case aren't very well.

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 02:28:00 pm
content: It was in 1967 or 1968. A metal can op-amp (I believe it was a uA709, but I'm not sure, the UA741 came later), in the school lab.We built a log amplifier, and the teacher was screaming us: "this device cost an arm and a leg, so please be really careful".We used a socket, so the IC will not be damaged by our "fire sticker" soldering iron with pure copper tip, to be filed before each use, and then the IC could be saved and used by other students.Good memories..

author: Blofeld
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 02:52:13 pm
content: Quote from: ciccio on May 14, 2015, 02:28:00 pmWas this any sort of engineering school or a "normal" school? They never let us play with electronics in school. I have dim memories of handling an oscilloscope in class once. But I think we were just looking at the output of a signal generator, no memories of building any circuits there, I did all this at home. The school had, however, several Apple II, and we could not only use them in class but pretty much everytime in the afternoon as long as a teacher was in the building.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:05:28 pm
content: 7400, and none of your lightweight LS nonsense either, around 1976.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:06:15 pm
content: 7400. In high school, the digital electronic teacher started the class with a statement that any digital circuit can be built with nand gates only. The first circuit we built with the 7400 was a RS flip flop.In another class we learned about the 741 but the 7400 beats the 741 any day of the week. ;-)

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:08:32 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on May 14, 2015, 03:06:15 pmPah. You can build a 7400 with a bunch of 741s but you can't build a 751 with a bunch of 7400s

author: free_electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:14:44 pm
content: TBA120 MF amplifier out of a Barco Chassis 27 TV set , probably around 1978 ... was a grey ( not black) thingie made by semicron and had staggered pins.every schipmaker at that time made that chip. ITT , TI , Philips, Siemens, Telefunken , Semicron , Semtech , Signetics, Thomson , SGS you name it.Almost every TV set used this thing as IF amplifier and quadrature detector.

author: klr5205
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:16:41 pm
content: I THINK a 555 timer was probably my first but just for an afternoon hobby experiment at a young-ish age.The first chip I ever spent real time with was programming a PIC16F887. First in assembly, and then in C.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:36:10 pm
content: Quote from: smjcuk on May 14, 2015, 03:08:32 pmBut I can simulate them with 7400s ;-)

author: eliocor
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:37:23 pm
content: 7413 Dual Schmitt quad NAND for building an RC oscillator...

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:43:16 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on May 14, 2015, 03:36:10 pmWith 7400s built out of 741s!I think we're both losing this one

author: AF6LJ
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:52:26 pm
content: The Fairchild 709 Op Amp....

author: Refrigerator
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 03:53:36 pm
content: My first contact with an IC was when i opened my little tetris handheld console, the pcb itself was double sided with wide vias in which i used to stick random components from an old TV board i found in the garage.

author: Kibi
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 04:22:53 pm
content: My first was a plastic 741.I have a metal can 741 which I keep in a safe place.

author: Dave Turner
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 04:26:34 pm
content: 1968 IC-10 audio amplifier.A handful of second hand RTL logic chips in about 1967. Caused me to built a 10 Amp PSU because of their power consumption.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 04:50:16 pm
content: I remember as a very young lad playing with the very first widely-available transistor, the Raytheon CK-722 in a lurid blue plastic case

author: Seekonk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 07:32:16 pm
content: GE RA1 if that qualifies as a chip.

author: rolycat
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 07:52:47 pm
content: This Ferranti ZN414 AM radio receiver:

author: tautech
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:05:24 pm
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on May 14, 2015, 04:50:16 pmAC117 in a Philips electronic kit for me.IC IIRC 555

author: wemme
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:09:28 pm
content: I first had a zn414 also. Was in a dick Smith kit when I was a kid.

author: Silveruser
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:25:18 pm
content: First ics 7400 family, first CPU 8008 with RAM by the square foot?

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:27:02 pm
content: In the early eighties my dad already had a good selection of CMOS, TTLs and linear ICs, but one of the first IC-based projects was using a CD4011 from Signetics - a "perpetual" LED blinker, followed by sequential LED blinkers using cascaded CD4017 ICs.The first programmable device was a Z80 inside a TK82C from Microdigital (ZX81 Brazilian clone).As for the first transistor, probably a BC547 or an AC126 (on a Philips Electronics kit).

author: jlmoon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:32:19 pm
content: Quote from: ciccio on May 14, 2015, 02:28:00 pmFairchild uA709's, remember them well they were Round (~3/8" diam) with shiny black epoxy tops and white sidewalls with a index flat and had red and black printing and gold leads. I think these were the very first gen 709's that were ever created. I can't remember if the F8 processor was before or after my experience to the 709.

author: retrolefty
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:33:52 pm
content: Original 7400 series ICs in 1970.

author: AG6QR
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 08:47:52 pm
content: During my second year of college I came into fairly close contact with the Z-80 microprocessor (programming it in assembly using a Northstar Horizon), the 741 op-amp (tinkering with a Radio Shack kit for an audio reverb effects machine), and many members of the 74LS series of TTL logic (in a computer architecture class, with lots of labs, involving wiring together gates to make a CPU). I can't quite remember which of those was first, but they were all nearly simultaneous for me. The 555 was in there somewhere, too.

author: atferrari
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 09:07:34 pm
content: Coming from a successful building of a 80-40 m Xmtr with valves / tubes, after being given a non-working board (full of CD4000 CMOS chips) imitating the Big Ben (?!), I ended buying some CD4017 immediately followed by some CD4001 IIRC. Analog multimeter to understand what high and lows were. Totally confused when I heard that they used a "clock" to work.My 1st micro programmed manually in Assembler, the Z80 inside a Timex Sinclair 2068. My first micro programed on a protoboard, an 8052 driving a 2x16 LCD. My first micro programmed soldered to something, a 16C57.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 09:17:17 pm
content: 74001985 - 11 years old.Sole supplier of parts and tools: Radio ShackSole supplier of information: Radio Shack and the public library.

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 10:39:11 pm
content: Quote from: smjcuk on May 14, 2015, 03:08:32 pmBelieve it or not, you can operate TTL logic with resistive feedback from the output to the input to bias a gate to act as an analog amplifier. Never tried it, but details are in the AoE(?).Another chip I have fond memories of playing around with was the SN76477 analog synth-on-a-chip. Could make some pretty funky sounds with one of those. There was a later simplified version in a 16 pin package the SN94281.

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 10:52:43 pm
content: Quote from: N2IXK on May 14, 2015, 10:39:11 pmThat's my weekend project sorted

author: JacquesBBB
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 14, 2015, 11:18:37 pm
content: If I do not count computers, where I was not directly in contact with the IC, even if I could program the 6800 in assembly language, the first IC I directly came into contact is theAtmega328, in an Arduino UNO, only a little bit more than two years ago.I was surprised to see how simple it was to interface with this IC through the arduino IDE.

author: GreyWoolfe
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 12:55:24 am
content: My first chip that I physically touched was an AMD 486 chip when I built my first computer instead of patching up hand me downs with hard drives and memory. I paid a fortune for 2-4MB ram chips. That was a good little computer in it's day. The first chip in circuit at ITT Technical Institute was a 555. I used a 556 for a siren/ flashing LED circuit for my first quarter project using blue LED's that cost about $2 USD each (6 of them) and built the circuit into a Ohio State Trouper Interceptor model that had 4 LEDs on the roof, 2 in the headlights and 2 red for the tail lights.

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 01:17:25 am
content: As I remember it back in the mid 70s I was in denial about ICs, it wasn't proper electronics, a bit like these days Lego isn't proper Lego because of all the specially fabricated parts, it's cheating!

author: ludzinc
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 01:34:11 am
content: 555 *AND* 4017 counter.Dick Smith Electronic Dice kit.Best 13th birthday present ever. (Also came with crappy mains cord soldering iron, and moving coil multi-meter).

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 02:16:48 am
content: 1968 in high school. Our physics teacher obtained a quantity of Motorola MC790 series RTL chips in those new fangled plastic 14 and 16 pin DIPs. There were NOR gates, inverters and JK flip-flops. We made some interesting things with those.

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 03:15:25 am
content: Quote from: coppice on May 15, 2015, 02:16:48 amWere those the steam powered chips?

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 03:17:22 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on May 15, 2015, 03:15:25 amNo. 3.6V powered chips, like all the cool modern stuff.

author: hans
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 04:22:21 am
content: 555 timer + 4017 logic ic.

author: Richard Head
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 06:18:08 am
content: +1 for ZN414. It was like a crystal set on steroids. I built it into a "Tic-Tac"box. That was early 70's.

author: Tandy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 08:48:20 am
content: This thread raises an interesting related question of how you got started and for many it will be the opposite way round today compared to 20 or 30 years ago. I started out with simple circuits and took a while to before I first got to experiment with an IC. For me; like many it was a 555 timer, at school in fact.Now people are likely to do it the other way round, start out with a microcontroller board to do something interesting and then later progress to learning about fundamental electronic principles as their interest develops.

author: atferrari
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 09:28:14 am
content: Quote from: Dave Turner on May 14, 2015, 04:26:34 pmAs much as TTL, Dave, or even more? Never used them.I started with CMOS and almost immediately bought a masive list of TTLs.

author: daneck
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 10:05:25 am
content: If they qualify as "ICs", then the Raytheon CK722 and the GE 2N107 transistors, used to build various radio receiver circuits.Then much later, got back into electronics and built a microcomputer using the MOS Technology 6502 and associated 6551 ACIA (serial) chip along with a blazing 1K bytes of static memory, all wire-wrapped. It had a real front panel with LEDs so you could see the machine language input bytes and the resulting output when running.

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 10:43:53 am
content: Quote from: Blofeld on May 14, 2015, 02:52:13 pmThis was an ITI (Istituto Tecnico Industriale): a technical high school that has the first two years common to all students and the next three years with a very strict specialization. My school had: Mechanical Engineering, Thermotechnical Engineering, Radio Communications and (mine) Nuclear Energy. There was another school in the same city that had Industrial Chemistry and Industrial Electronics.They were good school, very formative and very selective (my class had 31 students at 3rd year and only 18 arrived at the diploma).People with ITI degree are the basis of all the industry of my province (Modena) which is the center of Italy's Motor Valley (Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Zonda Pagani, De Tomaso, Moto Morini, Ducati) and of the Sassuolo's ceramic tile district.The ITI diploma was equivalent to a lyceum diploma, giving access to the University.

author: Blofeld
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 01:57:41 pm
content: Quote from: Richard Crowley on May 14, 2015, 04:50:16 pmQuote from: daneckI really wouldn't call them IC's, but doesn't matter, the CK722 is so far the component that has surprised me most in this thread. I'm (very roughly) aware of the history of the early (monolithic) Op Amps. But I had no clue that years earlier one humble transistor had whole books devoted to him like "Transistor Applications" from Raytheon - "More than 50 practical circuits using Raytheon CK722 transistors". That's quite amazing.So it was pure ignorance from my side, if I had known that people would remember their first transistor I would have called the thread "Your first semiconductor" or something. Or, even better, should have included tubes too.

author: deephaven
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 03:52:32 pm
content: In that case:First transistor - Red SpotFirst valve (tube) EF91

author: PE1RKI
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 08:46:41 pm
content: my first was the zn415 which i blew up immediately.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 15, 2015, 11:46:24 pm
content: First semiconductor: 1n34 diode (crystal radio)First transistor: oc71 (scratch the black paint and you have a light detector)

author: Dave Turner
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2015, 03:54:50 pm
content: Atferrari - As far as I recall the RTL logic ran at about 3.6v and varied from 6 to 40mA per chip but as they weren't as sophisticated as the 7400 series you tended to need more chips.Have a look athttp://www.tinaja.com/ebooks/rtlcb.pdfAs for first transistor that would be an OC71 - and valve EC91.Dave

author: gibbled
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2015, 04:09:00 pm
content: Lm3909 from radio shack in 76 or 77. Soldered up on a fragment of veroboard, it blinked an led for what seemed like years on a aa cell. I was not even a teenager at the time, lol.

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 16, 2015, 05:11:00 pm
content: So now that the definitions are being tugged around.First "integrated circuit" would have to be something like the 6M11 tube. Two triodes and a pentode in the same vacuum envelope.First transistors would be the Raytheon fellow used in a Philco two transistor radio kit. The start of the transistor wars. (My radio has more transistors than yours. The tube war was basically over, with the bulk of common receivers using the same family of five tubes.)First silicon ICs were a Fairchild 709 and some forgettable RTL logic that came in a exploration kit - had quartz crystals (both packaged and raw quartz), a thermistor, some ICs and power transistors, a couple of microswitches and some other stuff I have forgotten now. It was sold at the university book store, and from todays perspective I can say that the logic was very similar to Apple selling in campus bookstores today. The vendors of the various products in the kit wanted to hook young engineers on their brands early.

author: N2IXK
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 01:57:09 am
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on May 16, 2015, 05:11:00 pmThe 6M11 and the other Compactrons were just multi-section tubes. Completely independent sections, with no connections between them. The 12 pin base just allowed more sections within one envelope than were possible in 8 or 9 pin tubes.The first real "integrated circuit" probably was one of the Loewe series of "multi-valves", which incorporated resistors and capacitors inside the vacuum envelope along with 3 active triodes to form a "radio in a bottle":http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/loewe.htmlhttp://www.radiomuseum.org/tubes/tube_3nf.html

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 02:35:55 am
content: Quote from: N2IXK on May 17, 2015, 01:57:09 amTube array?

author: ivaylo
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 06:35:41 am
content: K140UD1A (hmm ok, can't type cyrilic here), must have been like 1982, built this radio with ithttp://radiostorage.net/?area=news/1729

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 08:57:19 am
content: Sinclair IC 10 amplifier, The IC was made by Plessey but badged Sinclair. The thing never worked properly if at all, was supposedly rated at ten watts but more like 1 watt in reality. I lost count of the number of times I took it back to the Sinclair office on Newmarket Road Cambridge where they would just chuck it in a bin in front of me and hand me another one. This was around 1969 or 1970.

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 10:20:31 am
content: Thats every Sinclair product - they beat the Chinese to low quality by about 20 years

author: Blofeld
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 11:24:42 am
content: Quote from: smjcuk on May 17, 2015, 10:20:31 amThe same guy who built the ZX81? That thing was awesome. Only reason I didn't buy it was the membrane keyboard. I had just learned how to type (more or less correctly) on my mothers electrical typewriter and it was great fun. So I didn't want to use this mini-keyboard, and got the C64 some time later.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 11:41:25 am
content: I have a NOS Sinclair amplifier, I am scared to actually power it up, it might actually work, though there is more probability it will just catch fire. Newmarket transistors third grade QC rejects were the device of choice. They were scooped from the dumpster and checked again, if they were not too leaky ( ie they weren't a dead short with 12V applied) and had a large signal gain of more than 2 they were used.

author: Dave Turner
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 17, 2015, 11:33:19 pm
content: I wax philosophical!When you think about it doesn't really matter what the 'first' of anything one used was, other than to fix a point in time which really only shows your age. Although I like to think that I grew up with the true start of the microelectronic revolution; arguably the space race in the 60's.What's more to the point is where do we, and later generations, go from here? It's way past the point where one could 'know' everything relevant about a subject (in electronics or anything else). 90's script kiddies, current hackers. are generally exploitations of weaknesses not true innovations.Most of what is seen in electronics today by the majority are 'advances?' in social media, not necessarily bad as evinced by this forum; or, more importantly, more efficient ways to do things. But it's not fundamentally new science. We can enjoy electronics as our hobby, work etc.devise new products and will never come to fully understand all aspects of the subject.I'm more interested in what our great grandchildren may have to say looking back at our time.

author: Richard Crowley
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 12:24:43 am
content: Quote from: Blofeld on May 15, 2015, 01:57:41 pmBut remember that it was the VERY FIRST transistor available to the general public. So using a solid-state transistor was a completely new area of circuit design, and we had to start from somewhere. And some (many?) of use learn best by studying practical examples to see HOW it was done, and then it is easier to go back and look at the theory to see how it was utilized in a practical circuit, etc.There almost certainly isn't anyone in these forums old enough to remember the similar point in history when the very first valve/vacuum tube became available to experiment with. There were almost certainly similar books/information available on valve circuits

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 03:22:49 am
content: Just happened to be reading a history of those first valves. There were books on how to use them, but the theory on how they worked as well as the theory of what you could do with them was much more poorly understood. By todays standards the folks who invented them, those building them, those using them and those writing the books had no real clue what was going on. One of the principal inventors thought that the actions was due to gases in the tubes. For the first several years they simply used trial and error to build functioning tubes/valves. Yields were in the percentage points. Good tubes were passed from hand to hand by experimentors. The books were more of - If you hook this up this way and fiddle a while interesting things will happen.Transistors were a new way of doing something that was very well understood. An emitter follower and a cascode follower are the same thing. The guys in the early tube era were real explorers of unknown territory.

author: Tandy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 02:29:46 pm
content: Somewhat related, information about the first IC produced.http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_689592?hootPostID=fd8eeb88a279893823ef32a7e2f2b209

author: icon
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 03:43:54 pm
content: Quote from: CatalinaWOW on May 18, 2015, 03:22:49 amA book? You couldn't provide a name, could you?ThanksJohn

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 05:24:52 pm
content: "Empire of the Air/The Men Who Made Radio" by Tom Lewis. ISBN 0-06-098119-9The writing style isn't great, and he clearly favors one individual (happens to be my choice also). Perhaps the most interesting thing in the book is the poor light it shines on the US legal system.

author: Tandy
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 08:02:49 pm
content: For a history of a true genius do some reading on Nikola Tesla, he deserves a lot more recognition for original ideas.

author: smjcuk
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 08:45:09 pm
content: Quote from: Tandy on May 18, 2015, 08:02:49 pmYes and no. He was completely batshit by the time it came to wireless power tranmission.

author: slurry
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 08:49:22 pm
content: I guess it was the venerable 555

author: VK5RC
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 08:56:13 pm
content: I vaguely recall it was either a LM3900 quad op amp or a LM386, the National Semiconductor Linear IC book was like a candy store.

author: fable
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 09:12:26 pm
content: TDA1170

author: tron9000
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 09:26:52 pm
content: it was either the 741 or the 555 - can't remember

author: Terabyte2007
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 09:46:25 pm
content: 7400, what else!

author: uChip
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: May 18, 2015, 11:22:18 pm
content: In 1972 my dad (a Ham for many years) worked out of an office building in Minneapolis. It happened to be the same building as the local Fairchild sales office. Somehow my dad managed to get the Fairchild sales fellow to clean out his junk drawer. Dad came home with tubes of RTL ICs, flip-flops, multivibrators and nor gates. About the same time dad bought me a "counter kit" at Radio Shack. The kit consisted of two 7474 ICs connected as a four-bit ripple counter, a photo cell connected to the clock line and pea lights on the outputs. I assembled the kit and learned to solder. The counter taught me about flip-flops, counter circuits and the binary number system. I bought another 7474 and a breakout board and increased the counter to six bits.Soon after that I wrote to every semiconductor manufacturer whose address I could find (no Google search in those days) and asked for a databook and any parts they would send me. Fairchild sent me a databook for a calculator chip set that was almost a microprocessor. Signetics and TI both sent me their 7400 series databooks. A kind fellow at Dialight (if I think about it long enough I'm sure I will remember his name) sent me not only a databook, but a selection of LEDs; individual lights in various form factors, but also a 1-character 7-segment and even a 1-character 5x7 matrix display. Later that year I met someone who worked at Memorex computers who gave me a 64-bit Memorex memory chip.So I think the first chip I handled was actually a Fairchild 9602, but the first one that I really made work was the 7474. I eventually did use the 9602 in a circuit as an oscillator, but it wasn't the chips that started me on my way. It was those databooks. I poured over them like they were the Sears & Roebuck wish-book. I read and memorized every datasheet. By the time I got to college I knew just about every 7400 series part by heart.Thanks for the opportunity to wax nostalgic. And thanks again to those generous souls who helped a young kid get started.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 06:42:53 pm
content: 3909, 555, 741, then an RF transistor.First Kit: P-Box Goofy-Light with the galloping neons, then a short wave radio P-Box, on which to this day I remember hearing BBC and WWV for the first time.Then some one showed me a helium neon laser, hence the user name and a career.Modern clone:https://youtu.be/7flDWmRwYYgSteve

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 06:58:25 pm
content: Quote from: Tandy on May 18, 2015, 02:29:46 pmThere is a mock up of Kilby's original lab, using his original equipment, in one of TI's buildings in Dallas. Walk down the right corridor, and there is a section of glass wall where you are looking into his lab. The research labs at the same site are called Kilby Labs in memory of him.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 07:01:51 pm
content: The first ICs I remember holding in my hands, and actually working with, were a bunch of Motorola MC7xx RTL devices, in about 1968. I had probably used a TV with at least one simple IC before that.

author: rfclown
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 08:05:48 pm
content: I don't remember, but likely a 555. Probably purchased at Radio Shack. Likely a circuit out of a Forest Mims book.

author: Syntax Error
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 27, 2021, 11:15:08 pm
content: NE555 UA741 4011UBE 74LS138 + a TDA??? power amp IC and a sound FX generator from Texas Instruments whose number I forget. All purchased from Maplin Electronic Supplies UK - remember their space ship catalogue?

author: ozcar
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2021, 06:15:13 am
content: I can recall making an FM receiver using an RCA IC, maybe CA3011(?) for the IF amplifier. I don't know exactly when that was, but probably after making the electronic dice mentioned in another thread here, which used RTL ICs.I made the dice 50+ years ago, around the same time as I invented the LED. Put enough current through a point-contact germanium diode, conveniently packaged in transparent glass, and yes, it emits light. It did not least that long, but then that gave me the opportunity to also invent the SED and NED (Smoke and Noise emitting diodes).

author: rfclown
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2021, 06:46:05 am
content: Quote from: ozcar on January 28, 2021, 06:15:13 amReminds me of a teaser Bob Pease wrote in his Pease Poridge column. If you zener the emiter base junction of a NPN, you will measure a negative voltage on the collector. He didn't say why until a later issue. The answer was light. I didn't like the answer, so I marched to the stock room at work, grabbed an NPN that was in a can package, cut the top off, and looked at it under a microscope.... Damn! Red light.

author: firehopper
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 28, 2021, 05:31:39 pm
content: Quote from: mikeselectricstuff on May 14, 2015, 12:40:14 pmsame here. purchased from radio shack.

author: rob.manderson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 30, 2021, 06:11:41 pm
content: RCA CA3012? Not sure of the part number any more but it was one of the RCA CA series, buried in a TV set FM strip in 1971 or thereabouts.

author: faraday
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 05:15:37 pm
content: My first IC from USSR

author: Ian.M
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 06:15:23 pm
content: I was anotherZN414AM TRF radio builder. The only thing that was noteworthy was the 'solderless breadboard' construction - nearly all the parts were connected by clamping their leads under brass screwcups secured by steel screws in a plank of softwood that had been boiled in paraffin wax so it wouldn't adsorb moisture. I also had a DIL16 socket to sprung terminal breakout board, as even if you contemplated butchering a DIP8 package IC it was obvious that it would be near-impossible to get enough screwcups round it without shorts!

author: nali
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 31, 2021, 06:25:51 pm
content: UA741, in the project "Brake Light Checker" in Everyday Electronics as a 13yo back in 1977, which I fitted it to my Dad's 1965 Ford Transit. It worked but back then LEDs weren't that efficient and it was hard to see the LED on the dashboard.Project is on p.39 of this scanhttps://worldradiohistory.com/UK/Everyday-Electronics/70s/Everyday-Electronics-1977-01.pdf

author: rob.manderson
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2021, 01:22:53 am
content: Quote from: coppice on January 27, 2021, 06:58:25 pmBack when TI had a presence in France (Nice) their facility was on Jack Kilby Boulevard. It was a little strange the first time I went there and discovered an indubitably English name on a French road. I've since learned that the French give credit where credit is due and aren't afraid of foreign namesAlas, TI seem to have sold off the facility and the road is no longer named Jack Kilby (or if it is I can't find it on google earth).

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 03, 2021, 02:02:45 am
content: Quote from: rob.manderson on February 03, 2021, 01:22:53 amIts quite common in the US to find a road named after a major company in that road - e.g. TI are in TI Boulevard in Dallas. Its very unusual in Europe, but naming roads after famous people is fairly common.

author: G7PSK
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 05:40:02 pm
content: The first IC that I ever used in a circuit myself was the 555, would not supprise me if it's the most common first IC build in the world.

author: Gyro
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 05:48:42 pm
content: Rather strangely, a TTL 7481 16 bit read/write memory, purchased in the playground at school.Edit: That would have been a few weeks after my first TIL209 Red LED.

author: paul8f
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 05:55:40 pm
content: Motorola 68000.Had many a college lab on these.

author: vad
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 07:28:27 pm
content: Quote from: faraday on January 31, 2021, 05:15:37 pmThat was my first IC too (it was К155ЛА3 if I remember that correctly)

author: Howardlong
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 05, 2021, 09:32:01 pm
content: 7400And none of that LS rubbish either.Edit: I see I already answered this thread 5 years ago with the same answer.

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2021, 09:00:18 pm
content: It was a Technical High School, from 15 to 18 years that graduated those who, here in Italy, are called "Perito Industriale Capotecnico" - sort of low rank engineers: the translation is " industrial Expert, chief Technician". I got a 5 years diploma in "Nuclear Energy". It is the same level of a surveyor.

author: m3vuv
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2021, 10:15:06 pm
content: Here goes,first ic was a 723 linear voltage reg that i built a 0-30v 3amp psu with,would of been about 1977 when i was 11,first transistor was a mullard oc71,early ones became the ocp71 if you removed the paint,the makers got wise to this then filled them with a pale blue gloop,i remember sticking them leads first in the spin drier of my mums twin tub washing machine to centrifuge the gloop away from the transistor junction,happy days lol.

author: Fraser
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 06, 2021, 11:14:43 pm
content: The venerable NE555 timer closely followed by the ZN414 AM radio ICDate ? ... around 1977 when I was 10 years old. Happy memoriesThe ZN414 was used to make a “Matchbox Radio” and it actually worked pretty well considering the short ferrite rod aerial. The ZN414 was a bit of a cheat solution as it made creating an AM MW radio so easy. I built others with just transistors.First transistor I used in a project would have been the Germanium AC128 in around 1975. The most common in my projects was the BC108 and sometimes the BC109.Correction: I just checked and my first use of a transistor was in projects from the Ladybird Book ‘Making a transistor Radio’ that my parents gave to me. That uses OC series transistors so they would have been the first transistors I used. OC45, OC71 etc. Still around the 1975 year though.Details of the Ladybird book radio project may be found here.....https://www.interestingelectronics.com/old/henrys_interesting_electronics/ladybird_radio/ladybird_radio.htmI still have that Ladybird Book to this day. It was part of my journey into the world of electronics and all that followed.Fraser

author: ciccio
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2021, 01:07:26 pm
content: It was what in Italy is called ITI : Istituto Tecnico Industriale. (Industrial Technical High School)A sort of 5 years technical Lyceum. When graduated, you are what is called a Perito Industriale Capotecnico (Industrial Engineer) Translation is not easy . Now the equivalent is a 3 year University course.There are similar schools for accountants and land surveyorsYou can work as a consultant or in a factory, or later go to the University.as I did.

author: magic
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2021, 02:52:22 pm
content: TLC3702 comparator with push-pull output to drive a FET switch directly.Oh wait, actually the first one may have been a harvested TL072 which failed work in this role due to phase reversalI have never used a 555 for anything

author: Jester
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 10, 2021, 03:54:13 pm
content: 555 timer, round about 1975?First attempt on a protoboard did not work, wiring error, I figured it out and 45 years later still tinkering.First components 1N914 and a something “micro-micro” farad capacitor for the am radio in my older brothers Cubs project book, I was really young maybe 7 years old? and my dad pushed me to find and call an electronics shop for the parts, I was afraid to call and fully expected they would not have them or that they would cost a fortune. I really wanted to make that radio so with my wavering voice I called J&J electronics ( yellow pages) and the owner was really friendly and pennies later I had what I needed. That’s what really got me started.It looked a bit like this, except I used a solid wooden dowel, and WW2? Headphones. It worked pretty well with the long wire antenna I ran from the house to the telephone pole in the lane. Remember those old telephone poles you could climb as a kid because they had the short steel posts sticking out the sides?