5V and early ICs / was Re: TRADIC

[Brent Hilpert]

Christian Corti wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 8 Dec 2007, Brent Hilpert wrote:
> > The earliest reference for real ICs I have is a TI product catalog from
> > 1965. The first products mentioned are the "NEW! Series 54 TTL"
> > (SN5400,5410,5420..5470) (4.5 to 5.5V of course). The commercial 74xx
> > versions apparently followed a little later.
> 
> There are earlier ones. As you might know, the SN74xx family started with
> the SN740, SN741 etc. (only three digits!). After TI expanded this family
> they went over to four digit part numbers and just appended a zero to the
> already available parts. Thus the SN740 became the SN7400, the SN741 the
> SN7410 and so on. I have a TI databook somewhere that has the old part
> numbers.

Well, that makes sense to some degree, the 740 numbers conceivably following
on the 730 RTL numbers, but I have never seen or heard as you suggest.
It sounds a little more like a convolution of TI's developments. The
1965 catalog (which appears to be a full-line catalog) declares the 5400
series as new, it includes earlier/older IC series, and makes no mention of
either 740 or 7400 numbers or series. The implication from this catalog is
that TI went to the 4-digit numbers with the original and initial release
of the 5400 series. All the mentioned 5400 numbers end in 0.

A 1969 TI 54/74 series TTL databook makes no mention of 3-digit 740 numbers
in the cross-refs, although it does mention another TTL series with some 3-digit
numbers (SNG1xx,SNG2xx,SNF1xx,SNF2xx). If you find your databook I'd be
interested in hearing details.