Analog Devices DAC soup can from the 1970s
So I am writing a cute editorial about pranks for our April issue. I got talking to Bob Pease and he mentioned getting a soup can as a promotion from Analog Devices 30 years ago. He said his prank was to open up the can, fill it with seaweed, and mail it back to Dan Shiengold or Paul Brokaw over at Analog Devices. The prank was based on the fact the can was an advertisement for ADIs CMOS DACs (digital to analog converters) and Pease included a note: “Here is your sea-moss soup back.”
The sad thing is I check with Paul and Dan and neither can remember getting the can. Now we wonder if it didn’t blow up in the Post office and never got delivered. So I was telling the story to EDN consulting editor Jim Williams and he brightened up about 4000 lumens and said, “I’ve got one of those ADI soup cans.” Well I jumped on the Sportster and drove right over to Linear Tech. I took a few snapshots. Ahhh….the wild and wooly days of the semiconductor business. I wonder if we will ever see promotions like this again. Kudos to Analog Devices and thanks to Jim for letting me take a few snapshots.
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The label is faded from 30 years in Jim’s window office, but you have to love the creativity that went into this CMOS DAC promotion.
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Here is the left side of the can. It mentions that ADI has bipolar DACs to. This is probably still true.
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Here is the right side of the can. Let’s check out the part numbers: AD7533, still in production. AD7542, still in production. AD7541 seem to be out of production, Intersil second sourced it, but that part is obsolete too. AD7524, still in production. AD7523, out of production, same deal, Intersil second-sourced it but that part seems gone too. AD7522, not in production.
Wow, three out of 6 of these parts are still in production, and I suspect the others have pin-for pin cross-references. Way to go ADI, a good part is a good part forever. And if Paul Brokaw designed these DACs 30 years ago, kudos to him too, he must have done a heck of a job if these parts are still around.
[Update, Ron Dammann, senior staff engineer at Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center sent a picture of his soup can from the 1970s and a a mote, “Brings up good memories of fun times in the Valley. Remember the Keithley Digital Multimeter Paperweight?”
Alan Rich commented:
I still have that Soup Can! It sits on a piece of Ayers Rock from Austrilia at the top of my office bookcase next to my childhood Hardy Boy books, a Heathkit VOM, and an antique wooden automotive ignition coil and contactor.
Mark Nelson commented:
I think I have that Signetics WOM data sheet somewhere also. Plus a product announcement for someone's "Flame Emitting Diode" with a photo of a burning LED. Lots of fun back in the '70s when some companies still had a corporate sense of humor.
Al haun commented:
Great job Paul. I remember that mailer well, especially because one part was in short suppply and we drew some irate calls from customers. We also got a cease-and-desist letter from a certain soup company. Even funnier was the Cracker DAC ad where we put parts in a -- you got it -- a mock-up of a Cracker Jacks box. I believe the concepts came from Mike Stringer, one of the most creative ad guys I ever knew. Last I knew he was still active in the Boston area.
MBuse commented:
very clever
Edwin Pettis commented:
Texas Inst. is still making the AD7541 - DAC7541 is still in production but not recommended for new designs. I've got some of the older ones still in my parts drawers and a few newer ones as well, a pretty good part!
Harley Burton commented:
Does anyone remember the Signetics Write Only Memory (WOM)? It required a 5' fan 3" from the package according to the datasheet. I still have a copy somewhere.
smknjoe commented:
@ Barrie,
Must be Barrie Gilbert - only he would ask "what is this thing called CMOS?"
Must've been fun, working back in those days.
LostInSpace commented:
What??? 12 bits AND Monotonic??? What a breakthrough! (well it was 30 years ago)...
I remember the PMI 12 bit DAC that had a mark on the mask that said in essence: "Eat your heart out Bernie Gordon" Bernie was the president of Analogic (a modular D/A and A/D supplier) and he had said something like: "You can never make a monolithic 12 bit DAC" at Wescon the year before. So the guy's at PMI put that on their mask. What fun to see that in the data book. Then you spent an hour looking at all the other mask pictures looking for other fun things.
dc commented:
Several of those parts are still in production!
JTsantes commented:
Great post Paul. I think I might have remembered getting one when I was an editor with EETimes, but my memory isn't what it used to be. I do, however, remember the asparagus that AMD sent out in a wooden box around the same time. Still have the box somewhere. Promotions were a bit more simple and to the point in those days.
Barrie commented:
Sure, I remember those cans very well. Pity I didn't have the prescience to view them as
antiques in the making. By the way, what is
this thing called CMOS?
