Iconic IC Designs, and a contest
In the history of the semiconductor industry, there are but a few IC designs that stand out as being truly iconic. Some of the chips that come to my mind are the 741 opamp, 8080 and 6800 microprocessors, and certainly the 555 timer.I can’t count how many times I used the 555 back in my engineering days. When I worked at TI-Lubbock, I only had to go out to the production floor and grab a handful out of the tester bin. (With permission of course).
Back in November, analog engineer and social media wunderkind (hard to believe, but true… as rare a combination as there is) Chris Gammell launched a survey through Twitter and his Amp Hour podcast to determine how “555″ should be pronounced. By the way… it’s Five-Five-Five, regardless of what anybody else says. Except for perhaps Hans Camenzind, since he invented the device.
I “met” Chris through social media, and was surprised to find that he had another rare characteristic. Like me, Chris became an analog engineer after growing up in Buffalo, NY. We became better acquainted when Chris interviewed me for his blog.
Like the chip itself, Chris’s pursuit of all things 555-related continues. He has launched a contest with its own website at www.theamphour.com, to see who can come up with the most ingenious design based on this classic timer chip. I would imagine there have been thousands of such designs over the years. A search of EDN.com turns up 89 references. I encourage all EDN readers to enter, but you better be good. None other than Hans Camenzind himself will be a judge.
Don commented:
The five-fiftyfive has the best hydrodynamic properties to stabilize my fishing lures. I catch way more fish now. (using the DIP package of course) All you need is a dab of epoxy and you are ready to go… 
Baskaran commented:
How about the 8052 BASIC - which can run interpreted BASIC. It was really amazing - computer on a chip in those days.
Mike Demler commented:
Alan, you make a good point. I say Seven-Forty-One too. But the survey results (http://www.theamphour.com/2010/11/11/how-to-say-555-timer/) were overwhelmingly in favor of Five-five-five. There must be something psychological about repeated digits.
Alan commented:
Personally, I’ve always called them “five-fifty-fives,” just like I’d call a 741 op-amp a “seven-forty-one.” Goes along with parsing 74-series logic numbers similarly, “seventu-four-hundred” (7400), “seventy-four-eighty-six” (7486), “seventy-four-one-twenty-one” (74121)etc.
