Baseball star and good ol’ boy Drew Ehrlich over at Maxim Integrated Products sent over a press release about two new RS-485 transceivers. Now, long before bluetooth and Ethernet there was RS-485, which is a multi-drop serial communication link, kind of like an RS-232 network. The new chips, the MAX13485E and MAX13486E maintain Maxim’s great tradition of high-ESD protected serial drivers. The MAX13485E offers ±15kV ESD protection using the IEC 61000-4-2 Air-Gap Discharge Method, and both transceivers provide ±15kV ESD protection using the Human Body Model. The MAX13485E's is slew-rate-limited, the MAX13486E works out to 16 Mbps. 8-pin microDFN or SO package. Pricing starts at $1.25 (1000)