lm386 "no longer manufactured"?

[PRR]

> still "Active" under the "Status" heading. I take that as being (still) in production.

Corect.

"lifebuy" (lifetime buy) means however many you will EVER need, order NOW. They will do one last run to cover those orders, and then that's the end. (They mean BIG orders, like Mouser or the Air Force--- we punters have to rely on what our distributors order.)

When GE closed the Ken-Rad vacuum-tube factory in the 1990s, the Air Force realized they still had tubes in B-52s, no plan to change that. Say 1,000 tubes a year and maybe 40 years before all B-52s are retired, they ordered a box of 50,000 of each type of tube.

"Active" means no immediate plan to stop production. But this could go to "lifebuy" at any time.

However the chart ubersam posts *seems* to say the "with Lead" types are going out of style, lifebuy. However unless you CAN NOT handle no-Lead types, there is no reason to lifebuy today, the no-Lead types seem to be Active.

If you just piddle around with LM386, go ahead and get a dozen or two on your next order. They are not that expensive. Most of us will never use-up a dozen. By the time we know that, they will be out-of-stock, and some other DIY-er may buy them for what we paid or more.

Also note that the "best" '386s are from New Japan Radio JRC, who make them with care, not National (TI) who churns LM386 like generic canned peas. JRC is likely to keep the '386 products running a while. And IMHO it may be worth finding JRC 386 (particularly the NJM386B), even if you pay a little more.

And as EATyour says, if you want a POWER amp, any '386 is a sorry excuse. It was aimed at pocket radios (remember them?), but got no traction. It found its highest calling in Dial-Up Modems (remember them?), but that racket faded. It may live-on in answering machines, but everybody now uses the cellphone's message box.

Watch out for LM380. It is what the '386 would be if it grew up. (Actually a '386 is a pint-size '380.) A little harder to use, but much more power. And it has been out of production for years, so any you get now are probably made the good old way, not translated to too-new production setups.

[snap]

hold it, boys: lm386 is currently being manufactured ( = active ) : http://www.ti.com/product/lm386/samplebuy# in SMD though!
don`t worry, but improve your soldering skills!

Looks like the DIP8 is also available. Just looked at mouser to check, yup, still there.

there`s a difference between (still) available and (still) in production.

Correct. But if you look at the table the link directs to, the NOPB versions of the PDIPs are still "Active" under the "Status" heading. I take that as being (still) in production.

Yes Sam, you`re right - I totally overlooked those NOPB versions: unleaded RoHS compatible through-holers!
So they just stopped making the environment-unfriendly ones. Time to change the OT of this thread. /end of thread?