Electronics for Beginners: A Practical Introduction to Schematics, Circuits, and Microcontrollers

Appendix C: Integrated Circuit Naming Conventions

The naming conventions for ICs can be bewildering at first. In truth, there is no official standard for chip names, but there are some conventions that are often followed. When a chip is invented, the company that invented it assigns it a part number. However, the courts have ruled that part numbers cannot be copyrighted. Therefore, if another manufacturer makes a similar or identical chip with the same pinout, they will often use the same part number.

C.1 Logic Chip Basic Conventions

Logic chips are often broken up into two families based on the voltage levels that they expect and produce. TTL (which stands for transistor-to-transistor logic) is an old standard for logic chips which usually ...