Dallas Semiconductor, acquired by
Maxim Integrated
Maxim Integrated, a subsidiary of Analog Devices, designs, manufactures, and sells analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the automotive, industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. Maxim's product portfolio includes p ...
in 2002 for $2.5 billion, was a company that designed and manufactured analog, digital, and mixed-signal
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
s (
integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...
s, or ICs). Its specialties included communications products (including T/E and
Ethernet
Ethernet () is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...
products),
microcontroller
A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable i ...
s, battery management, thermal sensing and thermal management,
non-volatile random-access memory
Non-volatile random-access memory (NVRAM) is random-access memory that retains data without applied power. This is in contrast to dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and static random-access memory (SRAM), which both maintain data only for as lon ...
, microprocessor supervisors, delay lines, silicon oscillators, digital
potentiometer
A potentiometer is a three-terminal resistor with a sliding or rotating contact that forms an adjustable voltage divider. If only two terminals are used, one end and the wiper, it acts as a variable resistor or rheostat.
The measuring instrume ...
s, real-time clocks, temperature-compensated
crystal oscillator
A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses a piezoelectric crystal as a frequency-selective element. The oscillator frequency is often used to keep track of time, as in quartz wristwatches, to provide a stable cloc ...
s (TCXOs),
iButton
1-Wire is a device communications bus system designed by Dallas Semiconductor Corp. that provides low-speed (16.3 kbit/s) data, signaling, and power over a single conductor.
1-Wire is similar in concept to I²C, but with lower data rates and ...
, and
1-Wire products.
History
The company, based in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...
, was founded in 1984 and purchased by
Maxim Integrated Products
Maxim Integrated, a subsidiary of Analog Devices, designs, manufactures, and sells analog and mixed-signal integrated circuits for the automotive, industrial, communications, consumer, and computing markets. Maxim's product portfolio includes p ...
in 2001. Both the Maxim and Dallas Semiconductor brands were actively used until 2007. Since then, the Maxim name has been used for all new products, though the Dallas Semiconductor brand has been retained for some older products, which can be identified by "DS" at the beginning of their part numbers, for example the 1-Wire communications protocol devices.
Notable products by the company included the DS80-series microcontrollers with
8051 instruction set. As of June 2021, devices are still under active production by Maxim Integrated.
References
External links
*
Vin Prothro (CEO & founder)
{{Authority control
Semiconductor companies of the United States
Manufacturing companies based in Dallas
American companies established in 1984
Computer companies established in 1984
Electronics companies established in 1984
Manufacturing companies established in 1984
Defunct manufacturing companies based in Texas