74hc0324 : anyone knows what that is ?

74hc0324 chip. has a manufacturer logo i have never seen before:

ascii rendition of logo

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No its not National semiconductor




sits in a 20 pin so wide package.

It might be a programmable gate array ( like a pal or a gal of some sort )
i searched with google and on the chipdir. nothing can be found.

74HC0324 ( seven four H C zero three two four )

thx,
vinnie

 

General rule #1 when trying to find docs on anything in the "74" series:
If there are more than two digits after the letters, lose any leading
zeroes. (IE, your 74HC0324 looks up much better when you hunt for
74HC324 - But watch out... a 74LS04 probably won't be found on a hunt if
you "trim" it down to "74LS4" - hence the "if there are more than two
digits..." phrasing)

General rule #2: When hunting for anything in the "74" series, pay
minimal attention to the letters in the middle - If you find it first
try using the letters on the device, you're doing good. If you don't
find it, try the search again, but try substituting "ls" for whatever
the letters on your device are (As in "74ls324"). Work your way "down
the scale" from "exotic" letters like HC/HCT (Not nearly as many chips
wear the "HC/HCT" tag, while umpty-dozen wear the "LS" tag) to more
"standard" ones, such as "LS". If you still don't find it, drop the
letters completely and try it that way (like "74324") but don't be
surprised if google can't find it like that, or finds way too much
unrelated junk. The letters generally indicate "something special" about
that particular version of a given chip number - LS = low-power
Schottky, HC is generally a "high speed" chip designed for some special
condition/requirement that an LS chip simply won't work for, HCT = HC +
something else I've forgotten, and so on.

If all else fails, a fairly large number of "74XXxxx" chips have pin-
and function-compatible counterparts in the "sn54" series - IE, a 7404
chip has a "cousin", "sn5404". You might get lucky and find a datasheet
you can use by looking for the sn54 version of the chip - This has saved
my hash a few times.

Applying general rule #1 failed for me. So I moved on to general rule
#2, and it looks like it's probably a VCO (Voltage Controlled
Oscillator). That's the good news. The bad news is that I can't seem to
pull up a datasheet for it anywhere, and I don't have any motivation to
hunt further, so you now know everything about the beast that I do.

 

Specific rule #42. This is a chip with a bogus number only used
in copy protect dongles. (Or so they say in the last half a dozen
times the subject came up here).

Mark Zenier Washington State resident

 

74C = CMOS
74HC = High Speed CMOS
74HCT = High Speed CMOS (TTL compatible)
....and it goes on ad infinitum.
My favorite is 74EH = Canadian, eh? :^)

Bryan

PS: L.S.M.F.T. :^)