As an electronics experimenter I would have to say the REAL eternal chip is the 555 introduced in 1972. It's become a bit of a meme: You could have used a 555 for that!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_timer_IC

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kjs3 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

It's become a bit of a meme: You could have used a 555 for that!

Unfortunately, those days seem to be gone. Now any time I see someone point out "you could just use a 555 for that", people are replying "I just threw an PIC/AVR/STM32/RPi in there instead...software is so much better than having to do math to calculate those R and C values".

	▲	crote 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		MCUs are just too cheap not to use them these days. They were always more flexible, are usually more accurate, and are often easier to engineer. With the price point now being roughly the same, it makes zero business sense to go for a 555. "You could've used a 555" is becoming the new "you could've used a punch card"/"you could've used a vacuum tube": true, but would that make it better?

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geomark 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yep. Just used a 555 today to whip up a low frequency clock source.

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fhdkweig 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

You can even make a rug out of it. https://www.righto.com/2025/09/marilou-schultz-navajo-555-we...

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tgv 4 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Or that opamp, the 741?

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rzzzt 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

How about that 8 sound effects IC with the machine gun, bombs away, laser pew-pew, siren sounds?

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dreamcompiler 4 days ago | parent [-]

76477. I still have one on a board around here somewhere.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Instruments_SN76477

	▲	rzzzt 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		I'm thinking of these ICs: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskElectronics/comments/a8af60/can_... One of the more famous toys using it (in blob form) is the Executor/Echo Keyller keychain: https://youtu.be/20W6AJuMjEk

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gzalo 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Related video: stop using the LM741 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e67WiJ6IPlQ

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amitprayal 4 days ago | parent [-]

LM324 or LM358 is the way to go

	▲	MomsAVoxell 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		AY-3-8910 or gtfo.

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5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[deleted]

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iberator 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Highly agree