Solid state oscillator ic's

[Will Reeve]

Hi all,
The monthly Maxim sales blurb dropped on my mat this morning and caught my eye.

I am stuck in the dark ages and still use a crystal to clock 99% of my PIC applications, but there appears a better way: Fixed-Frequency Silicon Oscillators with built in reset circuits. They caught my eye as they are small, cheap and low power. Are any of you guys using these or something similar? The best one appears to be the 5-SOT23 packaged MAX7376 which isn�t out yet, however the MAX7378 is similar. I can�t see any downside, apart from switching it on and off when the PIC is sleeping may be difficult, although there is an enable line.

Will

[Steve H.]

Single sourced (I remember not being able to get much during the 'Peak') and the +/- 2% initial + 50 ppm/Deg C makes it just borderline for reliable RS232 (If you figure you need better than 6% accuracy on both ends combined) if the PC has 1/2 the error budget and the PIC the other half. But very cute and they are right about the humidity issues and it is combined with a reset generator, etc.

Overall it looks useful....

Thanks for the lead I missed this one.

Steve H.