AD9866 is now $40

[KG4ODA]

I recall seeing AD9866 for $10 on Mouser a year or so ago. Thought about buying few but did not. Looks like they noticed the popularity of this chip and raised prices to $40. Seems like price gouging. Perhaps time to start exploring other RF front end options?

[Clifford Heath]

More likely that the original high-volume users (ADSL modems) have moved on to new technology with a higher degree of integration, so the market economics have changed.

This probably isn’t going to get better. The chip could go to NRND at any time.

Clifford Heath.

On 19 Jul 2023, at 6:54 am, KG4ODA <lisan...@gmail.com> wrote:

I recall seeing AD9866 for $10 on Mouser a year or so ago. Thought about buying few but did not. Looks like they noticed the popularity of this chip and raised prices to $40. Seems like price gouging. Perhaps time to start exploring other RF front end options?

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[KG4ODA]

I wonder which DSL modems used this chip? Maybe we could start harvesting them from old equipment.

[Steve Haynal]

I don't think the ad9866 was ever $10 in single or larger quantities, although the price has gone up over the past year or two. I think Broadcom has the largest share of the cable modem market. What is now used is a complete SOC with ARM core and specialized processors. The parts and datasheets are not easily available to the general public. I think it would be difficult to impossible to reverse engineer and get the raw ADC/DAC data. I enjoy looking for alternatives to the ad9866, but still haven't found anything coming close to the features/price ratio. LNA, DAC and 80MHz ADC in a single package for even $40 is hard to find. Please share links if someone finds a good competitor!

73,

Steve

kf7o

[KG4ODA]

I don't recall exactly where I seen this price, it could have been arrow.com. It's possible I am misremembering things as well. I cracked open few modems and did not find ad9866 in any of them. I tried Arris SB6121 (2013) and Pace 5031nw (Att Uverse DSL). I did not really expect to find it, just out of curiosity. Looks like every one of these has specifoc SoC designed for the purpose and handles RF on the main chip. Maybe it's also possible this chip was never used in serial production modems.