POOR: Texas Instruments. It kills me to give them a negative rating, because I've had great success with their parts in the past. But like that other thread pointed out, of late their components have seemed needlessly complex and, let's be honest, sometimes even difficult to use. And while their spec sheets and app notes used to be second to none - they sought not just to tell you about their parts but also to educate you on the technology and mindset behind them - lately they've deteriorated significantly. It's just not safe anymore to presume that a TI part will be bulletproof, and that's a shame.
I got to agree on that, but really partially. Sometimes information digging happens in their datasheets but that´s up to an extent normal.
What totally frustrated me though was trying to use the ADS1274. The information on the datasheet would really leave you wondering for minutes,
and we had to actually find ourselves how to reset the chip. We had the problem that the power-rails wouldn´t come up with the expected order (they would come up pretty much simultaneously),
and it would output junk data. Found how to reset it and then it was a green light. But nowhere in the darn datasheet would tell you how to do all that.
Apart from that though, all their other datasheets are relatively good and on spot, haven´t used TI parts for a while now.
About their parts, some are top like the best, some eeehhh, let´s say better not have to encounter them. I got cancer trying to repair a BQ24735 based laptop, but like serious cancer...
Probably not the parts fault but datasheet information was downright insufficient for debugging. And the laptop implementation was pretty much textbook also.
Microchip started having very good datasheets, especially their package cads are really top and their library support is good to be there.
Although older parts did not get the treatment, some package layout data are totally unreadable. You can still find them from their site but pfff... It doesn´t take that much to copy paste some pdf files...
Another thing I love about Microchip is how I see that they combine AVR and PIC technology. You see that more in peripherals but darn they try to make the best of it.
Although their datasheets can be very massive. Have not tried many application note up to now, so I will not complain.
AD is winner winner chicken dinner, their analog is top. Never had to think twice when using them. I also used FET drivers and isolators, again no complains at all.
And I like their datasheets, they are not overwhelming, accurate and on point. Not much else to say.
Maxim is also pretty solid. Their datasheets can be a bit overwhelming but nothing out of nightmares. Their part portfolio is a bit of an odd ball sometimes, but if you have the application for them,
well... they can fit in quite nicely. Their 1-W stuff are nice, I don´t know if they progressed as far as they would have liked though. And one thing that pisses me off is that some of their best for
the job ICs do not come in a SPI variant. I2C is relatively slow, especially if you build an RTS. Or else you got to break the execution time between repetitions and that´s a nightmare.
I have used many other manufacturers, but didn´t spent all that much time using their products, or didn´t have to spend a lot of time designing around their products, so I will refrain from saying
anything else.