How TI could push proprietary part types into a growing but otherwise well-defined market is a bit of a head-scratcher for someone like me who sees a lot of glamour and volume in market-focused devices like modem and disk-drive chips. But analog companies like Maxim Integrated Products and Linear Technology Corp. are easily bringing out three or four new products a week. Those companies show steady growth and profitability doing building blocks.

A recent visit to Burr-Brown and LTC showed where the analog mind is focused: on a careful attention to small, but sometimes meaningful specs. I'm not one to drool every time somebody shaves a microvolt from the input offset of an op amp. But if you sit with technologists like Howard Skolnik, strategic planning manager over at Burr-Brown, or Bob Dobkin, vice president of engineering at Linear Technology-guys who clearly love this stuff-you'll find your enthusiasm for analog rekindled.

One of the tricks, said Skolnik, is to start with a part type you know and love-then make it better. The guy touched a nerve: I had switched career directions and joined Signetics 20 years ago because I was in love with a low-noise audio op amp, the NE5534. Skolnik wowed me with a part he has just introduced: the OPA227, a cross between the NE5534 audio op amp and the classic OP27 precision measurement device. (You audiophiles: Think of the bass response on this one!)

LTC's Dobkin similarly tickled my fancy with his company's LTC2400, a micropower 24-bit sigma-delta A/D converter, geared for weigh stations. Sheer analog cleverness reduced the size of this device down to 10,000 mm2 in 2-micron CMOS.

Dobkin reminded me of what happens to overly specialized analog parts in fast-growth markets. "We don't want to do a part," he said, "that takes off and crashes."