Similar chip to the LME49811

there is not a similar chip which would not be marked as obsolete, even LM4702 is obsolete although it sounds decent, not sure why it is obsolete ... build a stable amp instead ... LM3886 as an all on chip solution or a solid state amp
 
TI is doing what it wants to do 😀 ... no questions asked
National Semiconductor - Wikipedia
https://e2e.ti.com/support/audio/f/6/t/565578?LME49811-49810-49830-and-LME49880-49990-obsolete-
all these were devices with a perfect sound

I see... according to TI this is the reason : "Unfortunately some of the LM devices got caught up in an unavoidable technology process-node end of life" whatever that means... In that list it appears the LME49720, but that one is still being produced, go figure.
 
They can produce what they want. LME49720 is is a well sold IC, so they left it. As soon as sales fall or is replaced by another product, obsolete sticker appears 😀 It's all about profit and loss, not technology and sound quality. They push down costs and increase profits, they are not interested in sound quality. And if so, IC must be extremely low cost to produce 😀
 
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They can produce what they want. LME49720 is is a well sold IC, so they left it. As soon as sales fall or is replaced by another product, obsolete sticker appears 😀 It's all about profit and loss, not technology and sound quality. They push down costs and increase profits, they are not interested in sound quality. And if so, IC must be extremely low cost to produce 😀

They seem to have a predilection for OPA parts rather than the national LM or LME parts, I dont know how many OPA627 they are selling for $30 a piece but that part doesn't seem to go away any time soon. Its odd that they are keeping the LME49720 when it seems to be exactly the same as the LM4562, but costs more than the 4562.
 
There was a closure of a NatSemi fab and very few of the chips on that process were moved over. LME49720 was one of them the chopping block, but it's now being produced somewhere else.

Buying up companies and consolidating product portfolios is a pretty natural thing. Lots of overlap in parts and probably a few that weren't pulling their weight $$-wise.
 
There was a closure of a NatSemi fab and very few of the chips on that process were moved over. LME49720 was one of them the chopping block, but it's now being produced somewhere else.

Buying up companies and consolidating product portfolios is a pretty natural thing. Lots of overlap in parts and probably a few that weren't pulling their weight $$-wise.

That makes sense, I just wish both National and Bob Pease were still alive...
 
I think that jargon means the semiconductor process used is uneconomic to continue, too few products use it and none sell in high numbers or are ever likely to. They want to consolidate to the processes that will produce an income, and are likely moving to 12"+ wafers too, putting the economy of scale point much higher.
 
They can produce what they want. LME49720 is is a well sold IC, so they left it. As soon as sales fall or is replaced by another product, obsolete sticker appears 😀

Well, no. TI doesn't kill a product just because sales drop one day. They have product lifecycles and strategies around them as any other business would.

TI bought National Semiconductor in 2011. National had a range of analog-optimized semiconductor processes. Some of these processes were ported to run in TI fabs (which is no easy task, by the way). For other processes, it probably didn't make sense to move them. So they were shut down. No process -> no products.

There could be many reasons why it didn't make sense to move the processes. Maybe they used equipment or materials that were no longer available or that were obsolete. Or maybe very few products used those processes and those products didn't sell very well, so they were shut down and the products killed.

If I was to guess, I bet National designed the LME4981x Class-AB driver ICs because they were really cool and not because there was a target market. The world had long moved to Class D when they came out. So they probably didn't sell very well. That made it harder to justify moving the process they were on, so the process was obsoleted.

It's all about profit and loss

That's generally how businesses operate. Some do realize that they can charge a premium for a good product and increase profit that way, though.

As for the original question: The LT1166 is a kinda/sorta similar IC. It's not a well spec'ed, but it can be used to bias a Class AB output stage. There's a 100 W amplifier around that IC here: https://www.analog.com/media/en/technical-documentation/spec-notice/sn1166.pdf

Tom