The semiconductor industry is quite a bit plagued with counterfit parts, and there are all kinds of variations – plain fakes, parts that work similarly, parts that are actually true and real silicon dies but packaged by someone else, relabeled parts…

Troubled with these parts – clearly marked as DAC8512…

So I took a file and some patience to cut open the thing, until the bare die came to light.

Not easy to read on the picture – but my eyes are still good enough, clearly, there is the Analog Devices logo, and a marking, 17012, AD8512A.

Is this real? Did someone package AD8512 dies (probably sitting around in a box for some time, rejects or aged stock) and then put a DAC8512 label on then?

Found this picture on the web, of a genuine AD8512, decapped by a professional company – clearly, the same die.

No wonder I couldn’t get it to work as a DAC…. It is an opamp.