Wednesday Sep 25, 2013 6:30 pm
Originally designed by Hans Camenzind and first manufactured by Signetics in 1971, the 555 timer is an integrated circuit that predates the microprocessor, but is still in widespread use today. Since 2003, worldwide sales and manufacturing of this 8-pin chip now exceed one billion units every year, for use in a wide variety of timing circuits, such as pulse generators, oscillators, flip-flops, and more.