How long has the L298 been around? My data sheet is ©'d 2000.
Datasheet Oct 1998...
Mentioned in 1997...
http://www.jameco.com/Jameco/Products/ProdDS/288121-DS02.pdf
Mentioned in 1996...
http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/jun97/classics.html
Datasheet May 1995...
I'm going with 1995.
Thanks- any advances on 1995?
Not having revision history on docs is very bad practice.
Its ancient, probably 80's or earlier. The modern datasheets have scanned-in diagrams that aren't
quite straight, a dead give away.
This sheet for the L293D for instance is 1986: http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/l293.pdf
I have no documentary evidence but I think I can remember using them in the mid 70's.
Thanks for those responses, everyone.