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A comment on Teardown of a quartz crystal oscillator and the tiny IC inside. Parent comment

Re:Teardown of a quartz crystal oscillator and the tiny IC i... by kurthr on Saturday February 20, 2021 @01:34PM (#26206542)
You mention it at the very end, but any idea why a more complex (and presumably expensive) oscillator is used? Maybe availability of the IC?

It seems strange unless there is a performance (e.g. voltage stability due to stray capacitance sensitivity) advantage. It's not like they're worried about IP or litigation.

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Re:Teardown of a quartz crystal oscillator and the tiny IC i... by kens on Saturday February 20, 2021 @01:38PM (#26206590)
The different oscillator types have various tradeoffs, so maybe this more-complex design was better for this application, as you suggest. Since the circuit complexity is all on the integrated circuit, the cost difference is probably very small.

My other theory when people make strange design choices is that patents might be involved.

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Re:Teardown of a quartz crystal oscillator and the tiny IC i... by chiph on Saturday February 20, 2021 @03:13PM (#26207492)
Possibly ease of manufacturing because you had fewer unique parts to make/keep track of. Also allows market segmentation, differentiated by the multiplier and whether the disable pin was connected.
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