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My impression is (and I could be wrong) that single-in-line packages (SIP) were never popular in the West (relative to DIPs anyway), while they saw more adoption in Japan and in Asia in general. I'm saying this based on how I see the current state of the market, in which one can still find through-hole SIPs from Japanese manufacturers, but they seem to have practically disappeared from the Western manufacturers' portfolios, if they were even present in those. (Now I know that the through-hole technology in general is on the decline, but let's not get too far afield.)

It seems difficult to find any sort of written history on this matter, i.e. how prevalent SIPs were in various parts of the world over time, so anecdotal evidence based on personal experiences would be appreciated too.

the gods from engineering
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    I usually see them used for resistor arrays or something similar. – Samuel Jan 16 '15 at 23:10
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    SIPs were popular at one time as memory modules. And a few other part types. The advantage was density. Obviously the pin limitation meant that they couldn't be used universally. – Hot Licks Jan 16 '15 at 23:17
  • What sort of device might you be talking about? I've used SIP resistor networks and audio amps and I live in the UK? – Andy aka Jan 16 '15 at 23:17
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    You often see/saw SIP's in things like high-power monolithic audio amps, because SIP's are easy to bolt to frames or panels for heatsinking. Digital logic on the other hand tends to require larger numbers of pins, so DIP's are/were more useful. – markt Jan 16 '15 at 23:19
  • @Andy aka: I'm purposefully trying not to restrict the type of component packaged. It's fine if your/the answer has counterpoints along the lines of "they were [and in fact still are] used in niche applications such as X and Y even in the West". – the gods from engineering Jan 16 '15 at 23:49

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SIP low-power IC packages such as op-amps and LED bar-graph drivers were never very popular in the West, in fact I think they were rather difficult to find. It's easy to forget that in that era, even buying Matsushita, Toshiba or Hitachi ICs was not that easy.

They were a sensible way to save space on punched single-sided boards used in relatively thick consumer electronics of the day. Of course they've been eclipsed by SMT parts in recent decades.

http://i00.i.aliimg.com/wsphoto/v0/1144028836/New-TA8316-TA8316S-TA8316AS.jpg

SIP through-hole resistor networks, especially those with 8 or 9 pins with 4 isolated resistors, 8 resistors with a common for pull-ups, and termination networks were universally popular. They're still pretty competitive in terms of PCB area.

http://www.emartee.com/Images/websites/emartee.com/PhoXo5%283%29.jpg

Spehro Pefhany
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  • I have also seen many SIP diodes, resistors, and caps, mainly in older audio/video electronics from the early 90s and prior – David Wilkins Jan 17 '15 at 03:20