Ray Stata Remembers

We are proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Analog Dialogue with the first edition published in 1967—just two years after the company was founded. Analog Dialogue, now the longest published corporate technical journal has enjoyed success over five decades because it is highly valued by our customers. In the past three months alone, over 250,000 readers have visited the Analog Dialogue webpages.

Written by Engineers for Engineers

Our customers are engineers. From the earliest days, our customers wanted more than innovative products, they wanted detailed technical information about how the products were designed, about the limitations of their performance, and about how to apply them. That was and continues to be the purpose of Analog Dialogue.

Analog Devices’ business strategy was to continuously push the state of the art in product performance and capability. Customers looked to us to keep them informed about what was possible, not only through Analog Dialogue, but also through comprehensive data sheets, application notes, and tutorial handbooks. Consistently publishing high quality technical material takes a lot of hard work, resources, and discipline, but we do it because our technical community understands that this is an important part of the job and customers value this contribution as much as they value innovative products.

Responding, Adapting, and Growing for Five Decades

Few companies survive—let alone thrive—for 50 years, because they fail to sense and respond to change in the environment. Analog Devices reinvented itself three times over its 50-year history, as it shifted from module to IC technology; from low volume industrial and military markets to high volume communication and consumer markets; and from components to system-level ICs. The company continually expanded its product base from operational amplifiers to converters, RF, DSP, sensors, and power management to offer more complete solutions for both analog and digital signal processing products and systems.

The tagline and content of Analog Dialogue tracked the evolution of the company. The tagline for the premiere edition in 1967 read “A Journal for the Exchange of Operational Amplifier Technology,” to reflect the initial focus on op amps.

But in 1969, the tagline was changed to “A Journal for the Exchange of Analog Circuit Technology,” as the company diversified into converter products and other analog function circuits.

In 1971, Analog Dialogue was now “A Forum for the Exchange of Circuit Technology: Analog and Digital, Monolithic, and Discrete.” ADI had entered the IC business and developed mixed analog and digital process technology for monolithic IC converters.

In 1979, the tagline was updated to “A Forum for the Exchange of Circuits and Systems for Measurement and Control,” as for a brief time ADI experimented with more complete computerized systems for measurement and control.

In 1984, Analog Dialogue was described as “A Forum for the Exchange of Circuits, Systems, and Software for Real-World Signal Processing.” The company had entered the DSP market, which broadened its vision to include both analog and digital signal processing and evolution toward more complete solutions, including software and algorithms.
Most recently, in 2016, the journal underwent a major redesign to reflect ADI’s new Ahead of What’s Possible brand and mission, and to become “Your Engineering Resource for Innovative Design.” The way in which we support and collaborate with customers today involves consideration of not just hardware and signal processing capabilities, but also in how we combine these with deep domain expertise to deliver platforms, systems, and services. The new tagline recognizes Analog Dialogue as a tool for customers in their pursuit of innovation on many levels.

There are many factors that account for Analog Devices’ long lived success, but no doubt our dedication to high quality technical communications as exemplified by Analog Dialogue has contributed much to our leadership, especially in the world of “analog devices.” As our products grow ever more complex and specialized in their application, we continue to be committed to making your job easier through our technical publications such as Analog Dialogue.