Producing analog chips costs less than making digital ones, because analog chips do not require - and often cannot use - the latest process technology.

He added that National sells more than $200 million worth of analog chips a quarter.

So wherever a device interacts with its user or its environment, there one finds analog chips.

It is also used as a dielectric between polysilicon layers in capacitors in analog chips.

Mr. Sporck said his company got advanced technology and products, including a family of analog chips that is now the company's fastest-growing product line.

Pure analog chips in information processing have been mostly replaced with digital chips.

Power supply chips are also considered to be analog chips.

"On average, there's probably 15 analog chips needed for every digital processor you use."

But, with modest equipment changes, it produces analog chips internally on older production lines that cannot make circuits small enough for today's digital processors.

But the varied tasks for analog chips present huge design challenges.