Matching manufacturer names to Octopart and SiliconExpert

A part choice is a part number and a company name. The number is data. The name is free text somebody typed, and supply data hangs on Octopart's spelling of it.

Where the two disagree, the part choice looks perfectly fine in Altium and carries no stock, no price and no lifecycle. That is the quiet kind of wrong — worse than an obvious error, because nothing complains.

The survey can also ask SiliconExpert what it calls the maker of the same part, so the library, Octopart and SiliconExpert can be read side by side.

When to use this

• Before relying on supply data anywhere in the library.
• During a deployment, as part of getting a library fit for use.
• After importing components from a source that typed manufacturer names freely.
• Periodically, to catch names that have gone stale through renames and acquisitions.
• Before an SE sync or an enrich run, to see where Octopart and SiliconExpert name different companies.

What you need first

• Altium 365 — the library to survey.
• The component database — this is where established spellings are stored, so they are never paid for twice.
• Nexar Supply — for Check with Octopart.
• SiliconExpert — for Check with SiliconExpert.

Both checks are switches. Either, both or neither can be on; with both off the names are only matched locally and nothing is looked up.

How a name is resolved

Five ways, cheapest first:

Grouping is not spelling

This distinction is the heart of the action. The alias file knows Fairchild parts are onsemi parts — real knowledge that does not go stale quickly. What it cannot know is the exact string Octopart writes. It said Diodes Incorporated where Octopart says Diodes Inc., and would have written that into a library.

So a spelling that comes from the file is reported and never written, until one Octopart lookup confirms it. Only nexar and the manufacturers table count as confirmed.

Why it is cheap

"How do you spell Vishay" has no answer — Octopart has Dale, Vitramon, Beyschlag, Sfernice, Siliconix. But "who makes CRCW0603" does.

So the lookup is per manufacturer, using one of its part numbers, not per component. One part off the monthly budget per manufacturer, and the answer is stored so it is never paid for twice. A bare Vishay is listed as ambiguous and is refused rather than guessed at.

Use At most this many lookups to cap a run against the budget.

Checking against SiliconExpert too

Switch on Check with SiliconExpert and every manufacturer with a part number gets one SiliconExpert part search, on the same example part the Octopart lookup uses. Three columns are added to the report:

Where SiliconExpert lists the same part number under several makers, the one that is the library's own company is taken, and the Note column says there were several. A near part number is used when there is no exact one, and the note says that too.

A second opinion, not a second spelling. SiliconExpert is a namespace of its own. Its answer is never written into the manufacturers table, which maps Altium to Octopart and nothing else, and it never changes the Octopart name. What it is good for is the different rows: a library name that is not the maker of its own part number, or two sources that disagree about who makes it. Those are the names an SE sync or an enrich run will trip over later.

Use At most this many SE lookups to cap a run. On the Prime EDA partner account a run larger than its budget is refused, the same way the Health Check refuses one. PartDetails is never called.

Where the knowledge lives

Two places, on purpose. core/data/manufacturers.yaml ships with the toolbox and holds what is true everywhere. The manufacturers table holds what this database established, and wins over the file.

A curated entry is a starting point, not a fact. Confirm the spellings the toolbox suggests looks them up too and reports which ones have gone stale.

Notes

• Remember what was established writes confirmed Octopart pairs back to the table, with the part number they were established from. SiliconExpert's column is never stored.
• A manufacturer is never rewritten on a component by this action. It surveys and records; Copy library folders to another workspace is what writes a confirmed spelling onto a new part choice.

Related actions

• Auditing a library with the Health Check — reports the mismatches in the first place
• Syncing a library with SiliconExpert — deliberately not wired to this table, as SiliconExpert is a third namespace