I theorize that pinouts were regionally derived based on the functional interpretation of what the part is doing by the group or individual who was drafting the actual part.Paul_C wrote:well that's annoying - is it done deliberately just to confuse me ?BetterOffShred wrote:Just fyi, pnp/npn doesn't really dictate the pinout, so make sure you always consult the data sheet unless you know for sure.
It boils down to placement of the base, either in between the two nodes that it exerts leverage on (reflecting standard schematic interpretation) or to the side (typically leftmost, lending an end function sequence of import to the pin designation). Hence we've got EBC and BCE (plus inversions, and not counting any proprietary pinout strangeness that I may have overlooked thus far).
Here's a delightful documentary about transistors that sheds some insight on the different trajectories of the technology between the U.S. and Japan (we'll just have to extrapolate similar threads for the U.K., U.S.S.R., and so forth):
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihkRwArnc1k[/youtube]