8-SOIC footprint and integration story
The MAX3085EESA+T is a half-duplex RS-485/RS-422 transceiver in an 8-SOIC package (3.90 mm width, 0.154" pitch). It mates to standard SOIC-8 land patterns, so any board already laid out for a generic 8-pin SOIC transceiver accepts this part without a spin. The 100 mV receiver hysteresis cleans up slow edges on long cable runs, so the output doesn't chatter when the differential signal is marginal. The 500 kbps data rate is enough for Modbus RTU at 38400 baud with headroom, but not for high-speed Profibus — know your bus clock before you stuff the BOM.
Active lifecycle and compliance baseline
The part is a single driver/receiver (1/1) in half-duplex mode. For full-duplex or multi-drop topologies that need separate enable lines, you'd reach for a different variant in the MAX308x family — this one is wired for two-wire bus transceivers where the driver and receiver share the same pair.