How to find Broadcom datasheets without contacting sales

If you are interested in ICs from Broadcom, you might have noticed that in typical big company fashion, they only offer you a Product brief and you have to request more infoin order to obtain the actual datasheet.

Such is the case for the BCM5221 100Base-TX/FX PHY which I have mentioned in my post on 100Base-FX transceivers.

However there is a trick with which I could obtain the publically available datasheet.

Google [PART NUMBER] data sheet filetype:pdf !

Regarding the BCM5221, I googled BCM5221 data sheet filetype:pdf and the first result was this link to Broadcom’s website:

This link will take you directly to docs.broadcom.com- in other words, an official source, no backdoor access or anything required. But even if that link were not there, you would be able to find said datasheet on a plurality of other websites.