[old_tv_nut]

Basically, no, if it's a proprietary chip.

Take an analog TV chip for example:The major U.S. TV makers all used proprietary chips. If you identify which chassis the chip belongs to, you may at most find an internal block diagram in the service literature, but not a detailed circuit that would allow you to build an equivalent. You would not find details of what the voltages and signal levels at the pins should be except by finding them marked in the schematic or by measuring a working chassis. As someone who has designed such chips, I can tell you that a prototype built from transistor arrays and discretes of even an early IC that performed a simple function (like color demodulation) would cover a tin-plate ground plane a foot or two on each side.

In the U.S., large semiconductor makers (Motorola) designed video/chroma processor chips and published app notes. They must have sold some, I guess, but I don't know to whom. Even Motorola TVs didn't use Motorola-Semiconductor-designed chips.

The situation may have been different in Europe, with TV makers using publicly specified chips, but I don't know. (Maybe this was the case with Philips, who made both chips and sets?)