Very confused about STM8S longevity

[bevenson]

I'm seeing a lot of conflicting information on STM8S longevity and I'm trying to find some confirmed information. On the STM8S series page, it states that the STM8S series is in the 10-year product longevity program: https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm8s-series.html. However, the current list of 10-year longevity parts does not include any STM8 parts: https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/quality-and-reliability/product-longevity.html#10-year-longevity.

Could someone from ST clarify the situation? I know the entire STM8 series has really long lead times right now, but I'm just trying to find out what the start date was for the 10-year longevity commitment. The STM8S series has been around for 15 years, so depending on when the 10-year commitment started it could have already passed. We want to make sure we don't miss any last-time buy opportunities.

[Tesla DeLorean]

>>Could someone from ST clarify the situation? 

Isn't that kind of the role of your local sales office/rep, or your distributor?

If you have laddered orders on the books, and a plan, you're likely to get telegraphed a lot quicker about how immanently you're approaching the end of the line.

The 10-year thing looks to be more of a rolling window, not the entire life-span of the product.

https://community.st.com/s/question/0D50X0000BOtGtsSQF/did-sts-longevity-commitment-for-stm32-and-stm8-cease

Still talking about 10 years, in Feb 2023, I'd print it and notarize it...

https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm8s-series.html

"The STM8S series is part of ST’s 10-year product longevity commitment program for STM32 and STM8 microcontrollers, ensuring a robust and reliable solution for designers."

But not on the page actually enumerating things, as you've observed. I continue to find this all very disingenuous, and not a real guarantee or contract..

Figure out what you're yearly requirements are, and get orders physically on the books, then you have some contractual obligations (perhaps you have to prepay, or no cancel, no return, etc), and the rubber meets the road.

I wouldn't expect others to hedge stock on your behalf without expecting it to pay significant dividends. Over the coming decade I expect significant arbitrage opportunities for legacy gear/parts where one side has a lot of commitments, and little engineering staff to adapt or execute on delivery..

[Tesla DeLorean]

@STOne-32​ @Alexander CZAJOR​ the ST.COM site needs to do a much better job at communicating salient information. The product landing pages often say if something is ACTIVE, or NRND, but the 10-year, commitment level, or drop-dead date information needs to be far more apparent. Yes, I see that being tedious, hard to maintain/manage and perhaps give competitive information, but absent a more direct engagement with customers with long time horizons and expectations, I don't see how this situation will improve.

@Community member​ cause we've been seeing this same topic for 3+ years

[Alexander Czajor]

@Community member​ , thanks for highlighting this. I know that there's some inconsistency. I'll look into it.

[Tesla DeLorean]

@Alexander CZAJOR​ Thanks

I know this is a bit of a monster, but perhaps it needs a different approach. Perhaps a broader overview of the "sentiment" or "outlook" for particular families and parts, rather than drilling down into every single SKU, and every single package.

There needs to be some "focus" to the effort, and getting people to migrate to a specific sub-set of parts / packages, or driving pricing/availability so one die/package isn't stratified unnecessarily as time passes. And that shrinkage of availability causes sales to review customer usage patterns, how they perceive the life of their product, and ST's participation in either cost/exposure reduction, and perhaps redesign/migration into newer ST lines.