Device availability and EOL¶
We never EOL (End of Life) products. We have the same culture as Mini Circuits - who is the most respected RF component manufacturer in the world, because they never EOL anything.
How this is accomplished¶
The way Mini Circuits accomplishes this - and we do the same - is to be constantly releasing new/better products at a more competitive price point as previous products. This will result in current products being “outdated”.
We realize majority of people will buy the newer, pin-compatible version that is better, faster, cheaper, and generally more efficient. However, folks that absolutely need the exact version of an old product will still be able to buy it, as we will always offer it.
For example, we are getting ready to release our OAK-SoM-Pro S2 based on the MA2095. It is Electrically, Mechanically, and fully pin-compatible with the OAK-SoM-Pro, but based on Robotics Vision Core 3 instead of the Robotics Vision Core 2.
Only those who, for some reasons, absolutely want the lower performance version, will continue to buy the lower performance version. And as above, what this strategy allows is keeping long-term stock of everything.
And in the worst-case situations where this doesn’t work, we do what Mini Circuits does in the situation where the uncontrollable happens (eg. warehouse(s) holding these burn to the ground): we make as close-as-possible substitute and work with the customer to keep their products going.
Wind down of Intel’s RealSense¶
In August of 2021, Intel decided to “wind down” its RealSense products, which means the development of product will eventually be stopped. Since Myriad X are integrated into our Robotics Vision Core 2, we want to reassure you that this has no effect on our Movidius Myriad X SoC supply, since that is a different group from RealSense. Furthermore, the Movidius team has gotten integrated into some huge areas silently, which has resulted in it having guaranteed production for quite a while. This way, we can guarantee the production of our devices into 2028 and likely well past that. More information about this topic here.
Conclusion¶
Never “EOL-ing” anything has worked extremely well for Mini Circuits for decades and so far great for us as well. This is why we plan to have availability of all our devices indefinitely.