Long Life Hardware, Lifelong Support.
embeddedTS products are designed from the ground up with longevity in mind. Our goal is to design and build industrial products that thrive in the market and outlive the typical lifecycle of other industrial electronics and far outstrip the churn of the standard consumer-grade electronic devices. Our engineering remains focused on developing products that will be as relevant in 5 years as they were the day they were released and will be available for new or maintenance deployments 10-15 years.
10+ Year Product Life Cycle Guarantee
embeddedTS maintains extended life cycles on all of our embedded computers and peripherals. The vast majority of our products are still in production 10 to 12 years after initial release, and then some. Our engineers are careful in the design stages of product development, choosing parts that will be available well into the future and with second sources when possible. We still have several products in production that were designed more than 20 years ago.
- embeddedTS will not discontinue, for reasons within our control, the manufacture of any products for at least ten years from the date of release
- embeddedTS will not discontinue, for reasons within our control, the manufacture of any product that is being purchased at a rate of 100 or more pieces per year by any single customer
Software Support
embeddedTS strives to ship the same product with the same software once it reaches the "Fully Developed Product" stage (see below). This allows our customers to consistently deploy without the headaches of changed libraries or interfaces. However, we also recognize that not all applications benefit from this software model and may require the latest libraries or security patches. We choose Linux kernel releases that have Long Term Support (LTS); we also choose Linux distributions/build systems with LTS or rolling releases. The combination of these affords our customers various paths to update software and libraries with security patches and feature support. See also, board support software.
Last Time Buy
In the event that a key component is discontinued by the manufacturer, embeddedTS will attempt to find a second source for the discontinued component. If we are unable to find a replacement part, we will announce a last time buy to all customers ordering quantity over 100 per year on that particular product. At this point, customers can buy any quantity of the key component that they predict to satisfy their future needs. The components will be held in reserve by embeddedTS exclusively for that customer, guaranteeing future product availability. We will also buy and hold stock on that key component in a quantity predicted to allow an additional 2-3 years of production for customers ordering in smaller quantities.
Third Party Accessories
Third-party accessories not manufactured by embeddedTS are not covered by our 10+ Year Product Life Cycle Guarantee. While best efforts are made in selecting and recommending third-party accessories for longevity, embeddedTS has no direct control over the lifecycles and the supply chain for these products frequently does not support last time buys. Examples of third-party accessories include: SD cards, USB WiFi modules, socket modems, radios, and power supplies. If you have any questions or would like to know if you are buying a third-party accessory, please contact us.
Product Lifecycles
embeddedTS designs products following a planned release schedule and utilizes the lifecycles below according to the level of product development maturity and user adoption.
Concept Design
This product is in a concept design phase which may or may not make it to a final production product, depending on customer interest and other current solutions in our portfolio. It is unavailable for purchase from the website at this time. If you would like to get more information, please contact us.
Engineering Samples
This product is new and engineering samples are now available! If you would like to participate in our Engineering Sampling Program and receive early evaluation units, please submit an order using the online order form. Samples availability is limited. embeddedTS recommends this product for initial evaluation and development. Please monitor our documentation and contact our support team for software releases as new features become available. If you own a sample, we will contact you about product updates directly.
New Product
This product is fully introduced as a new product and production units are available. embeddedTS recommends this product for development and production. embeddedTS will notify customers who are signed up on the PCS system if there are any needed product changes, but these will be infrequent. Software support in this phase is complete; the shipping image is locked in place and we will begin to provide alternate paths for customers requiring new software beyond what we ship.
Fully Developed Product
This product is fully developed and ships stable production units. embeddedTS recommends this product for development and final deployment. We will notify customers who are signed up on the PCS system if there are any needed product changes. During this phase, the shipping software will only change if necessary, however our engineering team can advise customers on how to acquire the latest software. We will make best efforts to maintain a Long Term Supported Linux with active security patches available through the Linux community for products in the Fully Developed Product Lifecycle.
Legacy Product
This product is a legacy product. While embeddedTS ensures long term availability and support for legacy products, we recommend existing customers using this product to upgrade to one of our new offerings. Please contact our support engineers should you need help selecting an ideal upgrade platform. We will work with our customers to enable easy platform upgrade and software migration. Software upgrade paths in this phase are dependent on demand and ease of updating.
RETIRED PRODUCT
This product is retired. A few remaining products may exist on our shelves, but no further builds will be done once that stock is depleted. There is no software upgrade path in this phase. We will continue to offer as much support as possible for units deployed, but there are limited to no repair opportunities due to stock.