Rochester Electronics is fully stocked with original Freescale packaged parts and silicon die from which it will manufacture a variety of device options. The company’s experience as the world’s largest continuing manufacturer and long-term aftermarket support solution for end-of-life, obsolete and discontinued semiconductors places it in the suitable position to guarantee supply of these parts. Freescale has also provided access to full design and test IP, making it possible for Rochester to continue manufacturing products even if all existing wafer stocks are exhausted.
To the 68040 family, Rochester legacy support includes 68020, 68030, 68060 and the 68882 floating point coprocessor. Freescale will also be supporting Rochester on the supply of the MC68360 QUICC communications processor, which went EOL at the end of April.
The MC680x0 family has been widely adopted in sectors including military, aerospace, transportation, medical, industrial and communications, all of which are characterised by long installed product lifetimes and the need for extended availability of component parts. Rigorous qualification and standards approval processes can make redesign of systems in these areas either difficult or prohibitively expensive.