Component lifecycle status: what each term actually means

Distributors and manufacturers use a handful of standard status terms on a part page. They sound similar but call for different actions. Here's what each one means in practice, roughly ordered from safest to most urgent.

Active (or "In Production")

The manufacturer is currently making it and accepting new design-ins. No action needed, but "active" is a snapshot, not a guarantee — it can change with no more warning than a PCN (see below).

Preview / NPI (New Product Introduction)

Not fully in mass production yet. Samples may be available but volume pricing and lead times are often worse than a mature part. Fine for prototypes, riskier to lock into a design that ships soon.

NRND (Not Recommended for New Designs)

Still in production and still shippable, but the manufacturer is signaling they intend to stop. This is your window to find a replacement before it becomes a forced, rushed decision. Don't start a new design around an NRND part if you can avoid it.

EOL Notice / PCN (Product Change Notification) issued

The manufacturer has formally announced discontinuation, usually with a Last Time Buy date and a final shipment date. This is a hard deadline, not a warning — most manufacturers won't take orders after the Last Time Buy date, full stop.

Last Time Buy (LTB)

The final window to place an order directly with the manufacturer or an authorized distributor before the part is gone for good. Many teams do a one-time "lifetime buy" here — order enough inventory to cover the product's remaining production life — because a redesign later is usually more expensive than warehousing parts now.

Obsolete / Discontinued

No longer manufactured. Whatever stock remains in distribution or the gray market is all that will ever exist. Treat any remaining "in stock" listing for an obsolete part with suspicion — verify it's from an authorized distributor, not a reseller of unknown provenance, especially for anything safety- or reliability-critical.

Why this matters more than it sounds like it should

A part doesn't go from "Active" to "gone" — it moves through this sequence, and every stage is a decision point where switching costs less than it will at the next stage. The expensive failure mode isn't any single status change; it's not noticing one happened until you're trying to place a production order and the part simply isn't there anymore.