I'm heading out for a long-postponed offsite with colleagues (and dreading the travel aspect even more than usual!).
The "issue" I'll be bringing to discuss is design practices to make largely analog designs "future safe" -- to guard against component offerings going obsolete, etc. (I need at least a 10 year window of continued availability).
Digital designs can usually be "refreshed" with relative ease. Often considerably easier than the original design effort!
And, if you are prudent, software ports to new platforms and architectures can similarly be straightforward.
SOME "analog" designs can be easy to "redo" -- but usually only ones that have black-box type interfaces: power supplies, converters, appliances with fixed functionality, etc. A lot of an analog design's performance is tied up in the actual implementation -- and, if not careful, you can slip backwards with the next turn of the crank (a lot harder to do that with digital/software designs).
I don't see anyway to pick devices for longterm availability other than settling for run-of-the-mill devices that have work-alikes available from other vendors. Anything bleeding edge is bound to lead to issues down the road (availability, support, etc.)
So, aim for banal designs? Do lifetime buys of the components that you're most exposed to? Or, just resign yourself to redesigning when the problem manifests (and hope it's someone else's problem, then)?
[design of interest is an SDR; a COTS purchase would lead to vulnerability for the entire design!]I will try to check back but not sure how easy that will be while traveling...