Q. I heard that Freescale has discontinued many of their 68HC11 and 68HC12 microcontrollers. Is that true?
In the 68HC11 family, out of all the parts our products use or support, only the 68HC811E2 was discontinued. The OTP (one-time programmable) versions, such as the 68HC711E9 and 68HC711E20, are active parts, which now have an added letter "E" in the part number (e.g. MC68HC711E9CFNE2). UPDATE: the E9 has been discontinued, and part-numbering has dropped the letters "HC" so now the example p/n is MC68711E20CFNE2.
In the 68HC12 family, parts such as MC68HC912B32 were renumbered in the form MCHC912B32 (i.e. dropping the "68" prefix). A full part number would be something like MCHC912B32CFUE8 or MCHC912B32VFUE8. In the case of the 68HC812A4, they dropped the entire prefix "68HC" and the part number is now simply MC812A4CPVE8.
A great way to find out who has stock is to do a search on www.findchips.com. If you're having trouble finding the full part number, try searching with a substring (e.g. 812A4 or 912B32).
Another good place to find part numbers, of course, is at www.freescale.com. While you're browsing through parts, don't be put off by the "not recommended for new design" status you may see on many of the parts. That is simply meant to encourage large-volume customers to design with the latest and greatest part. In reality, the typical life-span of Freescale microcontrollers is 10 to 20 years. Don't forget-- the 68HC11 was introduced in 1987, and is still very active today.
Q. Why don't you provide Tech Support by telephone?
Q. Do you offer custom hardware design services?
We evaluate each request on an individual basis... contact us with an overview of what you have in mind.
Q. I need some minor customization on a product you make. Is it possible?
Note that if you ask us to leave parts off, it will not likely result in a lower price (unless your quantities are high), because the cost reduction in parts is usually offset by the increased costs incurred in handling a production-line exception. The semi-custom board will need to be diverted from our usual assembly/program/test workflow and manually processed by a skilled technician.