What will you do when the parts that need to be replaced have been discontinued?

Do you know the NEC PC-98 series?

The PC98 series was a 16-bit machine released in the 1980s, and at that time it was a PC with a 90% share in Japan as a business purpose, specializing in high-definition graphic processing. However, after entering the Internet era, Microsoft’s OS Windows 95 and versatile DOS / V machines increased so that models released in June 2000 are stopped to be released by the end of 2003.

I do not want to talk about old PC98 series. Actually, even now this PC 98 series is being sold for second-hand goods and trading at high price. If it is actually only used by core fans, so large transactions will not last, but there are still many PC98 series currently in operation as factory production lines. Not only are companies that can not invest in production facilities, they are used in production lines of companies that you know, such as automobiles, infrastructure, and train production. For this reason, the breakdown of parts means stopping the production line, and the person in charge is struggling for finding the part whose product guarantee has expired in case of failure.

Under such circumstances, it is trading at the price of exceptional even in the trading of the second-hand goods and repair shop and the Internet of the PC-98 series. There are many companies that introduce the current system in the case of new construction or relocation of factories in fact, but there are things that can not be changed from long-selling systems that are time consuming It is. It is not easy to update such a system easily in consideration of the loss in the case where the production line can not be stopped simply or when the trouble occurs in the transition of the system.

Therefore, although the production quantity is small, there are many parts that are required for a long time.

Especially in the production line of industrial equipment, it is necessary for each company to carry out considerably elaborate investigation on system replacement and to devote time and labor to replacing the system.

The same thing is also required at the site of infrastructure and introduction of a new system is postponed unless budget is attached, risk of failure naturally rises.

Also, in certain systems on the production line, it is not unusual that the workers at the work site maintain their own programs on the spot on the spot. Even if another person in charge sees the inside of the program afterwards, this will cause many occurrences which do not clearly know how the program was added later.

For these reasons, we often receive inquiries from the production site for products that are no longer in the market.

There are several ways to respond to the restoration of a system including such discontinued products. If the failed part of the system can not be specified, replace the board and restore it. (This is the most difficult to obtain the board for restoration.) Also, if the failed part can be identified, replace the failed part. Parts are also various, but parts such as ICs, capacitors, and transistors are often different from those currently selling even those of the same specification.

As an example, in the case of IC, change from IC vendor of pin-compatible model and other parts manufacturer to IC which operates similarly to the faulty part.

Crystal related timing devices currently handled by our company may also receive inquiries from such customers.

Along with the evolution of communication equipment, the size of each part is smaller and power consumption (supply voltage, current consumption) is required to be smaller. The same thing is required for crystal oscillator and oscillator using crystal, and the latest crystal oscillator is commercially available with 1.6 mm * 1.0 mm.

In the development of new products, it is inevitable to adopt a crystal with a small crystal size and a low power consumption, but the crystal used for the main substrate in the existing system is small in size or low in voltage It is still visible even if it is not.

In the case of repairing an existing system or replacing parts only, there are many cases where the board maker has already become a discontinued product when looking for a replacement for the crystal oscillator or the crystal oscillator which was previously used. Along with the development of the miniaturization and low power consumption model as in the current crystal maker as mentioned earlier, there are many cases where manufacture corresponding to the existing size and voltage has already been limited or canceled, The person in charge is struggling to find alternative products.

Currently the following items are the products that apply within our products.

Full Size (DIL14)&Half Size(Dil8) SPXO & Full Size(DIL14)& Half Size (DIL8) VCXO