STM8 family future availability and STM32C011 longevity

[jojo12]

Hello,

We are evaluating ST microcontrollers for a new product and would like some clarification regarding long-term availability.

The STM8 family is now marked as NRND, and I have seen references in community discussions to a possible discontinuation around 2032.

Could ST please clarify: 

1. What is the official long-term availability plan for the STM8 family and is there currently an announced End-of-Life date for STM8 devices?
2. As STM32C0 is often presented as the migration path from STM8, I would also like to know whether the STM32C011 is covered by ST's longevity program and what its currently committed availability date is.

Thank you for your help.

[Andrew Neil]

 I would also like to know whether the STM32C011 is covered by ST's longevity program

See the Product Page:

 

Hover your mouse over the ‘10’ badge:

 

Click on the ‘10’ badge for full details:

https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/about/quality-and-reliability/product-longevity.html#10-year-longevity

 

1. What is the official long-term availability plan for the STM8 family and is there currently an announced End-of-Life date for STM8 devices?

For that type of question, you need to speak to your Sales Office or FAE: 

https://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/contact-us.html

Or raise a support case: https://my.st.com/ols

 

PS:

Not all STM8s are NRND:

The top one in that list has the 10-year badge (I didn’t check any others)

 

 

PS:

STM32C0 Family overview - showing which are covered by the 10-year longevity:

https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-microprocessors/stm32c0-series.html

[Ozone]

> Could ST please clarify: 

1. What is the official long-term availability plan for the STM8 family and is there currently an announced End-of-Life date for STM8 devices?

I’m not associated with ST.

But I would recommend to assess the situation regarding toolchain, debug adapter and debugger software with the same scrutiny as the MCU architecture/variant itself.
I can tell from experience, developing and debugging abandoned silicon with an abandoned toolchain and ill-kept third-party debuggers is no fun. Nor is it cost effective.
By the way, this remark is not related to ST products - but better safe than sorry.

[Andrew Neil]

But I would recommend to assess the situation regarding toolchain, debug adapter and debugger software .

A very good point.

 

There have been a number of posts on here lately from people struggling with abandoned STM8 tools; eg,

 

[Ozone]

I had been working on a project involving a STM8, about a decade ago.

The problem here is, the STM8 is a proprietary architecture only available by ST, and not compatible to anything else.
At that time, both toolchains were from smaller French companies, not far located from the ST headquarter itself.
And both had somewhat cumbersome licencing schemes, at least back then.

License issues or product discontinuation (for any reason) are knock-out criteria for most commercial projects.
I would recommend a platform/architecture that allows for a freely available backup option- usually in the form of GCC.
Here, that would be Cortex M and the STM32C0xx.

[Pavel A.]

Why do you need STM8?

One of its valuable features is (was?) resistance to radiation and temperature, due to its low density.

If you just want low cost, consider STM32C0 or something alike. It won’t be as easy to connect as the 8-bitter, but close.

STM32C0 lacks built-in eeprom - if you need that, will have to provide external one.