Is STM32-product-family dead?

[SEam72]

no distributor nor STM's eshop has any STM32-device.

"Out of stock" or "on allocation".

Why shall we waste any further development time on STM32 when there are no chips available?

So, is STM32 dead?

In my opinion, STM32 is dead.

Currently any other experiences? Thanks.

[Peter BENSCH · Accepted solution]

Welcome, @SEam72​, to the community!

No, STM32 is absolutely not dead, it is still on Product Longevity, which guarantees 10 years availability (production).

Yes, many families of the STM32 are currently on allocation. Further details can be found e.g. here and there.

Sorry for any inconvenience, hopefully the situation will improve soon.

Regards

/Peter

[Paul1]

I believe some of what you are seeing is effects of Covid, where people are over buying. When they see a lack of stock at one supplier, they buy up all the stock at every supplier they can find (like the runs on toilet paper).

I've seen this with lots of ICs, including other manufacturers MCUs, as well as driver ICs, oscillators, etc.

Several times in past 2 months I've had stock vanish at multiple distributers between when I got PCB assembly quote and paid for it, often just hours, leading to major component hunting.

Hoping for the end of Covid for many reasons.

Paul

[Tesla DeLorean]

Far too many SKU, really should focus on doing fewer things, well. This was part of the initial success of the STM32F1 series

Retail distributors aren't the Indiana Jones warehouses of the 1970's/80's, over recent decades the semi-conductor supply chain has moved to a build-to-order model, with slack fab time consumed with stocking shelves. We've seen a lot of consolation, and banks not wanting to lend to pay for deep inventory on parts that might be obsolete within a year or two, and manufacturers who don't want to over-extend, or miss on their earnings reports. Clearly when fabs get to capacity serving actual customers*, those customers determine what's made and where it goes, and those without a plan or a ticket are simply going to have to wait, or pay the premium that the parts brokers ask. Currently demand exceeds capacity, so you've got a 1970's oil crisis type event.

Retail distributors have failed in their role, which is to plan demand for those without a direct business relationship, or buyers without a long term plan. To be fair a lot of buyers who got worried about this last year grabbed all free stock they could find, along with the arbitrage players and hedge-fund types who could bank roll stocking inventory. Today the guys with inventory are the kings, and this isn't likely to collapse on them this year.

*those buying parts and building them directly, not those putting them on shelves and going through a bunch of other hands

[TDK]

> no distributor nor STM's eshop has any STM32-device.

> In my opinion, STM32 is dead.

This reads like clickbait. There are 79 STM32 chips currently available on Digikey. The reason they are so out of stock is due to demand, which would mean they're very much alive. It isn't because they're not being used.

The problem does appear to be getting worse currently.

[SEam72]

Thank you all for your comments.

We really like STM32 family since many years, starting with F1 over F2/F7/L0/G4/MP1.

The last few years i fascinated noticed the new devices of the family, but also i am concerned about the 1000s of variants and how STM would like to handle this.

And exactly this is now killing all of us.

And as there's (afaik) no roadmap or solution of STM we're left alone.

From yesterday to today we got a price increase of about 15% for a STM32F103 in 64Pin package. And the increase is already from a high level: that's over 50 euros yesterday, it raises today 60 euros! Just for that litte micro.

All the dealers are getting crazy and and they take full (better maximum) advantage of the situation.

Many of them are loosing our trust and they become blocked.

IMHO, Instead of buying high risky STM32 it would better to invest in Bitcoins - this is much more conservative :o

@Peter BENSCH​ : Thanks for your links, but those statements are 8 months old, it already should be better.

We need a statement of STM wether we play the game of the dealers and pay for STM32 with gold, or see a light at the end of the tunnel.

@TDK​ : Of course it's a problem of increasing demand, broken supply chains, covid, water, energy, containers and all that other problems.

But if there are no devices available it's like that it's dead.

I don't know. Thanks.