Electronic component obsolescence

Over the last seven decades, the electronics industry has advanced at a remarkable rate. We naturally tend to think about how far our society has advanced with all the new technologies that are available today. When we think about the future, our imaginations become the limitations of our technological advancements. Current observations of the electronics market show rapid turnover, and future predictions would indicate a similar trend. With that knowledge at hand, the electronics industry will remain confronted with supporting aged products and equipment that are still in use. This can be a real challenge as components are phased out of production, rendering them obsolete. The state when a component is no longer produced, even though it has operated as intended, is called obsolescence. Obsolescence of electronic components is real and needs to be addressed sooner rather than later. Microsoft's chairman, Bill Gates, said "the only big companies that survive will be those that obsolete their own products before someone else does" [1]. Bill Gates' statement provides insight into why electronic components and software may prematurely become obsolete.