I was recently asked by a potential military customer if they could continue buying the same computer from Trenton Systems until 2040. Most people may immediately think that a date 22 years from now is way beyond their control and impossible to even consider. I'm proud to say that Trenton Systems was able to address the development and logistical concerns which could actually exceed the original 2040 request.
Note that most military development cycles tend to be very long...sometimes it can take a year or two before actually getting to production. Trenton Systems was able to show our product roadmap for the next 2+ years which includes an upcoming processor board release in mid-2019 that would meet their compute requirement. Trenton Systems is very deliberate with the component selection since we work with key suppliers like Intel to guarantee 15 years of availability on the CPUs as well as other critical components. 2019 plus 15 years gets the customer through 2034 with availability on the product...that's close but that's not quite 2040 like the customer originally requested.
So how do we plan to continue production beyond 15 years (2034)? Trenton Systems has a long history of extending product life-cycles by working with customers and suppliers to procure the obsolete parts. Since the early 1990's Trenton Systems standard processor boards actually currently average 4 years of availability beyond Intel's embedded, long-life processor availability...that's 4 additional years of availability without minimum quantity orders, without long lead times, etc.
So now we're at 2038 and all of the parts of obsolete...how do you plan to get to 2040? Trenton Systems has systems in place to notify customers of EOL (End of Life) products and allow for last time buys which can really extend the availability almost indefinitely. We currently have multiple products still in production for specific customers that were obsolete over 5 years ago. This may include procuring parts ahead of the EOL or through stocking options with partial payments.
Note that some parts are outside of Trenton Systems' control like the hard drives, DVD-ROM's, etc. Most of these parts are commodity parts and have little to no impact to the form, fit, or function of the computer. Still, Trenton will notify and work with customers on any change that the customer deems significant and either find an alternate cross (e.g. maybe a 2TB hard drive instead of the old 1TB) or procure and stock the old parts for as long as the customer needs the product to remain.
If you need a custom solution that guarantees your peace of mind for the next decade or two, talk to one of our engineers and let's put a system together that will satisfy your specs and requirements.
Give Trenton Systems a call today at (770) 287-3100, chat with us online, or fill out a form. We are eagerly awaiting your most complex requests!