TS-PCS
Notice Id: 241
URL: https://pcs.embeddedts.com/notices/rtc-substitutions-possible-for-supply-chain-stability
Type: BOM Update
Contains Board Revisions: No
Effective On: May 01, 2023
Published: May 01, 2023
Products Affected: TS-4800, TS-7553-V2, TS-7680, TS-8100-4800, TS-8160-4800, TS-8820-4800, TS-TPC-7990, TS-TPC-8390-4800, TS-TPC-8900-4800
Dear Valued Customer,
We are contacting you today to notify you that there are RTC Substitutions Possible for Supply Chain Stability on a product you've purchased from embeddedTS. Due to supply chain challenges over the past several quarters the embeddedTS engineering team has verified and approved replacement Real Time Clock ICs for our products. We have been notifying customers on an order-by-order basis when a substitution is being applied, but based on the stability of the solution we will be proceeding with using the substitution as an ongoing alternate part until further notice. We will not be indicating this change with a BOM revision, there will be no changes necessary to your software or hardware.
The affected products are: TS-4800, TS-7553-V2, TS-7680, TS-8100-4800, TS-8160-4800, TS-8820-4800, TS-TPC-7990, TS-TPC-8390-4800, TS-TPC-8900-4800
The Real Time Clock IC keeps date and time information on the system regardless of whether or not external power is present. The systems are designed to manage this clock in the background using tools built into Linux. On these Single Board Computers the standard RTC is an STMicroelectronics M41x; STMicroelectronics has not been able to keep up with manufacturing demand. However, Maxim Integrated offers footprint and software compatible alternatives including a Maxim Integrated DS13x. embeddedTS has been shipping this drop-in solution with no negative impact to affected customers over the past nine months.
No software changes are required for nearly every application as the Linux kernel driver for the proposed RTC is handled transparently by the same driver as the standard RTC.
The only situation that would require software changes is if a customer application reads the oscillator failed status bit from the RTC registers directly. The proposed RTC changes the location of this status bit. The Linux kernel driver DOES NOT monitor this status bit and it is NOT USED in normal timekeeping of the system. Most applications will not be using this feature.
Please contact us regarding any new or existing orders if you believe your application is not using a Linux driver to utilize the Real Time Clock so that we can plan appropriately.
We at embeddedTS appreciate your business. If you have further questions or concerns, please contact us by either replying to this email or by filling out the "Contact Us" form at https://pcs.embeddedts.com/notices/rtc-substitutions-possible-for-supply-chain-stability.
Best Regards,
embeddedTS
16525 East Laser Drive
Fountain Hills, AZ 85268
T: (480) 837-5200