[Steely Tom]

Everyone who designs chips into anything has this problem all the time. Chip manufacturers constantly phase out chips and replace them with newer designs that often require redesign of circuit boards; this is costly and time-consuming. Sometimes the re-design is just a re-routing to accommodate a new package or pin arrangement (called "the pin-out"). Sometimes it is worse than that, with new or different peripheral elements having to be replaced or upgraded.

That's just life in the high-tech manufacturing world. Everyone in that field has to deal with it. It's been that way for a long time.

There even exists a "secondary" or "grey" market for chips that become obsolete simply because their supplier stops making this. People actually invest in chips that they think will go obsolete before the market for them dries up. If the play works, they can sell the hoarded chips for a big mark-up to desperate users who will suffer a loss of production if they can't get them.

[GingisK]

Absolutely! The Z80 was magnificent just for being able to hang on past its prime.

[ctdonath2]

I once worked for a company that was both suing another for copyright infringement regarding them making copies of our flagship product, and buying those very boards because it was a way to acquire the limited components needed to continue production.