I understand the mbed is intended to be a rapid prototype platform, but I still have to ask...  What is the expective life span of the LPC 1768?  As a couple people may know already, I'm working on a project that will use at least 18 mbeds..  I've had the first unit now for a week or so and have been able to hammer out enough of a baseline proof of concept to make the decision to move to a next step..  I don't want to make the investment for all 18 at once, even though the wonderful pre-release price is like $60 right now... I do however want to make sure that as the project progresses, and I make the next few purchases I will be getting the same hardware as when I started. 

I have to say that I am very happy with the mbed so far, it's only been a week and I've got a device communicating with a pc via ethernet and sharing data from sensors..  I'm even able to telnet into it and issue commands... Love it..

Hi Mark,

Mark x wrote:
I understand the mbed is intended to be a rapid prototype platform, but I still have to ask... What is the expective life span of the LPC 1768?

Good question. Two parts to this answer:

• The LPC1768 microcontroller used on the most recent mbed is designed and manufactured by NXP. They have been designing ARM-based microcontrollers from about 2003, and other micros well before that. I checked with them and they confirmed that all the ARM based designs they have done are still in production! (some have been rev'd obviously). Hopefully that puts your mind at rest, but for more details of lifetimes, you'd need to go and speak to NXP or an NXP distributor.
• The mbed NXP LPC1768 board is a little different. We aren't an "industrial module" that guarantees long lifetimes, extreme operating conditions, etc. and we aren't recommending it as a "design in" module. The goal is to be a tool to help prototyping and development. That said, one of our approaches is certainly to have stability of platforms - it is great to have consistency to allow sharing of projects, problems and knowledge. I'd therefore suggest that the LPC1768 platform will be around and supported for a long time. You will be getting the same hardware for the foreseeable future, and as other modules are added, we won't be depricating this one.

Hope this helps answer your question.

Note: The mbed NXP LPC2368 board used in the mbed beta is superseeded by the LPC1768 design we launched with; it is basically the same chip with the ARM7 swapped out for the newer Cortex-M3 ARM Core, and some peripheral improvements. We are keeping the LPC2368 alive and supported, but the LPC1768 is our first official release and the module we'd recommend.

Thanks,

Simon

Thanks Simon for the reply!

Looks like I'll be using the LPC1768 then!  I'm very excited to get started with it.  I just ordered a few more and look forward to even more soon..  The mbed fits in perfectly for what I'm doing right now, and is truly great for proof of conecpt stuff like this.  It's great to see a community sharing, etc..

Thanks again..  and here's to a long, successful life for the product and company... =)

Resurrecting this old thread. I was wondering if the "I'd therefore suggest that the LPC1768 platform will be around and supported for a long time." is still standing 5 years later? Are there any plans to stop production of the module in the next 3-4 years? There are a lot of new mbeds out now and the LPC1768 isn't exactly the sexy Internet of Things kinda board. I'd see it more in "traditional" networking application (Ethernet, CAN). So I'm a little worried that it doesn't fit ARMs direction with the new Mbed OS and is getting dumped because of that.

It's a lovely platform and actually really nice as a drop-in module, even though its not intended to be that. Though for small batch, internal hardware projects its really cool.