A bit of a delicate question - and I don't know quite how to phrase it so I'll just come out with it: will mbed be around in a year?

If we use the board in a new design, can we have some confidence that we will have replacement boards in a year or two?

I hope none of the principals in mbed are offended by this question - I am impressed with the board and I am strongly considering using it in a project that needs to have a few-years lifetime... and maybe longer if our project is successful.

Sincerely,
Sridhar

Look at it this way:   just buy a bunch!

I have been burned by the "regular" microcontrollers.  I.E.  just had to dump a project because of an MSP430 device that had been released in January of 2009.   I made some proto's, etc.   When were we ready to goto production last Fall there was no stock and a 4 month lead time (which continued to be 4 month every time we asked!).   Arter Year there is still no stock and we had to move on to a completely different chip to get things out the door.

Moral of the story is to secure what you need now!

Also,  put the cost of the Keil compiler in you budget you will be relatively safe.  You can still design around the LPC device regardless of the availability of the MBED dev module.

Hello Sridhar,

you asked a direct questions, I give you a direct answer. When it comes to the future of your project or maybe your own company, always have a backup plan. Keep some local copies of your important files. If your project is sucessful, it will get you some money for MDK-ARM to continue your project with a professional tool. MBED uses the same compiler. This will take care of the software side.

When it comes to hardware, just as with software, have a backup plan. I do not know the plans of my colleagues, but new MCUs models are created on a regular basis and MBED might get other devices, or parts of it might be discontinued by the suppliers. But a standard architecture and a nice hardware abstraction layer like MBED has, will make transitions easier.

Now to the more optimistic side. I have raised this concern with some managers in ARM before we launched MBED. They agreed we do not want unhappy customers. Rest assured, I will remind them if necessary.

There is one easy way to ensure this is unlikely to happen, tell your friends about MBED. I am sure with the continuous sucess of MBED, our managers will give Simon and his team some more time and money to enhance MBED with more cool things to come. :o)

I hope you have fun and sucess with your project.

Your friendly ARM FAE