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Intended Use and Life Cycle States
Toradex is highly committed to ensuring the long-term availability of its high-quality products. We produce end products and those enabling evaluation and fast development. The product state changes over time as it moves through its succession of stages. The following page describes the Toradex product's intended use, product versioning, and lifecycle states.
Hardware Products
Intended Use
Hardware Products are differentiated by their intended use. This is an important property that may have an impact on several key aspects of the product. It is recommended to use the products in accordance with their intended use. The intended use attribute is listed in the "Features" section of the related product page.
For End Products
Products intended to be integrated/assembled into end products and purchased in volumes are identified by the attribute “For End Products”.
For Evaluation/Development
Products intended to be used for evaluation and/or development purposes only are identified by the attribute “For Evaluation/Development”.
Product versus Product Version
While a Hardware Product is defined by a common name and by its first four digits in its Product Number (PN), the Hardware Product Version is revealed in the last four digits of the PN and might change over a product lifetime.
The obsolescence of key components, for example, might require a new Product Version of the Hardware Product. This is the case if there is no reasonable technical replacement part which guarantees the same form, fit and function or if the change adversely affects the quality or reliability of the product. This is commonly referred to as a “major change”, leading to a new Product Version.
Examples:
| Product | Product Version | |
|---|---|---|
| Product Name | Colibri iMX6ULL 512MB WB IT | Colibri iMX6ULL 512MB WB IT V1.0A |
| Product Number | 0040 xxxx | 0040 1000 |
| Product Name | Iris Carrier Board | Iris Carrier Board V1.1B |
| Product Number | 0135 xxxx | 0135 1101 |
Product Life-cycle States
In Development
Products listed in this state are still in their development stage.
Early Access
Products in this stage are not available in the Webshop yet. However, we have this product available for selected customers and partners. Hardware and Software support is typically limited. Contact Sales for more information.
Sample Product
Sample Products are available for purchase in lower quantity. Such products can be new products or updated versions of an existing product. Please note that the products listed under this state are subject to change without prior notice from Toradex. Software support is not full-featured and typically hardware revisions are only supported until the next version is released. Generally, Sample products are supported with Monthly Software releases.
Volume Product Candidate
A Sample product we plan to promote to a Volume Product with no significant changes. If all verifications are successful this product will get the same Software support as a Volume Product.
Volume Product
A Volume Product is a fully validated product in mass production. Smaller volumes are usually available from stock, while a reliable supply of higher volumes does require firm orders. Customers will be notified about any changes and they will have the possibility to place Last Time Buy (LTB) orders for a change of a Volume Product. The full Toradex Software support is provided, including Long Term Supported (LTS) production releases. Note: Toradex guarantees minimum availability for products - not for a specific version of a product.
Product Change Notification (PCN)
Product Change Notification (PCN) marked products will undergo a change in the near future. Before buying these products, customers are requested to check the product changes and product availability in the PCN document attached to the Product Revision History. Samples will be available for testing in case there is a successor product or version.
Software Products
Toradex is constantly adding features and improving its Software including boot loader, operating systems, libraries and tools. All changes of a specific software version is documented in the respective change log of the Software Product. The applicable Software Versioning Convention is documented on the Toradex Developer Center.
Please contact our technical support if you have any questions.
Product Version Change
Toradex does publish the roadmap of its Software Products on the Toradex Developer Website's Software Section.
Windows CE / Windows Embedded Compact
The Windows Embedded Compact BSP roadmap can be found on the Toradex Developer Website's Windows Embedded Compact Section by selecting the respective BSP and then “Release Roadmap”.
Embedded Linux
The Embedded Linux BSP Releases are documented on the Toradex Developer Website's Linux Software Release Section.
Toradex also provides an overview of its Embedded Linux BSP Support strategy on the Toradex Developer Website.
Customer’s Obligation of Validation
Toradex’ s Embedded Computing solutions allow a fast time-to-market by reusing widely deployed platforms running 24/7 in thousands of applications.
But as the Hardware and Software Products of Toradex are only one part of the end product, Toradex cannot take any responsibility for the suitability or reliability of the customer product. Therefore, customers are obliged to do a full release testing of the intended combination of Toradex Hardware and Toradex Software Products on the target system. The software to validate shall include the complete stack (for example the combination of boot loader, OS and application).
Customers shall only use a fully validated combination of Toradex Hardware and Toradex Software Products in volume production.
