Relabeling to reflect a Nat Semi type part number by Fairchild is just an attempt to meet a customer's requirements and increase sales of the same part, from inventory. If customers have not configured their automated purchasing systems to reflect different vendor part numbers for the same type of part, down-stream activities can be quite inflexible. It's hard to predict what customers will want their parts labelled 10 years in advance. I doubt this time frame is typical in the industry, or that it was predicted at the time of mfr, either. Note that Fairchild has sold, as a company, in the intervening period, and that many original suppliers no longer source the DIP version of this commercial grade part. Believe me, the buyer (or someone else) pays for this inflexibility and the long shelf time, even if 'only' in fractions of cents per part. RL --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 15.0 To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------