The end of the J201?

[CodeMonk]

And Fairchild is not the only manufacturer. So don't worry about the idiots on Ebay who think they are worth $9 each.

This.
Fairchild is not the only manufacturer of J201s, 2N5457s, etc.

We aren't screwed yet.


Edit:
I emailed Fairchild about this issue....

Hello Robert, J201 can but bought as a SOT23 MMBFJ201 and the die process is still alive so technically we can support in TO92 but it seems it had such minimal sales volume we decided to stop supporting it.

For the MPF102 options:

BF256B
MMBF4416
MMBF4416A
MMBF5484
MMBF5485
MMBF5486
MMBFJ305

For the 2n5457 we can offer surface mount MMBF5457.

[iccaros]

this is why I ordered 100 of them, I do not sell pedals, so this should last me a year or two...

[bluesdevil]

The prices and availability will be decent for many years after you've decided you're tired of ROG projects.

You know, we do have projects that don't use FETs.

Indeed. I just built your Tri-Vibe project and it is excellent!!!

[Mark Hammer]

The prices and availability will be decent for many years after you've decided you're tired of ROG projects.

You know, we do have projects that don't use FETs.

I know, I know.  It's a very varied list.  But you have to admit, some of them can use a handful.

[SteveG]

One can still buy new production OC75's decades after the big names ceased production, so it's questionable whether TO92 J201's (or some close equivalent) will become completely extinct in the future. I've ordered 1000 anyway, just for peace of mind. I wish I could solve every problem in my life for £56!

Steve

[PRR]

> Announcing that transistor X will cease production in, say, August 2012, does not mean that Fairchild will drop back to making a few hundred a day until then.  They may continue to make tens of thousands a day until then.

Actually they make ten-thousand in one morning, every time their stock (possibly including major distributors) falls below 10,000.

Big selling parts might be run every month.

However recent sales of TO-92 packages (all types) have been falling. And their last run of this part has been sitting in warehouses un-sold for a year or more. The way they see it, they already made nearly every part the world will ever need.

So what they mean is: We can schedule a run in August, and that should be the last run ever. If you NEED this part, order "all you will ever need" before then.

Maybe the military has a million boards in the field, expected to stay in service another 20 years, failing about 100 per year, fixed in various field depots. The service office might order 2,000-3,000 to hold in stock, rather than re-build a million units for SMT. Peavey and Boss and others will make similar decisions. Current and updated products will go SMT. They may order a box for repair of obsolete products.

Ultimately these lifetime stock-ups turn out to be over-buys. The military system gets abandoned because some other part is unobtainable or because a better system subsumes the function. Commercial producers go broke. All these parts go to yard-sale. The semi industry is full of brokers who buy and sell odd lots. USSR radar tubes, Czech Ge transistors, that vintage-1977 pile in IBM's back room.