nrf5x part numbers

[George]

I guess this has been mentioned/asked before but you should really do something to enforce the full chip part-numbers to be listed at distributors.

For example, for an older design I have an nrf51822-CEAA. Looking at the compatibility matrix this same part-number exists in all 3 revisions of the chip. Granted that the marking on the chip will tell you the exact revision but when ordering parts it is a total nightmare and just leads to confusion and unnecessary delays. Honestly I've never came across such a misleading part numbering method and it is too bad for a product that is really so good in many aspects. The part number shown by distrubutors is just nrf51822-CEAA with no indication of chip revision. Handling the order via turnkey suppliers becomes even worst. Last year I had a similar issues with the nrf51822-QFAA, I wanted the latest version but got V1 parts! - the only real solution I found in that case was to change to the nrf51822-QFAC which exists only as V3 just so I'm sure to get the latest revision.

For the nrf51822-CEAA, I was thinking to use the CTAA instead to avoid the problem but this doesn't seem to be stocked anywhere so most likely I'll end up having to order a few thousand nrf51822-CEAA chips and just hope I get the last revision!

The same problem seems to exist with the newer nRF52 chips.

[George]

Well, in reality this problem is not exclusive to Nordic, other manufactures have similar problems but for some reason in 20 years the only other parts I remember having similar issues with were the atmel xmega when they were just released (they had a lot of bugs at the time),I think they had changed partnumbers for the most problematic parts. Digikey often has PCN documents specific to the orderable part but I don't remember seeing this for Noridic devices. Some other parts such as atmel SAM processors have a revision code within the main partnumber. I think the issue is more pronounced with the nrf5x because of the softdevice in/compatibility to specific chip revisions. With full custom code the differences between revisions are less likely to be a problem. Also most other devices I tend to use are more 'seasoned' so different revisions will only have minor changes.