> unless Intel built a lifetime supply

This is standard practice for low-volume legacy parts. A single production run will often yield enough parts for months or even years of demand; once demand gets low enough, the manufacturer will just sell what's left of the last batch, and discontinue the part when that runs out.

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initramfs 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Since they are out of patent, curious if anyone would be willing to manufacture it again.

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duskwuff 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If there wasn't enough demand ~20 years ago for Intel to continue manufacturing the part, it's far less likely that there's enough demand now to justify designing, manufacturing, and qualifying a new part to replace it.

	▲	initramfs an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Wafer.space slots can support around 4-500,000 transistors in 1x1 titles, usually reserved for 1000 dies. The 386 (non SLC version) had 275,000. In theory this could be manufactured at 180nm/130nm https://wafer.space/