These are now officially "old" terms, but it only recently changed and a lot of people are slow on the uptake.
ACTIVE The term used to describe product that is available for sale by ACIG (Automation Control and Information Group).
FUTURE INACTIVE The term used to describe a product that will be no longer listed as for sale in the public domain in the future.
INACTIVE The term used to describe product that is no longer listed as available for sale in the public domain. The product may still be in inventory and available for sale, but availability cannot be guaranteed.
SILVER SERIES This is the action of notifying the public that a certain module will become Inactive in the near future (6-24 months).
DISCONTINUED (formerly Obsolete) The term used to describe product that is no longer available for sale by any division of ACIG, and manufacturing is no longer possible. Engineering can no longer make any modifications to this product, even for support purposes.
Remanufacturing services will be available as long as the proper materials, components and test equipment are available.
Now those terms have been replaced by:
ACTIVE: Most current offering within a product category.
ACTIVE MATURE: Product is fully supported, but a newer product or family exists.
END OF LIFE: Discontinued date announced. Product generally orderable until the discontinued date.
1
DISCONTINUED: New product no longer manufactured or procured.
2 Repair/exchange services may be available.
1 - Outages on specific items may occur prior to the Discontinued date.
2 - Limited stock may be available in run-out mode, regionally.
If you go to this website, you can check the status of any product that has a limited lifespan. So for instance if you are looking for info on the SLC 500, type in "1747" and it will tell you the current status of any SLC 500 part number that starts with 1747.You will see by the way that many of them have already moved into End of Life or Discontinued, but there are still some that are Active Mature.