The M24C16-DRDW3TP/K is flagged as end-of-life (eol_hot). This means the manufacturer has issued a last-time-buy notice; once the buy window closes, new supply will only be available through surplus or broker channels. For a BOM that already qualifies this exact order code, the decision is whether to secure lifetime buy quantities now or qualify a pin-compatible replacement. The base product number M24C16 covers multiple package and temperature variants — an engineering review of the full M24C16 family may identify an active alternative with the same 8-TSSOP footprint and AEC-Q100 rating.
What the 450 ns access time means for the bus
450 ns access time is the time from the address byte being acknowledged to the first data byte appearing on the SDA line. At a 1 MHz I2C clock, that is less than half a bit period — the microcontroller's I2C peripheral must be configured to insert a wait state or stretch the clock after the address phase. Most modern MCU I2C controllers handle this automatically, but a legacy bit-banged implementation may need a NOP delay inserted.