This is about a year or two old, at least the On Semi announcement. When I mentioned it to another consultant at that time, he groused that it just pushed the problem back to the driver transistors, for which they hadn't provided any parts along similar lines yet. I thought his reaction was a trifle uncharitable. I haven't played with them yet but they look like fun, and at least they picked some good parts to put the diode with.
EDIT: Another kind of discrete part that never quite died and had promise seems to be coming back: the DMOS transistor with a cell or two devoted to current sensing. Motorola introduced it back around 1990 IIRC, and the cost and peculiar 5 lead TO-220 style package was never popular. Now that the push is to greater and greater efficiency at low voltages and high currents, requiring the use of very low value (expensive) current sense resistors, there's economic motivation. Also takes up a tad less board area.
