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The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

cnbc.com

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Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#211

Post by krapht »

simias wrote: post #8
ferros wrote: post #3

> Production of low-margin processors, such as those used to weigh clothes in a washing machine or toast bread in a smart toaster, has also been hit. While most retailers are still able to get their hands on these products at the moment, they may face issues in the months ahead. I understand why the new advanced chips could face shortages, but why are there shortages for these basic chips. Can’t they be made anywhere…

I don't know but maybe one of the factors is that given how cheap microntrollers have become it's not uncommon to use an "overpowered" integrated chip just for ease of development. Suppose that you have to drive some LEDs on a washing machine, do you bother developing some optimized bespoke circuitry with discrete components or do you just slap a ~2$ 100+MHz 32bit Cortex controller that will let you implement all the…

Eh, no, that's not how it works in high-volume manufacturing. There are 70 million washing machines sold per year. Suppose your large conglomerate employer sells 0.7% of that total, or 700,000 units. It doesn't take much of a per-unit savings to pay for the salary of a FTE to optimize the design.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#212

Post by o-__-o »

ineedasername wrote: post #124
bredren wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since 14% of renters are behind on rent and evictions begin June 30, aren’t vehicle repossessions going to kick in July / August? Presumably, due in part to eviction protection, they have been able to divert all or a portion of their rent payments to keeping up with bad car loans for commute vehicles that often will not be needed. These folks need them for housing unfortunately. If repossessed cars start showing up t…

Most new cars still suck / Do not offer meaningful new features That really depends on how old your car is. I generally buy instead of lease, and run the car until it starts having regular problems. As a result, my car is 12 years old, and any new one from the last few years is a significant upgrade in terms of features. I don't really want a monthly car payment again, but I'm almost looking forward to when my curren…

All modern cars have amazing new features. Air bags, reverse cameras, steering by wire, ABS, direct fuel injection, massively boosted turbocharged engines (on econoboxes!) and traction control as standard. My 7 year old car has all of the above and can park itself, has adaptive cruise control, and for $400 I added a 12” touch screen stereo. Compared to my last car, my current car outputs up to 20psi of boost compared to the 6psi of four generations ago. My current car has part time AWD that is just as efficient as my old mechanical always on AWD car of yesterday. I bought my car for under $20k. The car is worth under $10k right now. That is massive value available to everyone right now.

Maybe you could upgrade your car now for much less than you think, or maybe you only want the latest shiny parts. Either way you need to be honest with yourself, cars have evolved and stayed modern over the past 2 decades compared to any time in automobile history

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#213

Post by bluedino »

bredren wrote: post #98
smiley1437 wrote: post #58

Interestingly, there is an embedded video in that article that explains the issue specific to the automotive shortage - it's because the automotive industry cancelled a lot of chip orders in anticipation of low vehicle demand and that caused chip makers to reduce their production for the kinds of chips that go into cars, and now it takes time to ramp back up: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2021/03/02/how-the-global-compu…

Since 14% of renters are behind on rent and evictions begin June 30, aren’t vehicle repossessions going to kick in July / August? Presumably, due in part to eviction protection, they have been able to divert all or a portion of their rent payments to keeping up with bad car loans for commute vehicles that often will not be needed. These folks need them for housing unfortunately. If repossessed cars start showing up t…

>> Since 14% of renters are behind on rent and evictions begin June 30, aren’t vehicle repossessions going to kick in July / August?

Americans will pay their car loan before their rent.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#214

Post by baybal2 »

lunixicityee wrote: post #107
AlexC04 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes me wonder if it would be possible to build a chip-manufacturing plant for any reasonable amount of money to produce these chips that don't need to be 7nm GPU powerhouses, but like the old clunker chips that can't get attention from the big guys. Almost like starting a "generics" business in pharma medication but for older chipsets. I'm sure there's a great trade to be had in producing the lower end stuff.

You could dip your toe in by getting a design produced, if you're interested in the process. Google and efabless accept submissions every few months for designs that use a free 130nm process development kit: https://efabless.com/open_shuttle_program 130nm is plenty ancient; it's the same feature size as a >10-year-old STM32F1, I think. And I hear that those MPW runs are starting to accept ~$10K for a guaranteed spot…

> Is that possible? I haven't crunched the numbers and I don't have enough information or context to do so accurately. But my gut says that it might depend on how many billionaires you're on good terms with.

130nm is quite ancient, but there are digital parts from early nineties still on the market. They are way bigger than 130nm.

Right now I have an ongoing project with a company making aircons. Their kit supplier uses a really, really ancient, and rare Hitachi MCU made on 600nm, and they are paying few dollars for it — more than some modern ARM SoCs.

They really want to change their kit supplier, or compel the chip supplier to cut cost, but the kit supplier itself can't migrate from Hitachi MCU because they don't have firmware sources as they themselves only copypasted the firmware as a binary for decades..

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#215

Post by bluedino »

nnamtr wrote: post #36
devney wrote: post #11

For years I've been asking: Why does my toothbrush have to connect to bluetooth? Why does my refrigerator twitter? These were always useless mis-features and we can hope some of them can get pared down now with the shortage. Bring back old style dumb appliances!

I'm always very sceptical when electronics and chips are used as a solution to problems that nobody had. Reliability seems to suffer most of all. When I hear from my parents how long their products lasted back then ...

Appicances with cheap membrane control panels are the worst. Mechanical dials lasted forever and when they broke you could at least still work them with some vise grips

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#217

Post by sokoloff »

nradov wrote: post #175
wizzwizz4 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't want a monthly car payment, start your “monthly car payment” into a savings account now. You'll end up paying less for your next car if you can maximise the up-front payment.

Current low interest rates on car loans make that approach a bit pointless.

Borrowing also means you have to carry collision insurance, the surplus value (over the expected payout) of which should also be considered a finance charge if you’d otherwise not carry it.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#219

Post by mywittyname »

bredren wrote: post #162
itsoktocry wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you consider "meaningful new features"? What about new cars "sucks"? They are more reliable, safer, quieter, more powerful, more fuel efficient and more full featured than ever.

We are in the iPod Video stage of individual car ownership.

I disagree.

Whether your into sports cars or fuel efficient cars, both categories have meaningfully improved over the past few years.

For sports cars, there's a number of 500,600,700hp cars on the market. Corvettes went mid engine (2020), Miatas lost 400lbs of weight(2016), Mustangs/Camaros/Chargers are now 460+HP (2018ish), a VW Golf R will hit 60MPH in 4 seconds with a 2.0L motor, and that's not even getting into Teslas.

For economy cars, a Rav4 hybrid gets about as good of fuel economy as a 2014 Prius, while being substantially larger. There are good hybrid offerings from non-Toyota brands, such as KIA. Plug in hybrids are pretty widely available. Even non-hybrids such as the Civic improved substantially in fuel economy in the past few years. In 2016, Civic fuel economy improved about 8% across the lineup.

For many auto makers, the transition from early 2010s to late 2010s came with substantial improvements. Not just in measureable metrics either. Transmission performance has improved so much between 2010 and 2020. It's really insane to experience a 2010 6 speed automatic, then compare it to a car with a modern 8,9,10 speed. The difference is night and day for most cars.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#220

Post by [deleted] »

oblak wrote: post #181

So, even though Intel has been incredibly profitable for many years, they Gelsinger is asking for US and EU government support because... uh, uncertain times? That it? How much did they ask Isreal for this 600 million investment? [0] [0] https://www.israel21c.org/intel-announces-600-million-boost-... The EU should invest in AMD and build fabs without Intel if we are to be "independent"

[deleted]
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