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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

#661

Post by OldTimeCoffee »

dillondoyle wrote: post #497
NegativeLatency wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Toyota Tacoma is now the size of older F150s, there aren’t many or really any good options for buying a small truck currently.

And it's so hard to find a 2 door. A giant 4 door with a HUGE cab, but a tiny bed?! What's the point of that over an SUV. I'm buying a car for first time in a decade. I used to want to dirtbag out of a tacoma and have been looking for one but it's hard. Even a 13 year old one seems big - and also crazy expensive ;)

Because companies aren't buying trucks anymore, they're buying vans instead. Manufacturers have realized that people are buying trucks for their daily driver, so they've optimized the product around that. They've moved to a more car-like comfortable interior and they've stopped selling the regular cab (2 door) models because they don't sell. They pretty much make mostly double cabs because you need a backseat to drive around kids (again, car like). The 5 foot bed is fine because you're not hauling a 4x8 sheet of plywood anymore and a 8 ft 2x4 fits diagonally fairly comfortably.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#663

Post by baybal2 »

pyb wrote: post #653
baybal2 wrote: post #536

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They're popular because they're pretty decent, low cost, have good dev boards and offer a wide variety of parts. Now find a single person who can program bare hardware on a short notice on above Arduino level. The current chip shortage has claimed 6 of our firmware devs, all hired by companies ready to spend just any money for anybody "who can replace that ____ing STM|NXP|Renesas thing" People downstream in the ind…

Where in the world is this happening ? Maybe I should get back into this game. Low-level development hadn't been a well rewarded area in recent years.

The place where all RnD shops have migrated to — China

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#664

Post by yakubin »

robomartin wrote: post #617
ecpottinger wrote: post #609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wrote a simple inventory program for a yachting company, after entering the inventory data into the computer it turns out a lot of expensive parts had been double ordered and even triple ordered. But the Ontario added a luxury tax and sales tanked. It looks like they had over three million dollars in excess inventory. And soon the company went bankrupt, to this day I think the company would had pulled thru if it di…

I can't tell you how often I see comments on HN about "corporate greed" and such things as "businesses just want to make money at any cost". What these commenters don't understand is that cash is like the blood pumping through the veins of the business. Without cash the business dies. Even worse, people lose jobs, families lose security and the chain reaction can be massive. Businesses need profit and careful managem…

Those comments aren't entirely unreasonable. Money is important, but it can't be the be-all-and-end-all of a company.

There are companies like Sun Microsystems, and then there are companies like Oracle.

There are companies like Gandi, and then there are companies like GoDaddy.

There are companies like Fastmail, and then there are companies like Google.

I prefer to look up to the first group.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#665

Post by ddalex »

ArkanExplorer wrote: post #498
nostromo wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is largely a result of just-in-time manufacturing. Companies hate holding on to inventory. Most companies now don’t hold on to any extra stock needed to manufacture their products. This is great for your finances in normal times. But don’t complain when there is a shortage and you literally have zero slack for delays and your factory sits idle — that’s the well-known drawback.

No, this is the result of people like Neill Ferguson forecasting that COVID would be multiple times worse than it turned out to be, and Governments and the media believing him. For example this report from March 2020 was highly influential and predicted 2.2 million deaths in the US in an 'unmitigated epidemic' scenario: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/s... When in reality the official COVID…

> political factors in 2020 (a major re-election year in the USA) which drove the completely unusual and unjustified lockdown response

I'm very interested to understand what part did the US 2020 election played in the (still continuing in some parts) lockdowns in Europe...

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#666

Post by nothis »

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…

That should be the headline, really, lol.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#667

Post by KirillPanov »

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…

> And I hear that those MPW runs are starting to accept ~$10K for a guaranteed spot with a closed-source design.

That is absolutely not true.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#668

Post by xadhominemx »

KirillPanov wrote: post #654
varjag wrote: post #647

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re-spinning a board, LOL. Dude, there's copper substrate shortage on the market, people have delays getting their already ordered PCBs delivered.

> there's copper substrate shortage on the market, people have delays getting their already ordered PCBs delivered. Any details on this? Media/tradejournal links? I wouldn't have believed you six months ago, but hey, everything's changed. Still, copper-clad board shortages... I mean if that really is for real we're headed back to the stone age real quick. I hope it's just a rumor.

Before berating someone in the industry for “source”, why don’t you try googling it? PCB shortage, ABF shortage, etc.

Scores of recent articles at your fingertips.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#669

Post by KirillPanov »

xadhominemx wrote: post #668
KirillPanov wrote: post #654

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there's copper substrate shortage on the market, people have delays getting their already ordered PCBs delivered. Any details on this? Media/tradejournal links? I wouldn't have believed you six months ago, but hey, everything's changed. Still, copper-clad board shortages... I mean if that really is for real we're headed back to the stone age real quick. I hope it's just a rumor.

Before berating someone in the industry for “source”, why don’t you try googling it? PCB shortage, ABF shortage, etc. Scores of recent articles at your fingertips.

... and yet you post no links.

Also: I wasn't berating anybody.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#670

Post by brongondwana »

sharklazer wrote: post #596
TomVDB wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The parts that don’t have a pin compatible substitute” is usually 80% of your total BOM cost. It’s not a helpful clarification. Let’s take something totally ordinary like an STM32 MCU, and let’s ignore for a moment that there are now some clones on the market, with questionable compatibility at times. Even though they’re unique parts, there is no way anybody sane would stock up on those for the lifetime of a product…

I’ve been stocking up on various chips and components for the last month. Almost grabbed some STM32s. Maybe if I can find them. I have this growing gut feeling we are at the peak of technology... at least for a while.

You and a bunch of others, and now all the supermarkets are out of toilet paper.
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