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The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

cnbc.com

671–680 of 741 posts

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#671

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…

Same for bicycles manufacturers. At the beginning, nobody knew what's gonna be in the future, low orders and then high demand.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#672

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not really. I have a lot of musical equipment. The chips I have are relatively uncommon. Not toilet paper. I’ve only got enough to duplicate things and keep them running if need be. I suspect what I will have will last around end of my life. Enough to just keep things going.

I’m not a hoarder, I’ve kept my focus limited and goals clear.

But you’re an assumptive a*hat.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#674
Who cares about smatrphones and TVs (and cars also)? I always wanted something to happen to force people stop throwing them to landfills and getting new ones every couple years. And smart TVs (with manufacturer-implanted ads, analytics, etc) are abomination. Also the less cars there are - the better. IMHO.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#675

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[deleted]

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#676

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not really. I have a lot of musical equipment. The chips I have are relatively uncommon. Not toilet paper. I’ve only got enough to duplicate things and keep them running if need be. I suspect what I will have will last around end of my life. Enough to just keep things going. I’m not a hoarder, I’ve kept my focus limited and goals clear. But you’re an assumptive a*hat.

Guilty as charged. I was part joking, part serious. I've had to order more than immediately needed capacity a couple of times in my life to tide over expected difficulties in getting timely equipment. Either managers who were slow at approving things or (today) expected shipping delays meaning I need enough capacity for the expected next year rather than expected next 2 months. Multiply that by everyone, you get a rush on the bank.

Interestingly I saw an analysis a while back (citation not provided because I'm about to go sleep and have an early start tomorrow) that just the change in demand from office to home could account for a lot of the increased toilet paper demand. People were still shitting the same amount but they were using home-grade rolls rather than industrial giant office rolls, of which there was a glut!

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#677

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Not really. I have a lot of musical equipment. The chips I have are relatively uncommon. Not toilet paper. I’ve only got enough to duplicate things and keep them running if need be. I suspect what I will have will last around end of my life. Enough to just keep things going. I’m not a hoarder, I’ve kept my focus limited and goals clear. But you’re an assumptive a*hat.

[deleted]

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#678

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. I have a lot of musical equipment. The chips I have are relatively uncommon. Not toilet paper. I’ve only got enough to duplicate things and keep them running if need be. I suspect what I will have will last around end of my life. Enough to just keep things going. I’m not a hoarder, I’ve kept my focus limited and goals clear. But you’re an assumptive a*hat.

Guilty as charged. I was part joking, part serious. I've had to order more than immediately needed capacity a couple of times in my life to tide over expected difficulties in getting timely equipment. Either managers who were slow at approving things or (today) expected shipping delays meaning I need enough capacity for the expected next year rather than expected next 2 months. Multiply that by everyone, you get a ru…

Alrighty. Well, I just remember last years run on toilet paper. It was a “why?”, people buying much more than needed. I don’t wanna be one of them.

I still say “stock up” though at least for what you can actually plan to use. Just like the above with toilet paper, supply-chains are going funky.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#679

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…

If a company has a honest business, then i agree with you. Money is the blood in their vein and they need it and should get it.

Well, i cant speak for others, but when i talk about company greed i think of practices like using fake cheese to cut costs but hide it from the customer.

Or when they break their product by update and tell you to buy the bigger one. (Like Synology recently) Or to intentionally slow down the product by Update (like Apple) and lie to your customers about doing it.

Or drying up the well from villages(Like Nestle).

Or demanding tax returns from taxes you never paid (Cum-Ex).

Those companies give a shit on society for each dollar they can get no matter what.

that is greedy and in my opinion very wrong.

Every time i read a comment about how someone defends that i reflect upon how short sighted or antisocial a person must be. Those people have probably no skill beside locust style investment and stealing lolipops from little babies. We launch young Business Administrators into the society and they know so little about how to actually be productive. That's where such comments come from. How could you blame them? The entire Society failed them by not ensuring their education includes perspectives and knowledge that allows them to deliver actual value to economy or society.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#680
post #658
post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Stuff gets obsoleted all the time, it doesn't take a chip shortage. This is just not true. But when it happens, there is usually an announcement well ahead of time (e.g. 1 year), as well as a last time buy option. Historically, there has never been a need to buy the chips of all the boards of a revision. If you are in the position of being able to buy all the components of all the boards you'll ever make for a cert…

Depends on the chip manufacturer. Nordic obsoletes versions of their Bluetooth chips at the drop of a hat. I worked for 2 years on a smartwatch that used the nRF51822 and they went through about 8 revisions of the chip during that time, occasionally obsoleting the software API as well. It was a nightmare to work with. We open sourced our design but it is useless to anyone now because they changed the hardware and API…

Would you use an NRF chip today, or is there another you would recommend? I'm working on a board with an NRF52840 and have been annoyed with their API. There are so many versions of their API and software, some are marked deprecated but the interface is still used in their latest code/examples. Nordic also doesn't provide a code generator to configure the hardware. I started with them since their chips seemed popular, they provided the BLE profile I needed, and come with a Segger debug license.
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