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Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

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Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#21

Post by mitchdoogle »

dylan604 wrote: post #14
NelsonMinar wrote: post #13

Starlink provides a router with their ISP package. For the last year the router comes without an ethernet port. Wireless only. They've never said why but I assume it's because of a chip shortage. (There is an add-on for ethernet you can order for a modest price.) ResMed started selling a version of their popular AirSense 10 AutoSet sleep apnea machine without a cellular modem. Normally the product uploads treatment d…

>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?

>I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?

Seems like you understand perfectly. The doctor is the one who can interpret the data, so they can ask their patient to come in for regular checkups and make sure everything is going great

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#22

Post by hpkuarg »

londons_explore wrote: post #18
londons_explore wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). Industries often act illogically in cases like this. You see it with many types of goods ordered a long time in advance. If there is a sudden shortage, the people who have ordered their raw materials a long time in advance (who have effectively purchased a future for that commodity) think they made a good move and see it as a business advantage…

This is one reason I think most contracts for goods for future delivery should be public knowledge. Ie. "Mr Smith purchased 68 tons of steel for delivery in New York June next year for $200k". Then anyone wanting those same goods and willing to pay more can contact Mr Smith and make an offer to buy the contract. I believe such a system would make the economy substantially more efficient, at the cost of privacy. More…

Why would anybody want to trade with Mr. Smith's contract in particular when a market for the contract still exists, with market makers and other participants providing bids and offers that is better what Mr. Smith can do? At least, assuming you are talking about a regulated commodities futures contracts like those which trade on the CME.

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#23

Post by bluesquared »

dylan604 wrote: post #14
NelsonMinar wrote: post #13

Starlink provides a router with their ISP package. For the last year the router comes without an ethernet port. Wireless only. They've never said why but I assume it's because of a chip shortage. (There is an add-on for ethernet you can order for a modest price.) ResMed started selling a version of their popular AirSense 10 AutoSet sleep apnea machine without a cellular modem. Normally the product uploads treatment d…

>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?

I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response:

Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost.

So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea. Tons of ramifications of not getting good sleep that I don't need to get into. 1. Struggling to adapt to sleeping with this device strapped to my face. I would take it off unconsciously.. I would often find the hose laying next to me in the morning still "pumping", or be told by my wife of belligerent (unconscious) responses to her prompting me to put it back on in the middle of the night. 2. Losing sleep from constantly waking up throughout the night because of the CPAP/from anxiety 3. Anxiety over not meeting my compliance target of 4 hours of use per night (as interpreted by the CPAP knowing the proper amount of back-pressure when in use i.e. not just turned on and not worn). 4. Getting charged more because I did not meet my targets for enough time 5. Eventually owning the CPAP outright 6. Eventually discontinuing therapy and somehow having slightly improved levels of sleep that I've never bothered to attempt to restart therapy

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#24

Post by koheripbal »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #20
MiddleEndian wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I tried to build a mattress, I was unable to buy certain components directly from companies, no matter which ones I contacted. Had to buy mattress toppers and rip the parts out. Guess this applies to corporations too lol

There is a lot of liability and time cost involved in a transaction. It does not necessarily make sense for businesses in the business to business space to expend effort on business to consumer sales.

Honestly, it's probably easier to get one item for free if they are local and you can talk to the right person.

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#25

Post by matthews2 »

Varloom wrote: post #17

This article is out of date. We have chip glut situation right now, both Intel and NVIDIA have pushed back their 4nm orders. And 7/8nm already produced chips are piling up with no buyer to be found (especially GPUs).

There was a bigger problem with chips built on older processes (e.g. power ICs and microcontrollers).

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#26

Post by mindcrime »

itsoktocry wrote: post #9
xani_ wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the pretty vanilla chip I waited year for last year is now only on 48 weeks lead time... The other a bit less common one is only few months tho, compared to year+ so I guess it slowly is. Inflation probably helped too

> only on 48 weeks lead time... Small end-users receiving chips is a lagging indicator of the state of the supply chain. Companies are already warning about surplus inventory, ie: https://moneyweek.com/economy/global-economy/605232/semicond...

That's encouraging. But we're apparently not out of the woods yet. It wasn't very long ago (3 weeks maybe?) that I was on Mouser.com (or maybe it was Newark, whatever) looking for DSP's and there were basically none to be had.

Hopefully we'll turn the corner soon and availability of most IC's will get back to normal. fingers crossed

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#27

Post by GiorgioG »

bluesquared wrote: post #23
dylan604 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>some cloud service that ResMed then resells to your doctor. Why would they resell to the doctor, or why would the doctor be buying the info? Seems like the user should be the one charged for the data that could then be shared with their doctor. I just don't see the business sense for it being purchased by the docs unless the docs just turn around and upcharge the patient?

I've commented on this before on HN. I have sleep apnea and a ResMed CPAP. A very US-centric response: Insurance also seems to have access to this data in one way or another (not sure if direct with ResMed or via your doctor). If you don't hit your "compliance target" for treatment, insurance will cease paying 'their share' of the cost. So I found myself in a downward spiral of 0. Struggling to sleep with sleep apnea…

It took me weeks to get used to mine, but I find I do sleep better with it than without my CPAP machine. With respect to insurance, I replaced my original machine without going through insurance. It would have cost me more out of pocket for the doctor visit and on-site sleep study.

The state of health “insurance” in this country is mind-boggling. But we continue to vote for politicians that vote against our own best interests. We need more than these two f’d up parties.

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#28

Post by bluGill »

hpkuarg wrote: post #22
londons_explore wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one reason I think most contracts for goods for future delivery should be public knowledge. Ie. "Mr Smith purchased 68 tons of steel for delivery in New York June next year for $200k". Then anyone wanting those same goods and willing to pay more can contact Mr Smith and make an offer to buy the contract. I believe such a system would make the economy substantially more efficient, at the cost of privacy. More…

Why would anybody want to trade with Mr. Smith's contract in particular when a market for the contract still exists, with market makers and other participants providing bids and offers that is better what Mr. Smith can do? At least, assuming you are talking about a regulated commodities futures contracts like those which trade on the CME.

Mr Smith has a real for delivery contract, not a more common contract to own for some amount of time but no clue who is on either end. As such if you buy from Mr Smith you get real goods, while from someone else you may discover that you created a short squeeze, and not actual material is available: they may have to pay you a ton of $$$ to get out of the contract, but you don't actually get anything delivered.

If you really want the actual good and not the dollars, then you should by buying contracts backed by real goods that cannot be shorted. By contrast if you just want to make money there is more money in buying the contact that is a short with no material behind it. Of course knowing when a short squeeze will happen is left as an exercise for the reader - meaning I have no idea when this plan can work out only that once in a while it does.

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#29

Post by sidewndr46 »

londons_explore wrote: post #12
themanmaran wrote: post #6

> one large industrial conglomerate had resorted to buying washing machines just to scavenge the chips inside them for its products Is this really more efficient than say, contacting the washing machine manufacturer and buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). I usually applaud hacky solutions, but this just feels like a ton of unnecessary waste. I would prefer scrapping features (like…

> buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). Industries often act illogically in cases like this. You see it with many types of goods ordered a long time in advance. If there is a sudden shortage, the people who have ordered their raw materials a long time in advance (who have effectively purchased a future for that commodity) think they made a good move and see it as a business advantage…

Somewhere, an executive's bonus pay is based off the number of units shipped each year. Not the amount of money saved for the company. Under that kind of regime, it actually makes less sense to sell the chips at a premium price. For the executive.

Re: Companies are hacking their way around the chip shortage

#30

Post by toast0 »

londons_explore wrote: post #12
themanmaran wrote: post #6

> one large industrial conglomerate had resorted to buying washing machines just to scavenge the chips inside them for its products Is this really more efficient than say, contacting the washing machine manufacturer and buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). I usually applaud hacky solutions, but this just feels like a ton of unnecessary waste. I would prefer scrapping features (like…

> buying up the chips at a premium (i.e. above the washing machine cost). Industries often act illogically in cases like this. You see it with many types of goods ordered a long time in advance. If there is a sudden shortage, the people who have ordered their raw materials a long time in advance (who have effectively purchased a future for that commodity) think they made a good move and see it as a business advantage…

> However, they often fail to see that it is an even better business move to still shut down production and sell those raw materials onwards to someone else who will pay handsomely for them.

There's also business value in being the washing machine company that didn't have to shut down production. If I'm building a lot of housing with washing machines, maybe I just wait and buy whatever just in time, but maybe I want to do a bulk buy direct from the manufacturer with delivery on a schedule; having a track record of continuing production during supply shortages makes it more likely that the deliveries will happen. If production is stopped whenever it's better to resale materials, it's hard for buyers to rely on scheduled deliveries and those buyers will turn to others.

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