Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

cnbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

101–110 of 741 posts

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#101

Post by banbanbang »

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’s not true and disinformation being pushed by the real culprits of the chip shortage: crypto miners. It’s pathetic.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#102

Post by ClumsyPilot »

mhh__ wrote: post #65
kiddico wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Connected washing machines continue to make little sense to me. The only benefit I can think of is a notification when it's done. Otherwise all the interactions with it are done in person. (loading/unloading etc) What would you want to script?

My washing machine doesn't automatically starting draining or drying after finishing, so I have to go up and down the stairs, and it has a mind of its own as to when it finishes. An ESP-32 is about 2 quid last time I checked, I have many, and I would happily attach it to the machine if not for the fact that it doesn't belong to me.

I have a washing machine from year 2000, and it has that functionality built in. Are you sure you read the manual?

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#103

Post by mhh__ »

slver wrote: post #92
mhh__ wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? If it didn't belong to my landlord I could've made it scriptable in a few hours with one of a litany of wifi-enabled chips I have on my desk. I'm a professional programming language implementer why can't I use those skills to do as I please?

You're really dedicated to this scriptable washing machine project. You should talk to your landlord.

You're really dedicated to being needlessly argumentative.

Wrt to your previous comment, of course I'm talking about my model of washing machine.

I genuinely cannot fathom how it's hard to work out that my point is that if they'd stuck even the most basic interface on the back, which I bet the higher end ones already have for debugging just not exposed, I could make the machine do what I want. That's not the way the world is, but it would be better if it was.

Luckily for you I'm able bodied by the way...

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#104

Post by anonyxyz »

ArkanExplorer wrote: post #87
henvic wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate cryptocurrency, but trying to ban them is just dumb. It's not going to work. Ban where? How? What are the side-effects? What about people's liberty? Cryptocurrency is stupid and depletes natural resources, but trying to use the law to ban it is only going to make it stronger.

The US Government bans a lot of things which are deleterious to society. Online gambling among them. The purpose is not to eliminate Cryptocurrencies, but to reduce the price of Bitcoin and other PoW coins such that mining (which is a misallocation of our civilization's energy and advanced manufactured goods) becomes significantly less rewarding. Ethereum at least has a Governing body which is moving it to PoS. Bitco…

Maybe if there was a little less regulation in the first place, things like bitcoin wouldn't have as much appeal as they do.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#106

Post by fcantournet »

jfoster wrote: post #4

Why is there a shortage rather than a price hike, similar to what would happen with fuel? Long term contracts?

Because real markets are inefficient. Think of it like a highway : why is there a traffic jam on this highway ? Because there was a slowdown somewhere 20 miles up the line and there is massive inertia in the system.

A slowdown somewhere has ripple effects and the inertia of those systems, in the case of semi-conductor manufacturing it takes a long time to increase production capabilities, and the theoretical elasticity of price/volume doesn't hold when you cannot increase volume magically in a week.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#107

Post by lunixicityee »

AlexC04 wrote: post #20
simias wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

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 with a closed-source design.

So you'd probably be looking at charging 6 figures per wafer. I don't have good insight into startup costs, but I would guess high 8-low 10 figures. Running costs would not be negligible either.

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.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#108

Post by rightbyte »

jpm_sd wrote: post #13
rightbyte wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many products like water boilers, ovens or toasters can be built more robust without digital chips. I would argue we would see a overall quality improvement from having a bad chip shortage.

LOL nobody remembers how to design analog control systems anymore

I mean the systems I name dropped are thermostats or timers.

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#109

Post by fsflover »

neogodless wrote: post #83
brink wrote: post #18

Let's hope we start making chips domestically after this.

What country are you in? I know I can eliminate Taiwan and the United States from the list, as they both have semiconductor fabs!

So how much do USA-made mobile phones cost?

Re: The global chip shortage is starting to have consequences

#110

Post by ed25519FUUU »

makapuf wrote: post #52
simias wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

You can also put a 16MHz 8bit which can cost you a few dozens of cents max (Outside of shortage)

You gotta take a second and respect how powerful these chips are that usually costs a few pennies each.
Post reply on HN