How is Chipageddon affecting you?

[coppice]

At the risk of going far off-topic, this does seem to be more common in asian companies/conglomorates. You have companies like Kyocera who make stuff from kitchen knives to printers to custom chip packages etc...

Yes, you're probably right, it does seem like an Asian quirk...

Yamaha make home AV equipment, pianos/keyboards, and motorcycles/outboard engines/gensets.
Mitsubishi makes cars, air conditioning units, refrigerators and cranes.
Samsung make smartphones, TVs and tanks (until that part was spun off).

Can't think of many comparable European/American examples.

You are talking about the chaebol/keiretsu dynamic in Korea and Japan, which is different from the dynamic of family started businesses across East Asia. Those aren't like modern European and American businesses, but they are a lot like 60s Europe and America conglomerates, where the thinking was if you want stability you go for massive diversity in your business areas.

[TheUnnamedNewbie]

Can't think of many comparable European/American examples.

I think that kinda depends. You have a lot of conglomorates that you don't realize exist because the parent company is not the same as the 'brand'. The main 'difference' with some of these asian conglomorates is that the 'western' ones come from big investors/etc buying up tonnes of companies, instead of a mother company branching out more and more. Some exceptions are some of the older giants like Siemens, AEG, Philips, GE, etc... that (used) to/still do all manner of stuff from trains to kitchen microwaves.

[MT]

Xi now going 101% totalitarian on the billionaires, it would be strange, if this if true, not reflect on the chip shortage one way or the other.
Or perhaps its just a part of the old Chinese plan to take over Canada and Australia.

[SiliconWizard]

Not that I particularly like the chinese regime, but those guys are seeing several moves ahead, so it's probably useless to try and figure out what they are preparing. Especially through our western lens.
And don't forget that no matter how hard we have tried to see China as a fully liberal, free-market-compatible regime, it is not. It's very much a communist regime.
One thing they probably want to avoid at all costs is for a bunch of billionaires to get too much influence on politics, something that is plaguing most western countries.

[Ed.Kloonk]

Xi now going 101% totalitarian on the billionaires, it would be strange, if this if true, not reflect on the chip shortage one way or the other.
Or perhaps its just a part of the old Chinese plan to take over Canada and Australia.

video.

Everyone in the world who has a bit of dough is losing money. Xi can take credit for that if he wants, seems silly to me(if it backfires). The poor in China think he's wonderful so who cares?

China's problem with Australia is, unlike Canada, the Indians (from India) will have something to say about it. Canada, Australia and India are colonies and in the past shared a certain bond of culture, in terms of how we feel about colonialism, let's say.

India is poised to become the new China for manufacturing. Many of the countries around this region are communicating amongst themselves well, yet, China's official posture makes us sorry be did business there. Their leader has made no indication that that will ever change, so the billionaires tied up there know what they have to do. The big question is how long will they wait.

[VK3DRB]

It is not propaganda. It is real. I live in China, I saw the videos on wechat, tiktok before they were deleted from the Internet. Shenzhen Foxconn factory just increased the production by 30% to compensate.

Nope. President Pooh Bear has dictated that the Foxconn factory is to close immediately without warning due to COVID, entrapping workers in the facility in substandard conditions.

[VK3DRB]

There are hints of chip supply improving. Now that global demand is falling, watch TI and other dodgy companies grovel back to SME's to sell us their chips. I no longer have any confidence in Texas Instruments or Microchip as trusted chip vendors. I have cancelled all advertising emails from these companies. They can go and get stuffed, to put it in a non expletive manner.

[SilverSolder]

Xi now going 101% totalitarian on the billionaires, it would be strange, if this if true, not reflect on the chip shortage one way or the other.
Or perhaps its just a part of the old Chinese plan to take over Canada and Australia.

video.

Everyone in the world who has a bit of dough is losing money. Xi can take credit for that if he wants, seems silly to me(if it backfires). The poor in China think he's wonderful so who cares?

China's problem with Australia is, unlike Canada, the Indians (from India) will have something to say about it. Canada, Australia and India are colonies and in the past shared a certain bond of culture, in terms of how we feel about colonialism, let's say.

India is poised to become the new China for manufacturing. Many of the countries around this region are communicating amongst themselves well, yet, China's official posture makes us sorry be did business there. Their leader has made no indication that that will ever change, so the billionaires tied up there know what they have to do. The big question is how long will they wait.

3 out of 4 of the last Chinese leaders had three terms...  Xi is nothing special, he will be gone one day.  There's no point sitting around and waiting for it...   we have to make money today, whatever leaders are in power, good bad or indifferent!

[BravoV]

3 out of 4 of the last Chinese leaders had three terms...  Xi is nothing special, he will be gone one day.  There's no point sitting around and waiting for it...   we have to make money today, whatever leaders are in power, good bad or indifferent!

Yep, really do not understand the Western's narrative and obsession on Xi's terms, he started in 2013 and has been smeared as forever dictator, while for example Angela Merkel (as German chancellor) which was started in 2006 until 2021 didn't have the dictator's title. 

The "smearing narrative" is only used whenever convenient. On the other perspective, the constant smearing means he is doing a really great job, ... ... NOT for Western's world. 

[tszaboo]

3 out of 4 of the last Chinese leaders had three terms...  Xi is nothing special, he will be gone one day.  There's no point sitting around and waiting for it...   we have to make money today, whatever leaders are in power, good bad or indifferent!

Yep, really do not understand the Western's narrative and obsession on Xi's terms, he started in 2013 and has been smeared as forever dictator, while for example Angela Merkel (as German chancellor) which was started in 2006 until 2021 didn't have the dictator's title. 

The "smearing narrative" is only used whenever convenient. On the other perspective, the constant smearing means he is doing a really great job, ... ... NOT for Western's world. 

You have no idea how elections work over there, do you?
So to give you some background, If you have some freedom, you can maybe choose which stooge will sit in for you from the same political party. The president is selected by the party members, but the party members are selected by the president, he can get rid of anyone he wants and rather violently if he choses.
How can you even begin to compare this to free elections?

[MT]

Speaking of Pooh bears, stooges, thugs, and eternal presidents and wannabe emperors Xi is now suddenly ramping up stuff militarily and Covidarely. What is Xi spin master planning now!?

[SiliconWizard]

Dunno. He is planning chaos? If so, he's clearly not the only one.

[2N3055]

Too much politics...We should go back to chips..

Thing that is annoying to me is that ST sends me all these mails new this and new that but cannot deliver basic stuff..
Yeah I know how things work but still annoying...

[VK3DRB]

Too much politics...We should go back to chips..

Thing that is annoying to me is that ST sends me all these mails new this and new that but cannot deliver basic stuff..
Yeah I know how things work but still annoying...

It is unlikely to be a case of cannot, it is a case of will not. According to a trusted insider, the big manufacturers chose to send them to their big customers rather than to the likes of you or me. Since 2020 I have been getting heaps of advertising emails from ST, TI and MCP about chips they won't supply. All are now sent to junk email as spam. I got a personal email from the TI rep in Singapore today about helping me with supply of chips using the TI API... I did not answer it but deleted it. I don't care. I have given up on TI as a trusted supplier.

[coppice]

Too much politics...We should go back to chips..

Thing that is annoying to me is that ST sends me all these mails new this and new that but cannot deliver basic stuff..
Yeah I know how things work but still annoying...

It is unlikely to be a case of cannot, it is a case of will not. According to a trusted insider, the big manufacturers chose to send them to their big customers rather than to the likes of you or me. Since 2020 I have been getting heaps of advertising emails from ST, TI and MCP about chips they won't supply. All are now sent to junk email as spam. I got a personal email from the TI rep in Singapore today about helping me with supply of chips using the TI API... I did not answer it but deleted it. I don't care. I have given up on TI as a trusted supplier.

If you block out vendors one by one as they give you a bad experience you'll end up with nobody to buy from at all. Not every vendor has been a good supplier at one time, but EVERY vendor who has been around for a while has been through a period when they are a nightmare to work with.

[MT]

Chip shortage undoubtedly affected by the actions of politics. E.g most chip factories are de facto subsidized by governments due to its immense cost.
Worldwide Geopolitics analysis that includes China and chip shortage v.s invasion of Taiwan (TSMC) etc and an Asian response to that by US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor.

[SilverSolder]

Chip shortage undoubtedly affected by the actions of politics. [...]

Of course it is.  The world is going backwards in some ways at the moment, for many different reasons, and we just have to deal with it ...    and avoid the pitfall of simply pinning the blame on other countries / races / or whatever.

[MT]

Less then 2 weeks ago Chinese workers was by locked in the Foxcon factory and later broke out. Now citizens are rely angry at government deranged Covid crap!
Note the fascist governments drone with speakers flying around telling citizens to obey! Guangzhou are part of Shenzhen Hong Kong electronics mega market and
have chip factories, some very new. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1273385.shtml

[SiliconWizard]

Lol. This is so much 1984 that it would be utterly funny if it wasn't real. Even the drones. In 1984, that was helicopters.

[tom66]

If you block out vendors one by one as they give you a bad experience you'll end up with nobody to buy from at all. Not every vendor has been a good supplier at one time, but EVERY vendor who has been around for a while has been through a period when they are a nightmare to work with.

The difference is some suppliers have kept SME's supplied via distributors.  Off the top of my head these have not been so bad:

Microchip
Fairchild
Xilinx (less so nowadays, perhaps post AMD)
Maxim
Linear Tech/ADI

Whereas these companies are on a "don't design in unless you have no choice" list:

TI
ST Micro
Bosch

[coppice]

If you block out vendors one by one as they give you a bad experience you'll end up with nobody to buy from at all. Not every vendor has been a good supplier at one time, but EVERY vendor who has been around for a while has been through a period when they are a nightmare to work with.

The difference is some suppliers have kept SME's supplied via distributors.  Off the top of my head these have not been so bad:

Microchip
Fairchild
Xilinx (less so nowadays, perhaps post AMD)
Maxim
Linear Tech/ADI

Whereas these companies are on a "don't design in unless you have no choice" list:

TI
ST Micro
Bosch

The companies that served you well this time will probably serve you badly next time around, and vice versa. This is the historical pattern. Through a 40 year career you will eventually be blocking everyone.

[tom66]

The companies that served you well this time will probably serve you badly next time around, and vice versa. This is the historical pattern. Through a 40 year career you will eventually be blocking everyone.

I'm not sure that's true - but, you're saying that reputation of a supplier doesn't come into the question as to whether you design parts in?  Reputation on all aspects - not just availability, but support, documentation, component quality, lifecycle etc.  It took many years before I was OK to design Maxim parts back in, and their ability to supply during chipageddon has helped that. TI will need to work very hard to get their otherwise previously OK reputation back. 

To be clear I am not saying "never TI", I am saying "seriously consider avoiding TI".   TI have had other black marks in the past, their FAEs are basically all gone now, and they don't work with distributor FAEs so it's next to impossible to get support on their parts as a SME.

[Smokey]

I have a new project that needs an FPGA.  I did a Digikey search:

Product Index->Integrated Circuits (ICs)->Embedded->FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array)

So that's all FPGAs.  The only filters I used are:
"In Stock", "Exclude Marketplace", "Active".

Results are.....
.... 187 of 25,407 Results

!!

[KE5FX]

Well, that can't be right, the Wall Street Journal says the shortage is over, and there is now a glut.

[SiliconWizard]

0.7%, that isn't bad.