How is Chipageddon affecting you?

[TomKatt]

But try and run AutoCAD on it and expect strange hangs and crashes.  In fairness, I think AutoCAD has always favored Intel.  Still, sometimes you need to mate the platform to the applicatiion.

A graphics card (driver) issue seems more likely here.

That was my first thought as well, but the issues remained despite multiple drivers tested.  For better or worse we tend to standardize on Nvidia RTX A series workstation cards, so I don't have a Radeon with sufficient horsepower to test.  And fwiw error logs show the AutoCAD applications as those crashing.

[paulca]

RPi has faced shortages well before Chipageddon.  There is an argument that it is a little underpriced given the demand they receive for the product but it was originally an educational 'toy' and it's since been taken up by loads of SMEs as an easy way to embed Linux into X (whether or not it really requires it.)

Indeed.  It seems that many Pi projects could be more economically implemented with a ucontroller of some kind.  And many other projects don't even use I/O, so you might as well just use a cheap SFF pc - at today's Pi prices, you could pick up some old Dell or HP mini box for cheaper.

RPi's are a pain to manage if you don't set them up with an external SSD.  Those general purpose OSs constantly writing and rewriting garbage to the disk and all.

The argument they will reply with against the Dell or HP eWaste option is the RPi's idle power draw of around 1W (with no display or USB connected).  Yet they constantly whine about performance, memory and lack of broadcom acceleration for anything worth accelerating.

Last PI I used was a PI3 and while it touts CPU and memory stats that look admirable...  It has lousy IO capabilities.  It will play a 1080p movie over network fine, but once you start cue skipping forward and back and put the IO under some load it bottle necks and dies forcing you to let it sit and get through the back log of network file seek requests.

[Karel]

I use Libreelec (Kodi) on a RPI3 practically every night and I never experienced problems when going back and forward,
skipping scenes or whatever. (The video files are stored on another pc connected via a wired LAN and WiFi is disabled)
Also, contrary to what other people report, I never had SD-card problems but I do use highspeed (class 10) quality cards
from Sandisk. Also, I never hard shutdown the RPI. I connected a gpio-pin to a bi-stable relay that switches of the power
automatically when the shutdow sequence has completed.

[paulca]

Tell the electric company not to hard shut it down.

You obviously haven't used a PI long enough with the SD card.  Quality or not.  In daily use an SD card lasts no longer than 2 years.  That's how long they last in a PI and how long they last in a dashcam.  They tend not to fail gracefully either.  I use either Samsung or San disk cards.

On media, it was the RPI as media server.  It could not handle the multi-threaded SMB protocol used underneath.  Fine for playback but even skipping and flicking through MP3s it would bottle neck.

And Kodi on a RPI3 and you say you have never experienced problems.  That tells me your tolerance for performance.  I couldn't use Kodi.  I can't stand waiting a second for every damn click.

In fairness, Kodi runs like shit on a modern PC as well.

[Karel]

Tell the electric company not to hard shut it down.

It happened a couple of times yes. So far no damaged cards here. Probably I was lucky 

You obviously haven't used a PI long enough with the SD card.  Quality or not.  In daily use an SD card lasts no longer than 2 years.  That's how long they last in a PI and how long they last in a dashcam.  They tend not to fail gracefully either.  I use either Samsung or San disk cards.

My RPI3 is running daily for at least double than that, so far without SD-card failure.
So, again, probably I'm lucky. Or maybe you shouldn't buy your SD-cards from shady sources and risk you get an
imitation card 

On media, it was the RPI as media server.  It could not handle the multi-threaded SMB protocol used underneath.  Fine for playback but even skipping and flicking through MP3s it would bottle neck.

That's a different use case. I use the RPI3 as a client, not as a server.

And Kodi on a RPI3 and you say you have never experienced problems.  That tells me your tolerance for performance.  I couldn't use Kodi.  I can't stand waiting a second for every damn click.

In fairness, Kodi runs like shit on a modern PC as well.

I'm very satisfied about how Kodi performs on my RPI3. Having said that, I only use the basic features, no exotic or
complex setup, apart from having added a hi-fi stereo DAC and an IR-sensor & Lirc for the remote control.

[John B]

Here's the basic gist of a promotional email I received from Element14

Element14: It's Pi-Day, come celebrate Pi-Day with us and unleash your creativity with Raspberry Pi. Click here to shop now with Element14, the largest official manufacturer and distributor of the Raspberry Pi!
Me: Oh cool, can I buy a Raspberry Pi?
Element14: hahaha fuck no

[HwAoRrDk]

Or even:

Element14: It's Pi-Day, come celebrate Pi-Day with us and unleash your creativity with Raspberry Pi. Click here to shop now with Element14, the largest official manufacturer and distributor of the Raspberry Pi!
Me: Huh? Why is it Pi-Day?
Element14: You know, it's March 14th, 3/14. 3.14 = Pi, get it?
Me: Yeah, nah. We don't format our dates like that.
Element14: Oh...

[Ed.Kloonk]

Pi will be available after the 3rd day of 14th month. Or the 12th of never.

[MT]

or the LCSC variant:

In Stock: 200
0 Can ship immediately
200 Can Ship in 3 Days

Watched this particular "MCU" product now for 2 weeks and the only thing that dont change is the "Can ship immediately" number.

[SiliconWizard]

Pi day but no Pi for you.

[Karel]

When the RPI4 stock & price turns back to normal, will there be a national holyday?

[paulca]

When it went dual core it should have been called the Tau.

[MT]

[abeyer]

https://www.truecommerce.com/blog/bullwhip-effect-supply-chain

[exe]

I miraculously found that most parts I had in my basket on mouser are available. Even though I don't need this parts now (those are for prototyping), I decided to stockpile, even though I don't really need them right now. The missing parts I bought from tme and digikey. This is the first time I split my order between three distributors. Spent more than one hour balancing orders, but got peace of mind. Two out free orders already arrived.

Interestingly, I got someone else's bag of parts with my digikey order. Nothing fancy, some nor-gates. Reported to digikey. I wish it was LTZ1000 or something more valuable, but alas . Hope they won't ask to send it back as it's not worth the effort imo.

[bookaboo]

I recall when I was a young player I got a reel of "something" by mistake in my work Farnell order. I phoned the sales desk so they could come collect, Farnell sent a box of biscuits to us as thanks, which drew my honesty to the attention of management. Turned out the reel I'd sent back was of some exotic FPGA worth >£5000.

Most expensive biscuits I ever ate, and I was constantly reminded (in good nature) of that fact.

[AndyC_772]

Unfortunately the press doesn't seem to appreciate that semiconductors aren't like rice or coffee, ie. commodities that can be quantified by weight alone.

It's certainly the case that there are more parts in stock now than there were six months ago. Designing a new product is easier than it was, but BoMs for existing products still contain a handful of items that remain unavailable. Incomplete kit == no product, obviously.

(Still looking you squarely in the eyes, TI. And no, Intel, I'm not looking at you any more because I've completely given up on you; you're designed out, forever).

[SiliconWizard]

Yep, ditto. New designs have become much easier to handle, with (for now) little difficulty finding available parts, but for older designs, still many parts that aren't available.
Upside is that there is significant work available for EEs for redesigning stuff.

[SilverSolder]

In today's news:

"Samsung Electronics Co. is cutting memory chip production after reporting its slimmest profit since the 2009 global financial crisis, a significant step for the industry after oversupply caused prices to crater. Shares rose.

Operating profit plunged more than 95% to 600 billion won ($450 million) for the three months ended March, missing the average analyst estimate of 1.4 trillion won. Sales fell to 63 trillion won.

Samsung said it would cut memory chip production to a “meaningful level,” a move competitors had been waiting for after a pileup of inventory hurt pricing and profits. The largest maker of memory chips had resisted pulling back in recent months, in part to grab market share from rivals."



So what is it to be this week...  shortage, or oversupply...   lol

[Black Phoenix]

Ohh f***, here we go again... Now SSD and memory related product types will go again up.

[MT]

Former US natsec advisor: destroy Taiwan semiconductor factories if China invades!

Rather than see Taiwan’s semiconductor factories fall into the hands of the Communist Party of China, the US and its allies would simply pull a Nordstream.

“The United States and its allies are never going to let those factories fall into Chinese hands,” O’Brien told Semafor, a news outlet that has been funded by jailed Democratic financier Sam Bankman-Fried and his brother. O’Brien went on to compare the destruction of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company’s (TSMC) to Winston Churchill’s bombing of a French naval fleet after the country’s surrender to Nazi Germany.

https://thegrayzone.com/2023/03/13/us-natsec-advisor-taiwan-semiconductor-china/

[tom66]

Would you even need to destroy TSMC?  Simply stopping all shipments to Taiwan will render the factories pretty close to useless.  Without replacement lasers, you get about a month's worth of machine time with EUV, for instance. 

[SiliconWizard]

This would only hurt the west, for the most part. We love doing that!

[coppice]

Would you even need to destroy TSMC?  Simply stopping all shipments to Taiwan will render the factories pretty close to useless.  Without replacement lasers, you get about a month's worth of machine time with EUV, for instance.

I'm sure people could learn a lot by having a bunch of those things to strip down and analyse. That won't inform anyone too much about the kinds of advanced manufacturing techniques needed to produce such precise machines, but it would certainly help a lot in many areas of developing a substitute.

[SilverSolder]

This would only hurt the west, for the most part. We love doing that!

Destroying the chip factories a la Nordstream would immediately make Taiwan not worth bothering with for the West...   so it may actually avoid a war, if it were to happen.