How is Chipageddon affecting you?

[coppice]

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

It would hurt everyone except ASML and other fab equipment suppliers. It would take at least a decade to rebuild what was lost in other places, and get the electronics industry back on track.

[SilverSolder]

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

It would hurt everyone except ASML and other fab equipment suppliers. It would take at least a decade to rebuild what was lost in other places, and get the electronics industry back on track.

I thought we were busy re-creating already?

[coppice]

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

It would hurt everyone except ASML and other fab equipment suppliers. It would take at least a decade to rebuild what was lost in other places, and get the electronics industry back on track.

I thought we were busy re-creating already?

Supposedly they are busy expanding, ensuring the expansion is not concentrated in a SPOF. Completely replacing much of what currently exists would be a big expansion for people like ASML.

[rteodor]

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.

China's ports are surrounded by a stream of islands with shallow waters in between in which subs can be spotted easily. US bases are there to keep China military in this geo-clench denying them of access to planetary ocean. Semiconductors are just another reason.

[BravoV]

.. bla..bla.. Taiwan ... evil China ... bla ..bla..

Semiconductors are just another "minor" reason.

Tiny yet significant addition. 

[SilverSolder]

In today's news:

A weakening global economy and listless demand for electronics is finally catching up with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which Thursday cut its outlook for both the company and the broader chip industry.

How much further can the "chip shortage" fairy tale run?

[KE5FX]

How much further can the "chip shortage" fairy tale run?

Until I can buy mass-market Xilinx and Altera FPGAs again without paying 4x MSRP to Chinese brokers.

[AndyC_772]

...or even just a TI op-amp.

Guess how I've spent this afternoon 

[Mangozac]

Is anybody else getting spammed by Chinese chip suppliers at the moment? We get at least one or two calls per day - I've had to tell my staff not to answer any calls from country code 86 but still some get through! Plus I get personally bombarded with Linkedin messages and emails. I used to be polite and say that I will review their company and let them know in the future if there are any opportunities but now they phone every couple of days.

I'm guessing a lot of these companies who hoarded stock over the past 24 months are starting to feel the pinch now!

[cortex_m0]

Until I can buy mass-market Xilinx and Altera FPGAs again without paying 4x MSRP to Chinese brokers.

My company uses a couple Xilinx 7 series FPGAs and they've been decently available for several months now (~6 mos). Maybe that was a bottlenecked order that finally came through, but from my PoV Xilinx has recovered.

[AndyC_772]

Is anybody else getting spammed by Chinese chip suppliers at the moment?

Yeah. I just reply to emails saying "please delete my details from your database".

Fortunately I rarely give out a valid phone number anyway - seems as though that was probably a good decision.

[Mangozac]

Fortunately I rarely give out a valid phone number anyway - seems as though that was probably a good decision.

Yeah I've never given out my mobile phone number except to those I choose to - these guys all look us up on our website and get the business number from there.

I might start using your same response...

[bookaboo]

I just immediately mark as spam, I dont trust them to take the time to do the right thing.

[VK3DRB]

Is anybody else getting spammed by Chinese chip suppliers at the moment? We get at least one or two calls per day - I've had to tell my staff not to answer any calls from country code 86 but still some get through! Plus I get personally bombarded with Linkedin messages and emails. I used to be polite and say that I will review their company and let them know in the future if there are any opportunities but now they phone every couple of days.

I'm guessing a lot of these companies who hoarded stock over the past 24 months are starting to feel the pinch now!

Some normality is starting to appear in the market but it still has a long way to go. Some scumbag brokers are still appearing on Octopart, but the numbers of them is noticeable falling. All good signs. I hope those brokers who hoarded chips go bankrupt and lose everything .

[tom66]

I do expect some brokers are left holding the bag hoping the shortage would go on for longer than it really did.

The amusing thing for me was watching one particular Bosch IMU go up to $120/part but with very few sales.  They eventually dropped down to about $6/part and seemed to get rid of their inventory eventually.

The part normally retails for $11, so they probably lost money on those parts.

[Karel]

I'll believe it when RPI4b's become plenty available for normal prices... 

 

[forrestc]

I run a small electronics OEM + Manufacturer for products I've designed over the years.

I will say that the industry has definitely stabilized.   While I'm still dealing with long lead times, many common products are back in stock and I'm not nearly as stressed about "which product are we going to run out of that we just can't find an alternative for".

Or in other words, it seems like we at least have a brief respite from the craziness of the last couple of years.   Hopefully it will continue to go back to normal.

[Robotec]

according to the salesman in embedded world fair, Raspberries should start to be back in stock around late summer.

[VK3DRB]

I just went to Electronex exhibition in Melbourne, where I bumped into many vendors and friends in the industry. The general feeling is the worst seems to be over which chip supply. Some had sheer hell when Chipageddon was in full swing. One embedded programmer spent six months recompiling code to work on alternative CPUs to the STM32, because STM was not supplying them to anyone except the big players.

The exhibition was great but the $7.50 cup of chips ("fries" to the Americans) was so overcooked and horrible, the cardboard cup would have had more taste and nutrition. About 20 thin fries for $7.50. That's 37.5 cents per dried up fry. If I had an AR-15 handy, I might be tempted to reenact Michael Douglas in the movie Falling Down, and call it Chipageddon II.

[tom66]

Bumping this thread to moan a bit.

What's a typical amount of time for a supplier to announce a part is going obsolete?  I had normally thought around 18 months to 2 years then a further last time buy period follows of at least 6 months - 1 year after the part is officially "NRND".

In this case, onsemi has obsoleted the FAN5702, an RGB I2C LED driver.  The announcement was made in 2Q2022 for one variant, and 3Q2022 for all other variants, with the part having an official last manufacture date of March 2023.

https://www.onsemi.com/PowerSolutions/pcnPub.do?pn=FAN5702UC15X,FAN5702UMP08X,FAN5702UMP30X,FAN5702UMP20X,FAN5702UMP15X,FAN5702UC30X,FAN5702UC20X,FAN5702UC08X

That's a VERY short time to obsolete a part and then discontinue all manufacture, and has stung us having to find an alternative, and respin existing boards as stock is running dry.   

[Kjelt]

Onsemi........ enough said.

[peter-h]

This is relevant
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/be-careful-with-quoted-delivery-dates/msg4890137/#msg4890137

One disti just dropped from £1.20 to 50p when I told them I am paying 50p.

There is a lot of pisstaking going on, but no more than usual.

[SiliconWizard]

I'll believe it when RPI4b's become plenty available for normal prices... 

 

Since distributors (small and large alike) have now gotten used to the elevated prices, getting them back to  "normal" will happen only when the demand drops dramatically, rather than just when the offer raises back to "normal" levels. Just my 2 cents.

Curbing the profiteers of any crisis usually takes another crisis.

[Karel]

I'll believe it when RPI4b's become plenty available for normal prices... 

 

Since distributors (small and large alike) have now gotten used to the elevated prices, getting them back to  "normal" will happen only when the demand drops dramatically, rather than just when the offer raises back to "normal" levels. Just my 2 cents.

Curbing the profiteers of any crisis usually takes another crisis.

That usually requires price fixing which is forbidden in many countries. We need just one distributor/reseller that wants to
lower the price somewhat in order to sell more and the others will follow. Than the cycle of lowering the price will repeat
untill a normal margin will be reached. It's called competition.

[Ed.Kloonk]

I'll believe it when RPI4b's become plenty available for normal prices... 

 

Since distributors (small and large alike) have now gotten used to the elevated prices, getting them back to  "normal" will happen only when the demand drops dramatically, rather than just when the offer raises back to "normal" levels. Just my 2 cents.

Curbing the profiteers of any crisis usually takes another crisis.

That usually requires price fixing which is forbidden in many countries. We need just one distributor/reseller that wants to lower the price somewhat in order to sell more and the others will follow. Than the cycle of lowering the price will repeat until a normal margin will be reached. It's called competition.

Meanwhile, hobbyists and such are finding better alterative SBCs like x86 boards and, God help us, Intel NUCs.