Posted on 04/07/2021 8:57:20 AM PDT by MtnClimber
It is mainly the LCD Display Driver Chips and the Power Management chips.
China meddling?
I didn’t know there was one.
But, but I just got my stimulus check. I was going to buy a bunch of stuff with display drivers! Now what?!
Well, there’s always ammo...
TL/DR: The accursed Just-in-Time business process hit even tiny, little microchips. So when the anticipated economic collapse of Covid-19 DIDN’T happen, no-one had any manufacturing capacity OR inventory to meet demand.
JIT, the grasshopper’s business plan.
thanks. That was interesting.
Once again, its all about the short-term financial view I see all over corporate America. I have no doubt automakers squeezed like hell on pricing for the low-end chips. In the past, chipmakers were willing to run them as it kept plants busy and provided some revenue - but as the article points out, no one is expanding or investing in these low-end products.
As soon as the situation changed, the built-up problems revealed themselves.
I see the same thing in my industry. Everyone was happy to buy cheap inputs from China, even as they became more dependent on them and their choices narrowed. I warned buyers. Trump’s duties were the first warning how dependent they had become. Then came Covid.
No one gets blamed, and no one cares though - because those people who made those decisions 5 or more years ago are all gone. Moved on, fired, merged away, etc….
it is the gamer apes.
video cards used to be just for that,
now they house AI and more.
just look at the paucity of video boards
where you got your last computer.
In the 80’s Ford was very reluctant to incorporate
Intel parts in their controllers. Req’d complete second source agreements with AMD, etc. Times have changed.
What about the ketchup shortage? 😏
as china has learned,, you just cant poop these custom circuits out as easy as we make it seem ..
It's stylish now to criticize J-I-T, but the shortages are the fault -- as usual -- of the government's actions which shut down the tourist, cruise, and aviation industries thus switching consumer demand to goods.
Just in time works just fine on its own.
In my industry the workers refer to it as “ Just behind”
The chip fabrication technology just went through an upgrade from 11 nanometer to 7 nanometer feature size. The smaller size means faster speed and lower power. Much of the 5G products are depending on the 7nm as are the new memory devices for servers. Intel does their own fabrication and were behind the curve at 12 nm and they could not get their 7 nm processes to work. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM) is the largest and probably the most advanced commercial chip manufacturer in the world. Many chip designer companies have their chip fab done by TSM. I would guess Intel will go to TSM as an interim work around. China tried to build a chip fab plant and it was a total failure.
Trump was trying to convince Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to build a second facility in the USA to mitigate the impact if there is a China invasion. I don’t know the status if TSM will do that.
Yup
The Trump administration scores a victory.
The world's largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor (NYSE:TSM), announced last week that is expanding its manufacturing footprint within the U.S., in line with rumors that surfaced in recent days. The new facility will be built in Arizona, and TSMC says it received support for the project from the U.S. federal government as well as the State of Arizona.
Evan Niu, CFA (TMFNewCow) May 17, 2020 at 12:00PM
dang, you know it all. my employer is well positioned in this industry.. hi boss!
>> Just in time works just fine on its own. <<
... providing nothing bad happens ever. The Japanese earthquake and tsunami, for instance, caused $14 billion in damages. The economic gridlock caused by the just-in-time business processes cost another $220 billion. In an earlier era, just-in-time was called eating your seed crop.
I used to have work involvement with projects that had chip fabrication at US Trusted Foundries.
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