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….
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 ..