2 ms·
The fundamental reason is foundries work really hard to make sure they have zero idle time, by booking time months in advance, so there wasn't a lot of slack in
by zsmi 5y ago
The fundamental reason is foundries work really hard to make sure they have zero idle time, by booking time months in advance, so there wasn't a lot of slack in the system to absorb the extra demand when it hit.
Add some confounding factors like, it takes a long time to build a foundry, in general the CAD is specific to a foundry, not every foundry can make every part, and even if they could, they're not licensed to then: You get a global chip shortage that takes many months to unravel.
- tyingq 5y agoAs I understand it, there are lines with spare capacity, but the work to move manufactures takes time. Even for the same process/wafer size. So it's not just a capacity shortage per se. Rather, a situation where real demand was wildly different (higher, and lower) than predicted demand, and re-spreading work is hard.