6 ms·

Currently working on a new design for a client, it's quite a pain. Lots of things, even mundane things like connectors and such are out of stock / low stock and

Currently working on a new design for a client, it's quite a pain. Lots of things, even mundane things like connectors and such are out of stock / low stock and usually quite a bit more expensive.

lbriner 5y ago
How are non-ICs in short-supply? Did I miss a whole story about supply chain problems or is it literally that overall demand has maxed out overall supply and most people don't have the means to increase production?
- rasz 5y ago
  We had parts shortages for a couple years now. https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/capacitor-shortage-going-into-2019 https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/capaci... covid exacerbated the problem
- X-Istence 5y ago
  If you look at the various ports, the ships are waiting to enter so that they can offload. There's a lack of shipping options available to get items to the US in the first place, that means that various bits and bobs necessary to manufacture a widget aren't available because they are stuck in a shipping container somewhere around the world and there is no available space to put it on a ship.
  - cactus2093 5y ago
    Yep outside of a few industries that have specific supply constraints (like semiconductors) the broad shortages are mostly due to the ports. They have zero room to absorb the additional demand thanks to the longshoreman unions having blocked all opportunities for automation and efficiency improvements over the past couple decades, so a record number of ships are waiting at anchor for many days if not weeks outside of major US ports.
    - unglaublich 5y ago
      Blaming failures on unions and employees' rights is a traditional excuse for US companies it seems.
qiqitori 5y ago
I was looking to buy parallel EEPROMs (DIP) a couple days ago and found they were pretty expensive and mostly unavailable. I was wondering if that's because this type of IC is rather niche these days, or whether it's due to what's called the "chip shortage". If anyone knows or has an educated opinion, please let me know...
- mschuster91 5y ago
  Probably because such ICs are rather niche indeed. Any way of re-architecting your system to use an SPI flash chip? If anything else fails, you could go the extreme route and get a microcontroller to "translate"...
- AdrianB1 5y ago
  Price gouging in most cases, supported by difficulties in transportation and customs. I work in manufacturing (not IT products) and this is what we see. Chip shortage is real, but not every single type of chip.
- joezydeco 5y ago
  It's a niche part and you shouldn't be surprised if it's discontinued soon. Think about migrating your design. I'm starting to see end-of-life notices for a lot of parts that I wouldn't normally see at their age, but if they're low runners that would totally make sense. If you see lead times longer than a year, that's your early warning.
  - Qub3d 5y ago
    I imagine one end result of this supply squeeze is that a lot of bespoke or legacy parts will be finally removed from designs that have up until now been "good enough". To cite the most common example, vehicle manufacturers' most common supply pain-point is ICs built on a ~200nm process, which was state of the art between 1996-2000. I understand it makes sense to move slower for chips embedded in long-life devices, and they need additional validation; however, at some point if lead times are long enough and prices stay high it becomes reasonable to start that extended validation process on newer chips. This would hopefully mean consumers start seeing infotainment with much better performance in the second half of 2022, and this lines up with industry expectations of when the squeeze will lift.
baybal2 5y ago
Had few surplus STM32 reels. Ebayed them for a few thousand bucks. I can only imagined how much money did the people who envisaged the shortage early enough got from hoarding chips.
Aissen 5y ago
Yes, you design for what you can order instead of ordering what's in your design.
- stagger87 5y ago
  Parts are going from in-stock to multi-year lead times within a single design iteration. uC's/passives/FPGAs/etc.
  - Aissen 5y ago
    Yeah, this situation is quite frustrating.
camtarn 5y ago
Yep, similarly. We work with PLCs where the manufacturer normally has fairly deep stocks of all the PLC CPUs, expansion cards, etc - guaranteed part availability is one of the big selling points of using PLCs. Some things are still available but others are completely out, to the point where we're considering completely redesigning some of our smaller experimental projects around e.g. Raspberry Pis. What we do when RPis stop being available is yet to be seen...
- chakspak 5y ago
  I think that's already started to happen. I had to buy the Essentials kit this week because a standalone Pi was not available from any distributor, with lead times of up to a year.
- vanattab 5y ago
  https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/raspberry_pi_supply_eben_upton_interview/ https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/raspberry_pi_supply_e... rpi4 are already getting hard to find.
  - stragies 5y ago
    Repurposeable QuadCore ARM SOCs are fairly easy to find in the form of previous-gen Android TV Boxes, for fractions of the price of the RPI4. Some are weaker, some are slightly stronger, but in many embedded situation these do well enough.

Currently working on a new design for a client, it's quite a pain. Lots of things, even mundane things like connectors and such are out of stock / low stock and usually quite a bit more expensive.

lbriner 5y ago

How are non-ICs in short-supply? Did I miss a whole story about supply chain problems or is it literally that overall demand has maxed out overall supply and most people don't have the means to increase production?

rasz 5y ago
We had parts shortages for a couple years now. https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/capacitor-shortage-going-into-2019 https://www.arrow.com/en/research-and-events/articles/capaci... covid exacerbated the problem
X-Istence 5y ago
If you look at the various ports, the ships are waiting to enter so that they can offload. There's a lack of shipping options available to get items to the US in the first place, that means that various bits and bobs necessary to manufacture a widget aren't available because they are stuck in a shipping container somewhere around the world and there is no available space to put it on a ship.
- cactus2093 5y ago
  Yep outside of a few industries that have specific supply constraints (like semiconductors) the broad shortages are mostly due to the ports. They have zero room to absorb the additional demand thanks to the longshoreman unions having blocked all opportunities for automation and efficiency improvements over the past couple decades, so a record number of ships are waiting at anchor for many days if not weeks outside of major US ports.
  - unglaublich 5y ago
    Blaming failures on unions and employees' rights is a traditional excuse for US companies it seems.

qiqitori 5y ago

I was looking to buy parallel EEPROMs (DIP) a couple days ago and found they were pretty expensive and mostly unavailable. I was wondering if that's because this type of IC is rather niche these days, or whether it's due to what's called the "chip shortage". If anyone knows or has an educated opinion, please let me know...

mschuster91 5y ago
Probably because such ICs are rather niche indeed. Any way of re-architecting your system to use an SPI flash chip? If anything else fails, you could go the extreme route and get a microcontroller to "translate"...
AdrianB1 5y ago
Price gouging in most cases, supported by difficulties in transportation and customs. I work in manufacturing (not IT products) and this is what we see. Chip shortage is real, but not every single type of chip.
joezydeco 5y ago
It's a niche part and you shouldn't be surprised if it's discontinued soon. Think about migrating your design. I'm starting to see end-of-life notices for a lot of parts that I wouldn't normally see at their age, but if they're low runners that would totally make sense. If you see lead times longer than a year, that's your early warning.
- Qub3d 5y ago
  I imagine one end result of this supply squeeze is that a lot of bespoke or legacy parts will be finally removed from designs that have up until now been "good enough". To cite the most common example, vehicle manufacturers' most common supply pain-point is ICs built on a ~200nm process, which was state of the art between 1996-2000. I understand it makes sense to move slower for chips embedded in long-life devices, and they need additional validation; however, at some point if lead times are long enough and prices stay high it becomes reasonable to start that extended validation process on newer chips. This would hopefully mean consumers start seeing infotainment with much better performance in the second half of 2022, and this lines up with industry expectations of when the squeeze will lift.

baybal2 5y ago

Had few surplus STM32 reels. Ebayed them for a few thousand bucks. I can only imagined how much money did the people who envisaged the shortage early enough got from hoarding chips.

Aissen 5y ago

Yes, you design for what you can order instead of ordering what's in your design.

stagger87 5y ago
Parts are going from in-stock to multi-year lead times within a single design iteration. uC's/passives/FPGAs/etc.
- Aissen 5y ago
  Yeah, this situation is quite frustrating.

camtarn 5y ago

Yep, similarly. We work with PLCs where the manufacturer normally has fairly deep stocks of all the PLC CPUs, expansion cards, etc - guaranteed part availability is one of the big selling points of using PLCs. Some things are still available but others are completely out, to the point where we're considering completely redesigning some of our smaller experimental projects around e.g. Raspberry Pis. What we do when RPis stop being available is yet to be seen...

chakspak 5y ago
I think that's already started to happen. I had to buy the Essentials kit this week because a standalone Pi was not available from any distributor, with lead times of up to a year.
vanattab 5y ago
https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/raspberry_pi_supply_eben_upton_interview/ https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/20/raspberry_pi_supply_e... rpi4 are already getting hard to find.
- stragies 5y ago
  Repurposeable QuadCore ARM SOCs are fairly easy to find in the form of previous-gen Android TV Boxes, for fractions of the price of the RPI4. Some are weaker, some are slightly stronger, but in many embedded situation these do well enough.