5 ms·

This leads me to wonder about the microprocessor shortage. So many computing devices such as Nvidia Jetson and Raspberry Pi are simply not available anywhere.

This leads me to wonder about the microprocessor shortage. So many computing devices such as Nvidia Jetson and Raspberry Pi are simply not available anywhere. I wonder what's he point of bringing out new products when existing products can't be purchased? Won't the new products also simply not be available?

frozenport 5y ago
What? They are sold out, not "can't be purchased".
- aftbit 5y ago
  What's the difference? If they are perpetually sold out, then they cannot be purchased.
  - singlow 5y ago
    There is constant production and deliveries being made, just no standing inventory.
    - ekianjo 5y ago
      Can you enter a queue to purchase them? If not it's just a cat and mouse game to get one.
      - singlow 5y ago
        As a consumer you may not be able to, but volume customers and distributors are ordering them and waiting for them.
      - structural 5y ago
        Direct retail / individual sales are always the least important and the first to get restricted amounts of supply so that large orders can be filled. There is a queue and lots of orders are moving through it, you personally just don't see this. Depending on the product, volume orders for high-end ICs are typically running between 52 and 72 weeks of lead time at the present, and it's been this way for many months now. So the orders that are getting filled today for parts were placed in early 2021 in most cases. This is generally very difficult for retailers, because they have had to come up with capital to have a year's worth of orders in the pipeline. So they've been having to stock fewer things -- only what they are absolutely sure will sell -- and can't use real-time sales data to estimate the next month's order. Welcome to the new normal, it'll be this way for at least another year or two, minimum (until new factories get built plus pre-pandemic levels of productivity, for the most part).
  - chemmail 5y ago
    i guess you dont' know the world of shoes and hypebeast. The primary "value" of the industry is scarcity alone. The sneaker market side of it is worth $100bil alone.
chemmail 5y ago
Nvidia is fabless. THey dont make anything. They are primary R&D. This is the fruit.
Gigachad 5y ago
The products don't get produced in order. The high value products get priority and continuously bump out low value chips like those on the RPI. Not sure what the cost of this Grace chip is but it looks to be targeting high value users so it gets priority. Notice how there is no shortage of chips for iPhones, because Apple just buys the capacity at whatever cost it takes.
- arebop 5y ago
  Though, there is a shortage of m1 MacBooks. Is it really because they are low value (margin?) products relative to iPhone? I'm not sure.
  - Gigachad 5y ago
    Not much of a shortage. I just checked and they are all available for pickup right now at my local small city store. Compared to other products they are still extremely available.
    - arebop 5y ago
      Interesting, I see nothing available from store.apple.com until 6 April earliest, and 29 April for m1 max and even later depending on options.
      - aaronblohowiak 5y ago
        A month is not a long time these days..
      - irq 5y ago
        Specifying the M1 max = you are ordering a custom machine = there is a delay because a factory has to build it for you. The machines that are available for immediate pickup are the base level specs as shown on apple.com.
      - ehnto 5y ago
        That's pretty common I think. The retailers get their orders in and planned well before consumers can. In some cases you're finding far flung regions relative to the source having better availability, because they were allocated a percentage of the original supply but are also too far away for scalpers to be interested, so they just haven't gone through it as fast. Australia hasn't had too many troubles with some items that are pretty hard to get elsewhere for example. Getting a 3080 in NYC is probably a real challenge, but I can walk to my local parts store and pick one up no dramas.
zucker42 5y ago
Chip production is not completely fungible.
ksec 5y ago
>Won't the new products also simply not be available? There are shortage in low end, high NM, mature node. This is on 4nm leading node.

frozenport 5y ago

What? They are sold out, not "can't be purchased".

aftbit 5y ago
What's the difference? If they are perpetually sold out, then they cannot be purchased.
- singlow 5y ago
  There is constant production and deliveries being made, just no standing inventory.
  - ekianjo 5y ago
    Can you enter a queue to purchase them? If not it's just a cat and mouse game to get one.
    - singlow 5y ago
      As a consumer you may not be able to, but volume customers and distributors are ordering them and waiting for them.
    - structural 5y ago
      Direct retail / individual sales are always the least important and the first to get restricted amounts of supply so that large orders can be filled. There is a queue and lots of orders are moving through it, you personally just don't see this. Depending on the product, volume orders for high-end ICs are typically running between 52 and 72 weeks of lead time at the present, and it's been this way for many months now. So the orders that are getting filled today for parts were placed in early 2021 in most cases. This is generally very difficult for retailers, because they have had to come up with capital to have a year's worth of orders in the pipeline. So they've been having to stock fewer things -- only what they are absolutely sure will sell -- and can't use real-time sales data to estimate the next month's order. Welcome to the new normal, it'll be this way for at least another year or two, minimum (until new factories get built plus pre-pandemic levels of productivity, for the most part).
- chemmail 5y ago
  i guess you dont' know the world of shoes and hypebeast. The primary "value" of the industry is scarcity alone. The sneaker market side of it is worth $100bil alone.

chemmail 5y ago

Nvidia is fabless. THey dont make anything. They are primary R&D. This is the fruit.

Gigachad 5y ago

The products don't get produced in order. The high value products get priority and continuously bump out low value chips like those on the RPI. Not sure what the cost of this Grace chip is but it looks to be targeting high value users so it gets priority. Notice how there is no shortage of chips for iPhones, because Apple just buys the capacity at whatever cost it takes.

arebop 5y ago
Though, there is a shortage of m1 MacBooks. Is it really because they are low value (margin?) products relative to iPhone? I'm not sure.
- Gigachad 5y ago
  Not much of a shortage. I just checked and they are all available for pickup right now at my local small city store. Compared to other products they are still extremely available.
  - arebop 5y ago
    Interesting, I see nothing available from store.apple.com until 6 April earliest, and 29 April for m1 max and even later depending on options.
    - aaronblohowiak 5y ago
      A month is not a long time these days..
    - irq 5y ago
      Specifying the M1 max = you are ordering a custom machine = there is a delay because a factory has to build it for you. The machines that are available for immediate pickup are the base level specs as shown on apple.com.
    - ehnto 5y ago
      That's pretty common I think. The retailers get their orders in and planned well before consumers can. In some cases you're finding far flung regions relative to the source having better availability, because they were allocated a percentage of the original supply but are also too far away for scalpers to be interested, so they just haven't gone through it as fast. Australia hasn't had too many troubles with some items that are pretty hard to get elsewhere for example. Getting a 3080 in NYC is probably a real challenge, but I can walk to my local parts store and pick one up no dramas.

zucker42 5y ago

Chip production is not completely fungible.

ksec 5y ago

>Won't the new products also simply not be available? There are shortage in low end, high NM, mature node. This is on 4nm leading node.