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The link, and indeed the whole blog, is worth reading. However, it doesn't directly answer the question. Bunnie suggests dealing with Chinese brokers who can so
by mutagen 13y ago
The link, and indeed the whole blog, is worth reading. However, it doesn't directly answer the question. Bunnie suggests dealing with Chinese brokers who can source availability of 'cut tape', remnants from large production runs of the chip. It doesn't address consistency and reliable supply issues over a longer period of time but does allow for procurement of relatively small quantities of parts.
Bunnie also suggests learning enough Chinese to participate in what he terms the "gongkai" (公开), the quasi-open but legally murky design and production ecosystem producing much of our electronics, where documentation and specs are apparently available about as freely as torrented episodes of Game of Thrones.
- ekianjo 13y agoApparently you are right on the account that learning Chinese surely helps (ED from the article mentioned that there was a lack for proper English documentation for some chips considered).
- svendbt 13y agoA major risk in dealing with unofficial brokers instead of going through distributors is a good chance of getting devices that were scrapped in production test due to malfunction or failing on performance parameters. We have had several customers with issues sourcing this way and not realizing their devices are malfunctioning.
- userbinator 13y agoThe idea is to "feed off the leftovers" until you grow to the point where you can order above the MOQ directly. It's a very different growth model.
- DanBC 13y agoBrokers are very common in electronic production. You need to be careful when asking for quotes. If Bob has stock of product, and you ask 3 different brokers for quotes, you've just driven cost of that product up. That's especially frustrating when three or four sub contractors are requesting quotes for the same part to be used for the same potential job being inquired about by the end customer.