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Microchip Shortage Downtime


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1 hour ago, silvrsvt said:

The chip shortage is also hitting GPUS (graphics cards) and gaming systems. Sounds like there is a lot of capacity issues in chip foundries and 80% of the market where they are made is Tiwain and South Korea. 
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55936011?fbclid=IwAR31fDfldxVuMH2b6IPIKolMpsQSe_ExKRuB9bJpUTxxtLpa3TJNYNmwQ8A

 



What I got out of that is this would have happened eventually with or without COVID in the picture. 

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5 hours ago, CurtisH said:

Apple has just released its first M processor.  It’s basically their entry-level processor.  Subsequent processors will be faster.  AMD’s high end processors are very good.  I think they compare well to the M1, but I suspect they will have problems compared to Apple’s next processors (M1x or M2).

 

Check out Max Tech’s YouTube channel.  They recently did a comparison between the M1 MacBook Pro and an Asus with AMD’s best laptop chip.  The M1 was better in some tests.  The AMD chip was better in some tests.  The Asus did have an RTX 2600 graphics card, which helped in some tests. 


it’s not exactly new though.  We’ve seen these chips do amazingly well in the iPads and iPhones.  Plus comparing the M1 to x86 based processors isn’t exactly fair using the same benchmark programs due to needing to do just in time translation of x86 instructions to Arm from non-native code which results in up to a 30% hit in performance.

 

3 hours ago, fuzzymoomoo said:


As far as I'm concerned, yes. I'll take something that's been on the market for a bit over something just released and there's still a lot of unknowns with. Newest does not always mean best. 


I think the time the chips have spent in iPhones and iPads is sufficient enough.  The chips are already proven and do amazingly well.  

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5 hours ago, silvrsvt said:

The chip shortage is also hitting GPUS (graphics cards) and gaming systems. Sounds like there is a lot of capacity issues in chip foundries and 80% of the market where they are made is Tiwain and South Korea. 
 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55936011?fbclid=IwAR31fDfldxVuMH2b6IPIKolMpsQSe_ExKRuB9bJpUTxxtLpa3TJNYNmwQ8A

 

The run up in price of crypto currency compounds the problem.  Th graphics cards are being bought to build mining rigs.

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29 minutes ago, slemke said:

The run up in price of crypto currency compounds the problem.  Th graphics cards are being bought to build mining rigs.

 

Not just crypto currency, but the growth of blockchain generally in commerce and government. GPU are well suited to doing the hashing calculations for blockchain miners. But FPGA optimized for crypotography may be better still.

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On 2/6/2021 at 5:08 PM, FR739 said:


it’s not exactly new though.  We’ve seen these chips do amazingly well in the iPads and iPhones.  Plus comparing the M1 to x86 based processors isn’t exactly fair using the same benchmark programs due to needing to do just in time translation of x86 instructions to Arm from non-native code which results in up to a 30% hit in performance.

Several popular application have already been re-compiled for ARM.  The vast majority of them will be done by the end of 2021.

 

Microsoft is dragging their feet on Windows on ARM.  There is a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem as there really is not much hardware out there, but the Raspberry Pi 400 is solving that problem.

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4 minutes ago, theoldwizard1 said:

Microsoft is dragging their feet on Windows on ARM.  There is a bit of a "chicken and egg" problem as there really is not much hardware out there, but the Raspberry Pi 400 is solving that problem.

 

Backwards compatibility is a major reason. 

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If you're in the market for a car in the next few months I'd consider looking sooner than later. Spoke to a dealer this morning that would normally get about 250 cars next month, they are getting 57. Looking at the FDN newsletter and most order time is 18-22 Weeks from order to delivery.

Dealer said my Mach-e should be in by the end of the month, though I am passing and just getting the Bronco. 

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5 minutes ago, jasonj80 said:

If you're in the market for a car in the next few months I'd consider looking sooner than later. Spoke to a dealer this morning that would normally get about 250 cars next month, they are getting 57. Looking at the FDN newsletter and most order time is 18-22 Weeks from order to delivery.

Dealer said my Mach-e should be in by the end of the month, though I am passing and just getting the Bronco. 

 

Thanks for sharing this advice jasonj80! My wife's Mustang Mach-E isn't expected to arrive at our dealership (Autonation Ford Fort Worth) until April 2021. We're OK with the wait.

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Samsung Semiconductor seeks 100% tax rebate from Austin Texas for proposed $17B chipmaking plant

 

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If Austin wants Samsung Semiconductor to bring its $17 billion state-of-the-art chipmaking plant to the Texas capital, Samsung wants a 100% property tax reimbursement on the project from the city for more than 20 years, according to documents reviewed by Community Impact Newspaper.

Samsung Semiconductor, under the guise of Silicon Silver, is shopping around a new 6.1 million-square-foot chipmaking plant that comes with a $17 billion investment—$6 billion in structure and other real estate developments and $11 billion worth of personal property in machinery and equipment—according to the documents. The project would bring up to 1,993 jobs, 1,800 of which carry average salaries of about $100,000. The project would be among the largest single economic investments in Texas history and the largest single investment in the Austin area, easily surpassing recent billion-dollar projects such as the Tesla Gigafactory in 2020 and the Apple campus in 2018.

 

https://communityimpact.com/austin/central-austin/economy/2021/01/28/samsung-seeks-100-tax-rebate-from-austin-for-proposed-17b-plant-expansion-threatens-to-build-elsewhere/

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GM to idle 3 plants until at least mid-March for deepening microchip shortage

 

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Detroit — General Motors Co. said the three plants it shut down this week because of a deepening microchip shortage hammering the global auto industry will remain closed through at least mid-March. 

GM has halted production at the Fairfax, Kansas, plant where the Cadillac XT4 and the Chevrolet Malibu are built, the CAMI plant in Ontario where the Chevrolet Equinox is built, and the San Luis Potosi plant in Mexico where the Equinox, the Chevrolet Trax and the GMC Terrain SUVs are built.

 

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2021/02/09/gm-idle-3-plants-until-march-deepening-microchip-shortage/4449438001/

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11 minutes ago, jgonza5 said:

 

If Austin City and Travis County elected officials are smart, they'll set tax rebates to Samsung Semi at 0%.

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Taiwan's economy feels heat as TSMC feeds global chip boom

Demand for 'strategic resource' fuels labor, power and water shortages

 

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...TSMC makes chips for iPhones, Google's data centers, Nintendo and Sony game consoles, automakers such as Ford, Honda and Daimler and U.S. F-35 fighter jets, among others. It supplied chips for Huawei's high-end smartphones and telecom equipment before the U.S. changed its export control rules to cut off the Chinese tech champion's supplies...

 

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Asia-Insight/Taiwan-s-economy-feels-heat-as-TSMC-feeds-global-chip-boom

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On 2/9/2021 at 10:14 AM, jasonj80 said:

If you're in the market for a car in the next few months I'd consider looking sooner than later. Spoke to a dealer this morning that would normally get about 250 cars next month, they are getting 57. Looking at the FDN newsletter and most order time is 18-22 Weeks from order to delivery.

Dealer said my Mach-e should be in by the end of the month, though I am passing and just getting the Bronco. 

 

Yeah, inventory levels are very low here in CFL. My Ford dealership is down to 90 new vehicles when 250 is normal. Mullinax is under 1,600 when 3,000 is considered normal inventory. Pickings are getting pretty slim and even much worse for Asian brands like Subaru.

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