Global shortage in computer chips "reaches crisis point"

The Guardian wrote:Consumers are facing price rises and shortages of products from TVs and mobile phones to cars and games consoles as a global shortage in semiconductors grows.

The shortage in chips, the “brain” within every electronic device in the world, has been steadily worsening since last year. Initially the problem was only a temporary delay in supplies as factories shut down when the coronavirus pandemic first hit.

However, although production is back to normal, a new surge in demand driven by changing habits fuelled by the pandemic means that it is now reaching crisis point.

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I bought a TV at the end of 2020 and noticed that many models were out of stock; and the same thing with laptop PCs when my sister tried to buy one in January. Subsequently we've heard how both the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles have had production challenges in part due to the difficulty in obtaining components.

When companies like Apple, Samsung and Microsoft are struggling to source and purchase the computing parts that they need, you know that smaller companies - in this case, "small" being relative and including car manufacturers like Ford - are hugely struggling.

It's a perfect storm of lowered manufacturing for a year combined with increasing demand. The result will probably be that - as Tomous suggested in the Switch chat thread - the new consoles may take longer to build up a large user base and cross-gen exists for some time.

For smaller companies like Intellivision, the battle is even tougher as their lower volume of kit requirements are pushed to the back of the queue by the component manufacturers.

Tl;dr there is a huge computer chip shortage and it's having an impact on gaming, too.

To be fair, Intellivision probably only need a few thousand chips to fulfil demand :shifty:

Tomous wrote:To be fair, Intellivision probably only need a few thousand chips to fulfil demand

Sorry Jawa

Hee! They literally do need just that; but when even car manufacturers are being told they have to wait as bigger orders are coming in from the likes of Apple, smaller companies have little chance. Tommy Tallarico has just said "it's getting brutal out there".

jawa2 wrote:
Tomous wrote:To be fair, Intellivision probably only need a few thousand chips to fulfil demand

Sorry Jawa

Hee! They literally do need just that; but when even car manufacturers are being told they have to wait as bigger orders are coming in from the likes of Apple, smaller companies have little chance. Tommy Tallarico has just said "it's getting brutal out there".

I keep thinking Tommy Tollarico was the drummer in Bon Jovi. Turns out thats Tico Torres.

There was a definite shortage of AMD CPUs at the back end of last year so it doesn't surprise me it's continued into 2021. I was buying in components for one of my kids to get a build your own computer for Christmas and up until the week before Christmas it was looking like we weren't getting a CPU. Thankfully someone had delivery of some Ryzen 3s on the 21st Dec.

CRTs never had this problem

Aww this was the year I wanted to join the PC Master Race

aayl1 wrote:Aww this was the year I wanted to join the PC Master Race

You'll just have to stay one of us filthy plebs a bit longer.

Maybe people should stop replacing their phones every six months.

Some are suggesting the last quarter of 2021 for things to stabilise, some are even saying mid 2022 but chip production won't be increasing as all the fabs are at 100% and it take years to start a new one.

We are having problems at work, adding 3-5 months on lead times affecting all component classes, from resistors and capacitors, to ICs, PSUs and displays

Sourcing CPUs and GPUs have been a problem for a few years anyway with the explosion in crypto currencies

Don't think I'll be building a new PC for a long time after all. Oh well, I'm more than happy the my PS5 anyway.

If you really are after a new PC then pre-builds are a lot easier to get hold of, even with RTX 3000 series cards, at normal retail prices, mainly down to OEMs getting first dibs on shipments.

Lagamorph wrote:If you really are after a new PC then pre-builds are a lot easier to get hold of, even with RTX 3000 series cards, at normal retail prices, mainly down to OEMs getting first dibs on shipments.

True. I wouldn’t touch the non Ti, 3060 card. If you are interested, prebuilders might have the rumoured 3070/80 Ti cards, but no guarantee. Prices have gone up lots in the last year still. Those machines are £1000 up, and often £1100 minimum.

Part of the issue also isn't so much a lack of fabricaton plants, but a lack of the lithography equipment needed to manufacture chips on scales smaller than 14nm. When you get to that scale there is literally only one company that actually manufactures the equipment (ASML) and they basically can't keep up with demand. I think there's only currently 3 plants in the world capable of 7nm chips and they aren't even able to run at full capacity. Even if new plants get built (I think Intel just annonced 2 new FABs in the US) the issue is going to be getting the actual manufacturing equipment.

I still blame the crypto miners

Global shortage in computer chips "reaches crisis point"

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