Global Chip Shortage Threatens Production of Laptops, Smartphones and More

[FBnil]

We need a new mb asap?

No, because the Pyra comes with a module that is compatible with 4G. ("Optional 3G/4G/UMTS and GPS module")

Pyra datasheets

Does anyone have a directory full of datasheets for the various chips used in the Pyra? I've been reading up on a few things but keep having to search for the datasheets. I expect someone has got all these in one place already though. If not, is it ok if I create a list of datasheet links...

pyra-handheld.com

oh, wait:
modern LTE-enabled devices are known to still fallback to 2G for phone calls

Thales cellular IoT products business is part of Telit-Cinterion

As of 1 January 2023, Thales cellular IoT products business is part of Telit-Cinterion. You can find the relevant information on the Telit-Cinterion website.

www.thalesgroup.com

There is a difference between LTE (3.9G) and LTE-Advanced (4G)

LTE (telecommunication) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

LTE is sometimes known as 3.95G and has been marketed both as "4G LTE" and as "Advanced 4G",[citation needed] but it does not meet the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series for LTE Advanced.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

Plus, in my experience 4G is not that well distributed over the whole area and fallback is often enough necessary for good connection alone. And I could imagine, that they won't patch those holes with 4G going forward but rather 5G. ?

 

[levi]

oh, wait:
modern LTE-enabled devices are known to still fallback to 2G for phone calls

Thales cellular IoT products business is part of Telit-Cinterion

As of 1 January 2023, Thales cellular IoT products business is part of Telit-Cinterion. You can find the relevant information on the Telit-Cinterion website.

www.thalesgroup.com

There is a difference between LTE (3.9G) and LTE-Advanced (4G)

LTE (telecommunication) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

LTE is sometimes known as 3.95G and has been marketed both as "4G LTE" and as "Advanced 4G",[citation needed] but it does not meet the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series for LTE Advanced.

Yes, if we can't get VOLTE to work, phone calls will route over 2G, unless you use SIP or something to route your phone calls over the internet. The question remains, how many people are planning to make phone calls with a portable computer? The prime reason a cellular modem was added was to allow us to connect to phone data on the move, and that at the very least will still work even if 2G stops being a thing, provided you can at least connect to 3G or 4G where you are.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

The question remains, how many people are planning to make phone calls with a portable computer?

-> #1
I wanna get rid of Android.

 

[Askarus]

-> #1
I wanna get rid of Android.

Same
I'm desperately waiting for a fully functional 4G Pyra to use it for 90% of what my phone now does.

 

[ElPoco]

I'm using old stuff but to be honest that's more because I'm stingy. My phones are test samples from when I worked for a manufacturer, my computer was my work computer from that time as well, that I bought for next to nothing when the office was closed down.

The only reason why I support that is medicine.
We still need more growth and better technology to get better medical equipment.

We might also benefit from more environment-friendly appliances. Old fridges still work well, but they're very bad for the environment when they break down. Older washing machines have higher water and energy consumption. LED lightning is far more efficient than older lightbulbs...
There's probably a point where replacing beats keeping an inefficient model. Though ideally, this should come with better recycling practices and a limited use of non-recyclable materials.

And while we're at it, there's probably a case to be made for pooling of resources. Personal cars are highly inefficient, the average power drill is used 10 minutes in its lifetime... And the capitalist answer of the "sharing economy" where people who can afford stuff get even more money by leasing them to people who can't isn't good: public transportation is a better answer than renting cars.

 

[Askarus]

And while we're at it, there's probably a case to be made for pooling of resources. Personal cars are highly inefficient, the average power drill is used 10 minutes in its lifetime... And the capitalist answer of the "sharing economy" where people who can afford stuff get even more money by leasing them to people who can't isn't good: public transportation is a better answer than renting cars.

Public transportation is only viable in cities.
Not in rural areas and small villages.

I am against the trend of having those big cities and almost all people moving to the same place.
For me decentralization has many benefits.

 

[pyrat]

No, rural areas can have public transport too. The problem is that private vehicles are viable in rural areas only when big public expense is directed to roads for private transport instead of road or rail for public transport. Without the governments building roads the private cars wouldn't be viable either. So if the government spends in good enough public transport people won't need private cars even in villages. Cities are getting too big and I think it's optimal to have more smaller towns than everybody equally dispersed ruraly, because the impact in the environment of so many houses everywhere is harder than concentrating the waste in one place and leaving the nature alone in the country. The problem is now it's too exagerated, with ridicously small villages and ridicously big cities. We could probably all live in 50000 -100000 people small towns, with population quite densely concentrated there but then with room for nature in between.

But really, are we on topic any more ?

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

-> #1
I wanna get rid of Android.

You could try the N900. It's still usable.

 

[Djoga'Ro]

You could try the N900. It's still usable.

I preordered a Pyra

 

[λ the β-Redex Reducer]

Indeed, they complement each other well!

 

[Djoga'Ro]

I see. Though, I'd prefer to just carry one of the two around. (As soon as the Pyra gets there.)

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Huawei Blames US for Global Chip Supply Crunch - Slashdot

Huawei has blamed the U.S. for the chip crunch rocking the global tech industry, saying Washington's sanctions against Chinese companies have spurred panic buying of semiconductors and other supplies. From a report: "Because of the U.S. sanctions against Huawei, we have seen panic stockpiling...

news.slashdot.org

 

[TeDaDeS]

Not sure, but fabs almost open and close factories every few years because the old lasers don't etch fine enough gates or something. I'm exaggerating, I guess they only sell old machinery and buy or build new one, but opening new factories to cope with demand it's probably not so severe for a chip factory as for others.
And they of course want to spend what it takes to stay a monopoly or close to it. The other continents were starting to think they should really have chip factories on shore.

Usually a fab is aimed at a certain development process, so all equipment in the fab is tailored to that specific process.
While you could upgrade parts to increase overall quality/throughput there is a limited. Compare it building a computer: you can put a very expensive GPU in your system but if the CPU costs only 10% of the GPU and it will be the bottleneck, you should also upgrade the CPU, and that means a new motherboard, etc.etc. so actually it means you need a complete new computer. The same goes for fabs, so some upgrades aren't viable anymore.

So what you usually see is that the latest-greatest nodes (highest precision) will be most expensive, both in buying and using, as they need to pay for this fab as quickly as possible. Then it will keep making revenue but less and less over time, until it's to expensive to operate for the price of the products that are being produced. Then equipment will be sold, refurbished and can be used to upgrade other fabs or to build a new cheaper one.

Most fabs only focus on a small part of the production process. They don't make their own wafers, some don't make their own reticle (masks), usually all of them produce the die fully, and some don't package the die themselves.
That means even for a single chip you're probably depending on multiple fabs or suppliers, even ones you might not directly think about like suppliers for equipment or consumables like gloves/masks/shipping-materials etc.
And in case of TSMC it's water for cooling for example, who would think of a dry period having impact on global semiconductor industry.

 

[FBnil]

And in case of TSMC it's water for cooling for example, who would think of a dry period having impact on global semiconductor industry.

You mean that oceans can not provide cool water? Or do they actually need distilled water to cool?
(and even so: you just bring your pipe with hot freshwater into the ocean for a few meters, and then back, cooled)
Or do they lose water during the process? Steam? (a small percentage can be recouperated)

 

[TeDaDeS]

You mean that oceans can not provide cool water? Or do they actually need distilled water to cool?
(and even so: you just bring your pipe with hot freshwater into the ocean for a few meters, and then back, cooled)
Or do they lose water during the process? Steam? (a small percentage can be recouperated)

Good question, cooling is not the best example. Most uses of drinking water is cleaning wafers, some equipment uses water, and they use it to clean air.
TSMC already recycles 85% of their water, but they'll use so much that the just need a lot of water.
They used 58 million tons of drinking water in 2019.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

Intel, Nvidia, TSMC Execs Agree: Chip Shortage Could Last Into 2023 - Slashdot

How many years will the ongoing chip shortage affect technology firms across the world? This week, multiple tech executives offered their own dismal estimates as part of their usual public financial disclosures, with the worst one coming in at "a couple of years." From a report: That nasty...

hardware.slashdot.org

 

[levi]

Do we have a good idea yet what the cause of this shortage was? I thought it was manufacturers underestimating the demand for connected cars and not seeing the uptick in laptops and tablets due to video calling needs. If that's the case, I'd have thought it's just a matter of putting in the right orders for the next cycle, which I'd expect to be delivered a year after all of this started.

It's perhaps not surprising that Intel are having fab troubles. That dates back to their inability to do anything smaller than 10nm for the last couple of years. Perhaps that's been exacerbated by the changes in the market, but I don't immediately see how; people are still buying computers and even old process Intel chips still seem to be popular.

 

[pyrat]

Do we have a good idea yet what the cause of this shortage was? I thought it was manufacturers underestimating the demand for connected cars and not seeing the uptick in laptops and tablets due to video calling needs. If that's the case, I'd have thought it's just a matter of putting in the right orders for the next cycle, which I'd expect to be delivered a year after all of this started.

I don't know. I read somewhere it was panic and snowball once people started stockpiling chips to avoid breaking stock when they started seeing shortages. But the initial cause might be having factories closed at the beginning of COVID-19, which lead to lower stocks a few months down the line. Cars might have helped, but those usually plan demand in advance, they possibly weren't counting on the market not being able to supply.
I don't know, some butterfly somewhere... the system is chaotic enough.

It's perhaps not surprising that Intel are having fab troubles. That dates back to their inability to do anything smaller than 10nm for the last couple of years. Perhaps that's been exacerbated by the changes in the market, but I don't immediately see how; people are still buying computers and even old process Intel chips still seem to be popular.

I think people are buying more laptops and desktops for teleworking, and fewer for offices, but I don't know how that adds up. Since a lot of people at once had to change workplace from office to home, there were possibly many buys concentrated in little time, although maybe not such a big change averaged over more time...

 

[levi]

Yeah, it's a hard one to comprehend, that's for sure. I don't quite get who'd buying all the capacity that's stopping us making cars, computers, medical equipment, phones, anything with an LCD. I'd have thought most clean room fabs wouldn't require much more ppe to be added to the get up that everyone wears already, maybe just needs people to not crowd so much I couldn't say.