https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Te...-plans-price-hikes-on-broad-range-of-products
Intel plans price hikes on broad range of products
Customers told move is a response to cost pressures

 

The question is, the world seem to blissfully get along, when would be a next time you can't buy a gadget off amazon.com or elsewhere because of chip shortage?

there is another thought though, assuming that large stockists say orders chips say mcus by the millions/billions of pieces stocking them up, there should be a point some of them have so much excess inventories, they may 'dump' part of that in the markets. it is not sure when that 'trigger point' may happen.

It all depends on product life cycles which are notoriously unpredictable.

 

TSMC did something right though
https://www.verdict.co.uk/tsmc-chip-shortage/

Liu said that TSMC has rerouted semiconductors to customers that were truly in need of them.

hopefully, all other fabs are doing the same

 

TSMC did something right though
https://www.verdict.co.uk/tsmc-chip-shortage/

hopefully, all other fabs are doing the same

Do you actually believe that? The types of customers he's talking about are not makers looking for chips, those types of customers are really high up the chip supply food-chain.

According to Liu, car companies blamed TSMC for the shortage.

“But I told them, ‘You are my customer’s customer’s customer.

 

 

It doesn't matter if young Americans want to work in the semiconductor industry. America will have to open the immigration faucet to get more workers into this economy. Somebody will work those American jobs and pay American taxes and social security. Whether it's mowing lawns or running MOCVD and CMP and any other initials you want to throw out - freshly imported labor will be part of America being great again.

 

It doesn't matter if young Americans want to work in the semiconductor industry. America will have to open the immigration faucet to get more workers into this economy. Somebody will work those American jobs and pay American taxes and social security. Whether it's mowing lawns or running MOCVD and CMP and any other initials you want to throw out - freshly imported labor will be part of America being great again.

Then what sort of jobs will be left for the lazy people, those folks with millisecond attention spans, and the ones devoid of any work ethic??
Only in California are lazy regarded as a handicap that qualifies for public assistance.
I see a problem developing.

 

If a job pays well enough, people will want them. The question is how long will it take for those who want it to train for those careers?

 

If a job pays well enough, people will want them. The question is how long will it take for those who want it to train for those careers?

The even bigger question thatI see is will the applicants that want those high paying jobs even be able to learn them. The skill sets required for semiconductor manufacturing are rather specific and mostly not applicable to other jobs. And for producing integrated circuits, even more so. And where are the training facilities to train them?? I see a many years long lag between a job market need appearing and any qualified workers being available.

 

The even bigger question thatI see is will the applicants that want those high paying jobs even be able to learn them. The skill sets required for semiconductor manufacturing are rather specific and mostly not applicable to other jobs. And for producing integrated circuits, even more so. And where are the training facilities to train them?? I see a many years long lag between a job market need appearing and any qualified workers being available.

I've spent at least 10 years training and prepping skilled technical workers for the industry as I get ready to exit. We've lost a generation of technical US fab workers to overseas operations over the last 20 years that won't be easy to replace at any price.

 

The training needed won't be just electronic or electrical in nature. Electronics repair is a small part of the job. New maintenance workers that repair (find the root cause of process impairments) machines will need to understand the basic physics of material science engineering on solid-state devices for each sub-division of fab expertise.

This is what we really need teach (at various levels of complexity for each job) the new people so they can be productive in the new factories. Materials science
https://web.pdx.edu/~pmoeck/phy381/lecture1.pdf

We teach this at the top end of science and engineering but we somehow need to push this down to the technical repair level into a similar framework like circuit theory.
Local companies are working with local colleges to create specialized training.
https://www.pcc.edu/programs/microelectronics/

What skills will you use on the job?

• Applied chemistry and physics
• Attention to detail
• Electronic and mechanical skills needed to maintain and troubleshoot equipment
• Computer skills
• Interpret specifications, schematics and technical manuals
• Verbal and written English skills to work in a team environment

https://catalog.pcc.edu/programsanddisciplines/microelectronicstechnology/

 

Can I ask how are people dealing with the shortage or is that worthy of another thread.

I started a small manufacturing (PCB) project at the very start of the pandemic. The key components (i.e. all the key semiconductors) have since become unobtainable from the well known sources. So I'm looking at substituting and getting assembly done overseas, with the prototype type PCB production houses that can also obtain components. But that is subject to price hikes (they allegedly have stock of the uC but are charging about triple or more the regular pricing, and then I'm not sure it is even genuine). I have also had quotes from a parts sourcing specialist but knowing which sourcing specialists are reliable or trustworthy is not something I am sure about since I'm only a relative PCB manufacturing beginner, or an optimistic hobbyist really.

Key part was a smaller package uC PIC16F in upper midrange category. So I'm looking to substitute (not easy to find either) and adjust code to suit. Then buy a quantity and hope I can get more later. But its probably tripling my board design effort as nothing is really certain about it in terms of uC in my preferred form factor and even the other silicon devices such as transistors, FETs, LDO's, diodes etc as they are all small SMD to keep the board size down. (it needs to be very small for this application)

The only redundancy I can think of is to design a couple of board variants that will take an alternate uC but its all a lot of effort and might be for nothing if I can't get the parts or have to change it all once again!

Lucky for me I enjoy it for the most part.

 

Things are going to get bad in semiconductors manufacturing IMO after the shortage orders are filled.

 

Given the competency level of our current administration and given the ongoing agenda of the federal reserve bankers, in addition to their ongoing agenda, the present inflation will end with a crash. and a recession. Not intentional, but because of gross judgement errors. Like a vastly under-damped servo system.

This demonstrates a lack of understanding of the terms of the Federal Reserve. With a term of 14 years, no one administration controls the Fed. Maybe that’s not what you’re saying but it is what is implied. IMHO

 

Separate errors on the part of independent clowns.
The federal reserve bank has a primary agenda of always pushing towards inflation so that the maximum profit can be made providing money for the US government to borrow. And the second agenda item, close behind, is assuring that those owning lots of stock are always taken care of.
Of course, the only group that is harmed by inflation are those unable to conveniently increase their income whenever they want to increase it.

 

The federal reserve bank has a primary agenda of always pushing towards inflation so that the maximum profit can be made providing money for the US government to borrow.

Could you please give some detail on your first sentance. I don't need references/citations, just please explain how that all goes together.

And the second agenda item, close behind, is assuring that those owning lots of stock are always taken care of.

And then please explain this. How this works, in general - who is controlling it, what levers are they pulling and, a description of what exactly happens for the shareholders - beyond "taken care of".

 

Could you please give some detail on your first sentance. I don't need references/citations, just please explain how that all goes together.


And then please explain this. How this works, in general - who is controlling it, what levers are they pulling and, a description of what exactly happens for the shareholders - beyond "taken care of".

The federal reserve bankers set the basic interest rates which affects the cost of credit which controls the supply of money. They decide how much will be spent purchasing federal government bond (Federal deficit spending) That is why interest has been so very low for a while, which increased the amount of money in circulation, thus reducing the amount it could purchase. That is why the grocery items you used to buy for 99 cents now costs $1.45 less than a year later. This causes the numberical prices of products to rise, which results in share prices being bid up because the corperate sales dollars increase, which profits those holding the shares. It is rather subtle.

 

This causes the numberical prices of products to rise, which results in share prices being bid up because the corperate sales dollars increase, which profits those holding the shares. It is rather subtle.

So worldwide supply chain issues have no effect on prices? So oil price gouging has no effect on prices? So employees leaving for better wages, better benefits, better working conditions also has no effect on prices? Corporate greed has no effect on prices? It’s all a conspiracy by the Fed! Who’d of thunk it.

 

So worldwide supply chain issues have no effect on prices?

Apparently not. Just Jerome Powell at the throttle - some months faster, some months slower.

It is rather subtle.

In deed! I'm so happy you noticed this and shared with the rest of us. Thank you.

 

Sorry, but too much control by the Fed is not the problem. They are very limited in what they can do, largely due to the economy being global.

Prices have risen due to release of pent up demand after the pandemic shutdowns and inability of supply chains that were idled to restart and meet demand in excess of the period before the pandemic. And don’t forget that China is still fighting a Quixotic battle with a virus.

Then, you get positive feedback: workers, facing higher cost of living, demand more pay, driving costs and hence prices up…

The problems are easily diagnosed, the solution is not so easy. Normally it is a recession that resets everything, but who knows, it could be different this time.