General > General Technical Chat
How is Chipageddon affecting you?
tom66:
And you know once the software gets ported over, they won't be buying original STM32's any more.
I've seen the odd contract popping up for GD32 porting too.
JPortici:
--- Quote from: tom66 on November 20, 2022, 10:36:13 am ---And you know once the software gets ported over, they won't be buying original STM32's any more.
--- End quote ---
Exactly. The only ones that aren't doing it are those who don't want to recertify
SilverSolder:
--- Quote from: JPortici on November 20, 2022, 10:06:20 am ---
--- Quote from: Smokey on November 20, 2022, 07:58:16 am ---
--- Quote from: JPortici on November 20, 2022, 07:29:52 am ---
--- Quote from: Smokey on November 19, 2022, 10:23:28 pm ---I just had a thought...
Because of shortages, designers are forced to use parts from smaller companies that are only in stock because no one wanted to use them before the shortages.
I wonder how many of those smaller companies will be able to capitalize on the sales/exposure boost and move up to middle or big guys themselves....
--- End quote ---
One thing for sure: Smaller, even local (national only) distis that carry brands that the big boys don't (namely chinese brands) are becoming very, very big.
--- End quote ---
All you need is at total of 20 years of experience and a couple "serial entrepreneurs"...
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/manufacture/who-is-microchipusa-com/
--- End quote ---
Nah, not like that. I've been recently made contact with a local supplier (fun fact, for 30 years they were based in the building behind my school and i literally never heard of them before), they are the italian distributors for a couple of chinese brands (including GEEHY) that have been delivering pin to pin compatible alternatives to STM32 and the likes, with actual stock, four weeks lead time during all 2022. You can imagine how business has been going for them
--- End quote ---
Is this whole thing pre-saging the demise of Western electronics companies, when it comes to commodity components? - perhaps that is true already....
Why not in electronics as in most other areas?
tom66:
It's not the demise of western electronics companies, but it will certainly make it easier for some of the newer players to get a foothold.
I guess think of it a bit like when Toyota and Honda broke into the US car market - by offering small, economical cars during the fuel crisis, while the bigger players were only offering larger, inefficient vehicles.
The smaller manufacturers are going to get some design wins, but importantly build a reputation, which will snowball.
I doubt it will destroy TI and the like (Ford still makes cars, to borrow my example), but they will probably begin to regret the decisions they have made in the future. Time will tell.
paulca:
"Looking for Microcontrollers. Will pay Bitcoin. No fakes. DM me!"
Joke. Although, it's getting pretty shadey now. People are scalping STM32s. I was very tempted as someone had a sealed Mouser bag of 3 x STM32F411CE's for £40. (What is their list? About £6 each?)
Mouser said they have 932 STM32 microcontroller products. I asked, "In stock?", they said, emmm.... 7. 6 of which were F0s. I did get 2xF411REs from Farnel a few weeks back. Thinking I should have sold them on now.
What concerns me much more is the disappearance of the older chips. Chips which are the mainstay of the hobbiest. Chips from the 90s and 00s. Chips like the TI PCMnnnn's BB chips. PCM270X, PCM510x, etc. etc. While I can see production of the leading each 9 pin BGA 2.5mmx2.5mm ICs ramping up in production again, but who is going to fire up lines of those kinda of "last year" chips? Chips that been around long enough for people to write Arduino drivers for them.
Maybe it's just distribution and there are still stock piles of those chips, or maybe there are plenty of older generation fabrication lines out there people will blow the dust off and start making 10 year old chips again.
I have even gone as far as ordering a few single ICs from AliExpress to see if I stand any chance of them not being fake or b-grade trash. I'm thinking I might get luckier with the older generation chips like those PCMnnnn rather than the STM32s. Although there does seem to be some obvious signs. For every seller with an STM32F411 at £3.70+£2.00 shipping, there are 2 who will sell you half a dozen for that price! Although they never seem to get the description quite right and don't even bother to take a photo (or even google a proper photo) and use a blurred image of a generic chip.
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