How is Chipageddon affecting you?

[SiliconWizard]

I have no direct experience with Vigor. But it's a well-established company in Singapore which seems over 40 years old. I doubt it's a scam.

Not sure about the reality of their stocks. It's a wholesale distributor, so you can only get an idea by asking for quotes.

But if it's not them, it's others. There *are* millions of parts out there, mainly from asian distributors. Some of which we probably don't have access to. Millions of products are being manufactured. Those have components inside. They do not come out of people's asses.

[AndyC_772]

I've asked them for a quote for some FPGAs. Watch this space.

[SiliconWizard]

I've asked them for a quote for some FPGAs. Watch this space.

I'll be curious! What kind of FPGAs though? I searched for FPGAs on their site and it comes up with almost nothing?

Gonna ask for a quote as well and I'll let you know (if I get any answer!)

[voltsandjolts]

"Sure, we have lots. Send money up front, delivery is 12 weeks. (then 12 more weeks....)"

[MT]

I have no direct experience with Vigor. But it's a well-established company in Singapore which seems over 40 years old. I doubt it's a scam.

Not sure about the reality of their stocks. It's a wholesale distributor, so you can only get an idea by asking for quotes.

But if it's not them, it's others. There *are* millions of parts out there, mainly from asian distributors. Some of which we probably don't have access to. Millions of products are being manufactured. Those have components inside. They do not come out of people's asses.

Someone i know runs a small bissniss 2 months ago they got 1000 STM32H750VBT6 out of 3500 units ordered, yet had to wait 2+ years to get those 1000.
(order placed in late 2019 from ST) yet ST have said on their home page for 2 years 0 in stock yet Vigor claims to have 2 856 676 in total as of today of
various H750's.     Numbers seams pulled out of their broker asses!

Lets compare with Octopart, all reputable dists have 0 and all scam brokers like Winsource have various amount, e.g 30 000 units.  while Vigor or LCSC not even mentioned by octopart.
https://octopart.com/search?q=stm32h750vbt6&currency=USD&specs=0

40years old? Really! and quote: The Business current operating status is Deregistered.
https://www.companies.sg/business/199609135Z/VIGOR-ELECTRONICS-PTE-LTD

Same result at Singapore gov UEN search.
https://www.uen.gov.sg/ueninternet/faces/pages/uenSrch.jspx

[SiliconWizard]

That's interesting.

I got a reply from them for two ICs in moderate quantities (100). Quoted prices about 2x to 3x the normal price, but they claim they have stock, and "New and original parts".
Curious about the reply AndyC_772 will get - expecting the same kind.

[AndyC_772]

Yep - after a day or so, I got 3-4x the normal price (which isn't actually too bad considering some of the other quotes I've had for the same part), and "New and original parts. These parts in stock available."

What's the consensus... likely to be legitimate, or waste of time and money?

[tom66]

No way to tell.  I've seen fake parts from reputable brokers.  The very good ones have more traceability, they like to see original invoices from Digi-Key, etc.  But how do you know that those parts in your hand refer to that invoice?  The system breaks down because you have an untrustworthy third party in the mix that may well disappear next month. 

[SiliconWizard]

I'd be curious to try, but the quote I asked for was for a total of a couple thousand dollars, which I'm not gonna risk right now. Maybe if I was a famous Youtuber I would, as an investment.

[VK3DRB]

On one commercial product I designed a few years ago, I used an SN6505A - a nice chip fit-for-purpose chip designed to match with a Wurth transformer for a medical grade isolated USB 5V DC-DC supply. Normally around $A 1.50 each from TI. None available so the client had to get them from a broker for...

$250 EACH!

Some will say that is capitalism, but I would say it is just opportunistic greed. Thank goodness most of the world does not run like that, else we'd be in a right mess. Oh, I forgot... gas prices.

[VK3DRB]

Lets compare with Octopart, all reputable dists have 0 and all scam brokers like Winsource have various amount, e.g 30 000 units.  while Vigor or LCSC not even mentioned by octopart.
https://octopart.com/search?q=stm32h750vbt6&currency=USD&specs=0

Sorry, LCSC got on the bandwagon in the last year "to be rich and glorious" by skyrocketing prices for hard-to-get parts they already had in stock. As a result, they are no longer reputable.

[Mangozac]

Sorry, LCSC got on the bandwagon in the last year "to be rich and glorious" by skyrocketing prices for hard-to-get parts they already had in stock. As a result, they are no longer reputable.

That's not what I've experienced of late. Yes, some parts have attracted a premium but others are still quite competitive, even when hard to get elsewhere.

[MT]

Sorry, LCSC got on the bandwagon in the last year "to be rich and glorious" by skyrocketing prices for hard-to-get parts they already had in stock. As a result, they are no longer reputable.

Yes i know LCSC rigging prices. However if looking closely they "seams" to rig on "particular products" who hit a certain stock levels and not on everything.
No i didn't say LCSC are reputable or non reputable for that matter , merely used them as an "Asian" reference people know about contra Vigor in this part of the thread.

[SiliconWizard]

I'm pretty sure there must be asian distributors we, as westerners, have practically no access to.

[KE5FX]

I'm pretty sure there must be asian distributors we, as westerners, have practically no access to.

No doubt.

Let's see how the Iron Curtain of Protectionism that we're erecting at the moment works out for us in the long run.

[coppice]

I'm pretty sure there must be asian distributors we, as westerners, have practically no access to.

There are a few, like WPI, which you encounter just as often as Avnet and Arrow in East Asia, but few outside Asia have heard of.

[SiliconWizard]

I'm pretty sure there must be asian distributors we, as westerners, have practically no access to.

No doubt.

Let's see how the Iron Curtain of Protectionism that we're erecting at the moment works out for us in the long run.

Yeah, it already seems to be working very well!

[tszaboo]

We just got 6 reels of the fake part at 10x the nominal price. Some soldered already on the board. Fun times.

[MT]

We just got 6 reels of the fake part at 10x the nominal price. Some soldered already on the board. Fun times.

And supplier of these reels was?

[MT]

Quote:

“This is what annihilation looks like: China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry was reduced to zero overnight,” an entrepreneur who tweets under the name
Lidang wrote in a thread translated by Jordan Schneider, a senior analyst at Rhodium Group.

“Lots of people don’t know what happened yesterday,” Lidang explained.
“To put it simply, Biden has forced all Americans working in China to pick between quitting their jobs and losing American citizenship.
“Every American executive and engineer working in China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry resigned yesterday, paralysing Chinese manufacturing overnight.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/chinas-semiconductor-industry-rocked-by-us-export-controls/news-story/a5b46fb3cfd2651be23a549c38b3e2d6

[SiliconWizard]

Nice.

[DC1MC]

Quote:

“This is what annihilation looks like: China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry was reduced to zero overnight,” an entrepreneur who tweets under the name
Lidang wrote in a thread translated by Jordan Schneider, a senior analyst at Rhodium Group.

“Lots of people don’t know what happened yesterday,” Lidang explained.
“To put it simply, Biden has forced all Americans working in China to pick between quitting their jobs and losing American citizenship.
“Every American executive and engineer working in China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry resigned yesterday, paralysing Chinese manufacturing overnight.

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/world-economy/chinas-semiconductor-industry-rocked-by-us-export-controls/news-story/a5b46fb3cfd2651be23a549c38b3e2d6

How come none of them choose to lose their American citizenship ?

[SiliconWizard]

Come on. However absurd or sick threatening people of canceling their citizenship is, who in their right mind would accept to lose one's citizenship over a job? Knowing that they probably don't have a chinese citizenship either, meaning that not only would they be stuck in China but without a citizenship. 

[DC1MC]

Come on. However absurd or sick threatening people of canceling their citizenship is, who in their right mind would accept to lose one's citizenship over a job? Knowing that they probably don't have a chinese citizenship either, meaning that not only would they be stuck in China but without a citizenship. 

Wouldn't China offer citizenship and other incentives to stay to such critical personnel, especially if they are ethnic Chinese ?

[tom66]

Come on. However absurd or sick threatening people of canceling their citizenship is, who in their right mind would accept to lose one's citizenship over a job? Knowing that they probably don't have a chinese citizenship either, meaning that not only would they be stuck in China but without a citizenship. 

Well, it's generally accepted as being illegal to make someone stateless, but no one enforces international law like that.

Though they could simply arrest them upon their return to the US, they'd retain citizenship but to what end.  That's probably what the threat actually boiled down to - violation of export controls is not normally punished with removal of citizenship(!)

It's a dangerous game that the US is playing here and will certainly accelerate China's investment in its own domestic semiconductor market, reducing dependence upon European and American IP and technology (RISC-V over ARM will be an interesting one to watch for instance).  If China develops reliable EUV tech that will give an invasion of Taiwan a lower overall cost to China as losing TSMC may no longer be seen as devastating to their technology economy.