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STMicroelectronics Shortage

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S. Petrukhin:

--- Quote from: Klemken on January 20, 2021, 08:09:12 am ---We use STM32F031F6P6 for one of our main projects and its out of stock on farnell, arrow, mouser,.. everywhere and according to support, it wont be restocked for months.
Luckly STM32L031F6P6 is in stock everywhere, compatible and only requires a small amount of modification to software to work for us. But still, its annoying.

--- End quote ---

I ordered on LCSC STM32F103VC, found that they are not in stock, there is no VE to replace. I looked at the entire F103 series - not even the most popular C8 was in stock. It even scared me, and I began to think about other suppliers. But I sent a request to the LCSC, I need a small quantity of 50 pieces and I was told that everything is available for order with a period of 5-7 days. Maybe it's not a problem of having an MPU and there is some focus on a centralized warehouse?

S. Petrukhin:

--- Quote from: blueskull on January 20, 2021, 02:47:57 pm ---
--- Quote from: S. Petrukhin on January 20, 2021, 02:35:36 pm ---I ordered on LCSC STM32F103VC, found that they are not in stock, there is no VE to replace.

--- End quote ---

Today in an industry insider group chat, someone said he is willing to pay 90CNY($14)/unit on an F030RCT6 if the supplier can supply in kpcs+ quantity.

They do certified medical stuff, they don't care about money, but they want the exact part right now, and they want a lot of them.

I pointed them out that the Japanese reseller Chip1Stop has them for 1/10 his acceptable price this afternoon, and now all 5kpcs is gone.

There are still people having those chips, but they won't sell at MSRP. They will sell them on bidding.

This is the competition many of you are facing. STM32 is wild, really wild this time.

--- End quote ---

I. e. crooks and hucksters came to the MPU marketand now there will be auctions? Will consumers now fight for the product?

I looked at the LCSC warehouse - there are small stocks of the F103 series, but the price has become more than 2 times higher.

Friends, what do you think it is:
- high demand
- artificial scarcity to raise the indecent price
- it's time to look for a replacement for the STM32 they are leaving the market

chickenHeadKnob:

--- Quote from: S. Petrukhin on January 20, 2021, 03:12:52 pm ---I. e. crooks and hucksters came to the MPU marketand now there will be auctions? Will consumers now fight for the product?

I looked at the LCSC warehouse - there are small stocks of the F103 series, but the price has become more than 2 times higher.

Friends, what do you think it is:
- high demand
- artificial scarcity to raise the indecent price
- it's time to look for a replacement for the STM32 they are leaving the market

--- End quote ---


Your questions indicate you are younger person. If you last long enough in the electronics manufacturing business you will experience multiple cycles of "chip famine" with the attendant price gouging and backroom deals and scrambling. It is nothing new. The scarcity is real at the start of the cycle, but then it gets amplified by hoarding and profiteering behaviour. This can really kill small manufacturers that operate on thin margins and low volume. been there done that.

S. Petrukhin:

--- Quote from: chickenHeadKnob on January 21, 2021, 02:20:49 pm ---
--- Quote from: S. Petrukhin on January 20, 2021, 03:12:52 pm ---I. e. crooks and hucksters came to the MPU marketand now there will be auctions? Will consumers now fight for the product?

I looked at the LCSC warehouse - there are small stocks of the F103 series, but the price has become more than 2 times higher.

Friends, what do you think it is:
- high demand
- artificial scarcity to raise the indecent price
- it's time to look for a replacement for the STM32 they are leaving the market

--- End quote ---


Your questions indicate you are younger person. If you last long enough in the electronics manufacturing business you will experience multiple cycles of "chip famine" with the attendant price gouging and backroom deals and scrambling. It is nothing new. The scarcity is real at the start of the cycle, but then it gets amplified by hoarding and profiteering behaviour. This can really kill small manufacturers that operate on thin margins and low volume. been there done that.

--- End quote ---

Do you consider ST to be a small producer and STM32 at the beginning of the cycle? Maybe I misunderstand something?

hans:
We had the huge capacitor shortage a few years ago. 100nF caps were substituted with any nearby value, they were all sold out. I think in that case, artificial shortage was real because the margins for manufacturers was just not there. So if you then want to raise the price of your product, first take them of the market and see how people start begging at your door to produce them again for any cost.

To be honest I don't think ST is doing that. The F103 isn't exactly new, in fact you see it used everywhere. Many boards like Blue pills with F103 knockoffs probably fuel the popularity even further. The Cortex-m3 is a capable processor. It only lacks some DSP and FP instructions the m4 series has, but you explicitly have to use them to benefit from them. So for projects doing some USB, ethernet, serial comms and other generic stuff it's fine. You get tons of RAM, 12-bit 1MSPS+ ADCs, DMA, which is basically the same building blocks you have on the bigger MCU's these days (just less of them). 72MHz is only about half what you get on an entry level F4, so not that far off neither.
Really it's not surprising that people use them, as spending more is only warranted for specific use cases. In other projects, just cost optimize. E.g. 2$ vs 4$ MCU can translate to 5-15$ retail price difference, and for many products that's a lot of money (or margin).

I'm not surprised medical companies try to overbid by several times the MSRP. Recertification of products is real. In any other industry, if I would had to deal with a shortage of F103's, I would probably look at other chips from ST that are pin compatible with similar peripherals (probably F4 series), and add some extra BSP code to run the firmware on both chips. You probably don't even need 2 binaries as long as you stick to the least common denominator ISA, which is the Cortex-m3.

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