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Never mind Nvidia and AMD; the price of microcontrollers is going through the roof. Microcontrollers are being used in practically everything now. There were problems noted with car manufacturing a month ago; now we may wind up with shortages in every consumer electronic product. The shortage may not be resolved for two years.

There aren't a lot of electronic products that are absolutely essential, but there are a few. Replacement parts for HVAC equipment is the first that comes to mind. Commercial vehicles, agricultural equipment... We need enough spares on hand for that two year period to keep everything running. The component-level repair business may become very important.

There are many other products that have microcontrollers added which aren't truly needed but simpler designs have been driven out of the market. The lack of, for instance, sophisticated toasters and blenders will mean increased demand for non-electronic models. We can do without toasters and blenders, but it's nice to be forewarned that problems may arise.

(This may also reverse the trend of "computerize all teh things" and "IoT", which has its plusses.)

I'd be interested in hearing any other ideas y'all have on the subject.

Never mind Nvidia and AMD; the price of microcontrollers is going through the roof. Microcontrollers are being used in practically everything now. There were problems noted with car manufacturing a month ago; now we may wind up with shortages in every consumer electronic product. The shortage may not be resolved for *two years.* There aren't a lot of electronic products that are absolutely essential, but there are a few. Replacement parts for HVAC equipment is the first that comes to mind. Commercial vehicles, agricultural equipment... We need enough spares on hand for that two year period to keep everything running. The component-level repair business may become very important. There are many other products that have microcontrollers added which aren't truly needed but simpler designs have been driven out of the market. The lack of, for instance, sophisticated toasters and blenders will mean increased demand for non-electronic models. We can do without toasters and blenders, but it's nice to be forewarned that problems may arise. (This may also reverse the trend of "computerize all teh things" and "IoT", which has its plusses.) I'd be interested in hearing any other ideas y'all have on the subject.

(post is archived)

[–] • 4 pts

A large number of devices have got microcontrollers shoved into them that don't even need them. illustrates my point perfectly: that thing doesn't need a microcontroller and BT module, except for maybe the battery charging circuit. Replace all of its guts with a varistor and a power cable, and the price gets cut by 75%. The Internet of Shit is causing everything to be overpriced and unreliable.

[–] • 2 pts

Sure. The problem is you can't simply swap out the microcontroller; you have to rework the chassis, wiring and manufacturing process to accomodate the changes. In the meantime the stores can no longer stock the item while the simplified version works its way through manufacturing and distribution.

Which is why any organization that accounts for this now and starts ramping up for this will gain market share, and benefit both itself and consumers who desire the devices.

[–] [deleted] • 2 pts

I remember the 80s memory shortage caused by a fire in a plant that made the plastic used to encapsulate chips.

There's no going back to non-microcontroller junk.....

[–] • 2 pts

Once the EMP attacks begin, nobody will be worried about microcontrollers.

[–] • 1 pt

We don't make simple resistors or capacitors in this country, processors or only part of the problem. If china cut off the flow of electronic components to the U.S. we would be screwed in a matter of months. The D.O.D. was pushing to get more component manufacturing in the U.S. but as far as I can tell it never materialized. Some of that 1.9T should have went to increasing our manufacturing independence, The communist/ globalist's what us to stay dependent….

[–] • 1 pt

Socialist economy has shortages? Shocking.

Economic mismatches is one way inflation damages the economy.

[–] • 1 pt

I'm not sure if this particular shortage is related to socialism. There are several complicated reasons for the shortage; the cryptocurrency thing is exacerbating it but didn't cause it. In the meantime more fabs are under construction but they're not plants you can throw up in a month.

[–] • 0 pt (edited )

I'm also looking forward to a world with non-electric toasters and blenders, doing just fine with my induction stove.

[–] • 0 pt

Um.

Gonna assume you mean non-electronic. Also, induction stoves need quite a bit of electronics to operate, and probably do need microprocessors to operate efficiently. (Not positive about that, I've never looked into their details.)

[–] • 1 pt (edited )

nah they run on magic, i have all my power strips plugged into each other, free energy bro

[–] • 0 pt

I ordered my graphics card 3 months ago, still waiting.

[–] • 1 pt

Your card, if it has 8 to 11 gigabytes of ram, is right here :

https://finance.yahoo.com/cryptocurrencies

Its part of bitcoin reaching today a value of 56,327 !!!

Miners in socialist countries with "near free electricity" like rural china, have your card.