• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Qualcomm CEO describing the root cause of the chip shortage

Bragr

Banned
Considering how this impacts gamers, I thought this was relevant.

"The first thing that caused it is the acceleration of the digital transformation of pretty much everything in every industry. Every industry has been digitally transformed, and as such, the amount of semi-conductors that is required is much larger. Just to give you a practical example, in the automobile industry, the new cars have 10x the amount of chips of the previous models. And the new cars people are working on now has probably 10x of that one."

"...then you have things that aggravated this, the pandemic aggravated it, the enterprise transformation of the home, a massive amount of broadband and IoT, the office has changed in the way we work now too, to support collaboration tools and video. There was a high demand during the pandemic, people wanted to be connected, people bought new phones and new tablets, new computers, new gaming (consoles), all of that came on top of the main issue, but they are not the main issue, the main issue is the long term growth of digital."

"...How are we gonna get out of this? so, we see a lot of capacity investment put into place by the industry, we have seen suppliers making plans about increasing the capacity, the industry is planning to double the semi-conductor manufacturing capacity within the next 5 years."

From 47:00 and onwards.

 
That makes sense with the huge increase in demand. However they couldn't see that was coming and plan ahead? Or they did and rather have prices go up due to demand? Either way it will take time to sort out.
 

MidGenRefresh

*Refreshes biennially
R.da1852d966cb2a050bfec4d42db5e819
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Roxkis_ii

Member
And the thing about cars is thr more advanced their made, the more points of failure, but at this point, I'm pretty sure that's planned.

Sucks it seems we are going to be in this chip shortage for a little while. I just wish ps5`s for everyone who wants one.
 
And the thing about cars is thr more advanced their made, the more points of failure, but at this point, I'm pretty sure that's planned.

Sucks it seems we are going to be in this chip shortage for a little while. I just wish ps5`s for everyone who wants one.
And finding vehicles with features you actually want our becoming increasingly hard

Just bought a Jeep Wrangler 4XE and had to give up a few features just because they said it could take months to get exactly what we wanted and thats if we were lucky.
 
"...How are we gonna get out of this? so, we see a lot of capacity investment put into place by the industry, we have seen suppliers making plans about increasing the capacity, the industry is planning to double the semi-conductor manufacturing capacity within the next 5 years."

I really hope by "capacity" they are referring to on a "wafers per process node" basis and not an overall chips basis. Since doubling the number of chips through die shrinks has been happening every two years by Moore's Law since the start. Doubling in 5 yrs would mean a slowdown in fabrication process technology advancement (which is expected at some point).
 
Last edited:

ACESHIGH

Banned
Why TF do we need cars with semi conductors? Can't we cut down on those? We need cars to have balls again like in the 60s and 70s. Also all this emphasis on safety has made car design go down the drain, all cars look like blobs or meatballs. And don't get me started on SUVs...
 
Last edited:

LordOfChaos

Member
Why TF do we need cars with semi conductors? Can't we cut down on those? We need cars to have balls again like in the 60s and 70s. Also all this emphasis on safety has made car design go down the drain, all cars look like blobs or meatballs. And don't get me started on SUVs...

Everything from managing engine timings to antilock breaking to dozens of ECUs and...All kinds of things. It's not just chips attached to a screen.

The direction actually is fewer, faster chips, which is why Tesla has been relatively unscathed as they also use modern foundries, but "get dem darn chips out of muh car" is boomer nonsense generally
 

Thaedolus

Gold Member
*shudders in N63 BMW*

As with anything, it depends. I wouldn't recommend anyone owning a modern car without an accompanying warranty and service package. There are just far too many things that can go wrong these days, especially with all the tech and over reliance on electronics.
It does depend, and it seems like efficiency gains always come with decreased reliability, however I think overall, cars are as safe and dependable as they’ve ever been. Quality management systems and manufacturing techniques have only gotten better over time, so while there may be an increase in failure modes due to increased complexity, the better build quality means you’re not as likely to be left stranded.

I’m also pretty meticulous about maintenance so I’ve never been stranded because I drove 50,000 miles without changing the oil.
 
Last edited:

kiphalfton

Member
And the thing about cars is thr more advanced their made, the more points of failure, but at this point, I'm pretty sure that's planned.

Sucks it seems we are going to be in this chip shortage for a little while. I just wish ps5`s for everyone who wants one.

That’s what I figure as well. I mean look at modern appliances, how much useless electronic shit is in there, and how prone to crapping out they are compared to older stuff.
 

Unknown?

Member
*shudders in N63 BMW*

As with anything, it depends. I wouldn't recommend anyone owning a modern car without an accompanying warranty and service package. There are just far too many things that can go wrong these days, especially with all the tech and over reliance on electronics.

Yeah replacing some of these sensors in new cars damn near costs what it does to rebuild an entire engine in an old one. Not to mention the main computer going out costs more than an old engine itself in some cases.
 

GHG

Member
It does depend, and it seems like efficiency gains always come with decreased reliability, however I think overall, cars are as safe and dependable as they’ve ever been. Quality management systems and manufacturing techniques have only gotten better over time, so while there may be an increase in failure modes due to increased complexity, the better build quality means you’re not as likely to be left stranded.

I’m also pretty meticulous about maintenance so I’ve never been stranded because I drove 50,000 miles without changing the oil.

You are correct on the safety and manufacturing processes but outside of that... That's not been my experience at all. There's just too much going on, hence all these cars need multiple chips to monitor everything. Even if you keep up with maintenance and service intervals things will go wrong. Then there's the fact that many of the parts are designed to only be reliable up until the warranty is over, but that's a different discussion entirely.

Outside of Hondas and Toyotas (also heard good things about Lexus) that has not been my experience.

I have a few mechanics in my family, so my perspective could be bias.

I'll add Dodge Hemis to that list as well. My charger RT and then the Scat pack were the 2 most reliable cars I've ever owned.
 

Roxkis_ii

Member
That’s what I figure as well. I mean look at modern appliances, how much useless electronic shit is in there, and how prone to crapping out they are compared to older stuff.
And companies obsession with connecting random things to the internet.

I bet there is someone who's whole kitchen is mining bit coins right now for North Korea.
 

ANIMAL1975

Member
Only warriors brag about which plastic box sold more
wile everyone else that is not invested in plastic boxes knows it the services & software
that make all the money
I'm glad it's not you in charge of Xbox division or Playstation, you know you need the plastic boxes to sell the services and software don't you?
Rocket science _ more plastic boxes sold, more customers to buy services and software.
Tim And Eric Reaction GIF
 

Dream-Knife

Banned
Yup.

Especially when the shitty $4 router your ISP forces you to use completely shits the bed when more than 6 devices are connected to the network.
Most ISPs let you use your own router. You pay like $5 a month for their trash router.

When Time Warner switched to spectrum they changed something with the internet and the old routers wouldn't work anymore (no idea). They took back the Motorola Surfboard they didn't have a record of giving me and gave me some horrible Ubee trash router modem that was the size of a PS4 slim. After it kept failing I just went out and got a Aris Surfboard (they bought Motorolas modem business).
 

kiphalfton

Member
Got a new kettle recently. It has a computer chip and a massive screen.

Confused Liam Neeson GIF


It can probably run Doom though.

I think it is a status thing. If you have a kitchen full of “smart appliances”, you have made it. Wish I was kidding, but a decked out kitchen is like $15k. Then you have your luxury car with all this useless shit, and it’s probably $60k - $90k.
 
Most ISPs let you use your own router. You pay like $5 a month for their trash router.

When Time Warner switched to spectrum they changed something with the internet and the old routers wouldn't work anymore (no idea). They took back the Motorola Surfboard they didn't have a record of giving me and gave me some horrible Ubee trash router modem that was the size of a PS4 slim. After it kept failing I just went out and got a Aris Surfboard (they bought Motorolas modem business).

Not where I live.

You call them and ask for the WAN login credentials and they tell you to fuck-off because they want you to use their shitty under-performing, overpriced hardware so that they can sell/rent you additional range extenders when your home wi-fi coverage is shit with the base router.
 
Last edited:
Why TF do we need cars with semi conductors? Can't we cut down on those? We need cars to have balls again like in the 60s and 70s. Also all this emphasis on safety has made car design go down the drain, all cars look like blobs or meatballs. And don't get me started on SUVs...
Being 55 years old one of my first cars was an old Ford that manual told you how to set you ignition points and now manuals have to tell people not to drink the battery acid.
 
That makes sense with the huge increase in demand. However they couldn't see that was coming and plan ahead? Or they did and rather have prices go up due to demand? Either way it will take time to sort out.
They likely had an inkling that it "could" happen. They likely didn't account for 10x, as he put it. I bet there was some increase, but not enough.

If a business goes all in and expands it's capabilities/capacity/infrastructure 10x in anticipation that demand will be there... and it's not, they could have just fucked themselves out of business. It's not uncommon either, look at how often projections are wrong. It happens both ways all the time, just sometimes their off/on a little, but every now and then it's off/on by a lot and it's either disastrous or great.

But yea, it's going to take some time to get out of this. They at least now know how much they need to expand to meet demand... we'll see if they can avoid any future shortages.
 
Top Bottom