Enlarge / This pair of FT232RL USB to serial UARTs looks quite similar—but the one on the right is a counterfeit based on a mask-programmable microcontroller and only works with older drivers. (credit: Zeptobars) Beginning with the first Wuhan quarantine in January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world from both sides of the law […]
Enlarge / This machine is checking silicon wafers in a cleanroom lab—class 1 chip facilities must limit dust to 10 particles per cubic meter, 1/1000th the amount found in hospital operating theaters. (credit: Monty Rakusen via Getty Images) Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Chris Rolland noted Tuesday that the wait time for all major semiconductor product […]
Enlarge (credit: Bloomberg | Getty Images) Televisions, laptops, and tablets have been in high demand during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people worked and learned via Zoom, socialized over Skype, and binged on Netflix to alleviate the lockdown blues. But all that extra screen time also helped set in motion a semiconductor supply crunch that is […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) The worldwide semiconductor shortage continues to affect the automotive industry. One by one, automakers have warned that the silicon chip shortage will negatively impact production output and revenues in the coming months. Renault identified the chip shortage as a major problem when reporting its Q1 results in April. […]
Enlarge / A woman watches a mask—a part used in wafer conception—at a show room of the 12-inch United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) factory in Tainan, southern Taiwan. (credit: Sam Yeh | Getty) United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), the world’s fourth-largest contract chipmaker, is expanding its capacity to produce mature technology chips in exchange for financial guarantees, […]
(credit: Intel) How many years will the ongoing chip shortage affect technology firms across the world? This week, multiple tech executives offered their own dismal estimates as part of their usual public financial disclosures, with the worst one coming in at “a couple of years.” That nasty estimate comes from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who […]
Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images) The auto industry continues to suffer the effects of a worldwide shortage of silicon chips. General Motors will idle production of midsize pickup trucks at a factory in Missouri until April 12 and extend the shutdown of another factory in Michigan. In South Korea, Hyundai Motor Group, which […]
Enlarge / President Joe Biden signing a different executive order on January 28, 2021. (credit: Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty Images) The White House is launching an effort today to ease a global semiconductor supply crunch affecting a wide array of other industries, but any boost the administration can provide is likely to be […]
Enlarge / To call Sony’s PlayStation 5 in-demand would be an understatement. The global semiconductor shortage is threatening to constrain PlayStation 5 supplies throughout the rest of this year, even as Sony’s gaming chief insisted the company would be able to produce “decent numbers” of its new console in the second half of 2021. The […]
Enlarge / Ford has cut production at its Chicago facility from three shifts to one as a global chip shortage takes a toll on the car industry. (credit: Scott Olson | Getty Images) The Biden administration has pledged to take immediate action to address a global shortage of semiconductors that has forced the closure of […]