Biden Team Pledges Aggressive Steps To Address Chip Shortage (yahoo.com) 175
The Biden administration is working to address the global semiconductor shortage that has caused production halts in U.S. industries including autos, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said. From a report: The administration is identifying choke points in supply chains and discussing an immediate path forward with businesses and trading partners, Psaki told reporters at the White House on Thursday. In the longer term, policy makers are looking for a comprehensive strategy to avoid bottlenecks and other issues the semiconductor industry has been facing for years. President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order directing a government-wide supply chain review for critical goods in the coming weeks, with the chip shortage a central concern behind the probe. The order will compel a 100-day review led by the National Economic Council and National Security Council focused on semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging, critical minerals, medical supplies and high-capacity batteries, such as those used in electric vehicles, two people familiar with the draft said. Additional supply-chain assessments are expected within a year, focused on critical products -- materials, technology and infrastructure -- and other materials tied to defense, public health, telecommunications, energy and transportation.
I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering that most of these chips now are made overseas because the US can no longer compete on manufacturing costs.
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at least they're being aggressive! /sarcasm
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Considering that most of these chips now are made overseas because the US can no longer compete on manufacturing costs.
If I had to guess, it would be by proposing the USG subsidize the manufacture of chips.
Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:4)
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And the oil crisis of the 1970's was nothing compared to the Irish Potato Famine of 1845.
Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:5, Funny)
And that was nothing compared to the fire embargo that Grog's cave held against Ulk's cave in 15,017 BC!
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And when that fire embargo broke, Ulk still wasn't happy! All the fire Ulk wanted, right there at the front doorstep... and on the walls... and the back porch...
You just can't please some people.
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An island who never heard of fishing apparently.
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This may be a result of Chi-Comm actions to slow or halt the importation of chips to the USA.
This is how the game is played in other venues; why not in the chip industry?
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Or it could be that the pandemic slowed down the production of chips. Sure the production is mostly automated but there is human involvement in the process. There is also the transportation of those chips to the site of other manufacturing that has been slowed down.
Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:5, Informative)
The biggest supplier of automotive semiconductor chips is Robert Bosch GmbH. Their foundries are mostly in Europe. STMicrolelectronics is also a huge pure-play foundry provider in MEMS, while they have a facility in Shenzen they also have foundries in Malta, the Philippines, and Malaysia. Sony is climbing the foundry rankings, with foundries in Japan. IMEC is a player in Belgium. Honeywell owns foundries in Texas and other parts of the US. Silex is based in Sweden. Teledyne DALSA is in Canada. Global Foundries operates a foundry in East Fishkill, New York. TSMC is of course the largest and in Taiwan, although not the largest in MEMS. most of this is simple basic processors and sensors that are the "chips" that are missing in automotive; many people can make these and the industry is global; China is a small player.
Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:4, Informative)
Indeed this can't be stated enough. People see chips and immediately think Samsung, Intel and TSMC. The reality is cars (who are doing the biggest share of bitching) are sitting around the 40nm scale and those chips are produced all over the world, not in a few specialist foundries in Taiwan and Korea.
That said Europe's biggest foundry is actually Globalfoundries not Bosch, and Globalfoundries' biggest market is MCUs (including Automotive)
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Hell, I work daily with 55nm, 90nm, and 180nm (very occasionally 450nm - no typo) from a variety of foundries (TSMC, GF, in-house, etc.)
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+1 Informative
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Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:4, Informative)
"Build those factories here in the US" (Score:3)
"...so that we don't have to worry about changes in relations on the global stage."
So you think the US is friendlier to itself than the world is to the US?
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"...so that we don't have to worry about changes in relations on the global stage."
So you think the US is friendlier to itself than the world is to the US?
When it comes to trade, absolutely.
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Long term: Bullshit, bullshit, and more bullshit -- it's less than 4 years to the most important thing, the 2024 Presidential Election.
--There! Fixed for you!
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Minimum wage robots!
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No, they make considerably less than US minimum wage, in China.
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Wow. The FCC has strict and onerous regulations governing semiconductor certification.
https://transition.fcc.gov/bur... [fcc.gov]
https://transition.fcc.gov/bur... [fcc.gov]
https://sunfiretesting.com/Wha... [sunfiretesting.com]
So does the FDA for some insane reason.
https://www.einfochips.com/blo... [einfochips.com]
https://www.fda.gov/media/8698... [fda.gov]
Those were all on the first page of google results for "fcc semiconductor regulations" and "fda semiconductor regulations".
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As another poster mentioned, the FDA regulations are about implantable devices (like pacemakers). Again, these regulations would apply no matter where in the world the devices were manufactured.
Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:5, Insightful)
>> US regulations make it impossible to compete in an open market.
It's not an "open market," it's a race to the bottom that trades our standard of living and national security for slightly cheaper goods. That works well for the donor class, but the rest of us never even got a chance to ask whether or not we wanted to move everything to China.
I'll give credit to Trump for acknowledging the problem, which is something typical Republicans and Democrats would rather avoid talking about. But as was typical with Trump, he was too stupid and unfocused to address the problem for any length of time. Basically he just ended up screwing his strongest rural supporters with his trade war (China stopped all but ceased buying US sorghum, soybeans, and pork).
The US, although waning, is still the most powerful country on Earth. We could absolutely do without China if we were willing to invest the same amount of money and effort into US-based manufacturing that we do on say, invading and occupying oil and/or heroin-producing countries.
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Let me guess, you are volunteering to drink the tainted water that will result from no EPA enforcement of environmental rules. Environmental rules cost money, no doubt about it. However, so does cancer and a host of other maladies.
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Manufacturing costs aren't an issue per se (Score:5, Insightful)
As for what Biden can do, he can force by executive order a *lot* more "Buy America". One of the ways you know the Trump administration was never serious about Buy America is they never put through the executive orders to force government agencies to do it, and when they did they were chock full of the same loopholes they always have.
Will Biden be any different? Don't know. As a lefty I mistrust him and for good reason, and even if I didn't he's made the point that the courts, which have been packed with pro corporate judges for 20 years, can shoot down his EOs causing him to pick his battles carefully rather than risk getting bogged down in legal battles. But in any case time will tell.
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Shiny new walls are in the way.
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The machine shop that Apple used, despite running 24/7 in 3 shifts, could not make enough of them. So much so that the shop had to turn away their usual business because they couldn't fulfill even Apple's order on time.
It wasn't over-regulation, it was just the company was running at 100% and just couldn't turn out the screws fast enough for Apple. I presume Mexico simply had a bigger prod
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You point points to one of the main draws for manufacturing in China. They have a lot of companies that can design and make new stuff quickly. As the bean counters have taken over American industry, they "optimized" everything they could because that's their reward system. Leaving hysteresis in the system for a bit of slack meant to them that they could "optimize" further. They learned that from the Japanese who built upon earlier American manufacturing prowess.
It would have been okay if the bean counters c
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I read the president has a plan to get Foxconn to manufacture them in Wisconsin. That will work. Oh wait, I might be temporally misplaced, here.
Re:I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this... (Score:4, Interesting)
This is not a manufacturing cost issue. This is a case of flip-flopping supply and demand.
It takes multi-billions of dollars to build a chip fab facility. Return on investment is good when you're running the thing 24/7. Return is bad when people are only replacing their computers every 7-10 years and there's such a huge boom/bust cycle to work through. The pandemic changed demand curves overnight. You'd think some VCs, Apple, or even Elon Musk would get in on this. There is plenty of capital out there, but this isn't new shiny.
It's true that Intel was getting terrible yield on 10nm and now 7nm for a couple years now. Add to that AMD doesn't fab their own chips and they're competing with next gen console production and everything else for production facility time.
The issue has many layers, but none of them are manufacturing costs.
Re: I'm curious how the Biden admin can fix this.. (Score:2)
"The pandemic changed demand curves overnight. You'd think some VCs, Apple, or even Elon Musk would get in on this. There is plenty of capital out there, but this isn't new shiny."
Chip fabs don't get built overnight.
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This has been a known weakness in the supply chain for at least 2-3 years. And that was after SSD chip shortages and flooded hard drive facilities in recent years. There has been plenty of time for something to be in the works by now - but there's not.
Either way, it's not because the US is too expensive to manufacture in. At least for very specialized and expensive/automated stuff like this.
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Well there was something in the works. China was splurging like heck to build new fabs.
The US sanctions on China cut a lot of that existing or future supply.
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How would that create short supply? If anything a sudden drop in demand would create a huge over-supply.
These are automotive parts, not cutting edge, with very long lifespans. The issue is that when the pandemic hit the factories in China and Taiwan and Korea and Japan were all forced to temporarily shut down or severely reduce output. There was some lag because of large inventories and reduced car manufacturing, but now it's catching up with everyone.
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How would that create short supply? If anything a sudden drop in demand would create a huge over-supply.
You missed the key part of the parent's point. The industry does not cater to over-supply. Ever. They only cater to 24-7 operations and permanently run in a state of either meeting demand or supply shortage. It costs way too much to not run a fab so no one builds up scale to handle any kind of peak demand.
The GP is wrong about pointing at Intel / AMD as an example though. These fabs have nothing to do with the shortage at hand, the shortage is more in the 40nm range and these are manufactured all over the w
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Declare Taiwain to be the 51st state and nationalize TSMC
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Which would do nothing since TSMC doesn't have a supply shortage. They don't produce trivial little automotive MCUs.
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Which would do nothing since TSMC doesn't have a supply shortage. They don't produce trivial little automotive MCUs.
They will under the new arachno-bidenist management!
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Declare Taiwain to be the 51st state and nationalize TSMC
Given that's it's Biden we're talking about, it's more likely he would help China invade Taiwain with their promise that we could be paid in chips. Plus, of course, that Hunter would end up on TSMC's board of directors. That's just a given with any of Joe's deals with other countries.
So earlier today, I tried to give a thoughtful reply in another thread involving the Chinese and why the people there don't know the truth. After carefully explaining why this isn't true, my post was denied because of the "lameness filter". Great.
So now I see the above, which somehow not only got modded up to 5 points but also is marked Insightful. There is no hope for Slashdot.
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So earlier today, I tried to give a thoughtful reply in another thread involving the Chinese and why the people there don't know the truth. After carefully explaining why this isn't true, my post was denied because of the "lameness filter". Great.
So now I see the above, which somehow not only got modded up to 5 points but also is marked Insightful. There is no hope for Slashdot.
It's a reply to a silly joke post, even. I thought about making a serious response but honestly it'd be just a waste of time becuase you'll never convince the chuds.
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The easiest answer would be improving trade offers to a country for some of our goods if they allocate more chips to US firms away from other buyers. Incentivize supplying USA over other countries. That gets tricky when so many US companies have manufacturing everywhere, but treaties can have complex clauses and net effect of unlocking a greater share for us.
Next answer would be helping to finance expansion of any point in the supply chain that is constricted.
Third would be to see if there are any chip buye
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agreed.
this is just one more manufacturing choke point.
sout korean batteries was yesterday on huffpo.
p p e from china last year.
and we do have automated factory capabilities.
why not create a zero work force factory system that addresses u s manufacturing choke points
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Well if his past actions of the past month indicate anything, the addled idiot will whip out his pen and sign some papers thinking he can just magik them in to existence. After that one of his handlers will give him some apple sauce, pat him on the head, and tell him what a good boy he is. Then some poor son of a bitch will be brought in to change his diapers.
Re: dump EPA & build build build also public h (Score:5, Insightful)
Dumping the EPA would be a total idiot move.
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Dumping the EPA would be a total idiot move.
Absolutely. At the same time we need to recognize that we're outsourcing pollution as much as we're outsourcing labor. The EPA keeps us clean but doesn't keep the world cleaner. I'm not advocating for pollution, just figuring out how to make stuff in the US that is cost-competitive with countries that don't care about this stuff.
Re: dump EPA & build build build also public (Score:2)
No it has not, and no they do not, except California (birthplace of modern environmentalism.)
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Ah, I see you are a fan of fancy chemicals in your drinking water. So much you figure everyone else should be okay with drinking them as well. How Ayn Rand of you.
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Basic results will be. (Score:5, Insightful)
Corporations will say don't worry about it, we got this.
Problem will continue as is for a few more decades.
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Better summary:
Government fed some bullshit about the automotive industry, ignoring the fact that automotive MCUs are made all over the world including in Texas and Utah as well as Germany.
Corporations say f-off government we're not building fabs for peak demand, if we can't operate 24/7 it doesn't get built, you want zero supply shortages then hand us taxpayer money.
Problem will continue to come in waves as it always has and always will because it costs a lot of investment money to play in this industry.
Rural Handouts once again! (Score:2)
Go figure that he's going to pump money into Idaho. Typical politician. Absolutely in the bag of big junk food.
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And 10 to 1 odds that the Superbowl just made this shortage so much worse.
Re:Rural Handouts once again! (Score:5, Funny)
Not to mention the increased legalization of Marijuana already had chips supply constrained.
We offshored our chip production, (Score:5, Insightful)
"We offshored our chip production to give money to our shareholders. Please pay us to bring it back."
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Yep. And them build some empty warehouses instead of actually bringing it back...
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Yip. Businesses gripe about "socialistic government interference", but are happy to show up at the door begging for a bailout when biz is down.
Privatize profits, socialize losses.
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"We offshored our chip production to give money to our shareholders. Please pay us to bring it back."
We did nothing of the sort. America is hugely represented in the list of semiconductor manufacturers especially around the 40-120nm mark where the supply shortages are currently.
We offshored our extreme high tech, but that's not under discussion here.
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Apple gets their chips made in Taiwan, but TSMC is already in the process of building some fabs in the U.S. so it's possible some of those types of chips will start
Responsibility (Score:2)
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Which is weird, considering that the Toyota Production System [wikipedia.org] uses a just-in-time manufacturing process to avoid stockpiling huge amounts of parts as to not freeze up capital. At least that's what I understood from this video [youtube.com].
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Competent planning?
In other news (Score:2)
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I had trouble getting a freakin' 1660Ti which is so close in price to a 3060Ti that I can't get that I almost didn't buy it (the 1660Ti, that is).
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I saw this coming a few months back and got a 1660Ti before things went tits up - solid card if you're still looking.
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My current card is an RX570, 4GB. Is the PNY 1660Ti 6GB Blower (VCG1660T6BLMPB) any good or should I just return it immediately while it's still unboxed?
P.S.: I have a relatively small case, a Cooler Master NR200.
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Depends on what you're looking for, but it should be decent enough.
I got the "EVGA - SC ULTRA GAMING NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6" - paired with a 10700k and I've been very happy with it so far. It has some of the same streaming capabilities as the 20s and 30s series (im blanking on the name of the tech right now)
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Get us off TSMC dependence (Score:2)
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And who would make that work? Intel clearly has lost the skills and there is nobody else in the US.
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By the time the review is done (Score:5, Insightful)
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Yup, you’re on the money.
We had a letter from microchip saying the main reason for the problem was hoarding caused by trump sanctions and COVID. To combat this, any orders for Q4 to Q1-22 were NCNR (Non cancellable, non refundable). That order book will now be full, so microchips production is now bought out until next year.
Kinda seems like an industry supply chain issue! (Score:2)
Hey! if coal miners can work in the mine they can be taught to build chips right. After all they are writing all the computer code now.
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If we look at history, there's a lot the government can do. A full supply chain analysis is hard for any endpoint company to conduct -- vendors don't always let you go snoop in their supply chains. Governments can do that. Gov't can find people hoarding to drive up prices and put a stop to that. Government can subsidize materials that are being directed to other projects that make financial sense at one vendor's level but don't make sense at the macro economy level. Government can play matchmaker between sm
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Sure. By creating currency, regulatory environments, and defending the marketplace from outside forces, the government creates the environment in which buyers can find sellers and trade. The government can make that environment as laminar or bumpy as it wishes to. Some governments take a very hands off approach. Others control microtransactions. With tax policy, a government can distort supply and demand chains. With legal policy, government can cause externalities to be priced into goods and services. With
Re: Kinda seems like an industry supply chain issu (Score:2)
Historically, that is a very untrue statement. For most of our 200+ year history, the USA government positions were heavily sought after positions that required a fair amount of competition to gain. There is an easy narrative that they are all incompetent idiots because govt regulation is adversarial to business and you have people like Musk, with very loud voices, promoting that viewpoint. And the low-skill tips of government are where most people have interaction: DMVs, post office clerks... these aren
So they want to swear at things? (Score:2)
Because that is about the most effective thing they could do. Or rather it is equally effective as anything else they can do...
About time someone addresses the PS5 shortage (Score:2)
Sure, promise to spend more (Score:2)
The Biden administration will cheerfully promise to spend more money to do ... well, almost anything.
Anyone have any idea where those funds will come from?
To be clear, I thought Trump and Congress were asinine spending $trillions to bribe people to stay home over the last year too.
Here we go! (Score:2)
PR Politicians (Score:2)
There's just a huge surge in demand and a few cheap, boring things no one paid attention to like chip packaging, and I don't mean like fan-out, I mean like the green hard boards chips are put on, weren't expanding in time. Now there's a rush to do so and machines to make the stuff are backordered. It's fine, a few months from now it'll be all behind us. The politicians are just PR stunting to make believe they can speed it up in any way.
New Committee (Score:2)
As with all other problems facing the new administration, the flacks will first announce that the Biden Administration will be taking speedy action to fix whatever the problem is. Then Joe will call a press conference and announce the formation of a new committee of experts to study the matter. Then he will go home for milk and cookies and will forget about the whole thing by the end of the day.
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So let me see if I understand you. You believe that not only can the Biden team fix the supply chain issues, but those issuers were actually caused by the Republicans. I fear the answer to the next question but....is this actually true?
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That was humor then YIKES.
Re: Environmental Regs Prohibit New Fabs (Score:2)
You know what is even more environmentally unfriendly ? PoW cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Which, incidentally, are one of the reasons of the chip shortage. Simply ban PoW cryptocurrencies (PoS ones that don't require almost 1MWh of power for a single transaction like Bitcoin are fine), and you have both reduced global CO2 emissions and helped significantly with the chip shortage.
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How is this even an answer?
While theoretically you *could* mine bitcoin with renewables, that's not what happens. Even if you installed new renewable-based power capacity instead of diverting renewable that could be used elsewhere, you have to manufacture all the PVs etc, and as you said you can't escape the side products.
Your second statement is even more bizarre, as my point was exactly that we do not need to increase chip manufacturing if we can reclaim what goes to crypto mining. Those latest nVidia/AMD
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Actually it's the opposite. If they increase corporate tax then they will have more incentive to increase spending.