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Asuka_Rei t1_j1ursfd wrote

Reply to comment by jeffinRTP in Chipmakers Struggle With Inventory Buildup On Pandemic Demand Correction by Genevieves_bitch

Some manufactures, like US car makers, dumped holdings in future chips at the start of the pandemic. In response, companies like amd and nvidia gobbled up the extra capacity so they could better service crypto-miners and gpu scalpers. Then, upon realizing their mistake, manufactures like us car makers had to get back in line, way back at the end of the line, so they don't have a solid chip supply yet even though tech companies are already complaining about a glut.

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TheAmorphous t1_j1uz2y6 wrote

Doesn't seem like car makers would be buying chips from the same nodes as, say, GPU manufacturers. GPUs are always cutting edge nodes. The chips that go into cars are ancient by comparison. How does one impact the other?

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BadKarmaSimulator t1_j1v15fj wrote

Existing chip manufacturing lines were purchased and repurposed by other industries like GPU card makers. Now automakers need that volume back, but they have to either buy out and re-repurpose the card manufacturers' lines or wait for new manufacturing to come online. Neither happens cheaply or quickly.

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jeffinRTP t1_j1v1mkk wrote

That's what I was wondering about. There was articles about the chips they use were ancient like you said and they were not being made that much. It might be that the manufacturer moved to higher priced chips and retired the old fab equipment.

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empirebuilder1 t1_j1x6xs0 wrote

> It might be that the manufacturer moved to higher priced chips and retired the old fab equipment.

That's exactly what happened. Square footage in a fab clean room is $$$$$$. If there's no orders coming in for an older process that shit gets chucked and replaced with new equipment running modern nodes faster than your mother can suck down a hot dog. And automotive was the worst offender at being dead stuck on old processes, because retooling their own integrated components is money they hate spending.

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DrB00 t1_j1xefx6 wrote

It's simply silicone and they can craft the chips into w.e they want. So it isn’t the exact same chip bur the silicone required to make the chip is the same.

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doneandtired2014 t1_j1vq7uh wrote

Eh...kinda.

Yes, automakers dumped their future chip orders. However, those were and are fabbed on legacy nodes. You know the 14nm node Intel was stuck on for 8 years? That's still 10-20 years newer than what most automotive ICs are made on. And as it so happens, the fabs that make automotive ICs are also the same fabs that make industrial ICs (lots of cross over in terms of physical requirements). Compounding that more, of all of the facilities that specialize in legacy nodes, one burnt to the ground last year (Renesas).

Automakers probably wish their ICs were made on contemporary nodes at this point, because Samsung's 8nm node only has like two customers and people are moving away from TSMC 7nm to 6nm, 5nm, and 3nm on the bleeding edge.

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