Taiwan's chipmakers agree to prioritise automotive products

[HEXUS]

Semicon component shortages are hurting the likes of VW, Ford, Toyota and others.

Read more.

[smargh]

Prioritising e-bike components and health or fitness related products would be a significantly better option rather than cars.

[rabidmunkee]

I hope theyre paying for priority.
Else why, theres enough cars for everybodys needs, lots of spare on those forecorts too.

[cheesemp]

I hope theyre paying for priority.
Else why, theres enough cars for everybodys needs, lots of spare on those forecorts too.

I was wondering the same thing. I'm finally in the position to buy a new car for the first time in ages but I'm not looking as my current 15 plate diesel is sat on my drive barely getting enough miles to stop the battery going flat. Who is buying all these cars? You can't tell me even with essential workers and businesses still needing them demand is high at the moment?

Also why are cars more important than say health equipment or laptops for learning/working?

[LSG501]

Got to be honest with the focus on 'working from home' you'd think they'd be prioritising things we use at or in the home rather than cars which we have very little need for right now....

[ik9000]

Got to be honest with the focus on 'working from home' you'd think they'd be prioritising things we use at or in the home rather than cars which we have very little need for right now....

because the US motor trade matters politically and economically in the US, and Taiwan needs the US to keep supplying the arms to keep China at bay, a China who are increasingly trying their luck. It's all about geopolitics, naff all to do with what consumers are actually buying.

[cheesemp]

because the US motor trade matters politically and economically in the US, and Taiwan needs the US to keep supplying the arms to keep China at bay, a China who are increasingly trying their luck. It's all about geopolitics, naff all to do with what consumers are actually buying.

Yes that makes sense - maybe because its all voluntary for other buyers to reduce orders (which most won't) it's more political to look good rather than actually meaning anything in practice?

[watercooled]

I suspect this is being made a bigger deal of than is actually the case. From what I understand about the sorts of wafer volumes involved here, even if they doubled their orders, the large customers like AMD/etc would hardly notice a dent.

In addition, I believe lots of these automotive processors use older nodes and often 200mm wafers so aren't even competing with the likes of 7nm 300mm wafers that AMD/etc use. Reliability is far more important than minor power savings and cutting-edge performance when it comes to automotive processors.

What else doesn't help, is apparently these manufacturers massively cut their orders when the pandemic hit sales, and now are asking to increase orders at short notice.

Edit: I found where I read it originally. Bottom two paragraphs of this article: https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news...dding-capacity

[Gentle Viking]

Well i am the odd one again as i can barely get to terms with my ABS, so when i have to buy a new care in 5 years time or something like that i am sure it will be hell for me.
I could even do without electric windows in a car.

PS. Never crashed a car, barely even put a little dent or scratch in one, never caused a accident, in 35 years of driving.

[Iota]

Well i am the odd one again as i can barely get to terms with my ABS, so when i have to buy a new care in 5 years time or something like that i am sure it will be hell for me.
I could even do without electric windows in a car.

Oh you'll love it, especially when the car start constantly showing warnings that the assistive braking is turned off due to dirty sensors, or when the aforementioned assistive braking decides it's going to do an emergency stop because it wrongly thinks it's going to have an accident when someone pulls up at a side junction. It's great fun..... /s

[mtyson]

In an interesting twist, there is a report that Taiwan's government is considering the option of "trading TSMC chips for (vaccine) shots". While some countries appear to be hoarding vaccines, enough to vaccinate the entire population several times over, others don't have much if any access.

https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4113126

[ik9000]

If this gets legs then I have some spare maris pipers and would also like to trade chips for vaccines.

[Rubarb]

why on earth do cars need this crap ?.... it puts me right off modern cars

[zephyrv]

God hoping Samsung doesn't change, still waiting for my 30 series