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Global Supply Knightmares

russdx1 said:
I can’t see how the UK could clean up in the chip making industry as we have all the same issues has China right now plus would cost 4x the cost to make them here no one would buy them. You can’t compete with there dirt cheap labour and hard working ethic’s here n the UK.
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Not so many chips are produced in China. The majority of fabs are in Taiwan and there are also quite a few in the US. (And other countries but that's a minority of the global capacity.)

Right now the UK can't compete because setting up a fab takes years and £billions, and then you need to be very certain that it will run 24/7 in order to not hemorrhage money.

Also one must keep in mind that there is a single bottleneck which is ASML, the Dutch company which is the only high-end manufacturer of the lithography machines that everyone uses to make the chips.
 
Fubar said:
Not so many chips are produced in China. The majority of fabs are in Taiwan and there are also quite a few in the US. (And other countries but that's a minority of the global capacity.)

Right now the UK can't compete because setting up a fab takes years and £billions, and then you need to be very certain that it will run 24/7 in order to not hemorrhage money.

Also one must keep in mind that there is a single bottleneck which is ASML, the Dutch company which is the only high-end manufacturer of the lithography machines that everyone uses to make the chips.
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Interesting, we spend like 30 billion on a nhs tracking app, we not a few spare to build a few chips? :D
 
Neil McRae said:
It’s not a new issue - I flagged this issue to the government in 2017 and said there was a huge oppo for the UK to get it to this business and clean Up.
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What, the massive shortages of Simpsons Pinball Party?? ;)

This is all what happens when manufacturing disappears and the country becomes a service industry, reliant on everyone else for the manufacturing...
That and the advent of "Just in time" fulfilment...
 
strobey said:
Back to CMOS it is then. Dust off your 4xxx cookbooks and crack the spine of horrowitz & hill
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Yeah already firmly in the 80s era with all the boards i make and its a great place to be, but that market is as above logistics wise all the time. Sourcing decent ics, that are not fakes, re-screens, dead, partially dead, stored badly, wrongly re-screened is a minefield. And all the decent suppliers i use are effected by the rising costs and delays like everyone else

I probably spent around £1K to 1.5K on 80s ics this year so far.... and probably another 3K-4K last year at least.
 
You trying to tell me that my YM2151 synth chips I paid £5 each for are likely fake?? :-P
 
A big part of this problem that is going to get worse in the long term while manufacturing in China is finding the talent to work in factories and fabs. Creativity just isn't rewarded, but being a manager and **** hot with powerpoint is. When we first went to Shenzhen I was shocked how talented engineers were not allowed to eat at the same table as us when socialising. Ten years later a lot of those guys have cottoned on and have moved on to sit on the top table, theres becoming an obvious shortage of decent engineers who can run the show. We've seen it in our own country with the service industries and the realisation that having a skill isn't of any benefit any more, well the Chinese population are catching on. Whats that novel called were eventually anyone with any knowledge has gone and the last computers are starting to fail with nobody to repair them, maybe its coming true, the falling of the Roman Empire Part 2 :)
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
www.bbc.co.uk

Horizon - 1977-1978: Now The Chips Are Down

First transmitted in 1978, Horizon examines the rise of the microprocessor and asks if automation presents a problem for the future of British industry.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Watched this recently . Horizon 1978 documentary. Love these old docs about tech.
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Gonna be weird looking back at our current tech in 30 years and laughing at it :D
 
russdx1 said:
When my stock of pi’s run out I’m a bit stuffed as well :(

I can’t see how the UK could clean up in the chip making industry as we have all the same issues has China right now plus would cost 4x the cost to make them here no one would buy them. You can’t compete with there dirt cheap labour and hard working ethic’s here n the UK.
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Taiwan is chip central! China only for old tech.

A huge amount of silicon design is done in the UK, we could easily invest in a fab but once you start you need to keep going. FAB's are fully automated no need for miners from the north to run it.

Neil.
 
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