ExtremeTech - Chip Delivery Times Hit 20 Weeks as Semiconductor Shortage Continues
“New reports from Bloomberg and conflicting reports on whether the AMD Radeon 6600 XT is available to buy on launch day paint a complicated picture of what’s going on in the semiconductor world right now. The ongoing chip shortage is not one crisis but several, and it has different characteristics depending on the kind of chips you need to buy.
For auto manufacturers and other companies that rely on large numbers of comparatively old microcontrollers, graphics drivers, and other types of silicon, things are not improving. Bloomberg reports that chip delivery times increased by eight days in July, up to 20.2 weeks. This means that chips ordered today won’t be delivered until January 2022 — and that’s the good news. If you drill down into microcontrollers, specifically, lead times have risen to 26.5 weeks.
Earlier this year, when TSMC was under heavy pressure to pivot and give more manufacturing space to automotive companies, the company warned that with its existing capacity fully utilized, it could only give more fab room to car manufacturers by shortchanging other customers.
As for GPUs, the guidance there is mixed. Over at Overclock3D, they’re quite enthused about how UK stores had the 6600 XT available at MSRP on launch day, going so far as to title the article: “The End of Retail Scalping?” At Tom’s, they’re reporting that there are literally zero Radeon RX 6600 XT’s on store shelves for anyone to buy. There is no stock at Amazon and Newegg only has stock as part of its bundles.
GPU prices are substantially better than they were and Ampere could even hit MSRP by the end of the year if the current trend continues. Much of AMD’s existing 7nm allocation at TSMC has gone to support the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, and TSMC doesn’t exactly have a lot of excess capacity to spread around right now.
The general semiconductor shortage is expected to last into 2022 and could persist as late as 2023 in some industries, though estimates vary widely and no one is certain how all of this will play out. All of the companies involved believe that semiconductor demand will be permanently higher following the pandemic and are making plans to address the market need.”
It looks like the shortage is going to be with us for some time, as expected. I'm not surprised that the automotive industry is getting some priority in allocation.