The Greensheet: December 2021

IC

TDK Corporations deliveries extend to six months

TDK factories located in Dalian and Xiamen on the southeast coast of China are experiencing impacts from the China power restrictions, which have resulted in manufacturing and shipping delays of up to six months. Products affected include Clamp Filter (ZCAT series), Power Inductor (VLS series), MLCC (CKG series) and Ferrite Core for PCs. 

Limited capacity for Toshiba factories stifles parts output

Toshiba, which is a Japanese-based manufacturer, is prioritizing domestic customers in Japan, as well as automotive customers to minimize the impact of the various supply chain shocks on vehicle assembly lines. In September, Toshiba notified customers in automotive, consumer electronics and industrial machine industries that they will not be able to meet demand for the power chips that are used in these products for another year.  

In addition, Toshiba’s factories in China and Thailand are operating at limited capacity. In China, the power restrictions mean some factories are only operating 3-4 days per week. Additionally, its MOSFET factory in Thailand is operating at only 50-60% capacity, which is contributing to unstable output and might lead to potential price increases across various parts.  

As a result of its manufacturing woes, Toshiba’s strained support for customers is anticipated to last until 2023. 

Xilinx sends customers multiple notices

Xilinx has sent two official notices to its customers, which have created a ripple effect through the market as parts become more difficult to attain and prices fluctuate drastically. The first letter sent in early October stated a price increase of 10-20%, which went into effect on Nov. 1, 2021. In the second notification, sent later in October, Xilinx stated supply constraints specifically on its FPGA Spartan-6 family.  

Lead times for Spartan-6 XC6 series have extend to 72 weeks due to limited production capacity, with reported delivery dates scheduled as far out as 2024. There is wider availability on the Spartan-7 XC7 series, which can function as an alternative to the XC6 series. However, few customers can consider the XC7 series as replacements since other FPGA manufacturers do not have the pin-to-pin compatibility. The news and tight supply are pushing customers to go to the open market to support their ongoing production.  

Demand for passives outpaces supply

The demand for Tantalum capacitors is increasing in tandem with its appliance in 5G system hardware, electric vehicles and the overall growth in the semiconductor and electronics markets.

Yageo and Samsung lead times for Tantalum capacitors extend to two weeks with reports of healthy productions lines. However, the same can't be said for Panasonic as production of its series P5KF, A4S and A35S capacitors are tight due to the manufacturer's disruptions driven by raw material shortages.

STORAGE

Intel SSDs backlogged, shifting allocation priority

Pricing for memory modules continues to be on the downtrend following the 3-5% dip in pricing in November across all densities. Vendors are currently still sitting on high amounts of inventory of 32GB / 64GB RDIMM and SODIMM parts with speculation the downtrend will continue into Q1 2022. To avoid unpredictable losses due to the current volatility of the semiconductor supply chain, vendors are purchasing on back-to-back orders rather than going to the market to buffer additional stock.

Nvidia's RTX series GPUs constrained amid lengthy lead times

The uptick in demand for RTX 3070s is adding to continued constraint of Nvidia RTX 3090 GPUs.

Meanwhile, professional card lead times for Quadro RTX A4000 have stretched up to 32 weeks.

NVIDIA is shipping out new RTX A2000. This new card is a low profile, affordable workstation GPU option and shows impressive usage for bitcoin mining.

The increased lead times and upcoming shipment of its newer series suggest workstation builders looking to use the RTX A2000 series GPU should load orders sooner rather than later.

CPU

Supply constraint continues for Cascade Lake and Cascade Lake Refresh

Intel’s Cascade Lake and Cascade Lake Refresh supply strain continues to worsen with reports of heightened usage of the newer series outpacing the older series Ice Lake. The Ice Lake series requires a different motherboard. However, switching to a new motherboard can be costly due to gating issues and raw material shortages that have led to price increases for motherboards.

On the supply side, the open market availability is limited and lead time booking deliveries are extending — making them less reliable. These trends indicate the situation is going to worsen.

Cryptominers look to CPUs as alternative to costlier GPUs

Raptoreum mining, a newer form of cryptocurrency that requires L3 cache, is leading cryptominers to look for an alternative to mining with Nvidia GPUs.

AMD’s CPUs are not made for mining but can be used with processors that have the largest L3 cache sizes, which includes the AMD EPYC and Ryzen 9 processors, and Threadripper server and workstation CPUs. If demand continues to climb, the pricing of these chips will likely rise as well.

AMD CPUs compatible for Raptoreum mining:

FINISHED PRODUCTS

The uptick in demand for Intel Ethernet controller continues

Demand for Intel Ethernet controllers continues to increase as customers switch from other manufacturers like Realtek, Mellanox Technologies and Broadcom Inc. However, demand is outpacing supply as Intel attempts to cater to the uptick.

Customers are going to the open market for the following Intel Ethernet controllers:

Additionally, Intel’s recent announcement notifying customers of the EOL on over 30 Ethernet controllers includes the popular X540-AT2. The EOL notice means customers cannot cancel or return parts orders from Nov. 15, 2021, onward. The last product discontinuance shipment date will be July 15, 2022.

IC shortage affecting network adapter card supply

Network adapter card supply continues to be affected by the worsening global IC shortage. Pricing for Intel, Mellanox and Broadcom adapter cards is spiking as they become more difficult to find. This is also trickling down to alternative cards, and various manufacturer parts as well.

For instance, Intel informed distributors another round of price increases is expected for network adapter cards for some low-capacity models. Associated with the EOL announcement on certain Ethernet chipsets, Intel announced the discontinuance of some adapter cards for the purpose of simplifying its production lineup. This will ultimately push the application market to upgrade to high-volume products.

Mellanox adapter card lead times continue to stretch in wake of backlog

Mellanox is struggling to cope with its adapter card backlog as lead times stretch anywhere from 1 to 1.5 years on NICx4 and NICx5 series cards due to the 28nm wafer shortage. Component shortages in general are also impacting booking lead times, which officially stretched from the standard 12-16 weeks to 26-32 weeks for all series. There is pressure from end customers due to shortfalls on order fulfilment, which is pushing Mellanox to take strict control on directing the distributors movement on parts. This is limiting open market availability regardless of price.

Raspberry Pi supply chain issues anticipated

There is a significant increase in demand for the Raspberry Pi compute modules due to growth in usage for recreational, educational and industrial applications. In particular, the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+, as well as the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 2GB, are seeing heightened demand. Both series are heavily impacted by the pandemic as companies and schools move primarily to remote operations. The Raspberry Pi compute modules are popular for their low-cost, accessibility and versatility since they are compatible with a mouse, keyboard, TV, various monitors and more. Each series has different network compatibilities and functions at different speeds based on their processors.

With the low production levels, there are increased shortages of the Raspberry Pi Zero and the Raspberry Pi 4 series with 2GB of RAM. Supply chain issues affecting Raspberry Pi modules in general are expected to continue through this year and possibly beyond.