Everyone on the web - and even on the street! - is talking about Japan's multiple disasters. Here is some news from the technical front:
Update from TI on earthquake damage to factories in Japan (http://http://newscenter.ti.com/Blogs/newsroom/archive/2011/03/14/update-from-ti-on-earthquake-damage-to-factories-in-japan-646520.aspx)
Thank you, this is interesting. I was evaluating a TI analog product, I wonder if there is any way to know if it is effected before committing.
i remember an earthquake in the 90's that made the price of sram skyrocket,
hopefully there is enough slack in the fab houses else ware to help minimize disruption.
any idea if the china's "ems express post" has been effected?
[quote author="ian"]Thank you, this is interesting. I was evaluating a TI analog product, I wonder if there is any way to know if it is effected before committing.[/quote]
The buzz word these days is "unknown unknowns." It's probably not a bad idea to find out about a specific chip, but even if you get an answer, that doesn't mean the other options are known to be good.
The real question, I think, is not whether Texas Instruments, specifically, will be affected, but how many others. In this press release, Texas Instruments is only discussing their own problems and issues, but that does not mean other chip fabs don't have even bigger problems. In other words, despite these known issues, Texas Instruments could possibly be your best choice.
What I've been hearing on the news is that every chip fab in the world needs the silicon wafers that are used as the first step in every integrated circuit. So, even companies that have no offices in Japan could have trouble delivering chips. Texas Instruments seems to have their own wafer fabrication, and that may put them at an advantage. They specifically mention figures on their own wafer production, and I assume that in a shortage TI would probably keep all the wafers for their own fab and let other chip makers suffer.
What would be nice is a highly technical analysis and summary which covers all major companies, rather than just the inside scoop on one company. Lots of chips were made in the Philippines, and these days Thailand seems the most prominent. But if any of these countries are waiting on silicon wafers from Japan, then a shortage could appear anywhere from any manufacturer.
I recently read that even Moore's Law might get affected: 3 lithography machines for Intel were in production at Nikon factories in Japan during the earthquake.