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Shortage of Intel Laptop Chipsets
EvilTwinSkippy writes "Taiwanese notebook vendors are reporting a short supply of Intel CPU chipsets for laptops. This includes the popular Centrino line.
In case you didn't know most "name brand" laptops like Dell, HP, and even Apple are actually manufactured by OEM's in Taiwan, Mainland China, and Korea."
Considering Apple computers don't rely on Centrino or Intel chipsets, I'm not sure why they were even thrown into the blurb.
A 20% shortage translates into higher prices or loss in profit for everyone involved (except in this case Apple because their chipsets don't go through Intel).
GPL Deconstructed
"In case you didn't know most "name brand" laptops like Dell, HP, and even Apple are actually manufactured by OEM's in Taiwan, Mainland China, and Korea."
Well, just you wait until they savy up and "cut out the middleman". Won't that be an interesting day.
I thought that too until I read this:
Lam says that Quanta, which has 500 design engineers in Taiwan, did about half of the design work for Apple Computer's G4 notebook.
Although it doesn't what the half includes but that seems like a lot more from Apple who proudly stamped my Powerbook G4 with Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in Taiwan. My guess is the design is only for the exterior of the case and the Taiwanese handle all of the hardware layout.
There was a serious, big-time oversupply of chip sets last quarter. This shortage could likely be the chip set suppliers being cautious -- the last time something like this happened we were swimming in finished notebooks for more than a quarter and it had a fairly negative impact on Intel and AMD's operations for about six months.
It's technically Original Design Manufacturer.
Well, I've actually met one of the people who does logic board layout and one of my friends worked on one of the G4 northbridges before going to grad school. Both of them worked in Cupertino.
So outside of manufacturing, there really isn't much design work they do FOR APPLE in Taiwan.
However, that's not to say that Taiwanese companies didn't do the design work for the LCDs (probably Korea actually), the hard drives, the bluetooth modules (since almost every single one is from CSR or broadcom), CD/DVD recorders, actual battery cells (not controllers), LCD inverters, and discrete components.
Intel is sitting on a record +3 Billion in inventory. If they have a shortage anywhere it means their managment have lost their minds.
There have been quite a few recalls of laptops because of overheating (such as Toshiba) - this could also have an effect in the shortage instead of just "demand".
Fortunatly, I bought an AMD based notebook after 3 laptop meltdowns, and it has had less problems than the Intel ones (even though it is a Compaq, and they have always given me overheating problems before). So I am not going back to Intel based machines ever again.
Wow ...
Macs have never been made in Cupertino. They used make them in Fremont for a while, and in Sacramento but those days are well over ... :-(
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Just to be clear, last time I checked (six months ago) IBM still made their own notebooks. I think they are still smarting from the deathstar line which was made by either fushitsu or hitachi.
PC boards are manufactured on automated assembly lines by machines. Very little of the work outside loading the machines and tending the reflow ovens is actually done by humans.
Quality, in this case, comes from testing. You test devices as much as you need to get your scores up, then ship the unit. This offends the heck out of a lot of old school engineers, but it's still a fact of modern life. Testing individual chips adds pennies to each device; testing the pc boards much more, then repairing them and retesting adds more still. At a certain point it becomes cheaper just to expect x% of your product to be returned under warranty, bin it, and ship a new (also untested) replacement. This is the tact increasingly taken by manufacturers including biggies like Dell and (especially since the takeover by emachines) Gateway. Cutting back on quality means cutting back on labor costs in testing, not so much cutting back on materials costs.
Buying a high end tv or stereo is pretty much the same these days: very little differentiation comes from what's on the inside. If you're willing to do your own Q&A before the warranty expires, brand matters almost nothing.
This, BTW, is the primary reason so many folks like "vintage" things. These things were made before quality became a mathematical afterthought, and devices that have survived intact all these years represent the cream of their respective crops.
The first two letters in the serial number indicate where the product was made.
_ 0_1_0_C
XA or XB - Run A/Run B, California (I forgot where). Desktops, from what I've seen.
CK - Cork, Ireland. Powerbooks, up to the G3's
QT - Quanta, in Asia. Powerbook G3/G4, iBooks
SG - Singapore. iMacs (initially made in Mexico, iirc)
Of course, YMMV. My G3 desktop with an XA serial number (California) has a Made in Ireland sticker on the logic board. My guess is that the boards were made in Ireland, and the boxes stuffed in California.
More are here... http://www.clubarne.com/nblog/comments.php?id=125
I use Macs to up my productivity, so up yours Microsoft!
Poor example. The Alabama factory has abysmal quality standards (for a Mercedes that is).
In Europe, the Mercedes M-Class is available with gasoline or diesel engines. Since almost all gasoline Mercedeses M are sold in America, whereas almost all diesel Mercedeses M are sold in Europe, gasoline Mercedeses M are made in Alabama, whereas diesel ones are made in Austria.
Curiously, the top-of-the-line ML500 has crap quality when compared with the entry-level ML270 CDI. The ML500 is made in America, and it shows.
Why?
Becase manufacturers will always produce at the lowest quality they can get away with. Since American customers apparently have lower expectations than European customers, they get an inferior quality.
The reason the American manufacturing sector is dead is not higher manufacturing costs (vs China), but rather that it is run by managers with an accounting or marketing background (whereas in Japan or Germany, many top managers have an engineering background). Those people consider a dollar put into advertising to be worth more than a dollar put into the product or the process.
To return a tad more ontopic, Dells and IBMs may be manufactured in the same factories. However, this does not imply they are built to the same quality standards. They are built to the quality standards their respective client (and indirectly, their respective end users) demand.