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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
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.
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.