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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. No Shit. Wait I thought they were made by rosie the riveter here in the good ole USA.
This shows that AMD is doing way better than Intel. Doesn't AMD make mobile processor chips? If not, they should! AMD's chips have always run faster at the same rated speeds (don't ask me how that works). That's why a game's requirements may say "1 Ghz Pentium 4 or 800 Mhz AMD Athlon" , etc.
~Ilyanep
To get message, take amount of carrier pigeons at each stage mod 2. Then decode binary.
Apple laptops like my iBook are designed in the USA by best-of-field engineers, which makes all the difference in the world. They don't go to Taiwan and see what some company there has put together as and order a million units... which is pretty much what everyone but IBM and Fujitsu do.
Don't lament that the machine and assembly line labor is done in nations with developing economies - it means our high tech equipment is that much cheaper for us... so we buy more and attain that much more of a productivity advantage.
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.
They aren't concerned with branding and marketing. They just produce units. Thats where the real money is. They need the "middle man". Let dozens of different brands market products in every country, and they'll crank them out.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
It's technically Original Design Manufacturer.
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.
Intel (for example) has its headquarters in Portland, Oregon where I live. I've been walking around Portland today, and I seem to not have noticed any bullet trains. Also, there are still these coin operated pay phones. The traffic lights don't even tell you how much longer you have to cross the street. 7-11s don't have doors that slide automatically. Not even half of people have broadband! And if I was to take a bus ride for 200 miles, I wouldn't get my own easy chair and television set, for ten dollars. Also, Portland doesn't have the tallest skyscraper in the world.
Taiwan is perhaps not the most developed economy in the world, but it is hardly a "developing" economy. In some things, they are behind us, in some things they are about the same, and in some things, they are way ahead. Their croissants are certainly good and cheap.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
This explains so much. I ordered a Laptop from alienware last month and they say they are still missing parts and won't start building it for another two weeks. Punks!!
Supernatural forces are helping you to avoid spending $4000 on a $1100 machine.
It would be cool if it didn't suck.
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.
"Well, just you wait until they savy up and "cut out the middleman". Won't that be an interesting day."
Clevo corporation already has. They are selling their notebooks in the US market under the "Sager" brand.
Personally, I purchased a notebook that was ODM'd by Compal called the CL-56. It's sold in the US under a number of brands such as the VoodoPC Envy M:360 and the Chembook 2056.
If you buy the "brand name", you're getting ripped off. You can get a much better deal if you buy a no-brand notebook from a reputable reseller. You get better support, too - my notebook included a custom driver CD, 24/7 support (and, yes, they have real people based in the US to answer your questions), and a 2-year warranty.
You can get a heck of a laptop for very little if you buy an ODM notebook. Pentium-M 1.7, 512M PC2700, Mobility Radeon 9700 128M, 15" SXGA+ display, Intel PRO/2200 WLAN, a DVD/CD combo drive, and a Hitachi 7200rpm 60GB laptop HDD. All for $1500. No OS of couse, but that doesn't bother me.
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!