
The technology industry is rife with bottlenecks - mariushn
https://www.economist.com/business/2019/06/06/the-technology-industry-is-rife-with-bottlenecks
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datenwolf
I'm still royally $EXPLETIVE_HERE about Analog Devices buying Linear
Technology a couple of months ago. AD and LTC used to be the mutual second
source suppliers for critical components in lots of my projects. For almost
every part AD had there was a matching counterpart in LTC's portfolio and vice
versa. And often enough I could design my PCBs in a way that they even could
be populated with either chip, depending on availability. Most of the ICs are
still available in their AD and LTC variants, but I wonder for how long.

I've similar feelings about the acquisition of National Semiconductor by Texas
Instruments (primary and second source for high speed ADCs).

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rathel
Ah, Analog Devices, the king of "expensive because we say so" parts.

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datenwolf
If I had a lot of money (which I don't) I'd have started my very own analog
semiconductor design and fab company years ago, with the intent aim to be a
direct competitor in the market of high speed and precision analog and signal
conversion electronics.

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neonate
[http://archive.is/00oTN](http://archive.is/00oTN)

~~~
mocha_nate
Thank you

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6d6b73
The thing that truly worries me is that once these countries are no longer
dependent on each other it will be easier for them to get into war with each
other.

~~~
kabouseng
That line of thinking didn't stop World War I from happening[1].

[1] - [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-
cage/wp/2014/04/0...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-
cage/wp/2014/04/01/what-world-war-i-can-tell-us-about-international-commerce-
and-war-today/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9a1c94e99e61)

"Political scientists often argue that international economic relationships
can decrease the likelihood that states will engage in war. Nations that might
otherwise be inclined to fight can be deterred, informed or transformed by
economic interdependence.

World War I has been called the “Achilles Heel” of such theories. In the
decades before the war, Europe experienced unprecedented growth in
international economic interdependence, both through trade and capital flows.
Yet war not only broke out, but the scale of its destruction was
unprecedented. Economic liberalism went into retreat. How could anyone sustain
the notion that trade could prevent war when the most destructive war in
history had followed an era of expansive international trade? For decades,
scholars and policymakers alike pointed to World War I as providing strong
evidence against the liberal case."

~~~
BurningFrog
As I recall it, Barbara Tuchman argues/describes in the _Excellent_ "The Guns
of August" that once precautionary mobilization had been ordered in one
country, due to the nature of the railway system driven technology behind the
logistics of the day, war was pretty much inevitable.

Nobody realized "the system" had this side effect before it was started, and
once the button was pressed, it was pressed...

As your quote says. "economic relationships can _decrease_ the likelihood that
states will engage in war".

[https://smile.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-
Winning-...](https://smile.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-
Outbreak/dp/0345476093/)

~~~
iguy
But was this really in the nature of the technology, or was it a choice on the
part of the German planners? Choosing to only have an invasion plan, and not
bother scheduling out the 80%-option which leaves not quite as many troops but
all on your side of the border, and so on down? That sounds like the generals
wishing for war, to me, and limiting their masters' options.

Not quite parallel, but IIRC it emerged afterwards that the Soviets had no
non-nuclear battle plans for Germany. While the US planners kept two sets
ready.

~~~
BurningFrog
Well, the nature of the technology certainly added to it. Once the trains were
running, troops were flooding to the borders, and if stopped, they couldn't
(somehow...) be restarted easily, because all the plans were interlocked so
precisely. Or something.

Or that's the picture Tuchman paints.

Not just on the German side, BTW, but everywhere.

Now, this is just a popular history book I recall from memory several decades
ago, and the questions you ask sound very relevant!

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Zigurd
In many cases, and even more so in the most critical components, there is no
second tier of suppliers. There is no market for second tier components. Using
second tier components would subtract so much value that OEMs in highly
competitive businesses, like Apple or Samsung, can't even consider such
substitutions.

So we can't "go it alone." That may be a feature, not a bug.

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hinkley
Hackernews darling Backblaze talks about how they were affected when the hard
drive shortage happened due to the flooding in Thailand back in '11, which is
how we found out 50% of all of the hard drives in the world are produced
there.

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madengr
Sourcing high value MLCC capacitors is a real problem. I often design
something into my board, only to find out it has gone out of stock. It’s like
playing whack-a-mole.

~~~
robocat
Good high level history of MLCC (including graph from 2017 showing shortages):
[https://www.ttiinc.com/content/ttiinc/en/resources/marketeye...](https://www.ttiinc.com/content/ttiinc/en/resources/marketeye/categories/passives/me-
zogbi-20170602.html)

~~~
madengr
Looks like the high capacitance are the longest lead, which is what I have
been finding. 10 uF and up in 0603 are hard to get.

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xxxpupugo
> Without programs like the Linux operating system or Kubernetes, a tool to
> manage computing loads, Alibaba could not have become the world’s fastest-
> growing cloud-computing giant

Kubernetes i could probably understand, but Linux under export control?

~~~
dankohn1
Some useful context: [https://www.cncf.io/blog/2019/06/11/cncf-openness-
guidelines...](https://www.cncf.io/blog/2019/06/11/cncf-openness-guidelines/)

