• Why are Pis in such short supply at present?

    From Chris Green@3:770/3 to All on Sun Jan 2 18:51:54 2022
    It seems almost impossible to buy a Pi 4 for a reasonable price at the
    moment, why? I know computer hardware is in somewhat short supply but
    other SBCs (such as the Beaglebone) are readily available at normal
    prices so what's happened to the Pi?

    --
    Chris Green
    ยท
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)
  • From Theo@3:770/3 to Chris Green on Sun Jan 2 22:13:20 2022
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    It seems almost impossible to buy a Pi 4 for a reasonable price at the moment, why? I know computer hardware is in somewhat short supply but
    other SBCs (such as the Beaglebone) are readily available at normal
    prices so what's happened to the Pi?

    I have no inside knowledge, but the Raspberry Pi Foundation have some degree
    of control over the fab of their SoCs, either in 40nm (Pis 0-3) or 28nm (Pi
    4). What they don't control is the supply of the other parts, notably the memory chips, the wifi parts (which used to be Broadcom until those were
    sold off to Cypress), the USB hub/ethernet chip (Microchip), and general
    power supply components.

    Through 2021 we've had a lot of sourcing problems with middle-tier parts
    from the likes of Microchip, TI, ST, and similar. Not the main processors,
    but hit things like voltage regulators, microcontrollers, USB and ethernet parts.

    I don't know what it might be but I suspect something like that is the
    problem.

    They did say they were going to de-prioritise some models in favour of
    others: https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/supply-chain-shortages-and-our-first-ever-price-increase/
    but I'm seeing complete absence across the board at the usual distributors,
    so I suppose that ran out of road.

    Theo
    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: Agency HUB, Dunedin - New Zealand | Fido<>Usenet Gateway (3:770/3)