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Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking?

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On 06/16/22 07:46, Rick C wrote:
> On Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 7:35:56 PM UTC-4, Hans-Bernhard Bröker wrote:
>> Am 15.06.2022 um 16:12 schrieb Uwe Bonnes:
>>
>>> In times of allocation and part shortage, a "prudent" selection is not easy!
>> Amen. Or, as the saying goes:
>>
>> "All prognoses are hard, even more so those concerning the future."
>>
>> (Made famous by Niels Bohr, but may have been a widely known in his home
>> country of Denmark before that).
>>
>> Let's face it: unless you're a major customer (and no, an order volume
>> of a million units does not reliably make you one), any and all
>> expectations about parts availability in the micro controller market
>> that reach further than a few months into the future are recklessly
>> optimistic. And that was how it was _before_ the pandemic and all its
>> side effects.
>>
>> If you need to be sure you have those chips in quantity x over the run
>> of a given product, and x has fewer than 7 digits, your only truly safe
>> bet is to stockpile the whole lot up front. The next-safest plan would
>> be to stockpile enough of them to tide you over the conservatively
>> estimated time for a redesign of the board and most of the lower-level
>> software. Obviously neither of those options is cheap; but the main
>> alternative is that you may one day have to discontinue your whole
>> product because that one part suddenly turned into unobtainium.
>
> So how do you stockpile inventory for a product when you don't know the ultimate sales volume?  I designed a board for a company 14 years ago.  I originally sold maybe 100 a year average (100 piece minimum).  Volumes grew until I was getting orders for several thousand in one year and none in the next.  Now I have an order for 10,000 pieces.  The company I sell these to has always refused to commit to any quantity.  It's not always feasible to plan for future production, so this idea is clearly not a panacea.
>

One thing not mentioned is that all design at present should be done
to use only common functions in micros and no use of specialist
devices. If the code is written right, it makes it easier to respin
for a different device if supply becomes difficult...

Chris

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4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-12 18:44 -0700
  Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-06-13 09:52 +0200
    Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Clifford Heath <no.spam@please.net> - 2022-06-13 22:11 +1000
    Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Philipp Klaus Krause <pkk@spth.de> - 2022-06-14 07:46 +0200
  Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Stef <me@this.is.invalid> - 2022-06-13 14:47 +0200
    Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-14 08:34 -0700
      Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Stef <me@this.is.invalid> - 2022-06-14 23:29 +0200
        Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-06-15 08:55 +0200
          Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Stef <me@this.is.invalid> - 2022-06-15 09:25 +0200
          Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2022-06-15 10:38 +0200
            Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-06-15 15:20 +0200
            Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-15 06:53 -0700
              Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Uwe Bonnes <bon@hertz.ikp.physik.tu-darmstadt.de> - 2022-06-15 14:12 +0000
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2022-06-15 17:11 +0200
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-06-15 17:20 +0200
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-15 09:12 -0700
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Hans-Bernhard Bröker <HBBroeker@t-online.de> - 2022-06-16 01:35 +0200
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-15 23:46 -0700
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-06-16 09:08 +0200
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Grant Edwards <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2022-06-16 13:47 +0000
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2022-06-17 09:15 +0200
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Stef <me@this.is.invalid> - 2022-06-16 09:34 +0200
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-16 08:03 -0700
                Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? chris <chris-nospam@tridac.net> - 2022-06-17 01:05 +0100
              Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2022-06-15 17:16 +0200
  Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Philipp Klaus Krause <pkk@spth.de> - 2022-06-14 07:51 +0200
    Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Rick C <gnuarm.deletethisbit@gmail.com> - 2022-06-14 08:48 -0700
  Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> - 2022-06-14 21:48 +0100
    Re: 4 Bit MCUs, Still Alive and Kicking? Herbert Kleebauer <klee@unibwm.de> - 2022-06-17 13:36 +0200

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