We all know that 2020 was a crazy year. We saw a lot of changes and saw many industries around the world facing new challenges. One industry that was hit hard by these changes is computer chip manufacturing. As countries started to impose restrictions, and manufacturing plants went into lock-down, these manufacturing plants shut down for a time. What has this caused?
At the beginning of the pandemic, the auto manufacturing industry was hit hard with the lack of computer chips. Since the 1970s, cars have included computer chips to control their internal electronics. Fast forward to today, cars come with backup cameras, proximity sensors, GPS, satellite radio, and even some WiFi and Bluetooth features. All of these features (and many others) require computer chips.
Because of their high demand for chips, auto manufacturers saw the incoming shortage before anybody else did and increased their orders accordingly. Computer manufacturers followed next, especially graphic card (GPU) manufacturers. The most notable of these companies effected is Nvidia.
Nvidia is mostly known for their high-end gaming GPUs, which can cost anywhere from $1000-$3000. These GPUs are highly coveted for use with crypto-mining, which is the process of generating cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin by electronically authenticating financial transactions. The more GPUs, the more money they generate. Nvidia can’t keep up with the demand for GPUs. Nvidia’s increasing demand for computer chips has accelerated the chip shortage even further.
So now, business PC and server manufacturers, such as Intel and Dell, are experiencing delays caused by the chip shortage. For us at Network Innovations, this means that custom computer configurations can sometimes take months to arrive. To mitigate this effect, we have started quoting systems that are immediately available, even if they don’t match the exact specifications that we are looking for. These are still brand-new PC’s and servers from top-tier manufacturers that come with the standard warranty, and we fully support every computer we sell.
As 2021 continues on, we hope that the computer chip supply chain will improve, and lead times for new PCs and servers will decrease. Until then, we promise to be here to help your business continue to run smoothly and keep your current equipment humming along.
