Further context around the 'chip shortage'

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by cs123

If you have never written code for embedded systems you might not realise the challenge involved.

An app written for a computer or phone leverages the operating system, drivers, APIs. They are written at a high level and abstracted from the physical hardware.

Embedded systems execute code directly against the chip. They directly manipulate ports, registers and interrupts. There is no operating system, drivers or APIs to abstract this. You change the chip, you change your code and you change a lot of onboard circuits.

Doing that requires a lot of expense in design, training, probably development tools and testing. Think of the requirements for something like vehicle stability control. Think of the testing required, think of the exposure the company has if it has a glitch. You don't move away from something that is proven without a lot of investment.

If you are starting from a clean sheet like Tesla then you get to adopt the latest and greatest. If you have legacy investment, then you need to iterate.

That's what OP and others aren't getting. Changing these things costs money, a lot of it, and since the current ones do the job they are required to do, there is absolutely zero incentive to spend money making new ones.

The semi-conductor shortage is passing, and they are setting up new semi-conductor factories in the usa, so future supply should never be a problem.

Tesla can use new chip designs cause they were designed from scratch, without any existing components from previous versions to draw from.