--- tags: wiki --- # The State of the Raspberry Pi https://www.tomshardware.com/news/substrate-shortage-end-2022 **25th May 2021** ABF substrate material is incredibly important for the semiconductor industry as it is responsible for connecting microchips to their associated circuit boards. Recent substrate shortages are partially to blame for the CPU and GPU shortages we’ve been seeing over the past few months. https://www.techrepublic.com/article/as-the-chip-shortage-continues-companies-and-governments-look-for-solutions/ **16th June 2021** Taken together, several companies began hoarding semiconductors, not knowing what they’d face in the future if COVID carried on indefinitely..... Much of the shortage, said the specialty foundry firm GlobalFoundries, specifically comes down to a current scarcity of silicon wafers—the essential material for making semiconductors. A new vehicle today can have hundreds of chips to more than a thousand. The bitcoin boom has played a small factor in the ordeal, said The Wall Street Journal, with crypto mining setups needing a large amount of chips to create new BTCs, and miners have stocked up on semiconductors.....As Daphne Leprince-Ringuet for ZDNet previously reported, most experts believe the chip shortage will last well into 2022. Leprince-Ringuet wrote that “the time it takes to produce a chip could increase by six months, and even up to a year for more specific semiconductors.” She added, “Key devices to be impacted will include power management chips, CMOS image and touch sensors, as well as fingerprint sensors and microcontrollers.” https://www.techradar.com/news/having-trouble-getting-a-raspberry-pi-this-could-be-why **23rd August 2021** Speaking to The Register, Raspberry Pi Foundation CEO Eben Upton revealed that he doesn’t expect the shortage to die down this year, with things starting to improve by Q1 2022, although no one expects major improvements before 2023. While the company managed to ship some 800,000 units per month earlier this year, by July 2021 this had fallen to 650,000, roughly 20% down https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/supply-chain-shortages-and-our-first-ever-price-increase/ **20th Oct 2021** Raspberry Pi says, "None of these are palatable decisions. In the entire history of Raspberry Pi, we have never increased the price of a product, and have often been able to reduce prices between, and sometimes within, generations. Likewise, long-term availability of our products, from stock, is a core part of our value proposition to industrial customers. But this set of temporary changes is the best way we can see to support all our customers through these strange times." https://www.tomshardware.com/uk/news/raspberry-pi-4-supply-issues **3rd Feb 2022** With sales now exceeding 45 million units in its first decade, you'd be forgiven if you thought that the Raspberry Pi was immune to the global chip shortage. Sadly this isn't the case as most major retailers in the U.S. and UK are **out of stock of Raspberry Pi 4 models, with third-party Amazon sellers and eBay scalpers marking the boards up as much as 400 percent**..... Upton(CEO) believes that "it'll finish when the global semi-conductor shortage finishes and trying to predict that moment is making fools of us all" https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/production-and-supply-chain-update/ **4th April 2022** Raspberry Pi says, "We spend a lot of time on backlog management. We have to balance volume demand from commercial and industrial customers with the demand we see from individuals. Right now we feel the right thing to do is to prioritise commercial and industrial customers – the people who need Raspberry Pis to run their businesses – we’re acutely aware that people’s livelihoods are at stake. There is currently enough supply to meet the needs of those customers. (Read to the end if you’re in this position and are struggling.) Unfortunately this comes at the cost of constrained supply for individual customer, who might be looking to buy a small number for home projects or for prototyping." https://rpilocator.com **9th May 2022** ![https://rpilocator.com](https://i.imgur.com/AtonaYu.png) **1st June 2022** https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/trade/exports/insights/global-chip-shortage-likely-to-last-through-2023/articleshow/91931828.cms Global semiconductor shortage likely to last through 2023 **7th June 2022** https://www.wired.com/story/chip-shortage-hacks/ Companies Are Hacking Their Way Around the Chip Shortage The supply chain issues have no end in sight, so manufacturers are being forced to improvise.