All, I had asked Zahir Parpia, editor of the online electronics newsletter Zen News, if there was anything he knew about Microchip's sudden shortages. He hadn't heard anything but did get a response from Microchip's press office. I've attached Zahir's response (which includes Microchip's reponse) below. --Bob -- ============================================================ Bob Drzyzgula It's not a problem bob@drzyzgula.org until something bad happens ============================================================ http://www.drzyzgula.org/bob/electronics/ ============================================================ Return-Path: Received: from localhost (bob@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by nexus.drzyzgula.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id XAA12385 for ; Thu, 23 Sep 1999 23:41:13 -0400 Received: from mail.eskimo.com by fetchmail-4.5.8 POP3 for (multi-drop); Thu, 23 Sep 1999 23:41:13 EDT Received: from bureau6.utcc.utoronto.ca (bureau6.utcc.utoronto.ca [128.100.132.1 6]) by mx2.eskimo.com (8.9.1a/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA20749 for ; Thu, 23 Sep 1999 20:40:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from zahir.dialup.cs.toronto.edu ([128.100.20.210] EHLO zen-news.com i dent: NO-IDENT-SERVICE [port 1305]) by bureau6.utcc.utoronto.ca with ESMTP id <4 64380-19749>; Thu, 23 Sep 1999 23:38:39 -0400 Message-ID: <37EAF0DB.1A82D198@zen-news.com> Date: Thu, 23 Sep 1999 23:32:43 -0400 From: Zahir Parpia Organization: ZEN News X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.08 [en] (Win95; U) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Bob Drzyzgula Subject: Re: reply from microchip References: <37E83756.9E961E76@zen-news.com> <19990923193240.G673@nexus.drzyzgul a.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-UIDL: a8636ec7feb799813addebb8e0f44371 Bob, I just wanted to let you know I got the following reply from Microchip about the long lead times for their flash PIC parts. The message is clearly for the record, so I don't think Microchip would mind me sharing it with you. For what its worth, I have to agree with him about the desperate shortage of flash chips - see the daily news section of ZEN News for our coverage of the chip shortage. Zahir Parpia Editor ZEN News http://www.zen-news.com > Thanks for your message. There are two reasons for the lengthening lead > times on Microchip's PIC16CF87X family. > > First, the semiconductor industry is rebounding after its longest and > deepest recession ever. You'll see that lead times for MCUs and many other > ICs have lengthened throughout the semiconductor industry. Microchip is no > exception, and we have stated this publicly in recent earnings news > releases (July 15, May 12 and April 22). > Second, the new PIC16F87X family brings Flash memory and a new level of > performance to PICmicro users. Flash memory is extremely popular in the > marketplace right now. The demand for this product line has been even > higher than we expected. Microchip is working diligently to address the > lengthening lead times for these and other products. > > Please contact me with any other questions or for more information. > > Best regards, > Eric Sells > Public Relations Manager > Microchip Technology Inc.