On May 31, 2010, at 4:41 PM, solarwind wrote:

> But why is there a shortage?

Atmel is no Microchip!

Historically, Atmel chips have been in short supply.  Back in the boom  
years, Atmel bought new Fabs and increased production, and things got  
better.  More recently, due to "the economy", Atmel sold/closed fabs,  
and now their parts are hard to get again.

(It's not necessarily bad business to have a long "lead-time for your  
components, which I think is currently the status for Atmel parts  
(rather than an actual "shortage.")  Having a large inventory of parts  
that no one has bought is a "very bad thing" as far as people who read  
your quarterly reports are concerned.)

BillW

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