Technology Chip shortages lead to more counterfeit chips and devices

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Beginning with the first Wuhan quarantine in January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world from both sides of the law of supply and demand. Independent Distributors of Electronics Association (IDEA) founder Steve Calabria believes this two-fisted squeeze will spawn a surge in counterfeit electronics, with consequences for longevity and reliability of equipment built with substandard components.

Pandemic lockdowns in industrial cities have pinched supply of both finished goods and raw materials, while demand for electronic products has skyrocketed due to both the need for remote work/school gear and simple boredom from people unable to travel, dine out, and party in the ways they're accustomed to.

The immediate impact of this shortage is obvious and already well-reported—for example, it's so difficult to buy a graphics card right now that manufacturer MSI is bringing back the 2014-era Nvidia GT 730. The GT 730 is, frankly, garbage—it offers a bit more than half the performance of Intel's UHD integrated graphics and less than a fifth the performance of 2015's GTX 950. But it works—and for the moment, that's the most important thing to be said about it.

Resurrecting an old product line and accurately labeling it is, of course, fine. But it's an option only available to large, established manufacturers like MSI—companies with old but valid supply lines, licenses, and in some cases, long-warehoused parts that can be picked up, dusted off, and put back to good use. Smaller and less scrupulous companies hoping to cash in on the pandemic pinch have a quicker, easier way to satisfy unfilled market demand: fake goods.

Read more here. (Ars Technica)
 
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