Is there a connection to the global shortage of semiconductors having already caused car manufacturing plants to shut down, in the sense that Intel re-purposes their existing fabs to make money in these demand-driven markets? Read an interview with GF's CEO just this week where he says their older (22nm, 45nm) processes see full capacity right now.
No, there aren't any on supply side. It's just overwhelming demand for every kind of ICs across the industry. From 200mm fabs to mid-tier to cutting edge.
Electronics, and semiconductor industries just had the best year on record.
It seems just everything electronic related saw huge sales.
Even the cheapest retail computers aren't running on processors with 22nm microarchitecture.
The legacy semiconductor demand isn't coming from CPU/GPU for PC, servers, or mobile. It's coming from other applications and industries (automakers especially).
