Greg Ferguson
Legend!
Analog Devices' chips are made in the U.S. and Ireland, and are tested in the Philippines. TI has factories around the world.From my understanding, the Axe FX III uses Texas Instruments chips, but the FM9 and FM3 uses "Analog Devices" chips. The reason for this is becasue the TI chip is more powerful and produces more heat, which requires more cooling than the Analog Devices chips.
Someone will need to research the Analog Devices chips (where they're produced) to help determine whether the "global chip shortage" affects importing foreign-made chips, or ones produced in the U.S.
If indeed Analog Devices chips are produced in the U.S., it's less likely that the global shortage has a wider range effect on FM9 production, realizing that Analog Devices chips may be produced on U.S. soil which might help ease the shortage of "global demand."
Of course, this is mostly "what-if" and guesswork, but it stands to reason that domestic components might be more accessible than foreign-made ones.
(Source: Wiki FM9)
Getting all the various parts to the board assembly site is part of the equation. The main DSP and CPU are a few of many ICs and other components that need to be stuffed into the motherboard, then the boards are shipped to the U.S. and installed into the case where it's connected, tested, updated, packed and shipped.
The chip foundries are able to turn out lots of chips because they're largely automated, but they have to get their raw materials to do so, and then the finished and Q/A'd chips have to ship to whoever builds the board, who Q/A's it, and ships it again... all those raw materials and intermediate shipping steps involve lots of humans and that's where the virus is causing impact. In addition, FAS is a small company, so if one person is out they'll feel it in the other steps of final assembly and getting it to the customer.
Saying "...domestic components might be more accessible"... "might" is a strong conditional. IF someone makes the chips domestically, yes, might. A lot of the foundries moved out of the country for a variety of reasons.