AKM Factory fire

ers are similarly in the dark:

udio-industry

I heard about it pretty quick because I use one of the parts made there. N ot that the company or disti contacted me right away. A component broker f ound an AKM part number that linked to my product and wanted to buy any inv entory I might have.

In an effort to prevent issues like this I used a part that was a superset of another part. That way I could use whichever part was cheaper and easie r to get. However, both parts are made at that factory.

I have no current orders, but I informed my customer about this immediately . They are expecting to win at least a portion of the FAA FENS contract an d will be placing an order in the new year. I hope they have restored supp ly by then.

The article talks about the facility building itself burning. What the hec k was it made of?

It always makes me wonder what it is that burns in a place like that. I wo rked in one facility that had nice, wide hallways, then when running out of office space started storing file cabinets in the hallways. WTF? Don't t hey have fire codes? The fire marshal oked it saying there was still room for two people to walk by in the hall. I guess the fire codes are not very strict.

The fire marshal did make them unlock both of the double doors at the entra nce. The lobby was fed by two hallways and for an unknown reason the compa ny was keeping one of the two exit doors locked at all times. I had mentio ned to the receptionist that it wasn't allowed under code to do that and he r reply was that they didn't have to follow fire code because it was a clas sified facility. lol

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  Rick C. 

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I read that audio manufacturers are in panic. A/D D/A prices have multiplied if anything is still available at all.

Gerhard

others are similarly in the dark:

o-audio-industry

. Not that the company or disti contacted me right away. A component brok er found an AKM part number that linked to my product and wanted to buy any inventory I might have.

The AKM parts are certainly no longer available, but it's not like it won't take some time to redo designs to use another manufacturer's part. I pick ed the AK4556 because it was simple to use. No SPI, no I2C, four pins to s elect a mode and it just works. CD quality. How many devices are out ther e like that?

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  Rick C. 

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Am 07.11.2020 um 15:53 schrieb Jim MacArthur:

yeah it's a pity, the AKM stuff has highest quality and low prices, lots of them are automotive validated. However it was always difficult to buy these parts, at least digikey lists them but had nothing on stock, prices were as low as 50ct for decent 24bit ADCs or DACs @1k pieces.

Competitors are more expensive like AD, Cirrus Logic and TI, but offer more I2C/SPI functionality (even integrated DSPs) or reasonable priced eval boards like TI.

I wonder if there is a need of further improvments in these audio codecs since there is already a maximum of practical sound quality achieved.

Integrating audio ADC/DAC into SOCs may be not the right answer due to S/N.

--
Mike Randelzhofer, OHO-Elektronik

thers are similarly in the dark:

-audio-industry

N.

I'm surprised you say that about inventory of AKM parts. Years ago I was t rying to build a batch of boards with a 14 week lead time from the AKM fact ory. The disti arranged a meeting with the AKM factory guy and he bragged about their 14 week lead time. I explained to him I quote my customers a 1

0 week lead time and they complain that is too long. He was a bit taken ab ack by that, but the next time I needed AKM parts they were in stock at Arr ow, I believe. Since then I stopped checking as there always seemed to be some ten's of thousands on hand.

I found it interesting that they had a lesser CODEC in a 16 pin package and a more capable part in a 20 pin package with footprint compatibility, but the 20 pin part was also always cheaper. Go figure.

I hope they get back up and running soon. A lot of folks depend on these p arts. It has got to be a huge blow to the company as well.

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  Rick C. 

  -- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging 
  -- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

e:

others are similarly in the dark:

ro-audio-industry

s

s

S/N.

trying to build a batch of boards with a 14 week lead time from the AKM fa ctory. The disti arranged a meeting with the AKM factory guy and he bragge d about their 14 week lead time. I explained to him I quote my customers a 10 week lead time and they complain that is too long. He was a bit taken aback by that, but the next time I needed AKM parts they were in stock at A rrow, I believe. Since then I stopped checking as there always seemed to b e some ten's of thousands on hand.

nd a more capable part in a 20 pin package with footprint compatibility, bu t the 20 pin part was also always cheaper. Go figure.

parts. It has got to be a huge blow to the company as well.

Even if AKM takes their masks to another fab it will take a minimum of 3 mo nths to get the first parts out. And that assumes that there is unused fab capacity somewhere with compatible processes. Rebuilding the plant will tak e at least a year.

Remember the Sumitomo fire of 1993 that destroyed a major fraction of the world production of Novolac epoxy for IC packages? _That_ was a mess.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
Principal Consultant 
ElectroOptical Innovations LLC / Hobbs ElectroOptics 
Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics 
Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 

http://electrooptical.net 
http://hobbs-eo.com

CD quality? A huge number. But if you want what AKM do well, there is no equal. A friend is just finishing a 4-channel SDR design using four AKM stereo ADCs at very high (for audio) sample rates. He has enough to finish development, but none for production.

:(

Clifford Heath.

e:

others are similarly in the dark:

ro-audio-industry

s

s

S/N.

trying to build a batch of boards with a 14 week lead time from the AKM fa ctory. The disti arranged a meeting with the AKM factory guy and he bragge d about their 14 week lead time. I explained to him I quote my customers a 10 week lead time and they complain that is too long. He was a bit taken aback by that, but the next time I needed AKM parts they were in stock at A rrow, I believe. Since then I stopped checking as there always seemed to b e some ten's of thousands on hand.

nd a more capable part in a 20 pin package with footprint compatibility, bu t the 20 pin part was also always cheaper. Go figure.

parts. It has got to be a huge blow to the company as well.

Crapola! I had sent an email to my customer who had been talking about a v ery large contract that would not bear fruit until the end of next year at the earliest. Now I find out they have an opportunity mid year! So we nee d to get a contingency plan in place.

I'm finding inventory at a number of international companies I've not heard of other than through Octopart. One is Win-source. They offer samples, s o I asked for a few. We can try them on some boards and see of the AK4552 parts work in the AK4556 sockets. We can also test some to see if the AK45

56 parts work, period.

I have 2,000 FPGAs in inventory. I'd hate to have to redesign the board be cause of the CODEC since the FPGA would get replaced as well as it has been EOL for half a decade.

--

  Rick C. 

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Another interesting site I had not heard of before. Thanks.

I see they use the Chinese search engine, baidu.com and the Russian yandex.ru site too.

I was looking around on win-source and put in TMS9918 which is a video chip I designed into my old S-100 CPM system and noticed something interesting but I don't quite understand.....

This one line...

Fake Threat In the Open Market 54 pct.

I was just thinking about counterfeit or recycled parts. Not sure how this 54% figure relates. They do have a pop-up chat and could probably ask.

ECAD Module Manufacturer Texas Instruments Win Source Part Number 374276-TMS9918ANL Popularity Low Fake Threat In the Open Market 54 pct. Supply and Demand Status Limited