Supply shortage of power transmission controller may affect the usability of Intel Tiger Lake laptops
In the past year, the supply shortage in the semiconductor industry is not a new topic. People generally focus on core chips such as CPU or GPU. In fact, as shortages have become widespread and spread more widely, shortages such as substrates or capacitors have already been in the news. For a computer, it is composed of tens of millions of different parts. It may be missing a certain inconspicuous part, which will cause trouble in the shipment of the whole machine.
When Intel released the Tiger Lake mobile processor, it also introduced Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4.0. The processor can support it is one thing, but the actual use by the manufacturer is another. If the manufacturer needs to use Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4.0 functions, they cannot operate separately and need an additional power supply controller to operate, such as Texas Instruments’ TPS65994AD. These controllers are independent chips and are responsible for regulation/power supply.
According to Igor’s LAB, the current news from various sources indicates that the supply of these chips is in short supply or even out of supply. If OEM/ODM manufacturers want to implement related functions, they can’t just find other chips instead. Intel has made relevant suggestions to OEM/ODM manufacturers. If TI 993AC/994AC chip is used for replacement, it will focus on promoting Thunderbolt 4, ignoring USB 4.0 and only mentioning “compatible”.
For OEM/ODM manufacturers using replacement chips, Intel will still provide Thunderbolt 4 certification. If the OEM/ODM manufacturer does not intend to compromise, it is likely to affect the delivery time of related products. On the contrary, there is a backlog of inventory, which can also explain why individual manufacturers’ laptops do not provide Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4.0 support.
