Chip and trip – Kommersant

The cost of processors of domestic developers MCST and Baikal Electronics has doubled since the beginning of the year, participants in the computer technology market told Kommersant. They suggest that prices have risen due to increased demand from Russian manufacturers of servers, data storage systems (SHD) and PCs, as well as the transfer of production to new foreign factories. As a result, electronics manufacturers are also starting to raise prices and increase purchases of foreign components.

“Kommersant” found on the website of the retailer of computer components “Chip and Dip” that the cost of domestic processors from “Baikal Electronics” BE-T1000 increased by 55%, to 8.9 thousand rubles. a piece. Baikal Electronics says that we are talking about the sale of old warehouse stocks and the company cannot influence prices: “In this case, price formation lies entirely with the partner and is his area of ​​​​responsibility.” In “Chip and Dip” did not answer “Kommersant”.

However, the rise in prices is observed not only in retail. The increase affected all lines of Baikal Electronics and MCST processors (developing the Elbrus processor), Maxim Koposov, CEO of Promobit (manufacturer of Bitblaze servers and storage systems), told Kommersant, without specifying the numbers: “This is due to increased demand and limited supply : more and more companies announce products based on Russian processors”. The MCST declined to comment.

The CEO of Norsi-Trans (produces servers and storage systems) Sergey Ovchinnikov specified that the cost of domestic processors has doubled since the beginning of the year: “The production of Russian chips at foreign factories has become more complicated, logistics chains have lengthened and, accordingly, the cost of the final component has increased.”

Production of the Baikal T1000 began in 2016 at the Taiwanese TSMC. It works on the MIPS architecture and is manufactured according to the topological norm of 28 nm. In 2022, Rostec introduced its own Wi-Fi router on this processor (see Kommersant dated April 7, 2022). The state corporation explained that the manufacturer NPP Istok named after Shokin (part of Rostec) buys processors at wholesale prices and “has sufficient stocks.”

Scarcity and overhead are now driving up the price of any microelectronic components, said a spokesman for electronics manufacturer F+ tech. According to him, the Baikal T1000 is not intended for high-performance computing (servers, storage systems, etc.): “To create it, you don’t necessarily need advanced factories in Taiwan, you can find contractors in other countries.”

After the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine, the Taiwanese TSMC factory, which produced domestic processors, refused to cooperate with Russian companies and ship finished batches of components (see Kommersant dated February 25, 2022). At the beginning of 2023, it became known that, despite the sanctions, foreign processors continue to arrive in the Russian Federation. So, the share of Intel in deliveries in 2022 grew by 9%, up to 782 thousand pieces. In total, foreign components accounted for about 90% of imports to the Russian Federation, while their customs value doubled over the year (see Kommersant of February 16).

Russian electronics manufacturers on domestic processors announce and demonstrate mostly prototype products, without mass production, precisely because companies lack Russian components, Maxim Koposov believes: “The increase in the cost of domestic chips directly affects the cost of final equipment.” Sergei Ovchinnikov agrees with this. According to him, due to the increase in the cost of Russian Elbrus chips, the price of the company’s products has doubled.

As a result, Russian computer vendors are starting to use more components from American manufacturers, which are easier to get than Russian ones, Maxim Koposov adds: “For example, we have released a line of products based on x86 processors (Intel and AMD are manufactured on this architecture). No one wants to work at a loss or to zero, especially given the possibility of including products on foreign components in the register of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.”

Timofey Kornev