New Contributor
Regular ContributorWelcome to the REAL WORLD.
Big companies (ie, strategic accounts) that source FPGAs (and all other devices by the way, FPGAs are not unique) have large purchasing departments and they don't normally buy thru distributors like Mouser, Digikey, etc but go directly to manufacturers like Intel/Altera, AMD/Xiline, etc AND negotiate pricing/delivery CONTRACTS. They lock up their needs well into the future. Any uncommited/unpurchased parts then make it out thru distributors to those who buy sporadically in small volume. You may not like it, but that is how the world works.
Unfair and unacceptable to you, probably true. I would feel the same. But grounds for a class action suit? Not likely.
Occasional Contributor...they don't normally buy thru distributors like Mouser, Digikey, etc
Then where is the place for Arrow, Avnet and Future Electronics the so called top 3 distributors.
Regular ContributorArrow, Avnet, Allied, Mouser, DigiKey, Newark are all top tier distributors.
Unless one of these distributors signs contracts to buy a certain number of parts at guaranteed delivery they won't get parts.
They will all go to large corporations that negotiate confirmed contracted purchase delivery orders.
You may not like how this works, and suggest that Intel 'hold back' some parts to supply to distributors for low-end buyers.
But that decision is up to Intel sales, and normally in my experience will go with confirmed high volume buyers first.
In the past I have seen large volume buyers contract and buy parts, then they don't need them after all, so they release them to distributors to sell.
That is not happening now.
