This is part 2 published 2022-07-25. Part 1 published 2021-04-30.
Nearly every person on earth has experienced some impact from the supply chain in the past two years. As we wrote in part 1 in April of 2021 “Prices will increase for consumer goods” and time has proven that accurate. We also declared the problem: “Parts, price, and lead-time” along with the solution: “Pay, price, and persevere.”
Perseverance
Manufacturing innovative and unique hardware is very challenging, we have consistently pushed boundaries into the near impossible, even with Manufacturing in the USA for the most secure supply chain possible. But investing in the software that drives those innovations is the most expensive part of producing our Librem line of products. All the early backers of the Librem 5 and Librem 5 USA fully understand that their support was funding the software and hardware to see a fully functioning phone that respects their freedom, privacy, and security. The millions of software development dollars spent on the Librem 5 running PureOS pushed upstream innovations that all the supporters of Purism should be proud of.
The Librem 5 and Librem 5 USA utilize the quad core I.MX8M Quad CPU that can offer 10+ years of operation and improve with time (due to our millions more of investment to continue to improve the entire software stack within PureOS and upstream). While many components that make up the Librem 5 and Librem 5 USA have had supply chain disruptions, the CPU was among the most significant, with long lead times and no alternatives. This CPU is now back in stock and production is ramping up accordingly.
Read the rest of Todd’s post here: