If you’ve been eyeing up one of PINE64‘s Linux-friendly single-board computers, phones or tablets, now is the time to buy one.

The open-hardware company has announced it will stop “producing more Linux devices” for the time being, and said it expects its existing stock of certain devices, including the PineNote and PineTab 2, to sell out in the next three months.

Obviously, RAMaggeddon is to blame. The AI infrastructure boom continues apace, with demand for memory and storage chips continuing to reduce supply and drive up costs.

If the price of even modest tech – $350 Raspberry Pi, anyone? – has made you wince of late, you’ll understand why a small, cult hardware company like PINE64 feels need to take pause.

After all, PINE64’s entire model rests on making cheap, low-margin hardware for the open-source community to provide software for. Part of how it kept its costs low was by using components in ample supply. Pre-AI, RAM was one of them.

Price rises would be difficult and unpalatable given it makes hobbyist-grade hardware where cost is the USP.

As the company said on its Mastodon account: “All in all it’s a bit bleak for the Linux devices”.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom.

Once component prices return to more acceptable levels – which many market watchers expect will take several years – production would be viable again.

PINE64’s microcontroller-based devices, like the $60 PineVoice smart speaker, PineBuds earphones, Pinecil soldering iron and its upcoming PineTime Pro smartwatch, are not affected by the component shortage.

In fact, the company says we can expect “more exciting devices” in its MCU line.

Let’s hope data centers don’t develop an appetite for 16MiB flash chips or pSRAM!