Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

tsmc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

281–290 of 438 posts

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#281

Post by TeMPOraL »

riffraff wrote: post #268
chmod775 wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A naval war in 2050? I suspect that in 2050 mach 20 missiles are going to be the norm, not the exception, and point defense is essentially... pointless against those. It's already inadequate against today's (~mach 5) supersonic missiles. And china has literally tens of thousands with thousands of kilometers range stationed along their coast. A navy that pokes its head out is not going to last long. China's missile su…

what about submarines? It seems likely one of the first moves the US could do is disrupt china's economy by simply blocking their sea routes.

The question is, who would that harm more? March 2020 has shown us that disrupting sea routes between two continents hurts everyone.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#282

Post by snovv_crash »

derefr wrote: post #19
pascoej wrote: post #15

This is interesting. Right now TSMC seems to provide Taiwan with guaranteed US protection because they are so far ahead technologically. Apple, AMD, and the defense industry have little alternative if they want a cutting edge node. It's unclear how long they will maintain this dominance. Maybe the long term US-Taiwan ties of factories in the US will make this worth it strategically. I assume that all R&D will remain…

What does the defense industry need a cutting-edge node for? Better drone battery life?

For drones the power consumption isn't the issue, but heat dissipation when landed or hovering often is. Industrial solutions prefer not to have active cooling due to reliability.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#283

Post by nabla9 »

evgen wrote: post #274
type-2 wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Russia took crimea without any issue. Do you really think anything will happen if china took taiwan by force? It's a matter of time before china takes taiwan.

As much as I like the Ukrainian people, no one cared about Crimea because it was of absolutely no strategic importance to anyone but Russia. Taiwan is critically important to the US. The US _will_ go to war to defend it, and China knows this.

The whole point of US Taiwan policy and the wording of US-Taiwan Relations Act is to make it sure that the US can refuse to war against China if it attacks Taiwan.

US has treaties with South Korea and Japan that make it it clear that the US will defend them if they are under attack. The Taiwan treaty is worded in a way that US may provide assistance or limited support in a war.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#284

Post by dirkf »

foepys wrote: post #261
deepnotderp wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are you talking about? ARM has overtaken x86 in volume I'm pretty sure, but certainly in edge type applications like coffee machines

Aren't coffee machines and other "dumb" appliances often MIPS? Even my internet router has a MIPS controller (Fritz!Box by AVM).

I work with (consumer) internet gateways and the like. In Broadcom's SoCs the main chip is ARM. They have been moving away from MIPS for a number of years.

I'm less familiar with other vendors but I briefly worked with a Qualcomm-based device a few years ago and that was also ARM.

There might be some dedicated cores in those SoCs or devices for e.g. accelerators or Wi-Fi handling. I've seen ARC there but I have the feeling these are also moving to ARM.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#285

Post by michaelt »

pmachinery wrote: post #237
cm2187 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are being downvoted but what happened with Crimea proves your point.

What did the US do to prevent Russia "taking out" Crimea that the cowardly rest of the world didn't?

Nothing - but Crimea is right on the EU's doorstep. Both Ukraine and Russia share borders with EU member states.

If we EU member states didn't get involved when we saw a fight right in front of us, the threat of us getting involved in a fight thousands of miles away isn't very credible as a deterrent.

More broadly, when I look at Taiwan I don't see the EU or US recognising Taiwan as a nation - let alone any tripwire forces or foreign airbases or nuclear sharing or NATO membership or joint training exercises which signal the fully fledged protection of a great power.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#286

Post by ilamont »

Lind5 wrote: post #64

Actually, this is true. The big question is what's going on behind the scenes. China has been busy building up its own supply chain after the U.S. closed off shipments of any U.S.-based R&D to Huawei last summer. It also has made statements that Taiwan is part of China since then, which has left the U.S. without an advanced-node fab. Intel is at least a node behind both Samsung and TSMC, and the U.S. has no trusted f…

> For the U.S., this is a potential disaster. If China marches into Taiwan, the U.S. will be left with no advanced-node manufacturing and it will have lost the technology race.

The real disaster is the loss of untold lives defending an independent nation and full-fledged democracy.

Strong parallels to Europe in the 1930s. Looking back, no one cares much about the technology giants of that era being shut down, but rather the lives that were lost in the invasions, and the mass murder of civilians that followed.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#287

Post by ksec »

wtallis wrote: post #252
p1esk wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes you think Intel is behind TSMC in terms of process technology?

Intel's 10nm process does finally exist in a shippable form, but it's not yet mature enough or high-volume enough to handle the entire breadth of their CPU product line. Intel launched new 14nm processors last month, 5.5 years after introducing their first 14nm processors. Meanwhile, TSMC's 7nm process has been shipping since Q3 2018, and their EUV-based N7+ process is now in mass production. There's no question that…

To add further perspective into the reply above, TSMC is expected to ship more 5nm this year than All of Intel 10nm has ever shipped to date.

Intel's current form of 10nm is roughly equivalent to TSMC's 7nm. What that basically means is TSMC is about a generation ahead.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#288

Post by qbaqbaqba »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #240
_fq4v wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Never mind the civil unrest, the entire world would bail out of China. That is not clear.. at all. Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand -- the non-US western allies -- have all known exactly what China's end goal is and have down jack diddly squat to put pressure on them. The only thing preventing China from taking out Taiwan is the United States. Europe and the rest of the world is too cowardly to even do anythi…

It's definitely true for Europe being absolutely spineless when push comes to shove. The EU couldn't even put pressure on Erdogan let alone on Xi. China has been buying influence here for years, especially through the poorer countries that were alienated by the strict austerity measures imposed by the bigger powers. The nature of the EU politics where a single country has the power to veto the rest is a massive looph…

> through the poorer countries

and German universities: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/china-influence-sc...

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#289

Post by ksec »

dang wrote: post #177

An earlier thread, before the official announcement, was https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23183850 . But we've merged most of the relevant comments into this thread.

But now a lot of the comments from old thread are speculating whether the move was right. When the actual news here is the confirmation of the move.

I find that a little confusing just reading the comments.

Re: TSMC Announces Intention to Build and Operate Advanced Semiconductor Fab in U.S.

#290

Post by qbaqbaqba »

michaelt wrote: post #285
pmachinery wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What did the US do to prevent Russia "taking out" Crimea that the cowardly rest of the world didn't?

Nothing - but Crimea is right on the EU's doorstep. Both Ukraine and Russia share borders with EU member states. If we EU member states didn't get involved when we saw a fight right in front of us, the threat of us getting involved in a fight thousands of miles away isn't very credible as a deterrent. More broadly, when I look at Taiwan I don't see the EU or US recognising Taiwan as a nation - let alone any tripwire…

Germany is more than happy to trade with Russia breaking sanctions https://www.dw.com/en/siemens-to-hike-russia-investment-desp... Not to mention NordStreamII
Post reply on HN