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

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

#401

Excuse the naive question, but what technology does a fab bring to the table? As I understand it, TSMC buys most (all?) of their equipment from ASML (or a competitor), and the chip design is done and owned by their customers. What's left, aside from a giant cleanroom and some specialized operators?

Good question. There there must be something material otherwise TSMC wouldn't have such a lead on their competitors.

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

#402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

China can almost certainly win a naval war with the US already; or rather, negate the US's naval force projection tool of choice, the aircraft carrier, with anti-ship ballistic missiles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DF-26 - range of 2500 miles

Every Carrier Battle Group has two ships in it that are essentially devoted to just protecting the carrier whether from missiles or other threats. We've yet to see how effective systems like Aegis are against anti-ship missiles (though I'm sure the DoD has done plenty of tests) but it's far from clear that anti-ship missiles obsolete carriers. And given that China is starting their own carrier fleets I'm guessing the…

Well, some of that certainly must come from an opponent's reluctance to sink them, not their inability to do so.

If you use a nuclear warhead, you don't have to hit the ship directly.

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

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Is that being spineless or unorganized and powerless?

They're unorganized and powerless because they are spineless.

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

#404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Indeed. A proxy robot war is just a very expensive game. And if you can settle your differences this way, you may as well do that in Quake 3 Arena for cheaper. And if you can settle your differences with Q3A, you may as well do that over the negotiating table. All of these depend on mutual cooperation; both parties agreeing to respect the outcome of the game. Real war starts when one party is unhappy about the outcom…

Also when the two parties misjudge their relative military strength. If both parties were in relative agreement about what the outcome of their war would be they wouldn't have to fight one in order to negotiate changes to the status quo. That's why espionage can be a stabilizing force and the US and USSR had treaties during the latter parts of the cold war allowing each side to fly spy planes into the others territor…

Well, you have to make sure those spies also report that neither side would decisively win. The US and USSR must both have already been confident enough in their own strength to openly allow the other side to see it.

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

#405
post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have visited Crimea last year as a tourist and talked with Crimeans personally (in Massandra and Alushta). Where do you get your information? In my experience people are mostly happy with the Russian rule and with changes it brings (simply compare investments before 2014 and after). Of course, those who work in IT, have to virtually reallocate via VPNs to circumvent western sanctions, but they don't blame Russia fo…

> Crimean Tatars a bit less happy with the Russian rule on average compared to ethnic Russians, but I think it mostly can be attributed to the lost profits from illegal businesses It’s a bit more complicated than that. The historical and relatively recent mass starvation, persecution, mass murder and forcing into gulags is likely relevant. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

Note that not only Tatars have died from mass starvation in 30s and 40s. It hit equally hard Russians, Ukrainians and other ethnic groups (e.g. it had consequences as far as in the Volga region), so Tatars (as well as Ukrainians) weren't an exclusive target here. AFAIK Tatars weren't forced into Gulags without proofs of collaboration with Nazi forces (the number is estimated around 15k, which is only approximately 5% of the total Tatar population). And while the deportation is indeed should be condemned, as the significant death toll which was a consequence of it (though I wouldn't call it a "mass murder"), I don't think it's correct to attribute Soviet deeds to the modern Russia, especially considering the Russian rehabilitation law specifically targeting Crimean Tatars.

While I will not deny that a certain amount of bad blood still exists due to the deportation, I think most Tatars more concerned about their current livelihood (though I have talked only with 2 tatars, so my sample size is quite small).

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

#406
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…

> The only thing preventing China from taking out Taiwan is the United States. The only thing preventing China from taking out Taiwan is their mutual economic annihilation in case hostilities intensify. Taiwan's relationship with the US has been at best ambivalent. Do not forget US was close to waving a hand on the island just a decade ago.

https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2019/08/16/trump-oks-f-...

https://www.armyrecognition.com/april_2020_news_defense_glob...

It seems like the US has been more willing to sell Taiwan better military equipment recently?

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

#407
post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can seriously get small run chips made on 7nm in the US? I just don't believe it.

Was 7nm a requirement? I didn’t gather that from the thread. Small run 22nm is certainly available. These are fabricated in the US, albeit at an Intel site. https://www.mosis.com/pages/intel_sponsored_fab

I mean the article is about them building a 5nm fab in Arizona, so i assume they do need it if they want to build fast AI chips that compete with China should it invade Taiwan.

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

#408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems like something China might treat as an act of aggression by Taiwan..right? Like, now they are giving China good reason to see Taiwan as hostile, esp. with all their efforts to snuff out Taiwan.

I am sure China likes this. If TSCM is scared of a PRC takeover and trying to move investment out of the country, Well China's messaging is working. Maybe before Taiwan was sufficiently richer per capita that taking it over had something to do with its wealth, but now it's a almost exclusively a matter of pride and nationalism. If they get control of a deindustrialized husk, they can say "Look at all the US boot-lick…

It makes a takeover by the PRC easier, as it will blunt the loss of access to high technology.

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

#409
post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Crimean Tatars a bit less happy with the Russian rule on average compared to ethnic Russians, but I think it mostly can be attributed to the lost profits from illegal businesses It’s a bit more complicated than that. The historical and relatively recent mass starvation, persecution, mass murder and forcing into gulags is likely relevant. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

Note that not only Tatars have died from mass starvation in 30s and 40s. It hit equally hard Russians, Ukrainians and other ethnic groups (e.g. it had consequences as far as in the Volga region), so Tatars (as well as Ukrainians) weren't an exclusive target here. AFAIK Tatars weren't forced into Gulags without proofs of collaboration with Nazi forces (the number is estimated around 15k, which is only approximately 5%…

The Wikipedia article states that 191,044-423,100 Tarters were deported, depending on which source is used (this doesn’t mean they all went to Gulags, but hard labour in Uzbekistan was what most did). It’s described as ethnic cleansing and mentioning the Tarters was banned. Baria and Stalin’s actions killed 34,000 to 109,956 Tarters during this time and 80,000 homes and farms lay empty.

You have 2 more personal sources than I do.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_T...

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

#410
post #289
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.

People would be posting about that anyway. No discussion colors strictly within the lines of the actual news; it always hops to adjacent questions (which is usually fine) and inevitably to whatever generic themes people associate it with (which is usually not fine: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).
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