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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.

#421

Post by SXX »

remarkEon wrote: post #142
fermienrico wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in the semiconductor industry, manufacturing specifically, I can attest that this is a false statement - US technology in semiconductor manufacturing is not simply from running the fabs, but building fabrication equiment that fabs purchase to process and package wafers. The US (Teredyn, Applied Materials, Entegris, KLA Tencor, Lam Research), Netherlands (ASML) and Japan (Daifuku, Hitachi, TEL, Advantest…

Is there a document (or a book) somewhere that details who all these semiconductor equipment manufacturers are, and their history? I'm extremely interested in this space and would love to learn more about it.

Here is one interview on history of Applied Materials which is largest equipment manufacturer out there:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bwQxFyCs8Y

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

#422

Post by paulmd »

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…

> 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

So, to make this an apples-to-apples comparison: when did TSMC stop shipping new products on prior nodes? ;)

You can still go out and buy a new-production Ryzen 1600 AF chip right now, you know. AMD did not even finish releasing their 7nm lineup until basically a few weeks ago, Renoir products just started shipping last month.

Ice Lake actually beat the comparable AMD/TSMC chips to market by like, 8 months or something. They've been around in volume since like, november. I went to Costco before last thanksgiving and almost half the laptops had Ice Lake.

AMD can ship desktop processors sooner because they've architecturally managed to reduce the chiplet to smaller than the size of a phone SOC. Comparing apples to apples, or more specifically monolithic mobile processor vs monolithic mobile processor, TSMC isn't that far ahead.

Or for another data point, TSMC's big-chip 7nm yields are so bad that NVIDIA is disabling 15% of the processor on the Ampere GA100 even for the datacenter market that will be paying $25k a chip or something stupid.

TSMC is ahead, sure, but not as much as people want them to be. The ability to make phone SOCs and 70mm2 chiplets successfully doesn't mean they've got 7nm completely nailed.

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

#423

Post by zymhan »

holdenc wrote: post #356
bobthepanda wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also worth pointing out that Taiwan is so densely populated and small that it would be hard to invade Taiwan without simultaneously destroying everything of value. It's a fools' errand.

It does not require an invasion unfortunately. It only requires a naval blockade, which would effectively starve the island until they concede to defeat.

Taiwan Airlift anyone?

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

#424

Post by chrischen »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #136
chrischen wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, it's not strictly Xi's views, and China's government can't be so easily be dismissed as illegitimate by outsiders.

> China's government can't be so easily be dismissed as illegitimate I believe the U.S. government is legitimate. That doesn’t mean I believe its every view is so. Xi’s government’s legitimacy can exist alongside his statements on Taiwan being ridiculous. (I’ll note, too, that Xi and the CPC are outsiderS to Taiwan’s affairs.)

My point isn't on whether or not all his views are legitimate—that's a pointless argument to make. My point is that quite a lot of people (probably the majority of Chinese) are on his side regarding his viewpoints on that.

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

#425

Post by moeadham »

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…

TSMC has advanced research labs in US and Canada already.

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

#426

Post by woofie11 »

fermienrico wrote: post #179
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…

China marching into Taiwan would be a losing move. Never mind the civil unrest, the entire world would bail out of China. Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand + India would be even more alerted than they are right now with HK situation. The narrative in these countries is quickly evolving. CCP is over playing their hand by engaging in asymetrical trade.

I think the key question is what happens to Taiwan in a USChina war:

1) Does the US have a base-of-operations off of China's coast? If it independent? Is it Chinese?

2) who gets Taiwan's manufacturing and technology? Does it supply the US military or the Chinese military? War is mostly about supply chains and manufacturing capacity. It's how the US won WWII.

These are big questions. They're not necessarily urgent, but they are big.

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

#427

Post by cheaprentalyeti »

Ericson2314 wrote: post #420
Jon_Lowtek wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The annexation of Taiwan is about access to the pacific ocean, or to be precise, about minimizing the risk of a blockade and about strategic depth on their eastern border. The communist party is literally playing grand strategy and from their perspective, they are surrounded by enemies. This is not nationalist pride, it is nationalist paranoia.

If it was mostly fear, wouldn't taking over the Philippines or a huge freight capacity west with Belt and Road would be equally good?

It looks like they've been slowly pursuing all three strategies.

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

#428

Post by vincnetas »

fuoqi wrote: post #339
vincnetas wrote: post #323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Another aspect of Russia taking crimea is that the people living there to a large extent welcomed it" Because those who have not welcomed Russians have disappeared. Random link from google search: https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/12/disappear...

So if more than 50% of population haven't welcomed Russians, then Crimea now has twice less population, right? It's very easy to attribute such disappearances to the evil KGB to promote political agenda, while there are far more probable explanations. It brings to mind the "Heavenly Hundred", a significant number of those people haven't even died on Maidan, but to promote the political agenda they have been promoted…

Because that whats happens when your gathering is not in line with government agenda. One day prior:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMKraUk0BSQ

And don't tell me that's organic that suddenly bunch of big guy "civilians" appear and start using force. We have heard about green little men. So there are gray little civilians also.

And Crimea does not need to loose 50% population that does not agree. It's enough to "disappear" few more prominent activists to scare the rest.

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

#429

Post by wtallis »

paulmd wrote: post #422
wtallis wrote: post #252

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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 So, to make this an apples-to-apples comparison: when did TSMC stop shipping new products on prior nodes? ;) You can still go out and buy a new-production Ryzen 1600 AF chip right now, you kn…

You shouldn't ignore the fact that Apple's larger 7nm SoC has the same die size as Ice Lake, and has been shipping a lot longer. To the extent that TSMC's 7nm has been confined to small, low-power chips, Intel's 10nm has the same problem but worse.

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

#430

Post by cutemonster »

HideousKojima wrote: post #349
baybal2 wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Another aspect of Russia taking crimea is that the people living there to a large extent welcomed it. Man, are saying this in your right mind? Where do you read this stuff? People there abandoned their property, and ran! This is what they did. Nobody openly welcomed it in their sane minds, besides few thousands elderly ex-party members, and alt-right weirdos. The fact that I hear sentiments like this in the West is…

I had an ethnically Russian co-worker from Donetsk at a previous job right around the time Russia started "supporting" the rebels there (i.e. sending in a large number of their own troops as "tourists" etc.) and while he personally hated Russia, he lamented that the vast majority of his extended family back in the Donetsk region supported and welcomed the Russians

I got the impression Putin used social media, e.g. VK, to manipulate people's opinions, eg untrue "news" about people from Russia being harassed and worse.

Seemed like successful psyops by Putin to me. I guess if Ukraine had blocked VK sooner, not many people had been particularly much pro Putin.

Of course now Putin continues with psyops via Facebook but that's harder for him than via VK.

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