Ask HN: Why is TSMC so competitive in semiconductor fabrication?

Post by epups » Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 4:59 PM UTC

marricks wrote: post #43

tiernano wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

3 separate shifts iirc. But don't Intel run 24/7 too? Or is that just for prod? I remember some plant (not Intel, a memory plant) had an issue and lost power for a few hours and lost a shite load of memory wafers and took a couple days to come back into prod.

Intel certainly do run machines 24/7 but perhaps those R&D engineers/PhD's don't, so maybe only the techie's running the machines have full coverage...?

Post by diarrhea » Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 5:05 PM UTC

elteto wrote: post #70

qorrect wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you are really overshooting. Most people don't even know where their water comes from. Most people that drive do not know how a combustion engine works. Even people watching TV are only vaguely aware it's a series of static images chained together to make it look like its moving.

Wait, how am I overshooting? Reading your comment it seems like we are both in agreement. Or did I read you wrong?

Post by FooBarWidget » Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 5:12 PM UTC

bick_nyers wrote: post #54

If TSMC wasn't around, I think it could be argued that China would have tried to take over/invaded long before now. So if you are the government of Taiwan, helping TSMC out is in your best interest.

Post by anon84873628 » Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 5:18 PM UTC

elteto wrote: post #53

Nokinside wrote: post #3

Semiconductor industry has the deepest and most complex value chain in the economy. TSMC has always been pure fab company and it pays off now. Samsung and Intel are also in chip design business and do other things. They are less focused. TSMC's lead is not guaranteed. Any new technology node can fail and remove them from competition if they make wrong choices. I'm not exaggerating when I say that designing a new tech…

A bit of an aside, but your comment made me realize how much we don’t know about the process used to create the technologies that underpin our civilization. We (laymen) have no idea about the incredible complexity behind manufacturing a single CPU chip.

Post by rayiner » Sat, Apr 22, 2023, 5:19 PM UTC

kayson wrote: post #59

rayiner wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was under the impression that it’s unusual for fabless chipmakers to do transistor level design anymore, and that they mostly rely on the standard TSMC libraries. But I may be wrong about that. The critical point I was trying to make is that the ASML machine doesn’t know how to make transistors. That’s something TSMC does: https://www.anandtech.com/show/16041/where-are-my-gaafets-ts...

No that's definitely not the case. For digital design, in general, you're not doing anything transistor-level. But those digital designers are using standard cell or memory libraries which are created at a transistor level. I believe the foundries also charge for their own standard cell libraries, and there are many other vendors that a design company can choose from like cadence, synopsys, even ARM. For analog/RF de…