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Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

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Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#331

Post by throw10920 »

a45a33s wrote: post #263
throw10920 wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know a few people who went to university near a large Intel campus that was always hiring. These people told me that if you got hired into Intel, it was almost always as a design verification & validation engineer, and that getting an actual design (architecture) job was near impossible (especially as a recent graduate, even with an MS). Is it the same for Samsung?

how could a new grad be qualified to design a new intel chip? seems like those are necessary stepping stones to learn all the real world issues that would be involved in actually designing a chip.

> how could a new grad be qualified to design a new intel chip?

How could a new grad be qualified to design a new Google tool?

By being an apprentice (intern) at Google who is initially only responsible for a small bit of code (not "the tool" nor "the chip" - just a piece), and whose contributions are thoroughly reviewed and tested before pushing to production.

This comment isn't very constructive.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#332

Post by fabfabfab »

edge17 wrote: post #97
fabfabfab wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Expert here. Worked in a Fab (Automated Material Handling Systems or AMHS group). You might be suprised how automated it already is [1]. Notice the OHTs (Overhead Hoist Transport)[2] running on a system of highways and superhighways on the ceiling. Each of these OHTs carry a box inside it called a FOUPs (Front Opening Unified Pods)[3] carrying upto 25 wafers. That can easily be worth $1M+ per box. They have standardi…

For someone interested in robotics and automation, what types of groups/jobs would one look for specifically in this industry? Also geographically where are these types of jobs located?

If you want to work on robotics, you should look into working for one of the major semiconductor equipment manufacturers, not a Fab. To name a few: KLA Tencor (US), Applied Materials (US), ASM, ASML (Netherlands), Advantech (US), TEL(Japan), Besi (Netherlands), etc.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#333

Post by AaronNewcomer »

diveanon wrote: post #67

Seems strange to build a chip plant in a place that can’t even provide power to its citizens in winter.

It made news because of how rare it is. Happens often elsewhere. California about burnt down because of their power grid. Snowy states get bad blizzards and often lose power, etc.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#334

Post by fabfabfab »

tooltalk wrote: post #197
fabfabfab wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked in Fab, the supply chain is already in the US+EU+Japan. About the only change in last 5 years or so is Intel's ability to compete in lithography process and get sufficient yield to stay competitive in pricing. Lithography is one of the 400 or so steps in Fab processing, but arguably the most critical and a bottle neck. TSMC does not have a lead in every single of these 400 steps, in fact quite the oppos…

According to US Semiconductor Association's recent State of the Industry Report, Taiwan's share in the manufacturing equipment part of the supply chain is almost nil and entirely depends on suppliers in the US, Japan and EU. Manufacturing Equipment (12%): US: 40% Japan: 32% EU: 18% S Korea: 4% Taiwan: I guess Apple's decision to leave Samsung's Austin fab back in early 2010's to TSMC in Taiwan had an outsized role in…

There is also Software/IP which is basically US-based. For example, MES 3000 runs the fab which I believe is developed by AMAT.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#335

Post by ironchef »

chrisco255 wrote: post #325
adrianmonk wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, as I understand it, there's another "grid" which failed, which is the network of natural gas wells and pipelines. Natural gas wasn't being pulled out of the ground and pumped to the electric generation plants. Apparently natural gas isn't easy to store, so basically there's not a lot of buffer, and everything needs to stay online or there won't be any natural gas to burn at power plants even if they were winter…

The natural gas load was nearly double it's average load, because the entire state of Texas was below freezing for a week solid and almost nobody has gas heat in Texas. Everyone was pulling on inefficient electric heaters to warm their house. And the Windmills, which power about 22% of the Texas grid, went almost entirely offline.

You might also want to read the analysis here around power sources during the outage: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/28/texas-power-outage-w...

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#336

Post by beervirus »

elzbardico wrote: post #32
burnished wrote: post #13

Ok, this article quietly gets fucking wild halfway through. >> Samsung spent years evaluating where to build the new fab, courting multiple locations and pitting them against each other for better incentives. But the ultimate decision came down to Samsung Group's leader Jay Y. Lee, who was granted early parole in August expressly to speed up crucial business decisions like the Texas chip fab. Accounting for between 1…

When I was a kid I was bullied by the kids calling me crazy, because of my overly imaginative approach to reality. Fast forward a lot of years later i look at reality and find out that the bullies had no clue at all. The real world is far more bizarre than any of the imaginary worlds I created in my mind during childhood

Truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#337

Post by jason-phillips »

dylan604 wrote: post #210
jason-phillips wrote: post #61

I worked at Samsung Austin Semiconductor for ten years as a software engineer. AMA. I very much love the people I worked with at SAS. It was one of the best experiences of my life and I'm very happy to see them expand like this. Wayne at Louie Mueller's BBQ had better add a few more pits, they're about to get a lot busier!

>I very much love the people I worked with at SAS. What color is the boat house at Hereford?

update hereford.buildings set color="blue" where building_name="boathouse" or 1=1;

I reckon it's blue.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#338

Post by coolso »

panick21_ wrote: post #125
phkahler wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Protectionism makes everyone worse off. Yeah I mean look at how China has grown the last 25 years with their fully open markets. Every approach has pluses and minuses. Putting your own first is common and healthy. The US has been failing to do this for some time now, and the economy is pinned in a corner with no easy way out.

China is now much more open then they were for a long time and as it happens their growth really started when they did that. The are 1.4 billion people who have embraced mostly 'typical capitalism' that is comparable to most countries in the world do. Its not like they are the first to have the idea of tarrifs or helping strategic industries. China has continental scale and 100s of millions of people living on the co…

The pushback from many whenever it’s suggested that the US should undergo a general trend to bring back manufacturing jobs to America always fascinates me. I always wonder what’s going through their heads when they prefer that things continue to be made on the other side of the world in a sweatshop paying their workers cents on the dollar to make cheap, soulless, throwaway goods in countries with terrible environmental laws, where they’ll then be shipped using a ton of fuel to get those goods across the world to us.

Whatever happened to taking pride in what we make and buy? Quality over quantity? Paying more for something better? Looking out for your neighbors and community by supporting their gainful employment? Independence from countries that literally hate us?

It wasn’t long ago at all that we were making most of the stuff we bought. It’s time to go back to that. Call out every company you see that doesn’t make their products in the USA and ask when they’re going to stop selling out their own neighbors just for a buck.

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#339

Post by carabiner »

killjoywashere wrote: post #241
wonderwonder wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are setting up fairly close to Tesla. Wonder if they are working on a deal for Tesla to provide battery backup. Interestingly enough Austin, TX appears to be rapidly approaching SF status as a tech hub and may soon surpass them. Its an interesting thing to watch and really gives insight into how politics and taxes affect business and growth.

> Interestingly enough Austin, TX appears to be rapidly approaching SF status as a tech hub and may soon surpass them. Uh, maybe it's time to take a drive through Austin, but that was a pretty sleepy little college town 10 years ago. Most of my family lives in the central Texas region (San Antonio, San Carlos, College Station), and I presently live in Mountain View. I have a hard time believing SF-scale infrastructur…

Yeah but San Antonio's even better, here's their car factory: https://s.hdnux.com/photos/46/41/53/10099417/69/1200x0.jpg

Re: Samsung plans $17B chip plant in Taylor, Texas

#340

Post by vesche »

josaka wrote: post #69

After the TX grid failure last winter, it's probably not a coincidence that Samsung's new facility will be near ERCOT's operation center in Taylor, which manages the TX grid, and will likely be the last load to shed when the grid's stressed. Used to work in the Austin fab, and the amount of money lost per minute in a power failure is mind boggling. The tax breaks Taylor offered ($314m) are not that different from wha…

I doubt it. The land is just cheap and widely available over there. Also, they know workers will be attracted to being a short commute from Round Rock. The storm that caused the grid failure is a very rare occurrence ("100-year storm").
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