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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

#341

Post by pewpew_ »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #206
shortstuffsushi wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the siren thing varies from location to location, a good friend of mine lived right next to one and it seemed you couldn't go 15 minutes without being drown out by them heading out.

In NJ they go off all the time to alert the volunteers not at the station, and it's used for all emergencies, not just fires that need trucks to roll out.

I live in NJ, directly across the street from a fire station. I also occasionally work nights to connect with team mates in other time zones.

You will always see the flashing lights but they have never blasted the sirens at night.

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

#342

Post by cdot2 »

throaway46546 wrote: post #281
rllearneratwork wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they are also not hostile to kids in public schools (CA dumbs down math, requires masks, requires CRT, etc.)

Can you give an example of something specific that is taught in California schools with regards to CRT that you object to?

https://youtu.be/83b_u5V51U8 Here's a good example

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

#343

Post by sumedh »

phkahler wrote: post #60
consumer451 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there's a huge benefit of COVID. The related chip shortage finally woke up the US gov on supply chains. My question is why did it take this long? I have been worried about this for nearly a decade. My next question is how many mask factories have we built in the US since we realized that was important?

>> My next question is how many mask factories have we built in the US since we realized that was important? There's a guy with a small company that makes N95 masks in the US. He got pissed when they came looking for a production increase. He would be happy to increase production, but nobody was willing to buy from him long-term. They'll just go back to importing cheaper product (probably from China) after the crisis…

> (probably from China)

Not only China, they most likely come from Wuhan where the pandemic started.

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

#344

Post by m0zg »

ksec wrote: post #324
m0zg wrote: post #313

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OK, then we'll pay $20 more for a $3K laptop. Hardly a tragedy. Same with labor by the way. If Apple made phones here and charged $20-30 more per unit, their user base wouldn't even blink.

I guess I have to be explicit. For a $3K Laptop you are looking at M1 Pro or M1 Max, those would cost at least $50 to $100 more BOM cost. Excluding other factor. That translate to roughly $125 to $250 retail price increase at the same margin. For a labour of $20 to $30 increase per iPhone unit, would equate retail price increase of $50 to $75. Excluding other factors. Not to mention I seriously doubt labour would be…

There's not a whole hour of labor in each iPhone. Not even close. Humans just put together robot-assembled boards, screens, and so on. If this is re-shored, it wouldn't be that difficult for Apple to reduce manual labor even further than that, possibly to near zero. I've tried to repair an iPhone PCB once where an SMD resistor fell off. I couldn't do it, even though I have a hot air workstation and a bench microscope. Humans can't work on SMD components you can't even see without magnification.

And I'd like to understand how it is that an M1 Pro die, which is manufactured _solely_ by robots, and can't even use human labor would cost $100 per unit more here than anywhere else in the world. Heck the chip itself likely costs less than that to manufacture (do remember that we're excluding the design cost, which is the same).

This is quite literally the case of big businesses selling their (for some tenuous definition of "their" - they don't much care where they are situated as long as they have access to US market) country out for a buck.

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

#345

Post by tooltalk »

optimalsolver wrote: post #271
kube-system wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Samsung is probably more accurately described as a multinational company in this context. The location of a company's headquarters is not a primary determining factor for all different types of geopolitical risk. Like other multinationals, they have some ability to pick the jurisdictions they operate, and each of those locations have their own geopolitical contexts. However, in this case, South Korea is also a close…

>However, in this case, South Korea is also a close US ally So is Taiwan.

But TSMC isn't necessarily a multinational company, which can also be said about other notable Taiwanese companies like Foxconn, whose business model depends on exploiting young, cheap, unskilled laborers from rural China and who had been far less successful in operating oversea operations outside China, such as in Brazil or Wisconsin, US.

As insinuated in the pessimitic tone of in the interview, TSMC also appears to be very reluctant to expand beyond Taiwan and China, and is certainly less worried about geopolitical threat from China. I think it's important to note that not everyone in Taiwan is dead set against the CCP. In a pre-pandemic Pew Research Center poll[1], at least 1/3 of Taiwanese still longed for closer economic and political ties with the mainland China. I don't have any recent data, but I doubt it changed much since.

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/05/12/in-taiwan-view...

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

#346

Post by bredren »

duped wrote: post #240
gjsman-1000 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you get into chipmaking, really? Is it a Physics degree, or is it a Computer Science degree with just lots of on-the-job training?

Undergrad in electrical engineering at a school that teaches coursework in VLSI and computer architectures. There are a few that have professors and course studies at the undergrad and graduate level in semiconductors, integration with partnerships with industry. Off the top of my head, UIUC, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, NC State, UF, UT Austin, Cal Tech. I'm sure there are many more. Graduate degrees in physics and EE fo…

I studied what is formally known as Computer Engineering at Oregon State University.

The courses we took had labs starting from soldering physical components on boards (actually wire wrapping) to hardware design tools.

After graduating, I went to work for Mentor Graphics, (now a division of Siemens). They create chip-level design tools of all kinds, the big moneymaker back then was Calibre Parasitic Extraction.

They also sell PADS, a PCB design tool that was popular. I did lead gen for both these products and steered away from design and into software.

However, you could go to work for any of the electronic design automation (EDA) companies and ultimately learn the design tools at great detail which might be a way to jump into a position on a design team.

At the very least you would be in a position to build a professional network with chip designers.

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

#347

Post by m0zg »

PeterisP wrote: post #329
petersellers wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> in that case USA will ensure that they do not get taken over by a geopolitical adversary in the coming decade How will the USA ensure that?

If the push comes to shove, a US carrier group parked in Taiwan's territorial waters makes any sea invasion impossible if it's willing to shoot at Chinese ships; you can't ship and land a million soldiers across a hostile sea, and China can't (at the moment) win the sea battle. It's debatable to what extent USA is willing to fight for that, but if it chooses to do so, then now and at least until 2030 USA has enough m…

In a full scale conflict, carrier group would be sunk by subs in the first 15 minutes. Those carrier groups are a relic of the past that only works against unsophisticated adversaries who do not have the largest submarine fleet in the world [1] or nukes. US military planners know this so any such things will be withdrawn shortly before shit is about to go down, or (more likely) never brought in in the first place. And it doubly does not work against adversaries without whom we can't even build anything because we outsourced all of our production there. In 2 years we couldn't even scale the production of N95 face masks on US soil, let alone anything more complicated. The colossus has legs of clay and US government (and its owner - the US business establishment) is to blame.

Prediction: Taiwan will be retaken by China by 2030 and the US will do bupkis about it other than saber rattling. It can't even do sanctions, since that'd be sort of like US imposing sanctions on its own manufacturing base. Xi knows this. He will use our weakness to his advantage. It would seem that business establishments are already acknowledging this, hence this massive investment in the US. On the other hand, this is also forcing China's hand - they can't afford to wait until it becomes feasible for the US to impose effective sanctions. Their colossus too has legs of clay. Except the legs are not as weak.

[1] https://www.globalfirepower.com/navy-submarines.php

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

#348

Post by throwaway201025 »

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!

Good to see a fellow (former) Samsung employee. What company did you move to? As I've also primarily worked on in-house software only, I'm finding myself less and less competitive in the era of venture capitals and IT services. Did you find a solution?

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

#349

Post by kortilla »

kurthr wrote: post #147
88840-8855 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What finance guy will ever approve this? I doubt that the service agreement would ever be approved with that clause.

LOL, the current political heads for the state of Texas (and county of Taylor) will happily trade future liability of their constituents for investment now (and kickbacks later). Honestly, I think Samsung's management is more comfortable in this sort of "political" environment than many others. If you watch local news reporting, it's hilarious that they (politicians) have no idea what the "factory" does. I'm personal…

> the current political heads for the state of Texas (and county of Taylor) will happily trade future liability of their constituents for investment now (and kickbacks later)

Do you have some examples of this?

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

#350

Post by samstave »

bloodyplonker22 wrote: post #298
samstave wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two things: Terrorist #1: FOCUS ON THAT PLANT ANT TAKE IT OUT!! --- Second thing: WHY THE FUCK ARENT THESE COMPANIES BUILDING THEIR OWN POWER PLANTS?

Three things: why would a terrorist take it out when they could take out a ton of other higher priority targets? Why would a company waste tons of money to build a power plant when they could just use an existing power plant. It may not be 100% reliable, but it's a hell of a lot better than wasting tons of money building their own. Lastly, thanks for the completely nonsensical post and typing in all caps like it is a…

Are you delusional on the actual value of targets? Clearly so.

Companies all over the WORLD conquer resources for their benefit, If I have to explain this to you then, [CAPS INTENTIONAL] - GO FUCKING LEARN ABOUT HISTORY YOU FUCKING MORON.

(3 months old account talking to an elder...)

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