#semiconductors
Japan and the Netherlands agreed "to tighten restrictions on the export of chip manufacturing technology to Chinese companies."
"ASML is the most critical company affected by the Netherlands' restrictions. It's the only company in the world that produces so-called ultraviolet lithography machines, which are critical to the production of advanced semiconductors. CNBC previously reported that the company was already unable to ship its advanced extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machine to China but that it could still ship older deep ultraviolet lithography (DUV) machines."
"On the Japanese side, the restrictions are expected to impact companies such as Nikon and Tokyo Electron."
Japan and the Netherlands join US with tough chip controls on China
#solidstatelife #semiconductors #euv #asml #exportrestrictions #geopolitics
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24389544/1242819188.jpg)
3 nanometer chips have arrived. "Today," (which was actually December 29), "TSMC announced that 3nm technology has successfully entered volume production with good yields, and held a topping ceremony for its Fab 18 Phase 8 facility. TSMC estimates that 3nm technology will create end products with a market value of US$1.5 trillion within five years of volume production."
"Phases 1 through 8 of TSMC Fab 18 each have cleanroom area of 58,000 square meters, approximately double the size of a standard logic fab. TSMC's total investment in Fab 18 will exceed NT$1.86 trillion," -- NT is New Taiwan dollar -- this is $61 billion in US dollars -- "creating more than 23,500 construction jobs and over 11,300 high-tech direct job opportunities. In addition to expanding 3nm capacity in Taiwan, TSMC is also building 3nm capacity at its Arizona site."
"TSMC also announced that the Company's global R&D Center in the Hsinchu Science Park will officially open in the second quarter of 2023, to be staffed by 8,000 R&D personnel. TSMC is also making preparations for its 2nm fabs, which will be located in the Hsinchu and Central Taiwan Science Parks, with a total of six phases proceeding as planned."
"TSMC's 3nm process is the most advanced semiconductor technology in both power, performance, and area (PPA) and in transistor technology, and a full-node advance from the 5nm generation. Compared with the 5nm (N5) process, TSMC's 3nm process offers up to 1.6X logic density gain and 30-35% power reduction at the same speed, and supports the innovative TSMC FINFLEX architecture."
"China's SMIC shipping 7nm chips, reportedly copied TSMC's tech." Article from July but I just saw it today. If true, mainland China has much more advanced semiconductor manufacturing capability than I thought.
"According to analyst firm TechInsights, Chinese foundry SMIC has been producing chips based on its 7nm process node for a Bitcoin Miner SoC, and they've been shipping since July of 2021 (h/t to SemiAnalysis). TechInsights has reverse-engineered the chip, saying the 'initial images suggest it is a close copy of TSMC 7nm process technology,' a telling discovery after Taiwan-based TSMC has sued SMIC twice in the past for copying its tech."
"SMIC has been heavily sanctioned by the US government, restricting its access to advanced EUV chipmaking tools."
China's SMIC shipping 7nm chips, reportedly copied TSMC's tech
#Taiwan #China #semiconductors
Some considerable time ago, when the interwebs were all a-buzz about Pelosi's visit to Taiwan and I mentioned that TSMC was the main good reason for any American leader to go there, the push-back at the time was that chips weren't as important as all that. Up comes "60 Minutes" only TODAY to talk about life in Taiwan in which was mentioned the "silicon shield" aka the "chip shield". It's been a long time coming but now comes the time when I can say I TOLD YOU SO.
Commencing to be insufferably smug for the rest of the day.
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/taiwan-china-lesley-stahl-60-minutes-video-202210-02/
"Seven years ago, when the Epyc comeback plan was formulated, AMD could not have dreamed in a million years that Intel's vaunted foundries would run into so many troubles with 10 nanometer and then 7 nanometer processes. The current situation has created as big of a gap for AMD to exploit as Intel's stubborn decision to put forth the Itanium architecture as the future of datacenter compute back in the late 1990s and early 2000s."
"In the quarter ended in June, revenues for AMD were up 70.1 percent to $6.55 billion. Due to higher costs for development of products like the 'Genoa' and 'Bergamo' Epyc 7004, the 'Genoa-X' and Turin tweaks to the Epyc 7004 designs with Zen 4 cores, the 'Turin' and 'Siena' CPUs with Zen 5 cores coming further down the road in 2024, as well as the still-un-codenamed Instinct MI300A hybrid CPU-GPU compute engine coming next year, net income took a pretty big hit."
"Seven years ago, when the Epyc comeback plan was formulated, AMD could not have dreamed in a million years that Intel's vaunted foundries would run into so many troubles with 10 nanometer and then 7 nanometer processes. The current situation has created as big of a gap for AMD to exploit as Intel's stubborn decision to put forth the Itanium architecture as the future of datacenter compute back in the late 1990s and early 2000s."
"In the quarter ended in June, revenues for AMD were up 70.1 percent to $6.55 billion. Due to higher costs for development of products like the 'Genoa' and 'Bergamo' Epyc 7004, the 'Genoa-X' and Turin tweaks to the Epyc 7004 designs with Zen 4 cores, the 'Turin' and 'Siena' CPUs with Zen 5 cores coming further down the road in 2024, as well as the still-un-codenamed Instinct MI300A hybrid CPU-GPU compute engine coming next year, net income took a pretty big hit."
"Taiwan's spy catchers have launched probes into around 100 Chinese companies suspected of illegally poaching semiconductor engineers and other tech talent." "Home to industry giant TSMC and accounting for 92% of the world's most advanced semiconductor manufacturing capacity, Taiwan possesses what China needs -- chip expertise in spades."
"It is not illegal per se for Chinese firms to hire Taiwanese engineers. Taiwanese law, however, prohibits Chinese investment in some parts of the semiconductor supply chain including chip design and requires reviews for other areas such as chip packaging, making it very difficult for Chinese chip firms to operate on the island legally."
'Tip of the iceberg': Taiwan's spy catchers hunt Chinese poachers of chip talent
/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuters/LV36ZDEMXNJQPKMUXFDWIASFYU.jpg)
Why the #semicon supply chain crisis is harder to fix. Did I post this before?
https://twitter.com/ChengTingFang/status/1468449865256501252
Export control for #semiconductors, Taiwan-style.
https://twitter.com/ChengTingFang/status/1471287603404353538
The youtube can haz astonishing recommendations. This is one of them re #semiconductors.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1LpsuAUaKoMzzJSEt5WImw/community?lb=UgzOAcFrsYAxksI9mOp4AaABCQ
(via asianometry)
Taiwan Exports Seen Rising For 19th Month on Chip Demand
https://www.asiafinancial.com/taiwan-exports-seen-rising-for-19th-month-on-chip-demand
#semiconductors, #chips, #taiwan, #exports, #computer, #tsmc
Wer noch nicht genug ueber TSMC weiss.. im Deutschlandradio hat Carina Rother in gutem Format alles wichtige zusammengefasst.
Taiwans Chip-Produzent TSMC - Systemrelevant für die Welt.
TL;DR:
„TSMC wird seinen Vorsprung mindestens bis 2027 behalten. Es gibt kaum echte Konkurrenz, nur Samsung und Intel. TSMC hat in der Auftragsfertigung einen Marktanteil von 55 Prozent, dreimal so groß wie die Nummer zwei, Samsung. Samsung und Intel müssen sich sehr anstrengen, um das aufzuholen.“
Plus: der Beitrag kommt fast ganz ohne plakative Schreckenszenarien aus, a la "OMG WTF Unsere notleidende Autoindustrie". Ein entspannt-bewundernder Blick auf Taiwan tut der Welt ganz gut gerade.
Next chapter in the US (here: Arizona) progressing towards getting "semiconductor powerhouse" TSMC to build a fab on US soil. Staff has already been trained, and to make sure everyone interested understands its not coming cheap the epiphenomenon is named directly, i.e. "a warning that producing in Arizona is a wee bit more expensive than Taiwan, and customers may see resulting price hikes." What did you think?
https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/25/taiwan_and_arizona_economic_groups/?td=keepreading-top
"Signing of the MOU encourages both sides to move toward a tighter bilateral industrial cooperation, particularly on the heels of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's plan to build a $12 billion fab in Arizona," said Chih-Ching Yang, deputy director general of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), who witnessed the signing.
GPEC chief exec Chris Camacho told Reuters his org would co-locate as many TSMC suppliers and other related companies to the area as possible, and 40 companies are already considering investing in Arizona.
So things are moving forward, and many kinds of questions shall be asked. I'd expect water, IP, and mid-term perspectives to come up, for the time after production starts sometime in 2024. We'll see.