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How does Russia gets its chip for its weapons and other tech? Do they use in-house built but poor quality chips? Or they too buy from TSMC or the like?

epicureanideal 6y ago
I was reading that they do have internal chip production, but that the chips are incredibly expensive relative to what they get. But it's worth it to them to have their own source of chips and also chips that they trust, even at a huge multiple of the reasonable market cost. In a million dollar tank, a $10,000 chip you trust is less of a concern than a $400 chip that you don't trust or may lose access to in wartime.
magicsmoke 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikron_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikron_Group Currently at 65 nm, good enough to manufacture chips like these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-2S%2B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-2S%2B Russia still depends on TSMC for chips at 28nm like these though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-8S https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-8S In comparison, here's BAE's RAD750 at 150 nm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 65 nm is plenty good enough for rad-hardened military equipment, though good server chips still have to be outsourced to TSMC. In comparison, China's SMIC is at 28 nm CMOS and ramping up 14 nm FinFET processes but it depends on foreign companies for lithography machines. China's SMEE has a 90 nm lithography machine and announced that they're delivering a 28 nm machine sometime next year. I can't seem to find any Russian lithography companies though.
- fuoqi 6y ago
  It is also important to note that bigger transistor size helps with radiation resistance, so it does not make much sense to use 5-30 nm chips in space and military applications. Smaller power consumption absolutely does not worth reduced resistance. Also there is a big segment of small chips (e.g. RFID) for which a bigger process is cheaper. IIRC most of public transport tickets and cards in Russia are produced locally.

epicureanideal 6y ago

I was reading that they do have internal chip production, but that the chips are incredibly expensive relative to what they get. But it's worth it to them to have their own source of chips and also chips that they trust, even at a huge multiple of the reasonable market cost. In a million dollar tank, a $10,000 chip you trust is less of a concern than a $400 chip that you don't trust or may lose access to in wartime.

magicsmoke 6y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikron_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikron_Group Currently at 65 nm, good enough to manufacture chips like these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-2S%2B https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-2S%2B Russia still depends on TSMC for chips at 28nm like these though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-8S https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbrus-8S In comparison, here's BAE's RAD750 at 150 nm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAD750 65 nm is plenty good enough for rad-hardened military equipment, though good server chips still have to be outsourced to TSMC. In comparison, China's SMIC is at 28 nm CMOS and ramping up 14 nm FinFET processes but it depends on foreign companies for lithography machines. China's SMEE has a 90 nm lithography machine and announced that they're delivering a 28 nm machine sometime next year. I can't seem to find any Russian lithography companies though.

fuoqi 6y ago
It is also important to note that bigger transistor size helps with radiation resistance, so it does not make much sense to use 5-30 nm chips in space and military applications. Smaller power consumption absolutely does not worth reduced resistance. Also there is a big segment of small chips (e.g. RFID) for which a bigger process is cheaper. IIRC most of public transport tickets and cards in Russia are produced locally.