5 ms·

Morris Chang and the Global Semiconductor Competition

3 points by ceohockey60 5y ago

rektide 5y ago
Does anyone have the semi-recent long-winded really interesting write up on TSMC & Morris Chang to link here? There was like a 15 page write up on the history, talking about competition with Samsung, & the relationships with Apple over time & all kinds of stuff? Would provide interesting color for this. Edit: ah, here[1]. 6100 words! 22 pages! The Google doc linked has some interesting annotations too. Reading this coverage of Morris though, this is such an interesting noted advantage: > 3. Highspeed Railways and Highways: Convenient, high speed transportation enables quick deployment of thousands of technical and manufacturing workers between TSMC’s three hubs -- Hsinchu, Tainan, Taichung -- without these employees needing to relocate their families. Flexible labor power, enabled by geography, is a hugely interesting note. I've somewhat been thinking of Focault's "Biopower", the management of large groups of people. Having a geography & infrastructure to enable effective deployment & redeployment across a variety of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's sites is such an interesting mini-example of biopower at work. Seeing it written down as one of 3 competitive advantages is very notable to me, & something that seems like it would be so hard to replicate in any other place. It's also noteable that Taiwan, having such a high concentration of chip makers, is best able to raise up future workers. There's more of a concentrated intensive pipeline, where the skills can be learned & developed. This is Chang's first noted TSMC advantage: > Technical Talent: Taiwan boasts a large number of dedicated engineers, technicians and other technical workers, who want to devote themselves to the advanced manufacturing industry (emphasis reflects the slide’s red highlight). I still have stories of Silicon Valley's emergence being tied to it being a silicon foundry, a place where countless people could learn to make chips at incredibly low costs, had ready access to chip making. Having experience be widely accessible, having democratic access to the technology, is, to me, still something that sticks out as what began this amazing time. I don't think that's nearly as true anywhere, the US or Taiwan, but Taiwan continues to have a deep talent pool, and I worry that the US is unable to re-fill the ranks, unable to stay innovative & competitive, unable to beget as many new upstarts. What interesting players do emerge seem to be swallowed pre-product, which I see as another huge problem. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AMD_Stock/comments/lzfus8/tsmc_at_the_head_of_historys_tide_two_high_walls/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AMD_Stock/comments/lzfus8/tsmc_at_t...
- ceohockey60 5y ago
  Do you mean this translation piece? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RMr9lzlgrReruoosnoHLIZ0hHbqJT5Kq7hZmcG6_uqg/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RMr9lzlgrReruoosnoHLIZ0h... Chinese language original: https://www.huxiu.com/article/360061.html https://www.huxiu.com/article/360061.html

3 points by ceohockey60 5y ago

Does anyone have the semi-recent long-winded really interesting write up on TSMC & Morris Chang to link here? There was like a 15 page write up on the history, talking about competition with Samsung, & the relationships with Apple over time & all kinds of stuff? Would provide interesting color for this. Edit: ah, here[1]. 6100 words! 22 pages! The Google doc linked has some interesting annotations too. Reading this coverage of Morris though, this is such an interesting noted advantage: > 3. Highspeed Railways and Highways: Convenient, high speed transportation enables quick deployment of thousands of technical and manufacturing workers between TSMC’s three hubs -- Hsinchu, Tainan, Taichung -- without these employees needing to relocate their families. Flexible labor power, enabled by geography, is a hugely interesting note. I've somewhat been thinking of Focault's "Biopower", the management of large groups of people. Having a geography & infrastructure to enable effective deployment & redeployment across a variety of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's sites is such an interesting mini-example of biopower at work. Seeing it written down as one of 3 competitive advantages is very notable to me, & something that seems like it would be so hard to replicate in any other place. It's also noteable that Taiwan, having such a high concentration of chip makers, is best able to raise up future workers. There's more of a concentrated intensive pipeline, where the skills can be learned & developed. This is Chang's first noted TSMC advantage: > Technical Talent: Taiwan boasts a large number of dedicated engineers, technicians and other technical workers, who want to devote themselves to the advanced manufacturing industry (emphasis reflects the slide’s red highlight). I still have stories of Silicon Valley's emergence being tied to it being a silicon foundry, a place where countless people could learn to make chips at incredibly low costs, had ready access to chip making. Having experience be widely accessible, having democratic access to the technology, is, to me, still something that sticks out as what began this amazing time. I don't think that's nearly as true anywhere, the US or Taiwan, but Taiwan continues to have a deep talent pool, and I worry that the US is unable to re-fill the ranks, unable to stay innovative & competitive, unable to beget as many new upstarts. What interesting players do emerge seem to be swallowed pre-product, which I see as another huge problem. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/AMD_Stock/comments/lzfus8/tsmc_at_the_head_of_historys_tide_two_high_walls/ https://www.reddit.com/r/AMD_Stock/comments/lzfus8/tsmc_at_t...

ceohockey60 5y ago
Do you mean this translation piece? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RMr9lzlgrReruoosnoHLIZ0hHbqJT5Kq7hZmcG6_uqg/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RMr9lzlgrReruoosnoHLIZ0h... Chinese language original: https://www.huxiu.com/article/360061.html https://www.huxiu.com/article/360061.html