5 ms·

Also surprising is that TSMC was recently hit by water shortages due to a drought in Taiwan. Arizona isn't exactly drought resistant, yet they built there inste

Also surprising is that TSMC was recently hit by water shortages due to a drought in Taiwan. Arizona isn't exactly drought resistant, yet they built there instead of rainy Washington.

ckozlowski 5y ago
This made me scratch my head as well. The desert isn't exactly known for water supply, and given what I'd read elsewhere about how crucial water is for the process, I wondered if I was missing something somewhere. I did a quick search and found this: https://www.investors.com/news/technology/intel-stock-tsm-stock-seek-waterway-to-easing-chip-shortage-in-dry-arizona/ https://www.investors.com/news/technology/intel-stock-tsm-st... The takeaways: - Fab companies have invested in a lot of water reclamation and recycling regardless of location, as there's a lot of metals and other chemicals that need to be filtered out. (Asianometry goes over this more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=785Uzi1mGAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=785Uzi1mGAA ) - Intel claims Arizona's water usage has stayed level in the area as industrial use has replaced agricultural, which uses less. I'm sure there's a cost-benefit play here, where the tax and other incentives outweigh the increased costs of water reclamation.
baybal2 5y ago
There was a few hours long blackout in Taiwan today night, that was way beyond the time UPSes can last. Expect last 6 month worth of wafers in production to go down the drain in fabs which relied on battery backups only.
- Alupis 5y ago
  The backup power supplies for these types of facilities are actually generators powered off gasoline or diesel, not just batteries, and can theoretically run forever (or at least as much fuel you can get).
  - baybal2 5y ago
    You cannot backup power a whole modern fab, unless you build a small power station just for it. UPSes there are just to keep cleanroom clean, and most critical processes which can't be gracefully shut down.
    - neltnerb 5y ago
      Although at these scales, a CCP at 400MW output is "only" ~$300M, so building that small power station might not be that big a deal compared with the cost of turning off?
      - baybal2 5y ago
        I believe things are moving progressively in this direction.

Also surprising is that TSMC was recently hit by water shortages due to a drought in Taiwan. Arizona isn't exactly drought resistant, yet they built there instead of rainy Washington.

ckozlowski 5y ago

This made me scratch my head as well. The desert isn't exactly known for water supply, and given what I'd read elsewhere about how crucial water is for the process, I wondered if I was missing something somewhere. I did a quick search and found this: https://www.investors.com/news/technology/intel-stock-tsm-stock-seek-waterway-to-easing-chip-shortage-in-dry-arizona/ https://www.investors.com/news/technology/intel-stock-tsm-st... The takeaways: - Fab companies have invested in a lot of water reclamation and recycling regardless of location, as there's a lot of metals and other chemicals that need to be filtered out. (Asianometry goes over this more here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=785Uzi1mGAA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=785Uzi1mGAA ) - Intel claims Arizona's water usage has stayed level in the area as industrial use has replaced agricultural, which uses less. I'm sure there's a cost-benefit play here, where the tax and other incentives outweigh the increased costs of water reclamation.

baybal2 5y ago

There was a few hours long blackout in Taiwan today night, that was way beyond the time UPSes can last. Expect last 6 month worth of wafers in production to go down the drain in fabs which relied on battery backups only.

Alupis 5y ago
The backup power supplies for these types of facilities are actually generators powered off gasoline or diesel, not just batteries, and can theoretically run forever (or at least as much fuel you can get).
- baybal2 5y ago
  You cannot backup power a whole modern fab, unless you build a small power station just for it. UPSes there are just to keep cleanroom clean, and most critical processes which can't be gracefully shut down.
  - neltnerb 5y ago
    Although at these scales, a CCP at 400MW output is "only" ~$300M, so building that small power station might not be that big a deal compared with the cost of turning off?
    - baybal2 5y ago
      I believe things are moving progressively in this direction.