5 ms·

There's a huge underbelly of companies nobody ever hears about holding the technological torch in various industries. Some obscure mittelstand firm in Germany w

There's a huge underbelly of companies nobody ever hears about holding the technological torch in various industries. Some obscure mittelstand firm in Germany will be the world leader in ball bearings or thermostats or something like that, in a thousand little niches. TSMC is admittedly must bigger but like these types of firms, they don't need to tell everyone how important they are.

bluGill 5y ago
Marketing it the common person if you don't make the things they use isn't generally helpful. Intel has name recognition, but it isn't clear how many people calling Dell/hp/... to buy a new computer actually care if they get Intel vs AMD. Dell/hp/... need to market because those are the names the average person can influence, you call one and not the others (or go to local electronics store and choose one from several choices). Of course I'm not sure that intel really cares that the common person knows their name. All the marketing could be aimed at the Cxx of Dell/HP/... and the reason the rest of use see those ads is because they can't be sure the few people they target.
ezconnect 5y ago
What is amazing is TSMC is just the integrator of all the technology from different technology company.
- JoachimS 5y ago
  No. TSMC spend enormous amount of money developing their processes. To implement them in the fab, they need and thus cooperate (and co-develop) with vendors. But TSMC is far from just integrating stuff. As an example, TSMC design their own gates, including how they are structured and created on the die. This means developing each process step.
- davidjytang 5y ago
  That is just not true. TSMC got ahead of the pack by developing their own tech again and again and again... Without their own tech, they might as well be UMC.
ren_engineer 5y ago
There was a story about China finally having the metallurgical skills to make domestic ball point pens with a certain longevity that was considered a major milestone. Little things like that seem small but are huge, because the same skills for that type of precision can also be applied to military and other areas
User23 5y ago
> Some obscure mittelstand firm in Germany will be the world leader in ball bearings or thermostats or something like that, in a thousand little niches. The German reputation for precision engineering is certainly well-deserved. Part of this is because their economic system is designed to support these kinds of businesses. Surgical equipment is another great example.
omegalulw 5y ago
Marketing to the general public has two purposes, selling consumer products and creating hype for your stock. Did the latter purpose, you need really good hope (Elon Musk) to get the public to YOLO on you. Otherwise you will just desk with experienced investors who will usually want more details than what an ad provides and do the own DD.

bluGill 5y ago

Marketing it the common person if you don't make the things they use isn't generally helpful. Intel has name recognition, but it isn't clear how many people calling Dell/hp/... to buy a new computer actually care if they get Intel vs AMD. Dell/hp/... need to market because those are the names the average person can influence, you call one and not the others (or go to local electronics store and choose one from several choices). Of course I'm not sure that intel really cares that the common person knows their name. All the marketing could be aimed at the Cxx of Dell/HP/... and the reason the rest of use see those ads is because they can't be sure the few people they target.

ezconnect 5y ago

What is amazing is TSMC is just the integrator of all the technology from different technology company.

JoachimS 5y ago
No. TSMC spend enormous amount of money developing their processes. To implement them in the fab, they need and thus cooperate (and co-develop) with vendors. But TSMC is far from just integrating stuff. As an example, TSMC design their own gates, including how they are structured and created on the die. This means developing each process step.
davidjytang 5y ago
That is just not true. TSMC got ahead of the pack by developing their own tech again and again and again... Without their own tech, they might as well be UMC.

ren_engineer 5y ago

There was a story about China finally having the metallurgical skills to make domestic ball point pens with a certain longevity that was considered a major milestone. Little things like that seem small but are huge, because the same skills for that type of precision can also be applied to military and other areas

User23 5y ago

> Some obscure mittelstand firm in Germany will be the world leader in ball bearings or thermostats or something like that, in a thousand little niches. The German reputation for precision engineering is certainly well-deserved. Part of this is because their economic system is designed to support these kinds of businesses. Surgical equipment is another great example.

omegalulw 5y ago

Marketing to the general public has two purposes, selling consumer products and creating hype for your stock. Did the latter purpose, you need really good hope (Elon Musk) to get the public to YOLO on you. Otherwise you will just desk with experienced investors who will usually want more details than what an ad provides and do the own DD.