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its a shame we didn't see this type of investment after the rust belt area crashed in 2008. if we had more domestic chip plants, we probably wouldn't be in the

by xyst 5y ago

its a shame we didn't see this type of investment after the rust belt area crashed in 2008. if we had more domestic chip plants, we probably wouldn't be in the current chip shortage rn chip fab/manufacturing process probably doesn't generate as many jobs as the auto industry (the process is automated heavily from what I have seen) at its peak but at least they will be very high paying.

gruez 5y ago
>if we had more domestic chip plants, we probably wouldn't be in the current chip shortage rn Why? At the end of the day it's a capacity shortage. The only way to prevent that is to have surplus capacity prior to the pandemic. Considering how companies don't like to spend money on expensive fabs that end up getting underutilized, I'm skeptical that having more domestic chip plants would lead to that.
- cxr 5y ago
  > The only way to prevent that is to have surplus capacity prior to the pandemic. The only way to prevent that is to have surplus capacity prior to the pandemic. "Capacity" in a fab means throughput. Contrary to the breathlessness that I hear when people describe modern semiconductor manufacturing, fabs are nowhere near optimal. There's plenty of dumb shit that happens in an ordinary day at a semiconductor fab—and consequently, lots of room for (easy) improvements. Fabs have lower than optimal capacity because they go heavy on hiring for things like a background in physics and chemistry, or tangential degrees like aerospace[1], but they don't treat IT concerns or the day-to-day processes that workers are engaged in like engineering problems. This gets you things like routine showstoppers that take 20+ minutes to resolve because that's how long it takes to go turn off the Caps Lock on a given workstation before being able to resume work. So much room for improvement. 1. and proficiency in Microsoft Office https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021528
davidjytang 5y ago
Fab is still considered high-risk. It made sense to MBAs that why build your own fab when you can outsource it to someone who is willing to sink all that money and does it well for reasonable price. Until supply chain got choked.

by xyst 5y ago

gruez 5y ago

>if we had more domestic chip plants, we probably wouldn't be in the current chip shortage rn Why? At the end of the day it's a capacity shortage. The only way to prevent that is to have surplus capacity prior to the pandemic. Considering how companies don't like to spend money on expensive fabs that end up getting underutilized, I'm skeptical that having more domestic chip plants would lead to that.

cxr 5y ago
> The only way to prevent that is to have surplus capacity prior to the pandemic. The only way to prevent that is to have surplus capacity prior to the pandemic. "Capacity" in a fab means throughput. Contrary to the breathlessness that I hear when people describe modern semiconductor manufacturing, fabs are nowhere near optimal. There's plenty of dumb shit that happens in an ordinary day at a semiconductor fab—and consequently, lots of room for (easy) improvements. Fabs have lower than optimal capacity because they go heavy on hiring for things like a background in physics and chemistry, or tangential degrees like aerospace[1], but they don't treat IT concerns or the day-to-day processes that workers are engaged in like engineering problems. This gets you things like routine showstoppers that take 20+ minutes to resolve because that's how long it takes to go turn off the Caps Lock on a given workstation before being able to resume work. So much room for improvement. 1. and proficiency in Microsoft Office https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30021528

davidjytang 5y ago

Fab is still considered high-risk. It made sense to MBAs that why build your own fab when you can outsource it to someone who is willing to sink all that money and does it well for reasonable price. Until supply chain got choked.