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Semiconductor manufacturing is such a tenuous proposition. This is why we simply cannot rely entirely on one vendor/process to make all our chips. Vertical int

Semiconductor manufacturing is such a tenuous proposition. This is why we simply cannot rely entirely on one vendor/process to make all our chips. Vertical integration on simpler process nodes seems like a good idea if you are going to be in the business of making electric cars. To me, IGBT manufacturing for EVs is equivalent to building the valve train for an engine. You have to have control over the fundamental aspects of your business or you are just a hat riding on top of someone else’s.

iasay 4y ago
Back in the old days we had qualified second sources for all parts that went into engineering. In fact it was part of the design specification not to rely on one vendor. That put some limitations on what was possible as it pushed the technology back around ten years behind state of the art, but it did not in any way subtract from what we were delivering. Mostly because we actually could deliver it...
- linkdink 4y ago
  That's because the US military required it. Electronics and component reliability was so terrible that they started naming and shaming by publishing reports about exactly how each part was total crap. It showed industry that everyone else was making garbage, and that the military would pay for quality. Add in the second source rule, and suddenly everyone is in the business of making better quality parts. Nowadays, there are additional market forces that drive higher quality. Technology also advanced beyond what you could do with discrete components and simple building block ICs. So the cost-benefit scales tipped towards allowing single source.
baybal2 4y ago
> You have to have control over the fundamental aspects of your business or you are just a hat riding on top of someone else’s. Amazon Microsoft Google are hats riding on top of CPU vendors. And these hats, honestly speaking, are doing much better than semis.

iasay 4y ago

Back in the old days we had qualified second sources for all parts that went into engineering. In fact it was part of the design specification not to rely on one vendor. That put some limitations on what was possible as it pushed the technology back around ten years behind state of the art, but it did not in any way subtract from what we were delivering. Mostly because we actually could deliver it...

linkdink 4y ago
That's because the US military required it. Electronics and component reliability was so terrible that they started naming and shaming by publishing reports about exactly how each part was total crap. It showed industry that everyone else was making garbage, and that the military would pay for quality. Add in the second source rule, and suddenly everyone is in the business of making better quality parts. Nowadays, there are additional market forces that drive higher quality. Technology also advanced beyond what you could do with discrete components and simple building block ICs. So the cost-benefit scales tipped towards allowing single source.

baybal2 4y ago

> You have to have control over the fundamental aspects of your business or you are just a hat riding on top of someone else’s. Amazon Microsoft Google are hats riding on top of CPU vendors. And these hats, honestly speaking, are doing much better than semis.