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Nothing stays secret forever, so it's probably time to create new satellites with upgraded interfaces. Them's the breaks. Off-shoring most electronics manufac

Nothing stays secret forever, so it's probably time to create new satellites with upgraded interfaces. Them's the breaks. Off-shoring most electronics manufacture in the US is probably a "Battlestar Galactica" size mistake, though. Even if our super-military grade electronics are home grown, where will we get the expertise to continue to make such without a domestic industry?

jrockway 15y ago
What country do you think most of the advanced microprocessors are made in? The US has a lot of experience building super-expensive fabs and mass-producing amazingly complex microprocessors, which is why if you look into your computer, you'll notice that your processor was made in the US, not China.
- redstripe 15y ago
  For those that care: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabricati... Nvidia uses TSMC/UMC, AMD uses GlobalFoundries
  - Roboprog 15y ago
    Thanks for the list. I'm a bit surprised to learn most of these are still in the US. There are quite a few in various Asian countries, though, including China.
- blhack 15y ago
  I live in Phoenix... Within biking distance of my house there are fabs for: ON Semiconductor Freescale and Intel We make a lot of glass here.
  - copper 15y ago
    Phoenix and Hillsboro probably do the most volume in the US. I wonder what happened to TI's fabs, though. The reason that they are so centralised is that it costs a shockingly /huge/ amount of money to build and run a new fab. It makes all sorts of business sense to outsource fabrication, particularly when your own chip production volumes are nowhere near enough to keep fab utilisation at close to full. As for the super-complex chip argument, I'm not sure I buy it. Sure, Intel (and I hope, IBM) still run their own fabs - they almost have to, given the amount of control they require over the processes. However, all fabless semiconductor companies (by definition :) outsource - and that does include a majority of the chips you encounter in your daily life. Most smartphone processors are made in Taiwan, or somewhere close by.

jrockway 15y ago

What country do you think most of the advanced microprocessors are made in? The US has a lot of experience building super-expensive fabs and mass-producing amazingly complex microprocessors, which is why if you look into your computer, you'll notice that your processor was made in the US, not China.

redstripe 15y ago
For those that care: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabrication_plants http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_semiconductor_fabricati... Nvidia uses TSMC/UMC, AMD uses GlobalFoundries
- Roboprog 15y ago
  Thanks for the list. I'm a bit surprised to learn most of these are still in the US. There are quite a few in various Asian countries, though, including China.
blhack 15y ago
I live in Phoenix... Within biking distance of my house there are fabs for: ON Semiconductor Freescale and Intel We make a lot of glass here.
- copper 15y ago
  Phoenix and Hillsboro probably do the most volume in the US. I wonder what happened to TI's fabs, though. The reason that they are so centralised is that it costs a shockingly /huge/ amount of money to build and run a new fab. It makes all sorts of business sense to outsource fabrication, particularly when your own chip production volumes are nowhere near enough to keep fab utilisation at close to full. As for the super-complex chip argument, I'm not sure I buy it. Sure, Intel (and I hope, IBM) still run their own fabs - they almost have to, given the amount of control they require over the processes. However, all fabless semiconductor companies (by definition :) outsource - and that does include a majority of the chips you encounter in your daily life. Most smartphone processors are made in Taiwan, or somewhere close by.