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Wow, you completely mangled what he said. His engineers work three shifts. They aren't (necessarily) working longer hours. But they're willing to work second
by KirillPanov 3y ago
Wow, you completely mangled what he said.
His engineers work three shifts. They aren't (necessarily) working longer hours. But they're willing to work second and third shift at times, which R&D engineers in bascially every other first-world country refuse to do.
If you had a bunch of R&D engineers willing to work 16-hour days every day of the week, as long as they could sleep from midnight to 8am, you still wouldn't be able to keep up with TSMC.
It isn't longer hours.
- MichaelZuo 3y agoConsidering how much fabs cost, or so all publications say, it's actually surprising for any R&D departments to not run three shifts 24/7 to maximize utilization. When 1 EUV machine setup and ready is a quarter billion dollars...
- HellDunkel 3y agoBut why do they need to work in shifts? Cant you just set up a second and third lab?
- JCharante 3y agoSeems like a waste of money because the lab equipment is unused 16 hours a day.
- KirillPanov 3y agoWhen you're talking about the very bleeding edge you can't simply buy twice as many EUV steppers in the next few months no matter how much you pay. That few months of lead time is the difference between TSMC and everybody else. No amount of cash will make it go away.
- caskstrength 3y ago> But they're willing to work second and third shift at times, which R&D engineers in bascially every other first-world country refuse to do. What do you mean by "refuse"? If the price is right plenty of people would agree. Although I suspect the value I would bring during night shifts would be net negative...
- jdlshore 3y agoThere’s a point at which money is no longer the deciding factor in people’s decision making. The amount of money required to make it a deciding factor again is uneconomical, and is of the “I’ll do this for a few years, then retire” variety, which is a net negative due to brain drain. So, no, just paying people more isn’t the answer.
- caskstrength 3y agoFrom what I heard salaries of HW engineers are not anywhere close to FAANG SW engineers. I don't think paying double for night shifts would put them anywhere close to “I’ll do this for a few years, then retire”.