2 ms·

TSMC is dominant in technology AND volume. It chip shortage would be massive. Redesigning everything that has a TSMC chip in it to use something else would be a

TSMC is dominant in technology AND volume. It chip shortage would be massive. Redesigning everything that has a TSMC chip in it to use something else would be a massive undertaking. What do you think the stock market would say if Apple announced that they could not make a iPhone/Mac until they redesign they hardware to use intel chips, because the only other manufacturer of chips good enough is Samsung, and they wont sell chips to their competitor?

_hao 3y ago
> TSMC is dominant in technology AND volume. It chip shortage would be massive. Redesigning everything that has a TSMC chip in it to use something else would be a massive undertaking. That's true and yet I'd say that's not my problem? The market will be fine. If anything that means more software work for me. New opportunities will arise. People won't buy a new phone every year for a while (which is objectively a good thing!). The M series MacBooks are so good now there's virtually no reason to upgrade to M2 or M3 if you have the M1 (like in my case). I fully expect to use this computer for the next decade. My desktop PC is basically unchanged since I built it in 2016 (+1 extra SSD I've added after, but that was it). The i7-6700K in there is still chugging happily along. Apple have more than $100 billion of cash at hand. They will be fine no matter what happens. It's not like they didn't change chips before :)
- theGnuMe 3y ago
  Just because your needs are met doesn’t mean all needs are met. There is a lot of tech still to invent!
  - _hao 3y ago
    Of course. However, that wasn't my point which was that the world won't stop turning if TSMC suddenly vanishes.
The_Colonel 3y ago
> Redesigning everything that has a TSMC chip in it to use something else would be a massive undertaking. Qualcomm switches their Snapdragon SOC between TSMC and Samsung in one generation. I think the difficulty is overstated. Clocks might have to be lowered to keep the thermal envelope. I suspect the biggest problem (in context of semiconductors) would be the lowered production capacity, building new Samsung factories would take time.

_hao 3y ago

> TSMC is dominant in technology AND volume. It chip shortage would be massive. Redesigning everything that has a TSMC chip in it to use something else would be a massive undertaking. That's true and yet I'd say that's not my problem? The market will be fine. If anything that means more software work for me. New opportunities will arise. People won't buy a new phone every year for a while (which is objectively a good thing!). The M series MacBooks are so good now there's virtually no reason to upgrade to M2 or M3 if you have the M1 (like in my case). I fully expect to use this computer for the next decade. My desktop PC is basically unchanged since I built it in 2016 (+1 extra SSD I've added after, but that was it). The i7-6700K in there is still chugging happily along. Apple have more than $100 billion of cash at hand. They will be fine no matter what happens. It's not like they didn't change chips before :)

theGnuMe 3y ago
Just because your needs are met doesn’t mean all needs are met. There is a lot of tech still to invent!
- _hao 3y ago
  Of course. However, that wasn't my point which was that the world won't stop turning if TSMC suddenly vanishes.

The_Colonel 3y ago

> Redesigning everything that has a TSMC chip in it to use something else would be a massive undertaking. Qualcomm switches their Snapdragon SOC between TSMC and Samsung in one generation. I think the difficulty is overstated. Clocks might have to be lowered to keep the thermal envelope. I suspect the biggest problem (in context of semiconductors) would be the lowered production capacity, building new Samsung factories would take time.