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Well, SMEE is rumored to have 28 nm already. China isn't going to get EUV lithography because the US is not going to give them that. ASML can't sell them those
by renewiltord 3y ago
Well, SMEE is rumored to have 28 nm already. China isn't going to get EUV lithography because the US is not going to give them that. ASML can't sell them those machines because the US controls their EUV license and makes the rules.
But the majority of chips they need can be built on this process if they have it. They don't need ASML if they got here. And they can't have ASML's new stuff.
Doesn't sound like much of a deterrent.
- ajross 3y ago> Well, SMEE is rumored to have 28 nm already FWIW, that's about where Intel was 14-15 years ago. That's a reasonable process for lots of logic chips, but not for modern mobile devices or datacenter machine learning engines.
- renewiltord 3y agoYep but it's a huge leap forward if indigenous. They can get to 22 nm from there which is enough for the majority of microchips. ASML is only relevant to them if they need to get to present day GPUs and mobile devices (as you said) and I don't think that's that important for their needs. But even if it is relevant they have no access to ASML tech because ASML only has that because the basic research is US-owned and the USG will enforce their export controls on ASML and will enforce that critical components are made here so playing nice with Taiwan won't get China any closer to EUV lithography. What /u/tomxor is saying makes no sense.
- ajross 3y agoNot clear to me that it's "indigenous". They're surely buying lots of ASML and TEL and AMAT tools like everyone else is, just not the fancy new EUV stuff they can't get. Absolutely it would be news if China was generating 28nm chips with a 100% domestic industrial base. But I don't think that's the case?