4 ms·
Made using which process? The article doesn't mention this. https://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/logic https://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicat
by lysace 2y ago
Made using which process? The article doesn't mention this.
https://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/logic https://www.tsmc.com/english/dedicatedFoundry/technology/log...
- choilive 2y ago4nm
- lysace 2y agoI thought Taiwan prohibited export of this kind of know-how? What did I miss?
- j_walter 2y agoThey have adopted a n-2 type of rule for advanaced tech...but as of yesterday they seem to have relaxed this rule and approved transfer of 2nm from Taiwan fabs to the AZ fab at some point in the near future. https://www.extremetech.com/computing/tsmc-cleared-for-2nm-production-in-us https://www.extremetech.com/computing/tsmc-cleared-for-2nm-p...
- lysace 2y agoI'd be extremely surprised if Apple is now able to source CPUs for current-gen high-end iPhones from a US fab. 2 gens ago, sure.
- andy_ppp 2y agoWow I did not know this and it is fantastic news, surprised Taiwan allowed this as they see chips as being the most important reason America would intervene if they were invaded.
- whimsicalism 2y agoI'm a China dove and I'd favor full-throated defense of Taiwan in any invasion (much more so than Ukraine) regardless of chips.
- d3ckard 2y agoI don’t disagree with the core premise, but why much more than Ukraine?
- whimsicalism 2y agoTaiwan is a long-standing well-functioning democracy and a core ally. On the other side, I also view Russia's grievances as somewhat more legitimate than China's.
- DennisP 2y agoAddressing those "grievances" hasn't worked out too well for Russia. They complained about Ukraine moving in the general direction of NATO membership, and got Sweden and Finland as actual new members of NATO. Finland has a longer Russian border than Ukraine, and Sweden has a regional navy that pretty much controls the Baltic Sea. Both countries were pretty firmly neutral before the war.
- bllguo 2y agoand that has what, exactly, to do with the legitimacy of said grievances?
- DennisP 2y agoBecause for all of Russia's apocalyptic rhetoric about the dire consequences of NATO membership on their borders, they've done nothing significant about Finland and Sweden actually becoming NATO members while stepping up their military spending. By comparison, a little political noise about Ukraine maybe joining NATO someday is much less of a provocation, which makes it seem unlikely to have been Russia's actual reason for invasion. And from any reasonable ethical perspective it's certainly not a legitimate one.
- DennisP 2y agoIn case of invasion, it's not that unlikely that the fabs in Taiwan get destroyed, or at least lose the ability to keep making and selling chips while the conflict is hot. In that case TSMC and Taiwan might prefer having a backup. As long as the US doesn't confiscate the Arizona fab, effectively siding with China, Taiwan would arguably have more leverage by still having something of immense strategic value to trade.
- whimsicalism 2y agoThe US is not going to hold on to some working fab for some Taiwan-government-in-exile. As soon as you are out of power, even your allies generally take the time to plunder what they can.
- DennisP 2y agoJust like the US plundered any Ukrainian assets they could get their hands on, instead of supporting the Ukrainian government and freezing Russian assets instead?
- whimsicalism 2y agoThe Ukrainian government is very much still extant
- DennisP 2y agoJust as the Taiwan government could continue to be, despite invasion from China.
- ElevenLathe 2y agoIn fact the RoC government is already in exile in Taiwan, though it seems unlikely that they would find another piece of real estate if they lost that.
- throwaway-blaze 2y ago
- zanderwohl 2y agoAdvanced lithography is like if a mystery cult were real: Secret knowledge only understood by the most learned initiates, tightly-guarded process, etching symbols that do things...
- lysace 2y agoSadly true. Even more depressing: it's like a very complicated baking recipe arrived at by tweaking parameters over and over a again. There is no deep understanding... just a giant list of baking parameters that seem to work, sometimes. (Yes, a bit like an AI. Hmm....)
- mdavidn 2y agoASML, a Dutch firm, sells photolithography equipment to TSMC.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- entropicdrifter 2y agoThe smallest process they've got up and running right now is 4nm, last I checked
- dietr1ch 2y agoAs an outsider that means somewhere in 2nm-10nm as everyone measures different things or have awfully off-standard rulers.
- ant6n 2y agoI’d say it means TSMC 4nm.
- drexlspivey 2y agoSo which device will these be for then? I thought Apple stuff are always on the cutting edge node.
- kcb 2y agoApple still produces older generation devices long after the latest ones are released. That's their whole strategy to address the lower end market.
- alt227 2y agoiPhone SE
- hinkley 2y agoTheir new stuff is. The iPad mini just moved from the A15 to the A17, The first MacBook with Intel processors had access to a bin that was not generally available yet. The yield was too low for it to work for an IBM, a Sony, or a Fujitsu. But Apple was low volume and high margin. If I was nervous about a new fab, there’s the iPhone SE, the Apple TV, lots of choices for a less aggressive manufacturing node and less aggressive sales figures. If yield is shit you can still offer a product that isn’t killed by its own success.