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I'm not sure how true it is or not but I heard that TSMC has the ability to remotely destroy all of their main fab equipment in the event the Chinese are invadi
by edm0nd 9mo ago
I'm not sure how true it is or not but I heard that TSMC has the ability to remotely destroy all of their main fab equipment in the event the Chinese are invading Taiwan.
- schainks 9mo agoThis is correct: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-21/asml-tsmc-can-disable-chip-machines-if-china-invades-taiwan https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-21/asml-tsmc... The most advanced ASML machines also cost something like $300-400M each and I am willing to bet if configured wrong can heavily damage themselves and the building they are in.
- bob1029 9mo agoYou don't need to physically destroy anything. All you need to do is zero-fill the storage devices in the facility and walk away. The tools are worthless without parameters/recipes/configuration. Reinventing this stuff is harder than acquiring an EUV tool.
- jfoster 9mo agoIsn't it fairly likely that espionage would have already got to that kind of data?
- jfoster 9mo agoI wonder if the destruction would actually go ahead. What's worse, China having a monopoly on production, or the entire world being set back by X years? In this scenario X is a two-digit number, right?
- KeplerBoy 9mo agoI don't think X is a two-digit number. TSMC might be slightly ahead of Intel, maybe a few years ahead of Samsung. People forget that the original ChatGPT models were powered by the A100, a chip manufactured by Samsung, which was Sota just a few years ago. On top TSMC has fabs and personnel with expertise in other places. After all this threat isn't new.