The TSMC Thread

That’s things with tech. It’s only one innovation and the landscape changes.

They are gonna move from 5nm to 3nm first.

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Mass production with high yield is hard, producing 2nm samples is too easy by Samsung and TSMC standards. The fact that TSMC is building the 2nm fabs means they already have samples and a rough idea of how to mass produce it.

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I found some numbers on transistors and power usage.

nm (company) transistors

5 (TSMC) 173
5 (Samsung) 127

2 (IBM) 333
3 (TSMC) 294

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Arms race.

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One of TSMC’s advantages is that its entire supply chain (ASML, Mediatek, Mitsubishi Chemical, Mitsui Chemical, Merck) is within walking distance. Apparently, Korea sees this and is trying to replicate.

Under the plan, the government said it will create a so-called “K-Semiconductor Belt” in the western part of the country incorporating Pangyo, Giheung, Hwaseong, Pyeongtaek and Onyang, and the central region connecting Icheon, Yongin and Cheongju. The belt will encompass every scope of the semiconductor business ― manufacturing, materials, components and equipment, and design.

South Korea may struggle to obtain enough chip experts given the many national programs aimed at boosting chips in Asia and the United States, especially as firms like Samsung and Hynix aim to expand into the production of logic chips.

The chip industry requires significant chemical inputs, for which South Korea is reliant on Japanese exports, and significant water and power resources — which are subject to climate considerations and green power initiatives

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Thanks for commenting. I have questions for you.

Can you clarify the relationship between chip programs in other countries and Korea’s own quantity of chip experts?

Do you think Mitsubishi Chemical would set up shop in Korea, like they did in Taiwan? Especially if the Korean government is handing out massive tax breaks?

South Korea has historically been more geared toward DRAM production, which as the acronym says, is a memory chip.
Logic chips work as the brains of an electronic device, performing functions using mathematical operations, while memory chips store data. The latter is easier to replicate, as you can see how by the many DRAM makers there are in South Korea and Taiwan.
It’s just harder to do foundry work for all kinds of IC designers.
There are hundreds if not 1000s of IC design houses in the world.
A company’s technology to produce for them is at the cutting edge.
DRAM is just a commodity now (almost like any other product that is called a “commodity”).

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I hope you comment more.

I didn’t know it was that extreme but that make sense.

The new Nanya fab will make the most advanced DRAM chips, so it can’t be that hard.

The Korean government will train 30,000 chip experts, the report said.

How will they train them? And who will train the government?
This is not some military or taekwondo exercise.
Is the government in the foundry business?
Who’s going to do the training?
This is not like driving school.

If you want learn some background on the semiconductor industry in Taiwan there’s a focus issue in this months issue of Nature Electronics. Articles are free to read for a month.
https://www.nature.com/collections/idaeiffgfb

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Samsung has a university. Samsung knows how to make advanced logic chips. The government can fund the training.

TSMC took 25 years to get to where it is now with a 2-year lead.
If you believe that South Korea can do the same (catch up) within 1 decade, then I’ll take the other side of that bet.

The lead is five months, if you’re measuring by mass production of the last node (5nm). TSMC’s 5nm is higher quality than Samsung’s. But the gap isn’t that large.

Thank you. That’s a wealth of information from the most respectable source.

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I bet after this water shortage many countries will be trying (probably not succeeding because the scale takes time) to get as less dependent on Taiwan as possible

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Those will be mainly car chips. Car chips don’t have to be as small and advanced as phone chips.

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