this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
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Is it really a good idea to let Taiwan and Samsung control all semiconductor manufacturing?
Yes. Not Samsung but Taiwan. It would force the us to not tiptoe around China.
Also Intel is one of many, maybe the biggest name but for a Long time not the biggest player at all.
Ever read the name AMD? The ones actually behind x86 64bit and many other things?
Nvidia (even though they invest to much into a double that will pop)
ARM?
Texas instruments?
Bosh?
There is more than enough without intel.
*Apple
Most of the companies you’re mentioning do not have their own chip foundries. The only - and I do mean only - companies that have working lithography lines to support bleeding edge chips at massive scale are Samsung, TSMC, and Intel. Several other companies are investing in eventually gaining that capability, but right now, thats it. And these things take a LONG time to spin up and iron out the issues.
TL;DR: the problem is how few companies actually MAKE the chips, not how many companies DESIGN them.
[A day after mainland China invades Taiwan]
"Fuck, why did graphics cards quintuple in price?"
Yeah guess what, thats why Taiwan needs protection and China enough pressure to not even think about it. Wich can only be achieved by being important to the world.
I didn't think any of those companies did any manufacturing. Are we talking about the same thing? My understanding was there was only three names in manufacturing (the ones I mentioned)
What do you mean by it would force us not to tiptoe around China?
On that note, what do you think about Trump's policy against Huawei when he was president? I'm inclined to think it's a good thing despite it not being something Obama (or Clinton or Biden/Harris) would do
They don't. Well, TI does but not anywhere near the the node size of the three you mentioned: https://en.wikichip.org/wiki/technology_node
By that definition Intel isn't manufacturing either, its foxcon that manufacturers for them.
Huh Intel has its own fabs.
I love that paranoia and xenophobia. As if a corrupt domestic company is somehow magically better than a corrupt international company.
It's been quite obvious over the past few years that yes there's potentially some risk of foreign countries trying to install spy code, but actually that doesn't seem to happen very often, and what's much more damaging to our society are large corporations that use their power to screw over the general public, and most of these large corporations are domestic.
I mean, what did you think when you learned that the US was worried about something as basic as surgical/n95 masks during the pandemic because we simply didn't produce any domestically?
Seems absolutely silly not to think your country should have some say in how computer processors are developed. I highly recommend the book Chip War to anyone interested in learning more.
That all said, my understanding is all chip design is dependent on design software entirely owned by US companies - so there's that at least.
It’s not xenophobia, it’s a matter of national security for every single western nation. Without Intel, x86 processor manufacturing would be limited to TSMC in Taiwan, and would only serve to further incentivise Chinese aggression over the island.
So yes, paranoia - but sometimes that can be a good thing.
And there's also resilience against natural disasters. Having processor manufacturing limited to one place is just a bad idea.