‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rates for N5

Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by mschuster91 on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:25AM (#24271647)

> and Apple would still buy from you rather than let someone else take the crown of fastest smartphone...

... and invest in making their own chips from end to end in a couple of years. Apple has proven that they do not hesitate to completely take over stuff with the recent Intel-ARM switch when the quality or price does not match what they perceive to be fair.

TSMC is in an extremely powerful but also very precarious position - they are worth ~400B $ in market cap, and Apple has ~200B $ in cash reserves and a market cap of 2T $. If Apple wants they can either buy up TSMC whole or they can set up a competitor.

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by spirobel on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:46AM (#24271851)

no they cant. The taiwanese government wouldnt let them buy it. also they cant set up a competitor because the kind of people that can pull this off is limited and they all work for TSMC. The prc government tried this for decades and they have infinite money. there is a good book about it called "hidden dragons paper tigers". Apple is not god :-)

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by intev on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:59AM (#24271992)

Apple is not god, but Apple is, more importantly, not the PRC. It would be significantly easier to lure top engineers to America, pay them multiples of what they currently earn and work for a prestigious company. The PRC has only one of the main motivating components.

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by spirobel on Wednesday August 26, 2020 @02:12AM (#24279655)

have you ever been to Taiwan? I think moving to America from Taiwan is not a perk. Its the opposite of that. Also you can debate if TSMC or Apple is more prestigious.

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by Malician on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @01:13PM (#24273573)

I love this modern Internet age and the fact I can google for a book and find the author throwing relevant ideas around from one hour ago

https://twitter.com/FuDaoge

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by dvaun on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @11:09AM (#24272127)

I just searched for "hidden dragons paper tigers" and now I want to add it to my reading list. Thank you for the reference!

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by Ziggy_Zaggy on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @02:24PM (#24274362)

"Paper Tigers, Hidden Dragons"

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Re:‘Better Yield on 5nm Than 7nm’: TSMC Update on Defect Rat... by Tuna-Fish on Tuesday August 25, 2020 @10:59AM (#24271993)

For geopolitical reasons, TSMC is not for sale. And as for setting up a competitor, China has been trying for more than a decade, spending a lot more money than Apple ever will, and they are still not close.

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