Re:Intel to spend $20B on two new chip factories in Arizona
by selimthegrim on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @10:12AM
(#26634805)
I doubt all the defense critical military electronics are fabbed over there on 10 nm
Re:Intel to spend $20B on two new chip factories in Arizona
by monocasa on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @03:25PM
(#26639164)
They're increasingly into ML inference at the edge, which benefits from (and sometime requires) smaller nodes.
Re:Intel to spend $20B on two new chip factories in Arizona
by gowld on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @04:54PM
(#26640339)
You and I like smaller nodes because they are more cost effective.
The military doesn't really worry much about price.
Re:Intel to spend $20B on two new chip factories in Arizona
by monocasa on Tuesday March 30, 2021 @05:28PM
(#26640781)
Sort of. At the gate counts we're talking, it doesn't take long until you can't even fit the chip on a whole wafer of an older node. IIRC, an Nvidia GA100 doesn't fit on a 300mm 65nm wafer (to say nothing of being able to clock it at a viable speed even if you were to cut it down). Going off chip destroys perf for a lot of designs too.
It's not just a price component, but a performance and viability of new designs one, at a time where the DoD internally is pushing ML hard as a major pillar of investment in weapons technology.
If China has hostile intent it also increases the risk of Chinese action, because - dependent on stockpiles and security - Taiwan is a resource choke point which could potentially decapitate the entire US military machine.
This is a terrible situation for the US to be in.
As the US replaces that capability on its home turf Taiwan's strategic value wanes, which paradoxically makes an attack less likely because China can get what it wants from Taiwan by conventional economic and political means.
The question is... how lucky/aggressive does China feel? And how just-in-time is the US military supply chain?