TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhone 18 chip process

Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by baggachipz on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @09:54AM (#44798002)

Or for analogy, following a recipe doesn't make you a good cook.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by motorest on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @11:59AM (#44799743)

> Or for analogy, following a recipe doesn't make you a good cook.

For an analogy, no one cares if you're a good cook if you're able to make a passable burger. Most of the demand is not for the best burger money can buy, the just want a burger.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by chii on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:09AM (#44798173)

But it also depends on how precise the recipe is - if it's described down to the exact movements the cook needs to do, which may be replicated via a machine...

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by baggachipz on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:19AM (#44798299)

No recipe accounts for ambient temperature/humidity, very few for altitude differences, etc. etc. It still takes knowledgable tweaks to get just right.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by moralestapia on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:31AM (#44798455)

Such recipe could exist.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by adolph on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @11:01AM (#44798884)

At the end of the day, the map won't ever be the territory. Typically the properties that makes something successful are those which cannot be specified. If it were otherwise and those qualities could be specified in a reproducible manner, that thing would not be observably successful.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by kergonath on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @02:41PM (#44802350)

They exist in the industry, where a small variation of one parameter could affect tons of products. Same for individual restaurants, cooks know how to set up their equipment. For amateur cooks at home it does not matter. They do not need that level of consistency, and it would get quite expensive.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by reaperducer on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:27AM (#44798395)

Or for analogy, following a recipe doesn't make you a good cook.

Following a recipe can you close enough for thousands of Door Dash customers to put the original restaurant out of business.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by baggachipz on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @10:29AM (#44798425)

I feel like you're reading too deeply into my shallow analogy.

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Re:TSMC says employees tried to steal trade secrets on iPhon... by FredPret on Tuesday August 05, 2025 @12:12PM (#44799953)

I'm not sure - what if China can flood the world with 80%-as-good-as-the-real-thing knockoffs at half the price and put everyone else out of business?

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