Comment by ac29
15 hours ago
> It's the only chip manufacturer "left" in the US
Global Foundries, Micron, and Texas Instruments all come to mind
15 hours ago
> It's the only chip manufacturer "left" in the US
Global Foundries, Micron, and Texas Instruments all come to mind
GF hasn't gone past the 12nm node. TI is at 45nm. Micron is on relatively recent processes, but they make RAM, not logic (which are totally different processes). Intel is the only chip manufacturer left that is working in logic at anything like the leading edge.
GF is a few nodes behind. Micron doesn't make semiconductors, they mostly make flash and whatnot. TI doesn't have the capacity or knowledge to expand to Intel's size/capacity
> doesn't make semiconductors, they mostly make flash and whatnot
Um.
All that stuff is still semiconductors, just with different patterns printed on them.
You're right but also wrong. Flash is just semiconductors etched in a different pattern than logic, but you don't print on semiconductors. Semiconductors are 'printed' on wafers via photolithography.
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> TI doesn't have the capacity or knowledge to expand to Intel's size/capacity
I mean, they might if Intel were allowed to fail.
Much more likely that SMIC would, because TI isn't just 15 years behind; it also has the disadvantage of being in the US. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_industry_in_Chin... for a look at what it looks like where conditions are more favorable.
GF is a zombie company. Micron and TI are both far far away from leading edge. There is only one American company which is both developing and manufacturing leading edge nodes.
Yeah terrible position to be when your own government is investing in your competitors' company using your own tax dollars.
As a software engineer, this isn't an entirely new concept.
I think all three of those other companies are also getting CHIPS-act subsidies?
I suppose it could be worse. Still, now the US has a vested interest in seeing Intel crush AMD and others.
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re: Micron - Memory is very different from logic chips. You vast number of repeating cells in memory. If any of them are bad you can just turn them off and bin them as lower capacity. You can do that to some extend with logic chips but not nearly as much as memory.