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China Is Still Multiple Generations Behind In Chip Manufacturing
When it comes to the actual foundries China has within its borders, the picture isn't good for the country. Perhaps the most advanced foundry there is owned by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC). A company spokesperson late last year said, "Our 14nm technology will start risk production by 2019, 12nm process development is completed and under customer verification."
Keep in mind how much further along the rest of the world is: TSMC (Taiwan) is already producing high performance AMD CPUs on its 7nm process with low power Apple parts having shipped in 2018, Samsung is readying advanced EUV production lines for NVIDIA's next generation of graphics chips, and Intel is rolling out its 7nm-equivalent this year as well. We even reported yesterday that TSMC is now actively developing its 2nm node!
If China's most advanced foundry is only beginning low-volume 14nm production this year, that would put them about four or five years behind the rest of the world. An eternity in the world of semiconductors.
For now, Huawei is building their world-class and cutting edge SoC, Kirin 980 on TSMC's 7nm process. If they were forced to use SMIC's 14nm process it would force them to regress in both performance and efficiency which would be a death-knell. Currently the Kirin 980 can compete with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855, but should Huawei be forced to fab its chips within its own countries[sic] borders this wouldn't be the case.
[...] It seems Chinese companies will have to do things the old fashioned way and grit their way through the learning curve with using these chip-production tools. One way around this would be to hire talent away from companies with a mature understanding of the technology, but even this is proving difficult.
For instance a Chinese DRAM company CXMT attempted to hire away a top Samsung engineer who had expertise in his field, but a South Korean court blocked the move. Kim Chi-wook headed the company's DRAM design team and would be a home-run hire for any DRAM company lacking knowledge. The court made no qualms about the fact that the engineer getting hired by CXMT would potentially hurt Samsung's competitive edge. They wrote, "Chinese semiconductor companies are estimated to be three years to 10 years behind in technology gap regarding DRAM designing technique."
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @07:29PM (6 children)
Taiwan is part of China.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @07:38PM (1 child)
Taiwan is still occupied by the US and is ruled by the US appointed military governor. Yes, this position is currently empty, but this does not change the legal fact.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 15 2019, @01:02AM
China.... concerned about US legal facts... ROFLMAO
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 14 2019, @08:06PM
Comment would have been better if you had said "Chinese Taipei".
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @11:12PM
> Taiwan is part of China.
Well, yeah, according to the Mainland, but not according to many other countries.
I call shill from the People's Republic, who knew that our little SN was worth bothering with...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 14 2019, @11:57PM (1 child)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday June 15 2019, @02:06AM
I have worked for many businesses that also did business in Taiwan, and in some cases I have seen our operations outsourced there. "Almost as cheap as Chinks without being Chinks" is how I would describe them.
And if you doubt me, look at their mailing addresses: