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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: 2) by archfeld on Friday June 14 2019, @08:33PM (3 children)
Why would China bother to follow in our (USA) footsteps making the incremental upgrades to the foundries ? We stepped up/down as technology became available. They will just steal our current tech and skip the now defunct levels and jump to 7nm. The early bird gets the worm, the early predator gets the bird. We need to learn to strike back, soon and hard at the growing infrastructure of China, and we need to develop something to destroy the value of the growing military structure. Some sort of weapon or tech that will render the vast investment in slightly outdated military technology the Chinese have been stockpiling. A hypersonic drone system capable of rendering missiles, aircraft, slow subs, and air craft carriers useless. All that said I do really love me some Chinese food so maybe I'll be OK. Come to think of it I really like Indian food as well, but I draw the line at borscht so I hope Russia's glory days have passed us by.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Saturday June 15 2019, @01:35AM (2 children)
Says someone in a country that couldn't win a war in Iraq or Afghanistan, against armed forces which used guns designed in 1945.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday June 15 2019, @08:13PM
Hard to win a war against a country that has no infrastructure, but I'd say we won in Iraq again Saddam, and we did no worse or better than Russia (Ussr) in Afghanistan. Which wonderful and shining jewel of democracy totally dependent on UN support do you hail from ? All that said I do wish we had learned our lesson from trying to fight the war in Vietnam against a country and people accustomed to living in jungle tunnels with no infrastructure of any kind.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Bot on Sunday June 16 2019, @10:41AM
Don't be stuck in the 1700s, War is not among nations anymore. So USA waged wars, but USA didn't win nor lose them. People lose, the MIC and the loaners win.
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