US poised to restrict TSMC's chip sales to China's Huawei
The United States has been aiming to curb the supply of chips sold by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to China's Huawei Technologies Co. through planned heavier sanctions against the Chinese telecom equipment giant, according to a Reuters report.
The report said while tensions between Washington and Beijing have been escalating with both sides blaming each other for spreading the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Trump administration has a plan to introduce new measures to further restrict global chip sales to Huawei.
Under the proposed new rules, the report, dated Thursday (March 26) in Washington, said foreign companies that use U.S. production equipment to roll out their chips would be required to obtain a U.S. license ahead of sales of certain chips to Huawei, which was blacklisted last year.
Boon for Apple, AMD, Nvidia, etc. or a disaster in the making?
Also at Tom's Hardware.
See also:
AMD is set to become TSMC's biggest 7nm customer in 2020
Report: TSMC's Reducing Its Reliance on Huawei Amid US Government Scrutiny
Related:
AMD Says TSMC Can Meet Epyc Demand; Launches New, Higher-Clocked 64-Core CPU
How China Plans to Lead the Computer Chip Industry
Related Stories
https://www.crn.com/news/components-peripherals/amd-exec-tsmc-has-capacity-to-meet-epyc-rome-demand
AMD executive Scott Aylor said the chipmaker is "very well positioned" to meet demand for its second-generation EPYC Rome processors through the production capacity of semiconductor foundry TSMC.
Aylor, corporate vice president and general manager of data center of AMD's Datacenter Solutions Group, made the comments in a Tuesday briefing about the chipmaker's progress with EPYC Rome in response to concerns that its CPU supply won't be able to keep up with demand.
"We will be able to meet the needs of a fantastic level of interest," he said. "[TSMC has] full commitment to ramp the volumes needed on the market."
Aylor said his comments, which were made during a presentation for journalists, were not in response to a Tuesday story by Digitimes stating that TSMC, or Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, has pushed back the lead time for products made using the foundry's 7-nanometer node — which includes EPYC Rome — has been pushed back from two months to nearly six months.
AMD held its European launch in Rome, Italy of its new EPYC processors. Along with announcing that the company's EPYC Rome data center processors have now attained 100 world records (and counting), the company also announced a slew of new OEM servers.
AMD also unveiled its EPYC 7H12, a 64-core 128-thread that boasts a beastly 280W thermal design power (TDP) envelope, which allows the processor to reach a 2.6 GHz base and 3.3 GHz max boost frequency, marking the highest performance of its Rome product stack.
AMD designed the new chip, which requires watercooling to extract the ultimate performance, for high performance computing (HPC) workloads. ATOS unveiled its new Bullsequana XH2000, a hybrid supercomputer designed for exascale-class supercomputers that supports the new 7H12 chips.
The system supports the EPYC 7H12, cooling it's[sic] 32 1U blades (per rack) with an advanced water cooling solution, and said that it provides up to 4.2 TFLOPS of performance per chip, making the 7H12 up to 11% faster than the current top-of-the-stack EPYC 7742 processor.
How China plans to lead the computer chip industry
On a university campus on the outskirts of Hong Kong a group of engineers are designing computer chips they hope will be used in the next generation of Chinese made smart phones. Patrick Yue leans back in his chair in a coffee shop on the campus, sporting a Stanford University t-shirt. He is the lead engineer and professor overseeing the project. His research team designs optical communication chips, which use light rather than electrical signals to transfer information, and are needed in 5G mobile phones and other internet-connected devices.
[...] China has made no secret of its desire to become self-sufficient in technology. The nation is both the world's largest importer and consumer of semiconductors. It currently produces just 16% of the semiconductors fuelling its tech boom. But it has plans to produce 40% of all semiconductors it uses by 2020, and 70% by 2025, an ambitious plan spurred by the trade war with the US. [...] In October this year, in its latest bid to help wean the nation's tech sector away from US technology, the Chinese government created a $29bn (£22m) fund to support the semiconductor industry.
"There is no question that China has the engineers to make chips. The question is whether they can make competitive ones," questions Piero Scaruffi, a Silicon Valley historian, and artificial intelligence researcher who works in Silicon Valley. "Certainly, Huawei can develop its own chips and operating systems, and the government can make sure that they will be successful in China. But Huawei and other Chinese phone makers are successful also in foreign markets, and that's a totally different question: Will Huawei's chips and operating systems be as competitive as Qualcomm's and Android? Most likely not. At best, it will take years before they are," Mr Scaruffi adds.
Mr Scaruffi estimates that China could be as many as 10 years behind the leading producers of high-end computer chips. The majority of chips made for high-end electronics are manufactured by specialist foundries like the Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). It produces more than 70% of chips designed by third party companies.
[...] [Yue] believes that Chinese technology is three to four generations behind companies like TSMC. China lacks the industry experience to manufacture high end chips, he says. But he believes that companies like Huawei are already competitive when it comes to designing chips.
Related: China's SMIC Produces its First "14nm" FinFET Chips
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation (SMIC) Starts "14nm" FinFET Volume Production
TSMC to build a $12 billion advanced semiconductor plant in Arizona with U.S. government support
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract semiconductor foundry, said today that it plans to build an advanced chip foundry in Arizona with support from the state and the United States federal government.
The announcement follows a Wall Street Journal report earlier this week that White House officials were in talks with TSMC and Intel to build foundries in the U.S., as part of its effort to reduce reliance on chip factories in Asia. Based in Hsinchu, Taiwan, TSMC provides chip components for many of the world's largest semiconductor companies and its U.S. clients include Apple and Qualcomm.
The plant, scheduled to start production of chips in 2024, will enable TSMC's American customers to fabricate their semiconductor products domestically. It will use the company's 5-nanometer technology and is expected to create 1,600 jobs and have the capacity to produce 20,000 wafers a month.
The U.S.-China trade war, national security concerns, geopolitical unrest and the COVID-19 pandemic have all underscored the shortfalls of relying on foundries located abroad and international supply chains.
The U.S. government has reportedly been in talks with TSMC for months, though one sticking point for the company was the high cost of building a new foundry. TSMC chairman Mark Liu told the New York Times in October that the project would require major subsidies because it is more expensive to operate a factory in the U.S. than in Taiwan.
Also at AnandTech, The Verge, CNN, South China Morning Post, Wccftech, and Bloomberg.
Previously: U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
Related: TSMC Holds Groundbreaking Ceremony for "5nm" Fab, Production to Begin in 2020
TSMC Has Started Development of a "2nm" Process Node
TSMC reportedly stops taking orders from Huawei after new U.S. export controls
Taiwanese Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract semiconductor maker, has stopped taking new orders from Huawei Technologies, one of its largest customers, according to the Nikkei Asian Review. The report said the decision was made to comply with new United States export controls, announced last Friday, that are meant to make it more difficult for Huawei to obtain chips produced using U.S. technology, including manufacturing equipment.
Huawei hits back at US as TSMC cuts off chip orders
Huawei rotating chairman Guo Ping has hit back at the US government's stricter export controls intended to stop the Chinese tech giant from obtaining essential chips, following reports that its biggest supplier has already cut it off. "We still haven't figured it out," Guo said on stage at Huawei's annual analyst summit. "The US government still persists in attacking Huawei, but what will that bring to the world?"
"In its relentless pursuit to tighten its stranglehold on our company, the US government has decided to proceed and completely ignore the concerns of many companies and industry associations," Huawei adds in an official statement. "This decision was arbitrary and pernicious, and threatens to undermine the entire industry worldwide. This new rule will impact the expansion, maintenance, and continuous operations of networks worth hundreds of billions of dollars that we have rolled out in more than 170 countries."
"We expect that our business will inevitably be affected," Huawei's statement continues. "We will try all we can to seek a solution."
See also: Huawei Braces for Latest U.S. Hit, but Some Say Loopholes Remain
TSMC Accepts US Kill Order & Suspends Future Huawei Contracts
Previously: U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
Washington in Talks with Chipmakers about Building U.S. Factories
TSMC Will Build a $12 Billion "5nm" Fab in Arizona
Huawei to stop making flagship chipsets as U.S. pressure bites, Chinese media say:
Huawei Technologies Co will stop making its flagship Kirin chipsets next month, financial magazine Caixin said on Saturday, as the impact of U.S. pressure on the Chinese tech giant grows.
U.S. pressure on Huawei's suppliers has made it impossible for the company's HiSilicon chip division to keep making the chipsets, key components for mobile phone, Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei's Consumer Business Unit was quoted as saying at the launch of the company's new Mate 40 handset.
[...] "From Sept. 15 onward, our flagship Kirin processors cannot be produced," Yu said, according to Caixin. "Our AI-powered chips also cannot be processed. This is a huge loss for us."
Huawei's HiSilicon division relies on software from U.S. companies such as Cadence Design Systems Inc or Synopsys Inc to design its chips and it outsources the production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), which uses equipment from U.S. companies.
Also at PhoneArena.
Previously: Arrest of Huawei Executive Causing Discontent Among Chinese Elites
Huawei Soldiers on, Announces Nova 5 and Kirin 810
U.S. Attempting to Restrict TSMC Sales to Huawei
TSMC Dumps Huawei
Huawei on List of 20 Chinese Companies that Pentagon Says are Controlled by People's Liberation Army
(Score: 5, Insightful) by BsAtHome on Sunday March 29 2020, @04:19PM (1 child)
Retrospective limitation om equipment sold from US sources. That will make the industry reconsider buying any US equipment in the future. Today it may be chip-production stuff. Tomorrow it will be a hammer. Imagine a contract saying, you can buy this hammer, but if you need to hammer in a Chinese nail, then you need an additional license.
In effect, it will isolate the US market from the rest of the world. The liabilities stemming from US equipment will potentially become too expensive. It is a good way to ensure that other countries will create their own manufacturing equipment to protect their production lines. Then, after some time, the US can jump as high as they'd like and nobody will be listening anymore. What a way to shoot yourself in both feet and take your legs off too.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 30 2020, @03:29PM
Nobody in the US can imagine that the other 96 % of the world population might decide to shun the US.
Nothing to see hear.
Move along. Move along.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday March 29 2020, @04:20PM (2 children)
Nothing demonstrates the overwhelming power of corporations like these profit-destroying fubars. Enlarging the trade war to penalize businesses in other countries, Cuban-style, is going to mean a lot of lost sales for US businesses like the ones mentioned.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2020, @04:34PM
Coming up next, China figures out how to not-so-violently take over Taiwan.
Trump takes no responsibility for actions, blames Hillary's email server instead.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday March 30 2020, @07:16AM
Pretty soon every country in the world will stop doing business with the US. We are on the path to irrelevancy and it's an orange monkey's fault. We shouldn't be sanctioning other countries because they are doing better than us. It's hurt ego, unproductive, and shows the monkey's alliegance is with US corporations (who benefit from the trade war) not US citizens/consumers (who don't benefit from trade war).
To sanction things that happen in other countries is reprehensible and it shows that the US is worse than both China and Russia. I really should get my Irish citizenship and expatriate from this shithole.
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 29 2020, @04:49PM (7 children)
I can't see that we're choosing battles wisely, if we're choosing them at all. If it's Russian, it's evil, if it's Chinese, it's evil, if it's evil, kill it.
FFS, I'm an anti-communist, dead set against most all socialism. But, even so, here we are in the world we have created. China ain't going away, nor is Huawei. We really ought to do one of two things with Huawei - work with them, or ignore them. Declaring war on them seems pretty damned stupid to me. Doubly so, when we realize that the corporation is backed by the largest nation on earth. And, for what? So our corporations can profit?
Of course, looking back over our history in the western hemisphere, what more can be expected. We created and toppled governments pretty regularly for the sake of corporate profit. A term was coined for those nations - "banana republics".
We will most definitely find that China isn't just another banana republic that we can slap down at will. The sleeping giant has been awakened, and it ain't going to sleep again real soon.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by takyon on Sunday March 29 2020, @05:36PM (5 children)
China Is Avoiding Blame by Trolling the World [archive.is]
Yes, Blame China for the Virus [foreignpolicy.com]
Stacks of Urns in Wuhan Prompt New Questions of Virus’s Toll [bloomberg.com]
China theft of technology is biggest law enforcement threat to US, FBI says [theguardian.com]
Relations with Russia should be normalized if possible. China should be completely shunned, and steps should be taken to decouple the U.S. and Chinese economies.
Coronavirus outbreak will speed up US-China ‘decoupling’ more than the trade war, Milken Institute analyst says [cnbc.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2020, @07:27PM (2 children)
Only dumb people think that this and similar viruses couldn't possibly happen in any slaughterhouse or abattoir anywhere in the world. People flu mixing with animal flu created a new flu. Dumb people, following their dumb politicians, will try to blame a specific country when it could happen anywhere and then blame other people for not doing enough to stop it or doing too much to stop it. Thankfully most mutated viruses aren't viable.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 29 2020, @07:39PM
Except - it's not a flu virus. You need not be terribly sophisticated to understand this is not the flu.
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by takyon on Sunday March 29 2020, @07:47PM
Only dumb people read the word BIOWEAPON in my comment. Or at least one dumb AC.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday March 29 2020, @10:35PM (1 child)
I am quite sure China is lying about the extent of the Covid virus, because that is how they work.
Western big business got exactly what they deserved when they did their deal with China. They wanted cheap labour and a whole new market of a billion people, and they didn't care what they gave away to get those things.
They should stop whinging about it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2020, @12:30PM
An important consideration is this. Are they lying more or less than the people who tell us that they are lying?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2020, @11:41PM
I dunno, the goal is probably good but the approach is probably not right, it ain't too late to walk down a different path but it takes time. There's plenty of cheap labor to be had in Asia and Africa - it is a better model for cheap labor as it is distributed across multiple countries so yer eggs aren't mostly in one basket like the situation is with China at the moment.
Trump seems to just want to attack China head on without looking at the alternatives to achieve the same outcome. I firmly believe China is to blame for this covid mess, and now is a good opportunity as any to rally the world against them - they have to pay.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Sunday March 29 2020, @06:14PM (3 children)
and slowly isolating itself on the world stage and sliding into irrelevance.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 29 2020, @06:36PM
ok pooh bear
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday March 30 2020, @03:34PM (1 child)
It's okay. The other 96 % of the world population won't think of the US as a bully run by a madman.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 30 2020, @07:18PM
I have always enjoyed the crazy american presidents, but this Trump dude is a bit over the top. I much prefer Bush, he was such an adorable idiot. My own politicians are entertaining idiots too, but "over there" it's always 200% EXTREME TO THE MAX.
(Score: 2) by Mojibake Tengu on Sunday March 29 2020, @08:12PM (2 children)
If TSMC uses an U.S. technology for critical production operation, why not Intel, to be competitive at least?
Fact: Intel has no adequate technology.
Therefore, it is very probable TSMC does not actually use U.S. technology for critical production operation.
Another thing is sure: if such restriction ever succeeeds, Huawei will begin to fab their own chips sooner or later. Is this what TSMC wishes to happen, in their long term strategy? Very probably, not.
That opens some new problems:
What prevents TSMC expanding to mainland to get a jurisdiction shelter?
Whomever actually sits on said technology, what prevents a transfer of it directly to Huawei? Money is powerfull...
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Sunday March 29 2020, @10:19PM
Well, *someone* friendly to China with a raft of money behind them will begin fabbing chips that Chinese companies can use. The names and companies are temporary, and Huawei may not have any control (though they'll have a lot of input).
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday March 30 2020, @02:15PM
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday March 30 2020, @07:09AM (5 children)
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 30 2020, @10:09AM (2 children)
Yeah, thoughts.
Who runs this court?
Where does the court think that the US "belongs"?
There are reasons, both legitimate and illegitimate, why the US won't submit to the jurisdiction of various international courts. The US has never surrendered any military personnel accused of war crimes to an international court, or to any national court outside of the US. We won't submit to any trade court, unless it is controlled by the US, and so heavily stacked that it will always rule in our favor. It certainly wouldn't do to have a court that might rule against us, even on rare occasions.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by exaeta on Monday March 30 2020, @02:10PM (1 child)
The Government is a Bird
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 30 2020, @02:28PM
Agreed.
Maybe if the world collectively flipped the bird at Washington, D.C, the assholes in the swamp wouldn't be so hard to live with. Of course, with Israel and the Five Eyes backing Washington, the world is hesitant to do that.
(Score: 1) by r_a_trip on Monday March 30 2020, @10:43AM (1 child)
Not necessary. Oil is on the way out. With that, the dollar is losing a lot of clout. Energy production is increasingly local. Influence is already waning. Production is located in China, for better or worse. These new shenanigans will only make sure that US technology will lose its place in critical infrastructure. There is no need for an international trade court. Market forces will take care of this automatically.
(Score: 2) by exaeta on Monday March 30 2020, @02:07PM
The Government is a Bird