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0 pointsalephnerd1y ago0 comments

> Automotive's advanced features require chips but not the most advanced chips

Exactly, and if Matt Stoller was honest he would bring up that point.

Most automotive chips use 28nm, 40nm, and 60nm nodes and China has been very competitive in this space now because of existing capacity built from OSAT and AMTP consolidation in China by Taiwanese and Malaysian/Singaporean players like UMC before the 2019 HK protests, MediaTek, and ASMPT from the 2000s-2010s.

It's analog chips, 28nm/40nm nodes and Packaging that have been getting a significant amount of CHIPS funding, as well as similar funding from the Japanese, Taiwanese, South Korean, Malaysian, and Indian governments recently.

From a NatSec perspective, it's those kinds of nodes that have a critical impact as most weapons systems can subsist on a Intel i7 and Nvidia Maxwell comparable CPU and GPU.

Think EWS, C-RAMs, Guidance Systems, etc.

> Isn't a lot of CHIPs Act money help prop up Intel who didn't succeed in mobile and is laying off thousands anyway

Those layoffs are staff who don't have experience with High NA EUV processes (aka staff who didn't skill up). I can safely say that.

The CHIPS funding is a mix of subsidizing High NA EUV nodes as well as domestic OSAT and AMTP/Packaging capacity.

0 comments

duskwuff1y ago

Also probably worth mentioning that a lot of the automotive chip shortages were a result of industry-specific factors:

1) Auto manufacturers incorrectly predicted that the pandemic would result in much lower sales, and reduced their component orders accordingly. When auto sales stayed stronger than expected, they were forced to buy those parts on the open market - reducing the number available to other customers.

2) A couple of major semiconductor manufacturers had incidents at their facilities (most notably, a fire at a Renesas fab) which limited production.

doctorpangloss1y ago

Autos manufacturers assembled 1000 parts in China and call it 1 chip for import quota purposes.

There was no “chip” shortage. There was an assembly labor shortage in China, a real shortage, cause by the disruption of the pandemic.

duskwuff1y ago

> There was no “chip” shortage.

Where are you getting that idea? There was absolutely a chip shortage! A lot of electronic components which were readily available before 2020 became unavailable or prohibitively expensive, and stayed that way for as long as a year or two afterwards.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsalephnerd1y ago0 comments

> Automotive's advanced features require chips but not the most advanced chips

Exactly, and if Matt Stoller was honest he would bring up that point.

From a NatSec perspective, it's those kinds of nodes that have a critical impact as most weapons systems can subsist on a Intel i7 and Nvidia Maxwell comparable CPU and GPU.

Think EWS, C-RAMs, Guidance Systems, etc.

> Isn't a lot of CHIPs Act money help prop up Intel who didn't succeed in mobile and is laying off thousands anyway

Those layoffs are staff who don't have experience with High NA EUV processes (aka staff who didn't skill up). I can safely say that.

The CHIPS funding is a mix of subsidizing High NA EUV nodes as well as domestic OSAT and AMTP/Packaging capacity.

0 comments

duskwuff1y ago

Also probably worth mentioning that a lot of the automotive chip shortages were a result of industry-specific factors:

2) A couple of major semiconductor manufacturers had incidents at their facilities (most notably, a fire at a Renesas fab) which limited production.

doctorpangloss1y ago

Autos manufacturers assembled 1000 parts in China and call it 1 chip for import quota purposes.

There was no “chip” shortage. There was an assembly labor shortage in China, a real shortage, cause by the disruption of the pandemic.

duskwuff1y ago

> There was no “chip” shortage.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse