Both tsmc and Intel are building brand new fabs in Phoenix, I can't be bothered to check but I'm pretty sure the capabilities will be pretty matched so they won't be heading or leading still.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (3 children)

The fabs they own now aren't competitive at the high end. Though I like to point out that this is myopic way of viewing the industry. Not every microcontroller needs TSMC 3nm; they're perfectly happy running them off for tens of pennies per unit on ancient nodes, and those chips go into every little piece of electronics that isn't thought of as a "real" computer. A huge portion of the pandemic supply chain issues (the ones that were actually valid and not just an excuse to raise prices) came from these little chips.

With that caveat in mind, the high end is still important.

The calls of "they took government money and then laid off employees" are off base. That government money is going into specific fab projects. Has nothing to do with the rest of the company. Unless there's some kind of siphoning of funds into the rest of the company (admittedly totally possible, but it needs specific evidence), that's not particularly relevant to Intel's situation.

The company should probably reorganize as strictly a fab and stop making their own stuff. AMD did very well for themselves by ditching their fabs into a separate company--Global Foundries--and then buying manufacturing capabilities from the best fab they could afford. Intel could go the opposite way, with AMD becoming one of their customers.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

Thank you for clearing this up. I work in semi and I can't count how many times I've had to clarify how CHIPS Act and similar funding works.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Intel fabs can't catch up, that's not a recipe for success for high end chips. And that would mean they would face competition which means they'll be dead.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Sure they can. Intel is already gearing up 20A and 18A nodes, and those should leapfrog TSMC. Not that TSMC is staying still, either, but Intel will likely have the world's best density for a while.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Meeh I've been hearing this in investor meetings for too long. If it was half true they wouldn't be so behind in their current node in stores.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

You hear it for that long because it takes a long time to build fabs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

My computer has a 45 nm CPU and is (mostly) fine. The only reason I'm upgrading is because it's just barely old enough to not have UEFI which means Windows 11 can't be installed which means in a little over a year it'll be EOL.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Hey! Mac's updates are free now. Lmao.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Now? Like 10 years

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Ancient memes

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Intel owns 5/11 of the new US foundries.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

What about competitive innovation foundries?