[Book] Chip War by Chris Miller
12 Jul 2022Some Perspectives from book
- China imports more chips than Oil
- Apple hostorically never made chips, bought off shelf from Japan,California and texas
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Apple designed ultraprocessing chips which can only be manufactured by only one company, most expensive company on earth everything in single building, few miles away from USS starboard.
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TSMC, Fab 18 fabricates 1 Quantallion (18 zeros)
- Semiconductor is Complex. A typical chip might be
- designed with blueprints from the Japanese-owned, UK-based company called Arm,
- by a team of engineers in California and Israel,
- using design software from the United States.
- sent to a facility in Taiwan, which buys ultra-pure silicon wafers and specialized gases from Japan.
- The design is carved into silicon using some of the world’s most precise machinery,
- These tools are produced primarily by five companies, one Dutch, one Japanese and three Californian, without which advanced chip basically impossible to make.
- Then the chip is packaged and tested, often in Southeast Asia, before being sent to China for assembly into a phone or computer.
Cold War Chips
- War driven Industrial Attrition, Manufacturing to Military Power with utilization of Copper,Iron, Rubber and Oil
- Story of Bomb sights, Mechanical knobs adjustment to electrical charges
- large Vaccum tube restricted application till code breaking, fueling innovation for “switching” device that is small
The switch
- Shockley - Semiconductor work solid state value
Kilby’s Integrated Ckt
- Contributed by removing connection wires of vaccume tube/transistors with semiconductor chipped ckts connecting multiple transistors
- Birth of Fairchild Semiconductor
Liffoff
- Russian advance in space triggered US Nasa
Mass Production
- Miniaturize Logic : Small Content is zoomed with Lens, Conversly Large Print can be scaled mini
- Kodacs Photo resist chemical disappear on light,photolithography—printing with light.
Money flow
- 75% from Defense and Space sector products
- Fairchild first to consumerized and create bussiness apps at low price
- Fairchild owner refused stock options to employees amid “creeping socialism”
- Exit notes from Employee :D
The Circuitry of American World
Soviet Silicon Valley
- USSR Exchange student Trutko studied at US university, lead to investigations of semiconductor quality and quantity, confirm decade later to be KGB agents
- USSR built semiconductor city in 1940s outside moscow as “soviet microelectronics” initiative
Copy It
- USSR used “copy it” strategy to replicate Texas Instruments SN21
The Transistor Salesman
- After WW2 , As part of Cold War strategy US built Japan high tech and science power making them “Transistor Salesman”
- Sony came of good in designing consumer products, so US transfered tech of fabrication with intent that japan is still years behind, “complex balancing act between consumers and supply”
- US-Japan semiconductor helped japan increase GDP
Transistor Girls
- Sporck after joing fairchild offer stock option in exchange of maximizing productivity
- It was era when women assembled semiconductor designed by men in exchange of low wages and less union conflicts
- with increase in work, US labour exhausted, Sporck had to get on to china for 1/10 of wages and twice productivity, no union conflicts
Precision Strike
- Vietnam war required non-nuclear weapons with guidance system having precision
- Humid climate from southeast asia caused vaccume tube to malfunction since they were hand soldered.
- US installed a simple laser-guidance system to control the wings of missile.
- A small silicon wafer was divided into four quadrants and placed behind a lens.
- The laser reflecting off the target would shine through the lens onto the silicon.
- If the bomb veered off course, one quadrant would receive more of the laser’s energy than the others, and
- circuitry would move the wings to reorient the bomb’s trajectory so that the laser was shining straight through the lens.
- A simple laser sensor and a couple of transistors had turned a weapon with a zero-for-638 hit ratio into a tool of precision destruction
- Vietnam was test target for marriage of microelectronics and explosives, Revolution of Warfare
Supply Chain Statecraft
- For Taiwan, semiconductor supply chains could provide economic growth and bolster political stability.
Intel’s Revolutionaries
- Founders Leave Fairchild; Form Own Electronics Firm, Noyce,Moore created intel
- Intel launched DRAM in first two years
- coupling a tiny transistor with a capacitor, a miniature storage device that is either charged (1) or not (0). Capacitors leak over time, so Dennard envisioned repeatedly charging the capacitor via the transistor. The chip would be called a dynamic RAM.
- A generalized Chip was vision over logic ckt, secretly F-16 was using it before intel 4004
- The semiconductor engineers of Silicon Valley had the specialized knowledge, networks, and stock options that let them write the rules of the future—rules everyone else would have to follow.
The Pentagon’s Offset Strategy
- Soviet had quantitative advantage,only way to get military advantage is produce better quality weapons
- US envisioned “rapid information gathering,” “sophisticated command and control,” and “terminal guidance” for missiles, imagining munitions
- Plan was to force USSR to work on anti-missle tech, spend billion yet defend few attacks
- Pentagon founded DARPA,to see what would happen if all these new sensors, guided weapons, and communications devices were integrated.
Leadership Cost
That Competition Is Tough
- in 1980, HP advanced . US chip fail rate was high than others
- Japan’s Sony excelled in building over implementation. To remove second class status, not able to innovate , was removed by invention and sucess of “Walkman”
- strategy of empowering Japanese businesses seemed to be undermining America’s economic and technological edge
- Japanese worker excelled in productivity due to “amazing pro-company” culture, absent in america
At War with Japan
- Jerry sanders CEO of AMD in 1969, in legal fight with intel, was marketing guy at fairchild
- economic war with technology, productivity, and quality in america and vs japan
- Hitach,Mitsubishi stole industrial secretes from decoy company FBI made.
Shipping Junk
- Photolithography - Silicon indented with light reacting chemicals
- Lens maker Nikon entered into provision, GCA managed to build first stepper, could not mass produce due to non-engineers
The Crude Oil of the 1980s (Semiconductor , AMD CEO jerry sanders)
- In 1980, Daily ops involved chip based devices, so Japan was saudi arabia of semiconductor
- Oil in Gulf region was strategic commodity backed by military
- Japan’s capture of 70% on lithography machinery was “national security issue” at US, US companies gang up to revitalize semiconductor in america under US presidents orders, pentagon
- Japan lead Tv, Camera and it was time for semiconductor
Death Spiral
- Sematech industry needed more collaboration to stay competitive
- Boy noyc founder of fairchild and intel, inventor of IC head of sematech died in 1990
- GCA shut down , joined many others crushed by japanese companies
The Japan That Can Say No
- Japan ahead of US in DRAM and electronics, lead to fear of loosing Asian Geopolitical preeminence, and threat to military power
America Resurgent
The Potato Chip King
- Potato sorting and french fry machine maker pioneer use of machines, was investor
- Micron was started to make 64k DRAM, tough competition by Fujitsu
- US moved to SKorea for electronics
- US company CEOs lobbied against japanese competition with politics
- Micron made lean production to reduce cost
Disrupting Intel
- Grove had management philosophy book Only the Paranoid Survive: “Fear of competition, fear of bankruptcy, fear of being wrong and fear of losing can all be powerful motivators.”
- Restructuring intel - silicon valley capitalism example
- Intel lost DRAM market in 1980. Same time They won contract of IBM for personal PC, same device for which Bill gates wrote software
- Compaq cloned IBM personal computer with intel chip and microsoft software , assembled PC
My Enemy’s Enemy”: The Rise of Korea
- Lee Byung-Chul turned Samsung as semiconductor company in south korea with help of america
- US policies help south korean company samsung to benefit, for dampening japan advance
“This Is the Future”
- Convey and Mead led first computer program for designing chip
- Jacob invented algorithm for complex radio communication, which required computing power later company was called Quality Communication , QualComm.
USSR spy operated in US, to steal secret and chips
Weapons of Mass Destruction” : The Impact of the Offset
- USSR spied US miliray who designed better guidance system, accurate nuclear submarines
War Hero
- Baghdab in Iraq was bombed by US, Paveway technology iterated after vietnam
The Cold War Is Over and You Have Won
Integrated Ckt
- Taiwan intentionally became part of SCM with ally US , 1990 TSMC flourish under Morris Chang
- China’s political agenda held back semiconductor for year, later in 1970’s post-mao, rebounded
Offshoring innovation
China’s Challenge
chip Choke
- China captured market in solar panels leaving US behind
- China subsidesed seminconductor
- Usage of advance chips in weapon is growing concern
- Export Control from US Commerce destroyed Advanced DRAm Company in China
- US blocked access to US and US ally equiments to stop china
- China’s Taiwan claim will force US and Allies to enter into conflict over semiconductor