News AMD removes Taiwan branding from CPUs, says change wasn't made to appease China

[Admin]

AMD will no longer mark its chips as made in Taiwan, a change that many theorize was made at the behest of China.

AMD removes Taiwan branding from CPUs, says change wasn't made to appease China : Read more

 

[AgentBirdnest]

What the heck is "diffusing", anyway?
I'm not familiar with that term, in regards to chipmaking.

 

[wakuwaku]

Intel used to do it until 4/5th gen.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I'm incredibly disappointed in AMD for doing this.

 

[bit_user]

What the heck is "diffusing", anyway?
I'm not familiar with that term, in regards to chipmaking.

I had assumed it's just putting on the heatspreader, but I don't really know. Given that we know the chips are actually made in Taiwan, I could be way off.

 

[bit_user]

I'm incredibly disappointed in AMD for doing this.

I'm disappointed, but not surprised.

Companies which try to take a political stand almost always pay a price for it. Given that it won't make any real difference, anyhow, I can't really hold it against them.

 

[Eximo]

I found a few old scientific papers. More in-depth step in the actual circuitry construction. It would seem to me you would use lithography to etch out what you don't want and the diffusion step is to place the other semiconductor material in the voids left behind. Diffusion says that it might be some sort of gas to condensate type process?

From these diagrams:
http://www.bitsavers.org/components...used_Integrated_Circuit_Resistors_Dec1962.pdf

 

[AgentBirdnest]

I found a few old scientific papers. More in-depth step in the actual circuitry construction. It would seem to me you would use lithography to etch out what you don't want and the diffusion step is to place the other semiconductor material in the voids left behind. Diffusion says that it might be some sort of gas to condensate type process?

From these diagrams:
http://www.bitsavers.org/components...used_Integrated_Circuit_Resistors_Dec1962.pdf

Interesting, thanks!

 

[PaulAlcorn]

These comments make me realize I should try to explain this better in the article.

To provide clarity about the markings:

'Diffused' denotes the silicon die chipmaking process, etching, masking, diffusion, etc. AMD uses this term to note where the die was fabricated.

The 'Made in' marking denotes the location where the die is placed into the chip package and then tested (OSAT) -- i.e., mounted on a substrate (PCB) and then covered with the lid (IHS - Integrated Heat Spreader).

 

[btmedic04]

I may have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night AMD

 

[Brian28]

I'm incredibly disappointed in AMD for doing this.

Disappointing, sure, but it seems that AMD was the outlier before this, as none of the other big names were printing Taiwan as a origin.

 

[baboma]

>What the heck is "diffusing", anyway?

You've just described one of of the use cases for AI, to instantly answer esoteric questions (instead of waiting for somebody to give an answer). ChatGPT gave a detailed answer even at first pass; I'd imagine Bard/CoPilot would give similar.

>I know that change was made to appease China.

You're viewing from a myopic, biased lens. Yours is a "us vs them" view, ie one is either with Taiwan or against it. There's a wider, neutral view, which is that all businesses abhor conflict and controversy that can impact their operations. They stay out of politics and culture war as best as they can.

AMD's was a sound business move, as the marking doesn't change Taiwan's situation one way or the other.

 

[sstanic]

AMD will have high end products 'diffused in USA' shortly as well, they are also avoiding those awkward questions this way

"Why is my high-end CPU made in Taiwan if we now have TSMC here, and at a great cost for my tax dollars too?"

Works both ways..

 

[Iceman734b]

What the heck is "diffusing", anyway?
I'm not familiar with that term, in regards to chipmaking.

This is the best I know of for explaining cpu diffusion.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...8QFnoECBsQBQ&usg=AOvVaw2KXLB4cAud7VkCqyuIPFmo

 

[Pierce2623]

I think the video cards are horrible to top tier but I use their CPUs. If they don't change I will go team Intel for future builds. Proud owner of a RTX4090 with a Taiwan 7950x CPU......

That rtx4090 was assembled in China, brilliant one.

 

[funguseater]

I'm disappointed, but not surprised.

Companies which try to take a political stand almost always pay a price for it. Given that it won't make any real difference, anyhow, I can't really hold it against them.

The political statement occurred when they decided to label the product as "Diffused in Taiwan" and sell it to China. They already faced the backlash and lost money this is their correction.

 

[jkflipflop98]

What the heck is "diffusing", anyway?
I'm not familiar with that term, in regards to chipmaking.

Diffusion in the fab is usually a method of chemical vapor deposition. You heat the wafers up to some ridiculous temperature and then inject gasses into a diffusion furnace. The thermal energy inside the machine forces a chemical reaction and you get a finely controlled layer of your desired material deposited on the surface of the wafers. These are usually oxides, nitrides, or various polymers.

I have no idea why they would pick that as the wording on the IHS, though. Seems very odd to me.

 

[-Fran-]

Why aren't they crediting the delivery guy from Amazon when it gets to my doorstep, man! Or their country! Or their ethnicity!

I'm so outraged by this. I can't believe AMD can step so low as to not credit hard working people, individually, in their CPUs, alongside their demographic and region.

Why isn't Lisa Su signing every single CPU for me either? Gosh, the worst. THE. WORST. I won't be buying all of them, but at least one I would buy and I want it signed and fully credited to everyone! EVERYONE!

Regards.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

AMD removes something Intel doesn't put on their CPUs, and it's a newsworthy change worthy of the deputy editor? Sounds like TH is trying to make something out of nothing.

 

[Co BIY]

Companies which try to take a political stand almost always pay a price for it.

With petty tyrants you pay a price for telling minor truths or refusing to tell the required lies with enough fervor.

 

[Co BIY]

AMD removes something Intel doesn't put on their CPUs, and it's a newsworthy change worthy of the deputy editor? Sounds like TH is trying to make something out of nothing.

If you had bothered to read the article it is the CCP mouthpieces that have made a big deal of this.

Successful Chinese outside of their control show the lie of their claim that only they have brought the wonders of modernization to the Chinese people.

AMD may soon "Diffuse" their chips in Arizona or maybe even Ireland, Israel or Germany. I'm sure they decided less is more.

 

[umeng2002_2]

If countries had sane tax codes, it would be defused and assembled and packaged all in the same country.

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

If you had bothered to read the article it is the CCP mouthpieces that have made a big deal of this.

Successful Chinese outside of their control show the lie of their claim that only they have brought the wonders of modernization to the Chinese people.

AMD may soon "Diffuse" their chips in Arizona or maybe even Ireland, Israel or Germany. I'm sure they decided less is more.

If you had read the article, you would see where there is no evidence for those claims, only speculation, with phrases like:

a move largely thought to be a reaction to demands from the People's Republic of China.

The changes made headlines in China, with many claiming yet another company had acquiesced to the PRC's insistence that products created in Taiwan be labeled as 'Made in China,'

And yes, the real reason is likely because with TSMC building fabs in other countries chips will likely be made outside of Taiwan, and lacking the "made in (country)" strip enables them to mass produce more IHSs for general usage.

 

[Tega]

Just when you think AMD couldn't get more based, they just do it again. I'll make sure to order a Ryzen 8000 cpu if I don't get a 7000.

 

[Amdlova]

Tsmc need to charge 25% more from AMD