News EU Explores Massive Local Semiconductor Alliance and Fab

[Admin]

European politicians mull different semiconductor industry strategies, will present upd view in early May.

EU Explores Massive Local Semiconductor Alliance and Fab : Read more

 

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Consolidation of smaller chip manufacturers is the most logical thing to do since modern fabs aren't economically viable at wafer throughput below 50k WSPM, too many wafers for many smaller companies' needs. If they could partner with Samsung or Intel to share technology, that would reduce their costs and also enable them to act as surge facilities for whichever chip maker mentors them. It could be made into an "everyone wins" scenario if everyone can hold their greedy hands back for a minute.

 

[hannibal]

It also would spread chip manufacturing to wider area and thus makes the environment as a whole more Secure. If there are problems in one area in the world, it would not be the end of the world, because other manufacturers in different areas would not be affected similarly.

 

[Co BIY]

One thing that I think is not clear is if the cutting edge processes will remain the most profitable processes. It is entirely possible that mature processes like TSMC's 7nm and Intel's 14nm could be the sweet spot for effectiveness and profitability while more advanced processes are limited to specific markets with extreme requirements.

 

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It is entirely possible that mature processes like TSMC's 7nm and Intel's 14nm could be the sweet spot for effectiveness and profitability while more advanced processes are limited to specific markets with extreme requirements.

I doubt it: smaller processes are necessary to bring down the cost of more complex chips and make those more complex chips feasible in the first place. Rocket Lake is a huge piece of power-hungry silicon that barely manages to compete with AMD/TSMC up to 8-cores. Intel is on its last leg as far as 14nm is concerned at the bleeding edge and even its 10nm Tiger Lake isn't doing too good against AMD's 5000G series in the mobile space. Intel cannot afford to screw up its 7nm.

Sure, those new fabs will take a while longer to turn a profit but they will get there as long as they can be kept busy churning out chips at 80-90% capacity and offering foundry services is a great way to make that happen, not everything needs bleeding-edge process tech. Among other things, 10-22nm should have a very long life ahead churning out passive and active silicon interposers for 2.5D/FOVEROS style packaging.