News Key chipmaking tools are missing from China’s new self-made list of semiconductor industry challenges — lithography machines are curiously absent

[Admin]

The China Associate for Science and Technology listed the country's semiconductor challenges, and lithography tools are notably absent from the list.

Key chipmaking tools are missing from China’s new self-made list of semiconductor industry challenges — lithography machines are curiously absent : Read more

 

[zsydeepsky]

odd this has become the news.
I looked at CAST's official website with their annual lists, only in 2020 they mentioned lithography, and then in 2023 they mentioned "self-sufficient, high-performance & low-cost SoC", then in 2024 "high-performance GPU", that's basically all.
obliviously CAST isn't obsessed with lithography, yet some reporters just love to extend this ordinary phenomenon into weird political fantasy.

2020: https://www.cast.org.cn/xw/MTBD/art/2020/art_4f50d32013a64a20b58e7f3fcbe56984.html
2021: https://www.cast.org.cn/xw/TTXW/art/2021/art_bfc153e076cb428a8dd17f51be05011c.html
2022: https://www.cast.org.cn/xw/dfkx/HN/art/2022/art_83df385c47ff4aa3ae8b53c2238e589a.html
2023: https://www.cast.org.cn/xw/BWTJ/art/2023/art_32e91b9e6bdd45d5aa8c1dd01b6c72aa.html
2024: https://www.cast.org.cn/xw/BWTJ/art/2024/art_2096607279.html

 

[thisisaname]

with another company, Naura Technology, aiming to develop its lithography tools for the first time in April 2024.

So they failed or just not reported?

 

[MacZ24]

It's not some crypted magic sauce :
1/ You know it's possible
2/ You have working samples at hand

It may be difficult, but there is no reason to believe they won't succeed at replicating or creating something similar. Except if you consider the chinese inferior by nature.

There are two sectors that the west has an edge on :
- Landing rockets
- Advanced nodes.

That's why you hear about these two all the time.

The rest, not so much.

But advanced nodes are only relevant for AI, so it is only an edge for really heavy AI applications (ie. that requires very heavy parallel processing). And the jury is still out on this one.

 

[zsydeepsky]

So they failed or just not reported?

no one knows, China tends to keep silent about its progress. just like no one anticipated Huawei to launch Kirin 9000S, and even with that they talked nothing about who or how manufactured the chips. everything you have read or heard about it is all 3rd-party analysis or outright speculation.

anyway, since Huawei has already announced that in Q4 they will launch new phones, that should be a good opportunity to understand what they have achieved.

 

[ivan_vy]

too much speculation and conspiracy theorists, China has a space program, advanced military, Huawei leading in 5G and beyond and big internet companies that challenge Meta, Google and Amazon.
Do we really need 4 or 5 articles per week telling us they can't make chips and will take by force or blow up TSMC? and in the same time are a economic threat that need to be contained by sanctions when any lawmakers feels it? clickbait at its finest.

 

[RyderXx]

Yea without ASML, china will be stuck for the next decade. They can't innovate only steal

 

[JamesJones44]

Out of curiosity, where is this chart from?

 

[jkflipflop98]

It's not some crypted magic sauce :
1/ You know it's possible
2/ You have working samples at hand

It may be difficult, but there is no reason to believe they won't succeed at replicating or creating something similar. Except if you consider the chinese inferior by nature.

There are two sectors that the west has an edge on :
- Landing rockets
- Advanced nodes.

That's why you hear about these two all the time.

The rest, not so much.

But advanced nodes are only relevant for AI, so it is only an edge for really heavy AI applications (ie. that requires very heavy parallel processing). And the jury is still out on this one.

This chart is surely from The Onion or something. China leading in "advanced aircraft engines"? "AI accelerator hardware"?? LOL yeah, right.

 

[zsydeepsky]

Out of curiosity, where is this chart from?

This chart is surely from The Onion or something. China leading in "advanced aircraft engines"? "AI accelerator hardware"?? LOL yeah, right.

it's from Australian Strategy Policy Insititute (ASPI)'s report "Critical Technology Tracker"
ASPI’s Critical Technology Tracker - Sensors & Biotech updates

it's made by Australian thinktank, so it provided a 3rd person view to for US/China tech development.

and yes, China is also leaping forward in advanced aircraft engines (and not only that). Tom's hardware won't cover news outside IT field, but those progresses are happening. like when was the last time you heard China leaped forward in EVs? for most Americans, it probably was from nothing to "China mass EV Invasion" overnight.

yet, no such leap forward happens overnight.