Opinionated - China Chipping Away to Semiconductor Dominance

[FairAndUnbiased]

I just want to communicate the following:

First point, people at state funds have a very long history of spending tremendous amounts of money on vanity projects that tend to close quietly after a few years.

Second point, the state of real part of microelectronics industry, the one that doesn't have the privilege to contend for 12 digit state loans, is far from stellar.

Third point, all of the above, and the last 20 something years rendered it all vividly that keeping doing things under the first point, doesn't improve things under the second point.

Whether it is middle income trap or not, we are not advancing anywhere if the real part of the electronics industry can't stand on its two legs.

This is not a call to throw money on one or another part of the industry. I want people to stop, and think about it. The nation is spending billions a year on something that doesn't work, and doesn't contribute a thing towards this goal.

When anybody here will be passing by Shenzhen, go to SEG plaza, or HQEW building 1 first floor. You will see what China's real electronics industry is.


Very glad that there is somebody with whom I can talk about the industry seriously.

I once too had ambitions for process engineering, but in the end things didn't work out.

I tried working in microelectronics instead, an offshoot of Sichuan SOE. They were making a fancy synchronous rectifier for use in "driverless" LED modules. It was a bitter experience, and I am not having any plans to return to it. Plain electronics engineering earn so far much better buck, and if I try really hard, I may open my own practice in the next 6-8 years.

Point 1: throwing money at the problem is the best way to generate demand. if you don't have it, customers can't demand it. I've been through this in talks with my boss before. We were talking about designing a customized wafer mapping system, for internal use as a pilot scale R&D/FA tool and to sell the service.

I asked, right now there isn't much demand for this sort of service. Do we really need this? My boss replies: if we don't have the equipment ready to go and with some demonstrations already done, how do customers know they want this service? if production team doesn't know we have this, how do they know that this test may be good for them?

if you will, look at US biotech. They throw billions away every year unproductively while the bloated health insurance system sustains them by draining wealth from the people. yet some say that this might be worth it for the tech lead that it gives US biotech companies and for the demand generated by the biotech companies for high end equipment i.e. reactors, analytical tools, chemicals, etc.

or look at US military spending. how much of that is profitable, how much of that is just state welfare, and how much of it is demand creation for high end capabilities?

Point 2: Process engineering is quite removed from the electronics part. 90% of my work is chemistry and chemical engineering. My degree/research is in chemical physics so this works for me. But for fun, I just tinker with electronics using my own money. It is a cheap hobby compared to expensive ones like gambling or cars. Maybe one day I will start a business too, but I still think I need more experience and finding the market niches.

 

[艹艹艹]

Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding unveiled on Wednesday its ambitious plans to develop a proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) chipset, and it said it will establish a semiconductor company to meet this goal.

The chip company is to be called Pingtouge, a name chosen by Jack Ma Yun, founder of Alibaba. The name is also the nickname of honey badger, a fearless animal that dares to challenge other, larger creatures.

Aalibaba chipmaking arm growing strong
Thursday 7 May 2020

Alibaba's subsidiary Pingtouge has devoted much effort developing AI and server chips. Pingtouge has been as keen to develop ties with TSMC, and has the potential to become one of the foundry house's major clients. Meanwhile, Alibaba and other China-based cloud service providers are ramping up demand for enterprise servers and SSDs, as the country lifts coronavirus lockdowns. While it remains uncertain whether Apple's 5G iPhone will come out later than usual, its FPCB suppliers have seen demand turn strong in the second quarter, thanks to the roll-out of the next-generation iPhone SE, new iPad and MacBook models.

Alibaba chipmaking subsidiary to emerge as major client of TSMC: Pingtouge, Alibaba's semiconductor subsidiary, has stepped up its AI and server related chip development while extending its ties with TSMC and Global Unichip, and has the potential to become a major client of the foundry house, according to industry sources.

 

[Mohrenn]

I just want to communicate the following:

First point, people at state funds have a very long history of spending tremendous amounts of money on vanity projects that tend to close quietly after a few years.

Second point, the state of real part of microelectronics industry, the one that doesn't have the privilege to contend for 12 digit state loans, is far from stellar.

Third point, all of the above, and the last 20 something years rendered it all vividly that keeping doing things under the first point, doesn't improve things under the second point.

Whether it is middle income trap or not, we are not advancing anywhere if the real part of the electronics industry can't stand on its two legs.

This is not a call to throw money on one or another part of the industry. I want people to stop, and think about it. The nation is spending billions a year on something that doesn't work, and doesn't contribute a thing towards this goal.

When anybody here will be passing by Shenzhen, go to SEG plaza, or HQEW building 1 first floor. You will see what China's electronics industry really is.

SMIC, CXMT etc are the "real part of microelectronics industry".

 

[艹艹艹]

 

[Faith_Lock]

View attachment 631207

can you provide more information on this chip?

 

[艹艹艹]

 

[zestokryl]

Is that RAM stick with chinese chips or what ?

 

[Han Patriot]

Is that RAM stick with chinese chips or what ?

Yes Chinese Dram from cxmt

 

[JSCh]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1259656747209220096

 

[zestokryl]

Yes Chinese Dram from cxmt

Sweet. Btw is there a schedule for SSDs containing chinese NAND chips ? Related :

Phison Announces Support for YMTC 128-layer and 64-layer 3D NAND Flash Memory
https://www.techpowerup.com/266823/phison-announces-support-for-ymtc-128-layer-and-64-layer-3d-nand-flash-memory

 

[JSCh]

Goke Micro's new SSD controller launched, adapted to Yangtze Memory 128 layer chip - cnTechPost
2020-05-11 19:47:40 GMT+8 | cnTechPost

The GK2302V200 series of Goke Microelectronics' new generation solid state drive controllers are equipped with the third generation NANDXtra engine and are fully adaptable to 128 layers of TLC and QLC chip for efficient and secure data storage experience.

Goke Microelectronics' new solid-state drive controller GK2302V200 Series Introduced, Fully Adapted to 128-Layer Chip Including Yangtze Memory

Goke Microelectronics continues to push the boundaries of iterative SSD controller upgrades with the GK2302V200 series, which supports a variety of 2D MLC/TLC, 3D MLC/TLC/QLC flash chips and is compatible with Yangtze Memory's latest 128-layer 3D TLC/QLC chips.

The Goke Microelectronics GK2302V200 is equipped with a domestic embedded CPU IP core, demonstrating the concept of "China Design"; it supports SATA 3.2 standard interface and maximum reading bandwidth of 550MB/s.

Goke Microelectronics' third generation NANDXtra reliability engine, enhanced LDPC engine and Multi Group RAID protection to enhance NAND chip life; 2-channel flash memory interface, support Toggle 2.0 & ONFI 4.0 interface protocol, interface bandwidth 533MT/s; maximum 2TB capacity.

GK2302V200 supports national SM2, SM3, SM4 algorithms and RSA2048/SHA-256/AES-256 to provide comprehensive security of data encryption.

It has passed the National Secret Level 1 certification and National Information Security EAL-3 certification, ensuring reliability, stability and performance.

 

[Faith_Lock]

SMIC is on a tear. He is going on major expansion right now.
https://www.eetimes.com/smic-aims-to-raise-more-than-3b-for-expansion/#
---
SMIC Aims to Raise More Than $3B for Expansion
By Alan Patterson 05.11.2020 0

TAIPEI — Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), based in Shanghai, aims to sell new shares that could raise more than $3 billion for investment in expansion.

The board of China’s biggest foundry earlier this month approved a proposal to issue 1.69 million new shares on China’s Sci-Tech Innovation Board, also known as the STAR market, for technology companies. Based on the value of SMIC’s shares listed in Hong Kong, the sale of the new shares could raise about $3.2 billion.

SMIC said 40 percent of the money raised will be used for its “12-Inch SN1 Project”; 20 percent for R&D on advanced and mature technology; and the rest for the replenishment of working capital. The company is likely to announce approval of the share sale in an extraordinary general meeting on May 25th.

The company has been seeking alternative funding sources after it delisted from the New York Stock Exchange last year amid increasing restrictions by the U.S. against Chinese tech companies. Analysts believe that access to advanced manufacturing equipment is the biggest challenge for SMIC in its efforts to expand.

“Financially, this move allows SMIC to access to lower-cost capital, but we don’t believe it would result in any change operationally,” Sanford C. Bernstein analysts Mark Li, Hanxu Wang and Edward Hou said in a report provided to EE Times. “Strategically, we believe SMIC is gradually severing the ties to the U.S. capital markets, as the tension between the U.S. and China escalates because of Covid-19 and another round of the trade war is brewing.”

The report cautioned that SMIC’s access to U.S. technologies, especially semiconductor manufacturing equipment, will be more challenging, particularly after the U.S. Commerce Department announced tighter export controls last week.

China aims to achieve self-sufficiency in production of semiconductors. SMIC, with the support of the Chinese government, is a primary vehicle of that aim.

Huawei may lose access to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.’s most advanced production technology in the future, the report said. The U.S. government has been trying to restrict TSMC’s sales to Huawei, one of the world’s leading makers of 5G equipment. Huawei may try to redirect some chip orders to SMIC, but it will be impossible for SMIC to meet these expectations if the company does not have U.S. chipmaking equipment, according to the report.

Huawei’s chipmaking subsidiary, HiSilicon, is using TSMC’s 7nm technology for production of its Kirin processors. SMIC lags three generations behind TSMC at the 14nm node.

The United States has even blocked SMIC from buying EUV lithography equipment from ASML of the Netherlands, which is key to upgrading the Chinese company’s production technology.

 

[艹艹艹]

 

[j20blackdragon]

US death toll at 87,000; 1,059,000 active cases; 36.5 million jobless in 8 weeks.

Is NOW the best time to restart the trade war with China?

In late March, Huawei rotating Chairman Eric Xu warned that China will retaliate should the U.S. move to restrict sales by TSMC to his company. “I don’t think the Chinese government will just watch and let Huawei be slaughtered on a chopping board. I believe the Chinese government will also take some countermeasures,” he said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-rules-to-crack-down-on-huawei-s-chip-supply

https://twitter.com/x/status/1261250635371909120

 

[tower9]

US death toll at 87,000; 1,059,000 active cases; 36.5 million jobless in 8 weeks.

Is NOW the best time to restart the trade war with China?

In late March, Huawei rotating Chairman Eric Xu warned that China will retaliate should the U.S. move to restrict sales by TSMC to his company. “I don’t think the Chinese government will just watch and let Huawei be slaughtered on a chopping board. I believe the Chinese government will also take some countermeasures,” he said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...s-rules-to-crack-down-on-huawei-s-chip-supply

https://twitter.com/x/status/1261250635371909120

Covid-19 is part of a greater strategy of which the trade and tech war is a part of.