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China, IP, Tech, Taiwan, Politics Forever Changed, Opportunity

Arthur Hanson

Well-known member
The corona crisis has forever changed the standing of China and put its politics, IP, trade practices, relationship with Taiwan in a whole new light with over 100 countries calling for an investigation of their handling of the virus and its spread around the world. TSM going forward with a new plant in the US, shows just how fast the political and trade landscape is changing. The theft of key IP starting with the theft from Cisco years ago is now being put in the spot light. Now every action that China has made is being put under a spot light they can't control. International relations for all countries in all areas are now changing forever as the battle against a virus is now truly universal and world wide. Hopefully this crisis will open a new era of cooperation in many areas where each country can show their individual strengths, intentions and IP world wide in an open, transparent manner. So far Taiwan is coming out a winner with their tech and handling of the virus with a spot light put on any actions China may take that has been made brighter by Hong Kong and the virus. Hopefully all will benefit, including China and the Chinese people. How international relations, politics, and business are handled will break down in before the virus and after and will never go back.

This is perhaps one of the greatest opportunities in the history of man, for it has the potential to be world wide and all encompassing of just about everything. How this situation is handled will be key for everyone for rarely in history is there an opportunity to change just about everything at every level world wide. Outside of the virus itself, Taiwan and TSM have the opportunity to literally change the world and China, with the world watching, has great opportunities to.

The tech sector is now front and center in just about every way and now has the opportunity to change the path the human race is taking in so many ways, covering them will be maybe the greatest saga in the history of man, let's not waste this opportunity, everyone has a contribution to make and now is the time to step up. The Semiwiki community now has its greatest challenge ever before it. If ever there was a time to be bold, it is now.

This is just the very beginning of another technological wave the coronavirus has opened up from medical to education to work locations among others. This crisis, like a war, should be looked at as a golden opportunity to break down barriers and be bold. The pandemic has opened minds and politics to try new technologies, processes and actions that previously would have taken generations. This is the golden opportunity for mankind to change everything, let's not waste it.
 
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I'm not optimistic. The proposed site will take an army with technicians and engineers that are essential. I've seen too many companies fail because of too many chiefs and not enough Indians if any. China became the factory of the world because of dependable labor.
 
I'm not optimistic. The proposed site will take an army with technicians and engineers that are essential. I've seen too many companies fail because of too many chiefs and not enough Indians if any. China became the factory of the world because of dependable labor.
I agree with you on that it will take a good number of specialized people to run the plant, but I believe if a few programs are run in parallel to the fab being built, much of this particular challenge could be met. I have set up programs as a project head to deal with situations like this, but they were not implemented and the project crashed horribly. Another top person and I were going to work together to develop the best process and then we would each train someone and this process of dividing talent would continue until we had the labor needed. I feel TSM feels they can innovate in training like they have in semis and pull this off. Underestimating what TSM can do, has been a losing proposition. Bringing in a firm that specializes in projects of this type may be necessary.
 
Ultimately, this factory may run better if, like Portland says, they start with fresh, moldable minds. Yes, you need a few experts, but too many experts creates too much discord, sort of like an All Star NBA team. You're better off with a few leaders, and people that can follow instructions. Most NBA teams that have done well adhere to that type of model. That of course, will involve significant investment in training. I do think there are people here in the US that, if given a chance, and provided with training, would do an excellent job there.
 
TSMC was made an offer it couldn't refuse. However, the money is in the leading fab, where Apple, AMD etc are willing to pay a premium to gain a competitive edge for their products. A 5nm fab coming on line in 2024 is not the leading edge. It is a good start and secures a local supply for the defence and aerospace industry. The question I have for everybody here is, as a hiring manager (Silicon Valley) in the late 80s. I was seeing a lot of the brightest students migrating towards computer science and software. The opportunities in software and design were much better in Silicon Valley compare to semiconductor manufacturing. In the old days, we could get the brightest minds to work on semiconductor processes and manufacturing but hard to do it now. We lost semiconductor fabs to Taiwan because there were better opportunities in software, there was zero chance to started a company that requires billion dollar startup capital. If you have a son/daughter in high school going to college now, would you encourage him/her to pursue a carrier in semiconductor processing? (I am an EE myself used to work at Fairchild, Trilogy, DEC and a few stat up companies, my sons are all in computer science).
 
I agree with you on that it will take a good number of specialized people to run the plant, but I believe if a few programs are run in parallel to the fab being built, much of this particular challenge could be met. I have set up programs as a project head to deal with situations like this, but they were not implemented and the project crashed horribly. Another top person and I were going to work together to develop the best process and then we would each train someone and this process of dividing talent would continue until we had the labor needed. I feel TSM feels they can innovate in training like they have in semis and pull this off. Underestimating what TSM can do, has been a losing proposition. Bringing in a firm that specializes in projects of this type may be necessary.

You can train people to be operators, first man, ..... . I need to make this point that work takes an authentic effort and isn't easy.

You'll only go as far as your best mechanic or technician can take you. Those guys aren't trained overnight and tsmc will need to import them. Those guys working at the tsmc level are tough guys.
 
Ultimately, this factory may run better if, like Portland says, they start with fresh, moldable minds. Yes, you need a few experts, but too many experts creates too much discord, sort of like an All Star NBA team. You're better off with a few leaders, and people that can follow instructions. Most NBA teams that have done well adhere to that type of model. That of course, will involve significant investment in training. I do think there are people here in the US that, if given a chance, and provided with training, would do an excellent job there.

An overvalued property, excessive salaries, tv contract from disney, arenas they can't use, and may not even play next year. The NBA was not made for the time of coronavirus.

I don't know where to begin.

Tmsc > NBA.
 
TSMC was made an offer it couldn't refuse. However, the money is in the leading fab, where Apple, AMD etc are willing to pay a premium to gain a competitive edge for their products. A 5nm fab coming on line in 2024 is not the leading edge. It is a good start and secures a local supply for the defence and aerospace industry. The question I have for everybody here is, as a hiring manager (Silicon Valley) in the late 80s. I was seeing a lot of the brightest students migrating towards computer science and software. The opportunities in software and design were much better in Silicon Valley compare to semiconductor manufacturing. In the old days, we could get the brightest minds to work on semiconductor processes and manufacturing but hard to do it now. We lost semiconductor fabs to Taiwan because there were better opportunities in software, there was zero chance to started a company that requires billion dollar startup capital. If you have a son/daughter in high school going to college now, would you encourage him/her to pursue a carrier in semiconductor processing? (I am an EE myself used to work at Fairchild, Trilogy, DEC and a few stat up companies, my sons are all in computer science).

You have a very good point,it's the environment that made Taiwan so competitive in semiconductor/hardware designs.

China's environment is similar to that of Silicon Valley,IT/Software industry is much more lucrative and better payed. Most EE students either change to CS major or end up work in software industry eventually. But in Taiwan, software industry is undeveloped relative to hardware industry, all the good jobs are in semiconductor field, so local talents are naturally attracted to these fields.
 
An overvalued property, excessive salaries, tv contract from disney, arenas they can't use, and may not even play next year. The NBA was not made for the time of coronavirus.

I don't know where to begin.

Tmsc > NBA.
Hi Portland,

Of course, the NBA analogy only goes so far. I agree that they are all over-paid and not a priority for our current world situation. TSMC is definitely more valued-added to the world than the NBA!
 
I'm not an engineer, but several times I have beat teams of engineers. I know how to dig for information in numerous ways and recruit just a very few people to beat out far, far larger teams. At the beginning I've literally been told it's time to back up what I said after all others have failed. I have mastered tracking down information or taking very unusual approaches to problems saving from tens of thousands to several million on one project where out of desperation they tried me as a wild card and they said my proofs were undisputable. I'm a big fan of the super over riding KISS (keep it simple, stupid) approach. One time I uncovered subterfuge and basically fraud by a major corporation to the point I was shocked and the final agreements were kept secret even from me. This has subjected me to harsh politics and even a firing after my approach was used world wide and retroactive(the only saving grace is the corporation became a has been).
 
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