Taiwan’s Semiconductor Paradox: Why TSMC Soared, DRAM Sank

[karin623]

In the global semiconductor boom, Taiwan is often celebrated for one thing: TSMC. But behind its foundry success lies a lesser-known failure—Taiwan’s dramatic misstep in the DRAM industry.

In the new book From the Periphery to the Core: How Taiwan’s Semiconductor Industry Became the Heart of the World, former ITRI president and Tsinghua honorary professor Chin-Tay Shih and former Council for Economic Planning and Development Minister and NTU economics professor Tain-Jy Chen unpack the hidden history behind these diverging paths. From a pivotal visit by Carver Mead to a failed Japan-Taiwan DRAM alliance, they reveal how Taiwan got it so right—and so wrong.

-What really happened between RCA and TSMC?

-Why did Japan miss the PC revolution?

-How did Samsung outlast Taiwan’s DRAM push?

Full story here ↓

Taiwan’s Semiconductor Paradox: Why TSMC Soared, DRAM Sank

Liang-rong Chen

cwnewsroom.substack.com

 

[Fred Chen]

The key thing was there were plenty of domestic design clients that TSMC could serve. Also, at the time, making commodity DRAM was more capital-intensive. Key technology IP was also licensed.

 

[samwilde]

Samsung had a captive customer. Their own consumer electronics division.

As for Japanese PCs failing, their own PCs were encumbered back then with expensive custom support for Japanese characters and they did not follow the same standards used in the West. Software available was limited and not exportable elsewhere. Western software did not run on their computers. Then Microsoft came in and killed their PC industry when they added Japanese support to their OS.

 

[benb]

I like this substack.

On the topic of ProMOS/Nanya/Rex Chip/Elpida merger: Whew, how could that possibly work? Come on.