Wei-Jen Lo Suspected of Taking Trade Secrets to Intel

[Daniel Nenni]

[News] Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan Denies Allegations That Former TSMC Exec Brought Trade Secrets In

With speculation mounting that former TSMC SVP Wei-Jen Lo may have taken key materials to Intel, the company’s CEO Lip-Bu Tan has spoken out in respon...

www.trendforce.com

One correction:

"Notably, Liberty Times reports that TSMC accused Liang of leaking trade secrets after helping Samsung jump to 14nm and win Apple processor orders. The legal battle lasted nearly four years, ending with Taiwan’s Supreme Court ruling in TSMC’s favor—barring Liang from working at Samsung until December 31, 2015, and forbidding him from sharing TSMC trade secrets or R&D staff names, the report adds."

This is not true. TSMC 16nm was late in ramping to HVM and could not fulfill Apples A9 (iPhone 6s) requirements so Apple used Samsung 14nm and TSMC 16nm until TSMC was able to ship enough wafers. The A9X was 100% TSMC 16nm.

This was the infamous Chip Gate scandal. There was an ap that told you if the phone had TSMC or Samsung silicon. People were returning Samsung based phones in the US. I had a TSMC based iPhone 6s and loved it.

Chipgate FAQ: Everything you need to know about iPhone 6s controversy

If you're confused about the so-called 'Chipgate' controversy swirling around the Internet today, we're here to help. It just wouldn't be an iPhone launch

www.cultofmac.com

 

[Jert]

Liang Mong Song left tsmc extremely angry and bitter. It's understandable the theatrical events of him joining Samsung and "stealing" tsmc IP (it's imprinted in his heads and probably hard to erase). He was looking for revenge and wasn't hesitating to utilize any weapons to help him beat tsmc.

However it's puzzling to me why tsmc later on had the Chiang Shang-yi and SMIC saga. Chiang was a well respected top executive techie, why did tsmc let him join the communist smic and risk having smic potentially catching up with tsmc? (all smic need is know-how, financial support and risk-bearing is unlimited). Was tsmc mgmt looking for "competitor" to propel its own engineers?

And now another top executive techie Dr Lo, going to customer/partner/peer Intel? why tsmc also haven't said a word about it, just like Intel? It's puzzling.

Is it really true/possible that such industry giants CC Wei, Mark Liu making this kind of low level "oh we didn't know he was re-joining XYZ" same mistake for the THIRD time? Could there be some other stories behind this story?? . Why would Dr. Lo making such seems-silly mistakes tarnishing his name? Who will benefit the most in spreading this rumor to divide tsmc/Intel, Taiwan/US?

 

[swka]

Liang Mong Song left tsmc extremely angry and bitter. It's understandable the theatrical events of him joining Samsung and "stealing" tsmc IP (it's imprinted in his heads and probably hard to erase). He was looking for revenge and wasn't hesitating to utilize any weapons to help him beat tsmc.

However it's puzzling to me why tsmc later on had the Chiang Shang-yi and SMIC saga. Chiang was a well respected top executive techie, why did tsmc let him join the communist smic and risk having smic potentially catching up with tsmc? (all smic need is know-how, financial support and risk-bearing is unlimited). Was tsmc mgmt looking for "competitor" to propel its own engineers?

And now another top executive techie Dr Lo, going to customer/partner/peer Intel? why tsmc also haven't said a word about it, just like Intel? It's puzzling.

Is it really true/possible that such industry giants CC Wei, Mark Liu making this kind of low level "oh we didn't know he was re-joining XYZ" same mistake for the THIRD time? Could there be some other stories behind this story?? . Why would Dr. Lo making such seems-silly mistakes tarnishing his name? Who will benefit the most in spreading this rumor to divide tsmc/Intel, Taiwan/US?

legally can tsmc prevent those folks joining competitors in the 1st place? Is there such a thing as non-compete and is it actually enforceable in Taiwan system?