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I worked at an engineering and executive level in the semiconductor industry for 35 years.  I knew and worked closely with TSMC experts and executives, including the current co-CEO.  Many of the top TSMC experts worked in US semi companies before Morris Chang recruited them to the US.  Those guys are SMART.

I don’t want to say that the most advanced chips cannot be made by TSMC in the US, but I can confidently say that it is naive in the extreme to suggest that it can be done quickly or easily here.  Work culture in Taiwan is much different than it is in the US .   Work-life balance does not exist the way we think of it here.  The fabs in Taiwan have bookstores and flower stores, among others, right off the cafeteria.  Why?   So you never have to leave the plant.  Is it your son’s birthday?   Get a present for him at work before you get home at 10 PM.  

I have to say that one statement in this article is incorrect. “Apple released an ad promoting Genmoji, but using images that could not possibly be generated by that feature.”  I looked back at that article and tried to create those Genmoji images myself.  I created three of them with very little difficulty, and then stopped. 

High Apple memory prices may be due, in part, to extensive memory testing at the memory supplier to weed out bad or unreliable memory.  Apple may also specify a low die defect level that rules out many memory chips on the wafer.  I was once responsible for worldwide memory quality for a major computer manufacturer and we took the same approach.  

This article was very helpful, as usual.  I would like to comment on the suggestion that readers not buy drives from Apple.  I never worked for Apple but I did work for one of the world’s largest computer companies in a senior technical and executive position.  At the time, we bought more storage and RAM than any other company. Long story omitted, we charged our enterprise customers more for components than what you would see in the retail environment.  We did this because we required extensive quality testing, much more than normal, and put limits on what all the major suppliers could sell us.  We reduced failure rates in this manner.  I was at all the major manufacturers.  I was in their labs and test facilities.  I was in their fabs and reviewed their manufacturing data.  I know for a fact that Apple also required extra intensive testing.  This is why I always buy components from Apple.  I know I will get higher quality.  The other part is that I get peace of mind.   The drives aren’t cheap.  I keep my computers in service for several years, so I figure I am spreading out the cost.  If I bought a new computer annually or perhaps every two years, I might buy on the retail market.  Thanks again for the excellent article. 

If you know what it takes to run a semiconductor company, then you know that the numbers don’t make sense.  Running a semiconductor company is different.  

Half a terabyte is a lot of unified memory.  It might be worth checking this report against memory roadmaps from SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron.  

I appreciate this piece.  It’s good journalism.   

I have Google Translate on my phone, but only the Apple Translate app shows up as an option.  I am using an iPhone 16 Pro Max with iOS 18.5. 

Nice trip back through memory lane.  Thanks.