TSMC has reportedly started production of Ryzen 9000 series processors and parts for Apple at its Fab 21 fab in Arizona. Which is great to hear.
TSMC’s Fab 21 in Arizona is gradually ramping up production, and recently it began to manufacture some of AMD’s Ryzen 9000-series processors for client PCs as well as some ingredients of Apple’s S9 system-in-package (SiP) for smart watches, reports Tim Culpan, a well-connected journalist, citing his own sources.
If the information is accurate, then TSMC’s Fab 21 in the U.S. is now producing at least three chips: Apple’s A16 Bionic system-on-chip for iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus smartphones, at least one IC in the Apple S9 SiP for smart watches (we presume this is the actual application processor with two 64-bit cores and a quad-core neural engine), and one of AMD’s Ryzen 9000-series CPU. All of the said processors are made using TSMC’s 4nm-class N4 and N4P technologies.
It’s great that TSMC is manufacturing chips inside the United States. Making semiconductors inside the United States diversifies TSMC fab capacity, making chip supplies safer in the event of a natural disaster or the annexation of Taiwan by China.
Manufacturing chips inside the United States also improves the US semiconductor ecosystem, helping to create complimentary businesses and economies of scale. So that’s also good.
While TSMC is still recruiting Taiwanese employees for its Arizona fab and is not manufacturing everything that it could be manufacturing in the United States, the US semiconductor ecosystem outside of design is poor enough that everyone should be happy even just some manufacturing is being done here.
It’s amazing the federal government has allowed semiconductor manufacturing to get to this point. They’ve had decades to see what was happening and to respond to it. There are plenty of designers but not many manufacturers left inside the United States and that’s sad. Intel should not be America’s semiconductor manufacturing champion yet that’s exactly what we have. A rundown company is our chipmaker.
Okay anyway, it’s great to see more manufacturing inside the United States and it’s simultaneously sad we’re at this point in our society thanks to government inaction.