FT: China has created a new generation microchip, despite US opposition

February 6 2024 14

China's manufacturers decided to defeat the United States in their efforts to curb China's technological growth in the most demonstrative way. The nation's chip companies plan to release next-generation smartphone processors as early as this year, despite Washington's efforts to curb development of cutting-edge technologies. of technologies.

The country's largest chipmaker SMIC has assembled new semiconductor production lines in Shanghai to mass produce chips designed by tech giant Huawei, according to multiple sources cited by the Financial Times. The plan supports Beijing's goals of achieving chip self-sufficiency as President Joe Biden's administration tightens export restrictions on advanced equipment.

The US is also working with the Netherlands and Japan to block China's access to advanced equipment, such as machines from Dutch manufacturer ASML. But, as is now obvious, the PRC’s desire to win a confident and demonstrative victory over America, and in the most popular sphere today, is unstoppable.

To date, the gap between Chinese samples and competitors is only one generation and a symbolic two nanometers of lithography (5 nm versus 7 nm). This is an outstanding result in such a short time, journalists from the British newspaper emphasize.

The Dutch government recently hastily revoked the export license for some of its cutting-edge machines, blocking ASML's sales to China. However, local companies began to implement their own developments in response to this. That is, the bans only made things worse for the West itself.

As the FT reports, despite quite noticeable progress, the efforts of Chinese developers are encountering serious obstacles. First of all, the high cost of R&D, as well as the need for huge investments in new capacities for the production of advanced chips. The industry is developing solely on enthusiasm and geopolitical competition with the West. The noble challenge was accepted with dignity by the disgraced Chinese companies, the FT summarizes.

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zzdimk

+2

6 February 2024 11: 12

What about the details? There is intrigue, but where is the plot development?
1. Rhetorical Rita
  
  +2
  
  6 February 2024 11: 41
  
  plan to release processors
  
  When they release it, then the plot will develop. We will monitor Chinese import substitution.
svoroponov

+3

6 February 2024 13: 21

Actually, it’s already available. China allocated such money there, and the West itself prepared personnel for them. So for ASML, the competitor grew up and set out, like a teenager, into an independent life. I mean that China not only began to produce chips, but also the equipment for their production.
RUR

-4

6 February 2024 17: 07

smartphone chips are a simpler technology when compared with computer processors - they cannot yet produce, probably the most modern and competitive ones - they will never be able to...
Sergey Latyshev

+1

6 February 2024 19: 58

The main thing is that they have it. But not with us.
We have import substitution, bye-bye, the officials themselves admitted it. Money was spent, villas were bought, but there were no optics and chips.
Zelenograd, Skolkovo, Chubaisrov “killers of iPhones” - I remember, they all went bankrupt several times
1. svoroponov
  
  0
  
  6 February 2024 20: 28
  
  When you speak, it seems that you are delusional.
  Yes, Skolkovo was not the only one involved in electronics in Russia. There are other developers. A decent amount of ours is already being produced. It just takes time. We are still lagging behind, but this will not last forever. In many areas, we have either already caught up or will catch up in the near future.
  Well, about cuttings, yachts, property - this is a barrel organ from Western training manuals. Although in the West there is a lot of this. Society there is built on this. Although someone may be envious that someone has everything and someone writes on this site without having anything. Envy is not a very good trait that characterizes a person.
  1. twice-born
    
    -3
    
    6 February 2024 21: 49
    
    If we have
    
    a fair amount of ours is already being produced
    
    then why did the state allocate 300 million rubles for 3 years to create an industry from scratch?
    Something is being produced a little in Zelenograd, it seems no more than 90 nm, but not on an industrial scale, and something is being developed by enthusiasts in a couple of institutes, that’s all.
    We cannot even dream of producing chips similar to those of the Chinese, let alone the same, much less the same as those of the bourgeoisie. To be at least a generation behind the Chinese, not to mention the bourgeoisie, is a fantastic dream!
    1. Boa kaa
      
      +1
      
      13 February 2024 20: 20
      
      Quote: Twice-born
      We can’t even dream of producing chips similar to those of the Chinese,
      
      If you don’t know anything about it, it doesn’t mean that we don’t have it. Quick question: have you heard anything about maskless X-ray lithography? So the Dutch, yes, the Dutch themselves (!) are deep in the anus after our development, which has already (!) passed bench tests. Which the Americans (!) appreciated and for which a whole new plant is being built in Zelenogradsk near Moscow. And this krypton technology (without laser evaporation of tin, like the ones from ASML) is 2 times more productive, many times cheaper and cleaner, and allows you to make chips using the 2 nm process technology (!!!) I didn’t say this, this is the conclusion of the American center at their (I forgot, damn it!0 university.
      So, stop reading TsIPSO manuals. It’s better to send them back to KUEV, and let the big Svidomites roll them into a tube and stick them in their hollows.
      But for space and military equipment, 90 nm chips are quite sufficient. And those using the 130 nm process technology are quite suitable for all our household appliances and industrial products.
      Adju, you're sick! Say hi to your bosses. And let them hang themselves out of anger on the thick branch of the nearest chestnut tree.
      1. goncharov.62
        
        0
        
        11 March 2024 11: 30
        
        We are, of course, happy. And we wait... Not much has been heard about maskless technology.
  2. prior
    
    0
    
    7 February 2024 10: 23
    
    Rave. From the last one.
    Leonid Reiman, the former Minister of Communications, the former owner of Zelenograd Angstrem, left the flagship of Russian microelectronics with a debt of 1,3 billion euros. The Moscow Arbitration Court upheld the debt.
    And this is not sometime, this is in January 2024.
    Let's catch up, say, and overtake. Oh well.
Disinfo

0

7 February 2024 00: 54

Is there a reason Russia is not also attempting the same production goals as China?
1. svoroponov
  
  +2
  
  7 February 2024 08: 50
  
  China has a lot of Western foundations. They bought relatively modern Western equipment without any problems. But the Chinese can copy and improve what has already been done without any problems.
  That for us, in terms of purchases, equipment has been unavailable practically since 2000. In addition, ASML is not just a manufacturing company, but a collective technological West. There are a bunch of different technologies from different Western manufacturers and institutes, decades of work in calm, without shocks, conditions. A bunch of overbought developments from bankrupt companies. You won’t believe it, but our runners from the USSR from our various institutes, during the collapse of the USSR and after, by stealing data, they even helped the establishment of this production in the West. There were even review articles: who, what and how much. Mostly, of course, people of Jewish nationality were guilty of this.
  In addition, during the USSR, similar institutions operated mostly on the territory of countries that left it during the collapse, and not on the territory of Russia. So we just had to restore a lot almost from scratch. Those countries had no need for such institutions, and they were no longer allowed to cooperate with Russia. All those institutes and industries were simply destroyed and closed.
  Now for the allocation of money. They allocated as much for development as was requested by the developers. There was an interview with one of them. Our private capital also takes an active part there. How much he is pouring into this has not yet been published. And if you give 100 billion, then what will change?
  It’s just that this process itself is not fast and the money will simply lie unused, and it won’t be very possible to attract personnel. They are trained, talented people are selected, but this is time. In addition, a technological process has been developed that simplifies the production of chips, and equipment for this technology is being tested.
  Everything will happen, but not instantly. Please be patient.
2. Boa kaa
  
  0
  
  13 February 2024 20: 26
  
  Peter, there is! This is a new technology based on maskless X-ray lithography based on krypton, without the use of mirrors. We have lenses and prisms that allow the process to be carried out at 7.5 nm. I already have it.
zzdimk

0

25 February 2024 20: 15

14nm, 7nm and 5nm... Why doesn't Intel move to 5nm? Why do the latest generations of AMD processors have a high defect rate? The optimal option is 14nm. 7 - gives a lot of unusable crystals, and 5... Up to 17%. The funny thing is that core performance in relation to energy consumption has not changed since 2005! And this is 32/22nm. Recently, the size of elements has been reduced, operating frequencies and the number of cores have been increased, but nothing has really changed. The performance of 4 cores and 8 threads ranges from 12-17%, with a cost difference of 3-15 times. The second or third generation is not inferior to the 9-11th with the same number of watts and cores. Marketers are inventing new reasons to justify user spending, but there are none. There are no real reasons.