Want to Win a Chip War? You're Gonna Need a Lot of Water

Want to Win a Chip War? You're Gonna Need a Lot of Water

By Wired, July 21, 2023

The chip industry’s thirst for water springs from the need to keep silicon wafers free from even the tiniest specks of dust or debris to prevent contamination of their microscopic components.

Credit: Bill Varie/Getty Images

Building a semiconductor factory requires enormous quantities of land and energy, then some of the most precise machinery on Earth to operate. The complexity of chip fabs, as they are called, is one reason why the US Congress last year committed more than $50 billion to boost U.S. chip production in a bid to make the country more technologically independent.

But as the U.S. seeks to boot up more fabs, it also needs to source more of a less obvious resource: water. Take Intel's ambitious plan to build a $20 billion mega-site outside Columbus, Ohio. The area already has three water plants that together provide 145 million gallons of drinking water each day, but officials are planning to spend heavily on a fourth to, at least in part, accommodate Intel.

Water might not sound like a conventional ingredient of electronics manufacturing, but it plays an essential role in cleaning the sheets, or wafers, of silicon that are sliced and processed into computer chips. A single fab might use millions of gallons in a single day, according to the Georgetown Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET)—about the same amount of water as a small city in a year.

Chip companies hoping to take advantage of the CHIPS and Science Act, last year's federal spending package aiming to boost US chip manufacturing, are now constructing new water processing facilities alongside their fabs. And cities trying to attract new factories funded by the legislation are studying the potential impact on their water supplies. In some places it may be necessary to secure the water supply; in others, new infrastructure must be installed to recycle water used by fabs.

From Wired

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How and When the Chip Shortage Will End

As we use more AI to train and solve, increasingly important.

How and When the Chip Shortage Will End, in 4 Charts Fabs using older process nodes are the key SAMUEL K. MOORE

ONE LOOMING ARTIFACT of the pandemic that remains in 2023—the global chip shortage—has gratefully begun to recede. Unlike the state of things in mid-2021—when crimps in the semiconductor supply chain cropped up in big ways—supply and demand have become much less of a mismatch.

As IEEE Spectrum reported in the months since this story originally posted, the broken supply chains caused by the chip shortage have practically rewired whole segments of the tech industry. For the automotive industry, as we summarized in five charts that helped demystify the chip shortage, time eventually brought carmakers up from the end of a 52-week waiting list to get the chips they needed for their entertainment and driving-assistance systems. With chips finally reaching factory floors, their own manufacturing capacities were restored to prepandemic levels by the end of 2022.

Meanwhile, the mid-2022 passage of the CHIPS Act in the United States yielded a multibillion-dollar investment pool, some of which was dedicated to ramping up American manufacturing of the mature-generation chips upon which many industries—auto and otherwise—are so dependent. In March of 2023, the U.S. began disbursing CHIPS Act funding, while the E.U. considered getting into the chip-stimulus game as well .... ' 

Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder and creator of Moore's Law, dies aged 94

Gordon Moore, Intel co-founder and creator of Moore's Law, dies aged 94

Published, 14 hours ago  in the BBC. 

Silicon Valley pioneer and philanthropist Gordon Moore has died aged 94 in Hawaii.

Mr Moore started working on semiconductors in the 1950s and co-founded the Intel Corporation.

He famously predicted that computer processing powers would double every year - later revised to every two - an insight known as Moore's Law.

That "law" became the bedrock for the computer processor industry and influenced the PC revolution.

Two decades before the computer revolution began, Moore wrote in a paper that integrated circuits would lead "to such wonders as home computers - or at least terminals connected to a central computer - automatic controls for automobiles, and personal portable communications equipment".

He observed, in the 1965 article, that thanks to technological improvements the number of transistors on microchips had roughly doubled every year since integrated circuits were invented a few years earlier.

His prediction that this would continue became known as Moore's Law, and it helped push chipmakers to target their research to make this come true.

After Moore's article was published, memory chips became more efficient and less expensive at an exponential rate. ...   '

Integrated Photonic Circuits Could Help Close the 'Terahertz Gap'

Towards improved chip Fabrication.

Integrated Photonic Circuits Could Help Close the 'Terahertz Gap'

EPFL News (Switzerland),Celia Luterbacher, December 1, 2023

Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL), ETH Zurich, and Harvard University created a thin-film circuit that generates custom-tailored terahertz-frequency waves in conjunction with a laser beam. This achievement could help bridge the so-called terahertz (THz) gap situated between approximately 300 gigahertz (GHz) and 30,000 GHz (30 THz) on the electromagnetic spectrum. The chip features an integrated photonic circuit fabricated from lithium niobate. Said EPFL's Cristina Benea-Chelmus, "The fact that our device already makes use of a standard optical signal is really an advantage, because it means that these new chips can be used with traditional lasers, which work very well and are very well understood. It means our device is telecommunications-compatible." ... ' 

Spin Control and Billions of Qubits

A short time ago we were talking a handful of QuBits, now billions?   Implications for 'unsolvable' problems? 

 Spin Control Method Brings Billion-Qubit Quantum Chips Closer

UNSW Sydney Newsroom (Australia)  January 13, 2023

Engineers at Australia's University of New South Wales, Sydney (UNSW Sydney) and quantum computing spin-off Diraq have found a new approach for controlling single-electron spins in quantum dots with precision. The researchers can manipulate a single quantum bit (qubit)'s quantum state using electric fields rather than magnetic fields. The intrinsic spin-orbit electric dipole spin resonance effect "removes the requirement of placing extra structures around each [logic] gate," according to Diraq's Will Gilbert. UNSW's Andrew Dzurak said, "Since it's based on the same CMOS [complementary metal-oxide semiconductor] technology as today's computer industry, our approach will make it easier and faster to scale up for commercial production and achieve our goal of fabricating billions of qubits on a single chip."... '

Billion Qubit Chips?

Australian efforts pushing quantum scaling development.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY NEWS

Quantum computing breakthrough! Engineers discover technique that could create billion-qubit chips

JANUARY 12, 2023, by Chris Melore  in Studyfinds

SYDNEY, Australia — Australian engineers have stumbled across a new way to control electrons which play a key role in quantum computing. The breakthrough could open the door to making billion-qubit quantum computer chips a reality.

Here’s what you need to know about quantum computing:

Computers use “bits” — binary digits (0s and 1s) to process information, but a quantum bit (qubit) exists in both states at the same time.

Qubits allow computers to operate exponentially faster, performing countless computations simultaneously.

Qubits are made up of “quantum dots,” tiny nano-sized devices that trap one or multiple electrons.

Controlling the spin of these electrons is the key to making qubits work in an ultra-fast computer.

Researchers at the quantum computing start-up Diraq and UNSW Sydney discovered a completely new method of spin control which relies on an electrical field, instead of the typical magnetic field scientists use. The team wasn’t expecting the find this breakthrough, but its discovery could soon make it possible to build large-scale silicon quantum computers.

“This was a completely new effect we’d never seen before, which we didn’t quite understand at first,” says lead author Dr. Will Gilbert, a quantum processor engineer at Diraq, in a media release. “But it quickly became clear that this was a powerful new way of controlling spins in a quantum dot. And that was super exciting.”  ... 

Dell to Stop Using China Chips

Moving Worldwide Production

 Dell to Stop Using Chips Made in China Before the End of 2024, By PC Magazine, January 6, 2023

Taiwanese financial newspaper Commercial Times believes Dell is also planning to move 50% of its production out of China by 2025.

PC maker Dell has decided to stop sourcing the chips used in its products from China before the end of 2024.

As Nikkei Asia reports(Opens in a new window), according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter, the decision is in response to ongoing tensions between the US and China. On top of that, US sanctions limit China's access to the latest semiconductor manufacturing hardware and create an uncertain future for the technology sector in the country.

Dell's aim to no longer source chips from within China extends to its suppliers, who the company is urging to "significantly reduce" the components they source from China, too. If they don't, they could lose orders from Dell.

From PC Magazine   View Full Article 

US-China Chip War Continues

 A Space I am watching, regards the players and supply chain.  Point me to other relevant information.

US-China chip war: How the technology dispute is playing out    By Suranjana Tewari and Jonathan Josephs  BBC News  (excerpt) 

The US is rapidly ramping up efforts to try to hobble China's progress in the semiconductor industry - vital for everything from smartphones to weapons of war.

In October, Washington announced some of the broadest export controls yet - requiring licences for companies exporting chips to China using US tools or software, no matter where they're made in the world.  Washington's measures also prevent US citizens and green card holders from working for certain Chinese chip companies. Green card holders are US permanent residents who have the right to work in the country.

It is cutting off a key pipeline of American talent to China which will affect the development of high-end semiconductors.

Why is the US doing this?

Advanced chips are used to power supercomputers, artificial intelligence and military hardware.  The US says China's use of the technology poses a threat to its own national security.

Alan Estevez, undersecretary at the US Commerce Department announced the rules, saying his intention was to ensure the US was doing everything it could to prevent "sensitive technologies with military applications" from being acquired by China.  "The threat environment is always changing and we are updating our policies today to make sure we're addressing the challenges," he said.

Meanwhile, China has called the controls "technology terrorism".

Countries in Asia that produce chips - such as Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea - have raised concerns about how this bitter battle is affecting the global supply chain.

And there were three significant developments in the chip conflict over the past week.

More Chinese firms on 'entity list'

The Biden administration has added 36 more Chinese companies, including major chipmaker YMTC to Washington's "entity list".

It means American companies will need government permission to sell certain technologies to them, and that permission is difficult to secure.   The US restrictions have broad implications. Last week, UK-based computer chip designer Arm confirmed that it was not selling its most advanced designs to Chinese firms including tech giant Alibaba because of US and UK controls.

Arm said it was "committed to adhering to all applicable export laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which it operates."  .... ' 

Light-Analyzing 'Lab on a Chip' Opens Door to Portable Spectrometers

Light Sensors. 

 Light-Analyzing 'Lab on a Chip' Opens Door to Portable Spectrometers

Oregon State University News, Steve Lundeberg, October 20, 2022

An international team of scientists led by researchers at Finland's Aalto University has developed an artificial intelligence-driven spectrometer from two-dimensional semiconductor materials that fits on a microchip. Oregon State University's Ethan Minot said the accomplishment demonstrates a method for dramatically miniaturizing the light-measuring devices. The researchers said the device is 100% electrically controllable regarding its absorption of optical colors, conferring vast scalability and widespread usability potential. "Integrating it directly into portable devices such as smartphones and drones could advance our daily lives", said Aalto University's Hoon Hahn Yoon. "Imagine that the next generation of our smartphone cameras could be hyperspectral cameras."  ... ' 

Apple Will Use US Chips

 Arizona made chips to be used ... 

Tim Cook Confirms Apple Will Use US-Made Chips From New Arizona Fab

By Adrianna Nine on December 7, 2022    in ExtremeTech

As if TSMC’s massive new Arizona fab wasn’t (literally) groundbreaking enough, Apple CEO Tim Cook has added to the excitement. At a factory event on Tuesday, Cook announced that Apple would begin using chips made in the desert state.

Cook joined President Joe Biden onsite this week to celebrate its forthcoming contribution to US chip manufacturing. In an announcement first reported by CNBC, Cook shared that Apple would be shifting away from imported chips in favor of Arizona-made chips once the factory was in production. “Now, thanks to the hard work of so many people, these chips can be proudly stamped ‘Made in America,’” Cook said. “This is an incredibly significant moment.”

Apple’s relationship with the new factory isn’t much of a surprise given recent rumors. Apple has sourced all of its chips from TSMC for a while now, meaning the semiconductor manufacturer’s decision to build another Arizona location quickly gave way to a benevolent opportunity for Apple. The fab, which will start with its 4nm chips and eventually rope in 3nm, gives Apple a chance to prove it’s invested in sourcing domestic parts and creating jobs here in the States.  ... ' 

Chip Makers, Once in High Demand, Confront Sudden Challenges

 Supply Chains, Designs,Contexts

Chip Makers, Once in High Demand, Confront Sudden Challenges

By The New York Times, October 28, 2022

A few months ago, makers of computer chips seemed on top of the world.

Customers could not get enough of the small slices of silicon, which act as the brains of computers and are needed in just about every device with an on-off switch. Demand was so strong — and U.S. dependence on a foreign manufacturer so worrying — that Democrats and Republicans agreed in July on a $52 billion subsidy package that included grants to build new chip factories in America.

U.S. chip makers such as Intel, Micron Technology, Texas Instruments and GlobalFoundries pledged huge expansions in domestic manufacturing, betting on a growing need for their products and the prospects of federal subsidies.

But lately, supplies of some semiconductors are piling up, which could spell good news for consumers but not for industry executives. Their bold investment plans are running into a sudden and unexpected slowdown in consumer demand for electronic gadgets, new U.S. restrictions on sales to customers in China, rising inflation and the unusual prospect of a simultaneous shortage of some chips and glut of others.

From The New York Times    

Photonic Chips

 New developments in Photonic Chips

Caltech's Nanophotonic Chip 'Squeezes' More Out of Light

By Caltech, October 18, 2022

The photonic chip can generate and measure quantum states of light in ways previously only possible with bulky and expensive laboratory equipment.

Credit: Natasha Mutch and Nicolle R. Fuller, Sayo Studio

Electronic computing and communications have advanced significantly since the days of radio telegraphy and vacuum tubes. In fact, consumer devices now contain levels of processing power and memory that would be unimaginable just a few decades ago.

But as computing and information processing microdevices get ever smaller and more powerful, they are running into some fundamental limits imposed by the laws of quantum physics. Because of this, the future of the field may lie in photonics—the light-based parallel to electronics. Photonics is theoretically similar to electronics but substitutes photons for electrons. They have a huge potential advantage in that photonic devices may be capable of processing data much faster than their electronic counterparts, including for quantum computers.

Currently, the field is still very active in fundamental research and lacks crucial devices that are needed to become practical. However, a new photonic chip developed at Caltech may represent a critical breakthrough for the field, especially for enabling photonic quantum information processors. It can generate and measure quantum states of light in ways that were previously only possible with bulky and expensive laboratory equipment.

From Caltech  View Full Article     

TSMC to Produce 4nm Chips at Arizona Fab in 2024

Been asked to give some Comment on Supply Chain Aspects of Chip Availability.   Comments?

TSMC to Produce 4nm Chips at Arizona Fab in 2024    By Josh Norem on December 2, 2022 in ExtremeTech

It was previously reported that Apple has been urging TSMC to begin producing some of its more advanced chips in America. This would allow Cupertino to claim it’s using American-made silicon in its devices, a first for Apple. A new report confirms this will indeed be happening, but TSMC won’t be making 3nm chips at first, contrary to earlier reports. Instead, it will be focusing on its N4 process, which should be online in 2024. By then, that will be far from bleeding-edge technology, but the company will eventually produce 3nm chips in Arizona as well.

News of TSMC’s plans comes from notable Apple reporter Mark Gurman and company of Bloomberg. Previously TSMC was expected to start production of 5nm chips in Arizona, but it has apparently jettisoned that notion in favor of N4 production, which is a more advanced version of its process. It still falls under the 5nm family of products but offers improved efficiency and performance. The company is investing $12 billion into the fab in order to get production started by 2024. It will reportedly announce its plans next week during a presser with President Joe Biden and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. Apple CEO Tim Cook will be at the event as well.... ' 

Opinion on the CHIPS Act

 Short Opinion piece from ACM site.  Have not reviewed further, but plan to

The False Promise of America's CHIPS Act

By Project Syndicate, November 28, 2022

The CHIPS Act is flawed in many ways.  (Opinion) 

The U.S. CHIPS and Science Act allocates more than $50 billion to strengthen the semiconductor industry in the hope of making the U.S. self-sufficient. But it is doubtful that the CHIPS Act will achieve its stated goals, much less that it should be used as a model for similar support to other industries.

While it is understandable that the U.S. wants to maintain its technological lead in chips, subsidizing large existing firms and government management of the industry almost certainly will not achieve that goal.

From Project Syndicate

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Rethinking the Computer Chip in the Age of AI

 New designs for Computer chips. 

Rethinking the Computer Chip in the Age of AI,    via U of Penn

Posted on September 29, 2022   Author Devorah Fischler 

The transistor-free compute-in-memory architecture permits three computational tasks essential for AI applications: search, storage, and neural network operations.

Artificial intelligence presents a major challenge to conventional computing architecture. In standard models, memory storage and computing take place in different parts of the machine, and data must move from its area of storage to a CPU or GPU for processing.

The problem with this design is that movement takes time. Too much time. You can have the most powerful processing unit on the market, but its performance will be limited as it idles waiting for data, a problem known as the “memory wall” or “bottleneck.”

When computing outperforms memory transfer, latency is unavoidable. These delays become serious problems when dealing with the enormous amounts of data essential for machine learning and AI applications.

As AI software continues to develop in sophistication and the rise of the sensor-heavy Internet of Things produces larger and larger data sets, researchers have zeroed in on hardware redesign to deliver required improvements in speed, agility and energy usage.

A team of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, in partnership with scientists from Sandia National Laboratories and Brookhaven National Laboratory, has introduced a computing architecture ideal for AI.

Deep Jariwala, Xiwen Liu and Troy Olsson

Co-led by Deep Jariwala, Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering (ESE), Troy Olsson, Associate Professor in ESE, and Xiwen Liu, a Ph.D. candidate in Jarawala’s Device Research and Engineering Laboratory, the research group relied on an approach known as compute-in-memory (CIM).

In CIM architectures, processing and storage occur in the same place, eliminating transfer time as well as minimizing energy consumption. The team’s new CIM design, the subject of a recent study published in Nano Letters, is notable for being completely transistor-free. This design is uniquely attuned to the way that Big Data applications have transformed the nature of computing.

“Even when used in a compute-in-memory architecture, transistors compromise the access time of data,” says Jariwala. “They require a lot of wiring in the overall circuitry of a chip and thus use time, space and energy in excess of what we would want for AI applications. The beauty of our transistor-free design is that it is simple, small and quick and it requires very little energy.”

The advance is not only at the circuit-level design. This new computing architecture builds on the team’s earlier work in materials science focused on a semiconductor known as scandium-alloyed aluminum nitride (AlScN). AlScN allows for ferroelectric switching, the physics of which are faster and more energy efficient than alternative nonvolatile memory elements.

“One of this material’s key attributes is that it can be deposited at temperatures low enough to be compatible with silicon foundries,” says Olsson. “Most ferroelectric materials require much higher temperatures. AlScN’s special properties mean our demonstrated memory devices can go on top of the silicon layer in a vertical hetero-integrated stack. Think about the difference between a multistory parking lot with a hundred-car capacity and a hundred individual parking spaces spread out over a single lot. Which is more efficient in terms of space? The same is the case for information and devices in a highly miniaturized chip like ours. This efficiency is as important for applications that require resource constraints, such as mobile or wearable devices, as it is for applications that are extremely energy intensive, such as data centers.”  ... ' 

Consider the Chip Sandwich

Chip Sandwiches improve Data Transmission

Chip Sandwich Pushes Boundaries of Computing, Data Transmission Efficiency  By California Institute of Technology, November 22, 2022

An electronics chip (the smaller chip on the top) integrated with a photonics chip, sitting atop a penny for scale.

The Caltech/Southampton team designed both an electronics chip and a photonics chip from the ground up, then co-optimized them to work together.

Engineers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and the U.K.'s University of Southampton have developed an ultrafast electronic/photonic chip sandwich that generates minimal heat.

Created over four years, "These two chips are literally made for each other, integrated into one another in three dimensions," said Caltech's Arian Hashemi Talkhooncheh.

The chips employ an optimized interface to transmit 100 gigabits of data per second while generating 2.4 pico-Joules per transmitted bit, boosting the transmission's electro-optical power efficiency 3.6 times over the current state of the art ... 

"As the world becomes more and more connected, and every device generates more data, it is exciting to show that we can achieve such high data rates while burning a fraction of power compared to the traditional techniques," said Caltech's Azita Emami.

From California Institute of Technology

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Intel, Google Cloud Launch Chip to Improve Data-Center Performance

 Intel, Google Cloud Launch Chip to Improve Data-Center Performance

Reuters

Jane Lanhee Lee, October 11, 2022

A chip co-developed by researchers at Intel and Google Cloud aims to improve the security and efficiency of data centers. Code named Mount Evans, the E2000 chip handles data packaging for networking—work that previously had been done by central processing units (CPUs)—and enhances security between different customers sharing CPUs in the cloud. Google's Amin Vahdat said the E2000 is being offered in Google Cloud's C3 VM, which will be powered by Intel's fourth-generation Xeon processors... ' 

NIST, Google to Create Chips for Researchers, Startups

 Note NIST and Google collaboration

NIST, Google to Create Chips for Researchers, Startups

NIST News, September 13, 2022

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Google have signed an agreement to develop and produce chips that researchers can use to create new technologies. Under the agreement, Google will pay the initial cost of setting up production at the Bloomington, MN, semiconductor foundry of Skywater Technology, while NIST and university research partners will design the circuitry for the chips. The collaboration will make available a bottom-layer chip with specialized structures for measuring and testing the performance of components placed on top of it, including new kinds of memory devices, nanosensors, bioelectronics, and advanced devices needed for artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The chip designs will be open source, allowing researchers to pursue new ideas without restriction and to share data and designs freely. ... 

A Neuromorphic Chip for AI on the Edge

Chips for AI

 A Neuromorphic Chip for AI on the Edge

UC San Diego News Center

By Ioana Patringenaru, August 17, 2022

An international team of researchers created the NeuRRAM neuromorphic chip to compute directly in memory and run artificial intelligence (AI) applications with twice the energy efficiency of platforms for general-purpose AI computing. The chip moves AI closer to running on edge devices, untethered from the cloud; it also produces results as accurate as conventional digital chips, and supports many neural network models and architectures. "The conventional wisdom is that the higher efficiency of compute-in-memory is at the cost of versatility, but our NeuRRAM chip obtains efficiency while not sacrificing versatility," said former University of California, San Diego researcher Weier Wan. ... '

Chips Act Explained

 Seems a weak and expensive move. 

The CHIPS Act and Industrial Policy, Explained

By The Week,  August 2, 2022

The United States is going to start making more of its own electronics, and taxpayers are going to pick up a good chunk of the tab.

Congress has passed the CHIPS Act, a bill that devotes billions of dollars to the research and manufacture of semiconductor chips used in "the nation's smartphones, cars, computers, medical equipment, and weapons systems," Barbara Sprunt reports for NPR. The bill had support from both Democrats and Republicans, who say it "will lower U.S. reliance on China for chip manufacturing, which they say poses a national security risk."

In the CHIPS Act — and in the new climate bill backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — some observers see the United States drifting from free-market philosophies in favor of "industrial policy," giving the federal government a firmer hand in shaping the American economy. Even a few conservatives are on board. "What we are doing is industrial policy unlike people of my free-market background have done before," Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) said after the CHIPS Act passed. Is the United States really returning to an era of industrial policy? Why? And how will that shape the nation's future economy?

From The Week

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