My understanding is that 1 company in Taiwan makes the greatest chips in the world and no one else can replicate them. How is that possible?

Question

My understanding is that 1 company in Taiwan makes the greatest chips in the world and no one else can replicate them. How is that possible?

In: Engineering

Answer 1

Just to add some flavour to the mix here and demonstrate how frickin’ tricky the chip fab thing is, here’s how NXP’s fab got utterly wrecked by a little cold weather:

[https://www.nxp.com/company/blog/through-the-storm-the-complex-process-of-restarting-a-semiconductor-facility:BL-RESTARTING-SEMICONDUCTOR-FACILITY](https://www.nxp.com/company/blog/through-the-storm-the-complex-process-of-restarting-a-semiconductor-facility:bl-restarting-semiconductor-facility)

These factories are some of the most insanely precise and sensitive places on the planet, they cost a billion dollars to set up, as TFA says it takes a WEEK to safely shut one down for cleaning and 2 weeks to safely start it all up again and to get the air clean enough that they can even *think* about making chips.