ARM CEO sharply commented on Intel: "punished" for missing the opportunity, and it is very difficult to catch up with TSMC.

According to IT House, Rene Haas, CEO of ARM, commented on the competitive situation between Intel and TSMC when she was a guest on the All In Podcast podcast program on Wednesday local time.

He pointed out that Intel has been "punished by time" in many fields because it missed key opportunities, and now it is "very difficult" to catch up with TSMC.

Haas said that the chip industry needs long-term investment and accumulation. "It takes a long time to invest in a fab, and it takes a long time to define the architecture and ecosystem. If you miss some key links, time will cause you a very serious punishment. "

He believes that Intel has two key mistakes:

Intel failed to seize the opportunity of smart phone chips in the mid-00′ s. Its low-power Atom series SoC performance did not meet Apple’s requirements, which led to the missed cooperation opportunity for supplying iPhone. IT House noticed that Paul Otellini, the former CEO of Intel, had publicly admitted this decision mistake.

Haas also clearly pointed out for the first time that Intel lags behind TSMC in the application of EUV technology:

"They were also punished for manufacturing with EUV. EUV is an advanced method to make the smallest chip on the earth. About ten years ago, they didn’t invest like TSMC, so they fell behind. "

TSMC takes advantage of this to build advanced manufacturing process, and has been providing the world’s top wafer manufacturing services for leading enterprises such as Apple, NVIDIA and AMD.

Haas emphasized that the semiconductor industry has high threshold characteristics, and long-term investment is needed in the construction of fabs and the ecological construction of architectures. Once it falls behind in chip manufacturing, it is extremely difficult to catch up, because the whole industry cycle will continue to accelerate. If you miss several technical nodes, you will suffer "severe punishment".

He stressed: "TSMC now has the best fabs in the world. Leading companies, including Apple, NVIDIA and AMD, are all produced in TSMC. "

Haas also pointed out the differences between European and American manufacturing concepts: "Western society has not yet regarded manufacturing as a high-value occupation. In Taiwan, China, working in TSMC is regarded as a high prestige occupation; Young people in Europe and America often regard manufacturing as a’ blue-collar job’ and are unwilling to get involved. "

He believes that the establishment of advanced manufacturing capabilities in the United States requires not only the efforts of a certain enterprise, but also systematic reforms involving multiple industries and long-term policy and administrative support.

Related reading:

  • ARM CEO Rene Haas recalls working in Huang Renxun, NVIDIA: He taught me to make bold decisions.

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