Of particular note is that TSMC is currently Apple's sole source of supply for the iPhone's application processor. The chip foundry at this foundry makes virtually every cell phone on Earth, as well as every tablet, PC And game consoles indispensable.And be sure that the foundry in Taiwan 'Shuangxiong' TSMC and UMC (UMC) has several foundries located in western Taiwan's Tainan Science Park, the region in recent history Was once the epicenter of several devastating earthquakes.
We should not forget that on Sept. 21, 1999, a strong earthquake with a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale occurred in central Taiwan, causing many factories in Hsinchu Science Park to shut down for six days. Memory prices soared and share prices of global electronics companies fell And now, after nearly two decades, Taiwan has played a more crucial role in the global technology industry. We can imagine what a painful result would be if there was a catastrophic earthquake in Tainan today.
A few months ago I asked TSMC how much the company's Tainan fab can withstand? They initially answered 7.3, but of course I would give the company more time to provide a more detailed answer.
Later, the answer I got was certainly more complicated than the simple earthquake scale numbers. TSMC said that each building construction will have different seismic capabilities according to its location. For example, the fab in Hsinchu and the Taichung or Tainan Of the fabs, the requirements for peak ground acceleration are different.
The Taiwanese government regulates safety regulations in every area and TSMC said the company's principle is to raise the safety standards set by law by 25% when it builds factories, and therefore TSMC refers to the company's 12-inch crystal Round factory can withstand the acceleration of 350 ~ 440 gal, end to see the location of the plant - gal equivalent to cm / s2, is widely used in the acceleration of gravity science units (compilation: that is, the degree of acceleration of objects falling from a height ).
I admit that those of us journalists have a problem that they prefer to put all kinds of complicated questions in 800-word reports, so we tend to look for simpler and less complicated explanations; and I will agree with you that the earthquake is equivalent The complexity of a topic, and its impact depends on many different factors.
However, you will understand why I've been paying attention to what TSMC gave me at the outset. The largest earthquake that Tainan Plant can tolerate is the figure of 7.3. Historically, the Tainan region has experienced over the past two centuries At least 3 times a 7.3 scale earthquake (reference link).
The earthquake disaster in Taiwan highlighted one of many risks that the global electronics industry may face because of the interdependence and consolidation of industries. Currently, memory chip suppliers worldwide rely on only three major manufacturers , While the number of suppliers was 25 or more twenty years ago.
As Mr. Zhang Zhongmou, chairman of TSMC, said, most IDM vendors in the world have been moving toward 'wafer fab' and continue to gradually reduce their investment in their own fabs, and we also see that Broadcom is trying to acquire Qualcomm (Qualcomm), and Qualcomm is also trying to complete the acquisition of NXP.Electronic ecosystem in the past is a broad-based network, but now it has developed into a few top monopoly suppliers, control of production and price .
It reminds me of the warning from Nassim Nicholas Taleb, author of "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable," that we need to be careful about randomness The dangers of incidents, and the need for antifragility.Would the electronics industry today be more vulnerable than in the past, should not it be time to look critically at the properness of crisis management?
Compile: Judith Cheng