Comment by throwaway4good | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throwaway4good | Hacker News Reader

As others have mentioned the challenge for Huawei/HiSilicon is not the design but the chip fabrication. Probably HiSilicon has the capabilities of designing a chip from scratch based on RISC-V or another ISA that is cutting edge.

I have seen rumours that Huawei may use Samsung as fab? I don't quite understand why Samsung would not be under the same constraints as TSMC. But perhaps the boycot of Huawei was more due to a deal between the Trump administration and the Taiwan government rather than an actual legal constraint. Much in the same manner as the US succesfully has lobbied for Huawei bans in most of the Western world.

https://www.sammobile.com/news/samsung-manufacture-huawei-5n...

Samsung could manufacture Huawei’s next 5nm Kirin processor

A new report coming out of China claims that Huawei’s next 5nm chipset, the Kirin 9000L, will be made by Samsung Foundry.

Rumor has it that Samsung created a manufacturing process that's free from US tech, based on Japanese and European tech.

If the US China tech war would escalate further. And China prevents American chip companies such as Qualcomm and Apple from selling into the Chinese market, there would be a huge opportunity for fabs not using American "stuff".

It's probably just politics, I think the US might find it more difficult to threaten to sanction South Korea. Or it might not. But definitely SK has a bigger position of strength relative to the US than Taiwan or even the Netherlands.

Samsung is nearly 40% of the SK economy. An attempt to put sanctions on it would SEVERELY cripple their economy. And I would expect a backroom deal before they want that blow.

According to wikipedia Samsung's revenue is around 17% of SK's GDP. Still a huge amount, but considerably less than 40%.

Another interesting rumour is that of a Chinese made EUV light source based on particle acceleration. Sounds really cool. Don't know what to make of it.

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