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To: Dr. Sivana

None of those are making anything better than about 12nm, IIRC. Intel is the closest to be able to match TSMC’s 3 and 5nm processes and catch up to them on the 1.*nm processes They were stuck on 10 and 14 for the longest time due to corporate stupidity and NIH syndrome. For those that don’t know, the smaller the chip features (the ‘nanonmeter’ or ‘nm’ number, lower is better), the less power the chip consumes, the more powerful the chip is, and the physically smaller it is - as a general rule.

Next step for Intel is to be able to get a foundry to the point where they can make our secure (military use) chips at volume - we only have two secure foundries in the US and they have huge backorders and long lead times. Neither is really able to crank out the volume of an Intel foundry.

One other thing we desperately need to secure is the at this time Dutch-only lithography technology that allows chips of this technology level to be made. Everyone that’s not on the naughty list is using their tech to get these chips made, and it’s the key technology - the machines are only made in Europe. We need to have our own production facilities here and we need to have our own R&D for these. A hostile or co-opted Europe could see the Russians or Chinese getting these machines. It’s as critical as when Toshiba decided to sell the Russians those CNC machines and all of a sudden the entire Russian fleet (especially the submarines) got orders of magnitude quieter - only worse.


6 posted on 05/17/2026 10:45:42 PM PDT by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: Spktyr

i am still peeved at Toshiba over that. I know that the companies I listed are not cutting edge, but the article said chips, not leading technology chips. A lot of those chips made with older technology are very much needed in the chain. And of course tsmc is building facilities here right now. I consider the question of when we can have 1nm tech separate, and I don’t think we always have to have the fastest in quantity all of the time. tsmc will always have their best stuff in Taiwan, so that we have a reason to protect them. If the Netherlands has the best for now. So be it.


9 posted on 05/17/2026 11:08:13 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye." (John 2:5))
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