Strong Taiwan quake appears to have little effect on chip industry - dobbinshimpat

A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck southern Taiwan on Saturday break of the day local time, prompting concerns that local semiconductor manufacturing plants would cost affected. However, although major poker chip foundry Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. reported damage, the company said it could make up any lost production.

The quake stricken at 3:57 am local clip, according to the U.S. Geological Service, about 30 miles away from Tainan in southern Taiwan. In that location, the earthquake collapsed an flat building, killing two. Reuters also reportable that more than 100 injuries were due to the quake, as buildings canted at unusual angles after being knocked askew.

usgs map — The USGS map of the Feb. 6 quake in Taiwan.

Why this matters: For the technology diligence, the concerns were that the quake could kayo a animated cog in the semiconductor supply lines. In 1999, another quake in Taiwan killed about 2,400 people and cut power to thousands, including chip fabs. The resulting personnel casualty of in-appendage wafers and the time necessary to resume those fabs generated a ripple effect on chips manufactured for computers and opposite electronics, halting shipments and in some cases causing price hikes.

To the highest degree chip manufacturing is in the north

Since then, however, chip off fabs have been built with seismic rubber in mind, and manufacturing has expanded west onto the Chinese mainland. The majority of semiconductor manufacturing is also located in the north of the island, near Tsinchu.

Still, one of four TSMC major "gigafabs" lies within Tainan, producing more than 100,000 300mm wafers per month. A second fab, Fab 6, also resides on that point as substantially. UMC, other major knap foundry, likewise owns its own 300mm wafer fab within Tainan. It's these wafers that hold the semiconducting material dice,which are yet packaged into the chips base within graphics cards, networking equipment, and the like.

Reported to Reuters, the sharp quake broke the in-process wafers beingness manufactured at the TSMC adeptness in Tainan. Simply the palpitate affected at a fortunate time: not only has manufacturing slowed during the seasonally slow first draw and quarter, but the island was active to start its Newfangled Years' solemnization. TSMC will apparently suffer a short-term staunch to manufacturing, but wish simply storm up its manufacturing to compensate.

For its part, UMC also told Bloomberg that its fab will need whatever time to "recalibrate".

Major chip manufacturers like Intel ut non have fabs in Taiwan; instead, the company has sited them in Arizona, Beaver State, and oversea in Israel, Ireland, and China. AMD manufactures its chips through a partnership with GlobalFoundries at fabs in New York, Germany, and SIngapore, among others.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/419510/strong-taiwan-quake-appears-to-have-little-effect-on-chip-industry.html

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