> Eventually Chang is approached by a manager who tells him that he could eventually rise to the position of Vice President of R&D, but to do so he would need to get a phD, and that TI will pay for Chang to get one ... Chang applies and is accepted into Stanford’s electrical engineering graduate program. He again works hard and graduates in 3 years
Sure, but to this day, it depends on the school. At some universities that's right out, at Stanford that's common (after a Master or two).
That wasn't the case for Chang but I feel that for some foreign students, it's due to them simply not recognizing that they could actually take their time and enjoy life and the out of this world campus and region. Some students feel pressure, of funding, of potential missed opportunity, of legal status, of acting on a bet that's WAY out of their home professional path, etc. Meanwhile some US students with no major funding problem often feel that there is all the time in the world, if only the university would let them.
For that matter, I bet Chang felt pressure to not be away from this career track at Texas Instrument for too long. He was doing this PhD as a requirement for a specific promotion.
> Chang’s immense success with TSMC looks obvious only in hindsight; nobody at the time [...] saw it that way.
That's fair but we can also recognize the pattern! We are now familiar with this one. Chang had noticed the need for fabs as a service to all. And he further noticed that it was at the intersection of others' needs: Taiwan looking for local industry, Philips looking for a local boost, established chips and design companies struggling to find the fab space they were ready to pay for, his ITRI mandate. There are no sure thing but we can see the good call and well done to put all the players together - that was plenty as grounds for a new business with good chances.
The other pattern we see is the manufacturing ladder, which has played out in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and now is underway in mainland China.
You can make a factory to make low end products. People copy you. Some employees bubble to the top, and can start making moderately decent products or quit to start on their own ideas. Eventually the low end stops being a good investment of money or people and it fizzles out in favor of luxury and specialty goods.
LG used to make the bottom shelf VCRs that you would find at Best Buy. The VCRs were branded Goldstar, the company Lucky Goldstar. When they went up market they rebranded to distance themselves from their bargain product lines. Now they have fridges that cost more than high end computers.
> TSMC has a fascinating origin story: it was founded in 1985 by Morris Chang, who, after working in the US for Texas Instruments for more than 20 years, was enticed to go to Taiwan and help develop their high-tech industries as head of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI).
How much of this was because of Racism? How many people like that, with the right technical, operational knowledge, experience and drive are prevented from transforming their American company because they don’t fit the mold of what Americans consider to be “leaders”.
- "When Chang arrives at Texas Instruments (TI), he’s immediately impressed. Almost everyone is young, less than 40, and everyone works very hard, 50 hours a week or more."
- "Some employees work so much that they bring cots into the office to sleep. And while there’s an obvious chain of command, there’s few trappings of status or hierarchy"
- "...executives and workers eat together in the cafeteria, and high-level managers and production-line workers converse freely"
- "...everyone at TI seems to be an expert on them (semi conductors)."
1972+:
- "His immediate boss, Fred Bucy, has no semiconductor background"
- "...the knowledge of the executive leadership is increasingly out of date (something they seem to be ignorant of)."
- "Chang tries to convince leadership to start buying manufacturing equipment from outside vendors, which is more advanced and can achieve higher yields than TI’s internally-designed equipment, but he’s unsuccessful."
- "He also fails to convince them to increase R&D spending, which Chang views as a short-sighted decision to prioritize short-term profits over long-term competitiveness."
He is a Chinese Nationalist and was recruited by the Nationalist government of the time (and remember that in 1985 the KMT still ruled in Taiwan with an iron fist under martial law) so it would not be that surprising if helping China develop and helping the Nationalist side against the Communists were significant contributing factors, not racism.
From what I heard from peers from that era, not significantly.
Taiwan's ITRI gave Morris Chang a blank check to implement his vision, which is something no ambitious person would turn down.
Why become yet another rich but nameless CEO (who remembers Bucy at TI) when you can become the next Jack Kilby or William Shockley.
China did the same thing for Liang Ming Song (former head of R&D at TSMC) at SMIC and India for Randhir Thakur (former head of foundry services at Intel and Applied Materials) at Tata Electronics.
--------
Stop being so combative to OP - he asked a fair question about the bamboo ceiling.
Looking at you Chollida1, next_xibalba, and Cumpiler69 (classy name /s)
In 1973 Taiwan founded the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to help develop its industrial and technological capabilities. Taiwan’s industrial policy playbook was largely based on what had worked in Japan and Korea, and ITRI was based on similar institutes that had been founded in those two countries.
As a frequent visitor to Taiwan I note that they've tried to do the same thing several times since then, in other technical fields, and have yet to replicate the success they had with semi conductors. They to be fair they're only 23.6 million people so to be technical world leader "only" in semiconductors is already a huge achievement.
An interesting coincidence is that the first fabless semiconductor company, Chips and Technologies, was also founded in 1985, by Dado Banatao and Gordon Campbell. They didn't partner with TSMC but contracted with companies like Hitachi that had excess fab capacity to manufacture their semiconductors. Wild. They eventually sold the company to Intel, which obviously didn't appreciate the insight of de-verticalization in the semiconductor supply chain.
Morris Chang wasn't some rando - he was a Group VP at Texas Instruments (reports to CEO) and COO of General Instruments (a major CMOS manufacturer from the 70s-90s - found in Spellovision).
This is the equivalent of Sheryl Sandberg being tasked by a government to found a multi-billion government funded competitor of Facebook.
[+] [-] battle-racket|1 year ago|reply
3 years for a EE PhD is extremely impressive.
[+] [-] creer|1 year ago|reply
Sure, but to this day, it depends on the school. At some universities that's right out, at Stanford that's common (after a Master or two).
That wasn't the case for Chang but I feel that for some foreign students, it's due to them simply not recognizing that they could actually take their time and enjoy life and the out of this world campus and region. Some students feel pressure, of funding, of potential missed opportunity, of legal status, of acting on a bet that's WAY out of their home professional path, etc. Meanwhile some US students with no major funding problem often feel that there is all the time in the world, if only the university would let them.
For that matter, I bet Chang felt pressure to not be away from this career track at Texas Instrument for too long. He was doing this PhD as a requirement for a specific promotion.
[+] [-] LAC-Tech|1 year ago|reply
I presume financial incentives dragged out how long degrees like this take now. That, or everyone is dumber, which seems unlikely.
[+] [-] rvba|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] wslh|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] mfrommil|1 year ago|reply
https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/tsmc
[+] [-] tyleo|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] creer|1 year ago|reply
That's fair but we can also recognize the pattern! We are now familiar with this one. Chang had noticed the need for fabs as a service to all. And he further noticed that it was at the intersection of others' needs: Taiwan looking for local industry, Philips looking for a local boost, established chips and design companies struggling to find the fab space they were ready to pay for, his ITRI mandate. There are no sure thing but we can see the good call and well done to put all the players together - that was plenty as grounds for a new business with good chances.
[+] [-] hinkley|1 year ago|reply
You can make a factory to make low end products. People copy you. Some employees bubble to the top, and can start making moderately decent products or quit to start on their own ideas. Eventually the low end stops being a good investment of money or people and it fizzles out in favor of luxury and specialty goods.
LG used to make the bottom shelf VCRs that you would find at Best Buy. The VCRs were branded Goldstar, the company Lucky Goldstar. When they went up market they rebranded to distance themselves from their bargain product lines. Now they have fridges that cost more than high end computers.
[+] [-] klelatti|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] barkingcat|1 year ago|reply
I believe it is 張忠謀自傳全集（上下冊) (for both parts)
https://www.books.com.tw/products/0011005571?sloc=main
[+] [-] geonnave|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] pm90|1 year ago|reply
How much of this was because of Racism? How many people like that, with the right technical, operational knowledge, experience and drive are prevented from transforming their American company because they don’t fit the mold of what Americans consider to be “leaders”.
[+] [-] nobodyandproud|1 year ago|reply
1958:
- "When Chang arrives at Texas Instruments (TI), he’s immediately impressed. Almost everyone is young, less than 40, and everyone works very hard, 50 hours a week or more."
- "Some employees work so much that they bring cots into the office to sleep. And while there’s an obvious chain of command, there’s few trappings of status or hierarchy"
- "...executives and workers eat together in the cafeteria, and high-level managers and production-line workers converse freely"
- "...everyone at TI seems to be an expert on them (semi conductors)."
1972+:
- "His immediate boss, Fred Bucy, has no semiconductor background"
- "...the knowledge of the executive leadership is increasingly out of date (something they seem to be ignorant of)."
- "Chang tries to convince leadership to start buying manufacturing equipment from outside vendors, which is more advanced and can achieve higher yields than TI’s internally-designed equipment, but he’s unsuccessful."
- "He also fails to convince them to increase R&D spending, which Chang views as a short-sighted decision to prioritize short-term profits over long-term competitiveness."
[+] [-] chollida1|1 year ago|reply
What specific claims of racism has he made?
[+] [-] dgfitz|1 year ago|reply
Perhaps you’re incorrect?
[+] [-] mytailorisrich|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] next_xibalba|1 year ago|reply
Huh? How did you make that leap? As others have pointed out, Chang was a bigwig at TI.
[+] [-] alephnerd|1 year ago|reply
From what I heard from peers from that era, not significantly.
Taiwan's ITRI gave Morris Chang a blank check to implement his vision, which is something no ambitious person would turn down.
Why become yet another rich but nameless CEO (who remembers Bucy at TI) when you can become the next Jack Kilby or William Shockley.
China did the same thing for Liang Ming Song (former head of R&D at TSMC) at SMIC and India for Randhir Thakur (former head of foundry services at Intel and Applied Materials) at Tata Electronics.
--------
Stop being so combative to OP - he asked a fair question about the bamboo ceiling.
Looking at you Chollida1, next_xibalba, and Cumpiler69 (classy name /s)
[+] [-] newsclues|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] LAC-Tech|1 year ago|reply
In 1973 Taiwan founded the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) to help develop its industrial and technological capabilities. Taiwan’s industrial policy playbook was largely based on what had worked in Japan and Korea, and ITRI was based on similar institutes that had been founded in those two countries.
As a frequent visitor to Taiwan I note that they've tried to do the same thing several times since then, in other technical fields, and have yet to replicate the success they had with semi conductors. They to be fair they're only 23.6 million people so to be technical world leader "only" in semiconductors is already a huge achievement.
[+] [-] HardikVala|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] ngneer|1 year ago|reply
[+] [-] wslh|1 year ago|reply
Regarding the translation from Chinese to English, I think it is a case for community funding. What is the budget required for this?
[+] [-] osnium123|1 year ago|reply
https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2024/12/em...
[+] [-] alephnerd|1 year ago|reply
This is the equivalent of Sheryl Sandberg being tasked by a government to found a multi-billion government funded competitor of Facebook.
[+] [-] NonEUCitizen|1 year ago|reply