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India Aims To Make Domestic Microchips By End of 2024 (ft.com) 31

India will break ground on its first semiconductor assembly plant next month and begin producing the country's first domestically manufactured microchips by the end of 2024, according to a senior government official who is overseeing New Delhi's $10bn chipmaking foray. From a report: Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's minister of electronics and information technology, said US semiconductor company Micron Technology, which is setting up a chip assembly and test facility in Gujarat, would start construction in August on the $2.75bn project, which includes government support. Vaishnaw said the India Semiconductor Mission spearheaded by Narendra Modi's government was also doing "extensive work" to marshall support from other supply chain partners, including suppliers of chemicals, gases and manufacturing equipment, alongside companies interested in setting up silicon wafer fabrication plants.

"This is the fastest for any country to set up a new industry," Vaishnaw said in an interview with the Financial Times. "I'm not just saying a new company -- this is a new industry for the country." He added: "Eighteen months is when we have targeted for [the first] production to come out of this factory -- that is, December of '24." The minister's remarks set a demanding timeline for Modi's government as it strives to build up India's capacity in producing smartphones, batteries, electric vehicles and other electronics. The country's tech manufacturing sector lags behind those of east Asia's export-led economies, notably China, which began earlier and offered more subsidies to industry.

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India Aims To Make Domestic Microchips By End of 2024

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  • Wish them success (Score:4, Interesting)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Tuesday July 04, 2023 @10:37PM (#63657468)
    I really do. To be honest, I wonder if their infrastructure is up to it. Also, that particular industry will NOT be amenable to the just-make-do culture that India is known for. There is near-zero margin for error in that manufacturing process. Maybe, if theyre serious about this and their political will is strong enough, theyll build out the infrastructure and up their quality game enough to make it work. It would be serious step up for the country.
    • Re:Wish them success (Score:5, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Tuesday July 04, 2023 @10:39PM (#63657478) Homepage Journal

      Maybe they should start with some older process that automakers want to keep using instead of coming into the modern era

      • 15 years behind (Score:5, Interesting)

        by algaeman ( 600564 ) on Tuesday July 04, 2023 @11:02PM (#63657514)
        I suspect they will be targeting a 32nm node size. They don't have the money or engineering to do something really modern (EUV), but it doesn't make any sense to fall too far behind when you are starting from scratch. At that size they will be quite capable of making automotive chips, along with switched mode power supplies, which can sell hundreds of millions of units a year. As OP muses, they have the engineering skills, and can repatriate experienced people, but actually operating a manufacturing plant 24/7/365 is not something they have a long track record with.
        • Frequently these facilities have their own dedicated utilities. Backup power and water systems are another level. Also 32nm is a waste of a plant. You always build the next plant, as the older plants get demoted to the semiconductors that do not need cutting edge processes.
          • by sapgau ( 413511 )
            Yes but politically, completing a 32nm fab plant will be a huge win they can show off and maybe use to build on for the next one.
      • No automobile manufacturer is willing to pay the fully allocated cost of patterned wafers, otherwise the existing semiconductor fabs would be willing to start up additional fab lines at those older nodes.

        In addition, the automobile manufacturers don't want to pay the NRE to move their designs to a different process, otherwise they would have migrated to exiting lines at a newer nodes that have capacity.

    • by m00sh ( 2538182 )

      It's probably because they can actually buy ASML equipment unlike China.

  • Interdependence is fine among allies you can trust for at least the next couple of decades. Nations that might be invaded, try to invade you, or might simply change their attitude towards supplying you on shorter time scales? Not so much.

    If your nation has the capacity for minimal self-sufficiency, it should attempt it.

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by backslashdot ( 95548 )

      Or we could eliminate the global scourge of the nationalism mind virus. After all, it's just another strain of the racism mind virus.

      • by ChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) on Tuesday July 04, 2023 @11:35PM (#63657550)

        I take solace in the fact that my Lenovo PC produced by Chinese company with parts from an American corporation designed in Israel is backdoored by all the major players! :)

      • Disregarding for a moment that nationalism is not the same thing as taking rational steps to secure your domestic standard of living against future conflicts... did you pause before posting, even for a moment, and consider that as lovely as that would be... it just isn't going to happen?

        "What if we just all started trusting each other and being nice?" Yeah, that'd be great... but as a retort in a serious discussion it's just pointless.

  • Decent CPUs are already dirt cheap. They should work on lowering the cost of displays and touchscreens.

  • by stikves ( 127823 ) on Tuesday July 04, 2023 @11:35PM (#63657554) Homepage

    Best of luck to them. Yet, their main problem won't be building the factory, but getting the parts to run it to produce those chips.

    China is already limiting exports of required metals to the USA:
    https://slashdot.org/story/23/... [slashdot.org]

    And given their current regional rivalry with India, it is even less likely for them to cooperate on this issue. Worse yet, USA will probably gobble up all the other non-Chinese inventory to keep the lights on at their own factories.

    And those are just the metals.

    They also need to get parts from manufactures like ASML, with even more restricted export controls.

    Best case? They might has a simple assembly line, and maybe having sample wafers ready. But actual production for global markets? Probably much further than 2024.

    • Well, India apparently has its own: https://www.wionews.com/india-... [wionews.com]

      It might take them some time to ramp up production I suppose.

    • the Wolfowitz Doctrine of the US having military and economic supremacy over the rest of the planet applies not just to countries minding their own business, like Russia/Iran/Venezuela/Libya/Syria, but allies like Australia or the EU. If the US succeeds in destabilizing Russia and China, who's next? India, since the EU is already a cucked errand boy.

      • Please, tell us more about Russia minding its own business.

      • If the US succeeds in destabilizing Russia

        Putin did that on its own with his "stable genius" invasion of Ukraine (a sovereign democracy) and subsequent genocidal war.

        Notice how countries that mind their own biz don't get destabilized. Vietnam, Singapore, the Netherlands, Uruguay. Funny how that works. But please go on with your rant.

        • by Uberbah ( 647458 )

          Ukraine (a sovereign democracy)

          Ukraine has been neither of those things since Obama and Victoria Nuland overthrew their elected president in 2014, and their puppet Zelensky banned all political opposition.

          Notice how countries that mind their own biz don't get destabilized. Vietnam

          US murdered 3 million Vietnamese (and counting with ongoing Agent Orange birth defects) just as it did to Korea, you brainless fool.

  • (That's a reference to the Simputer [wikipedia.org])
  • I think any competition in the semiconducter industry is good; one more head will be great, especially right now.

Every nonzero finite dimensional inner product space has an orthonormal basis. It makes sense, when you don't think about it.

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