GEOPOLICHIPS #4: Will the next war be fought for control of semiconductors?

TSMC – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation – now fabricates the best computer chips available at any price, transforming Taiwan into a prize that China needs in order to continue its rise as an economic and military superpower.

To service the growing demand for semiconductors, South Korea has committed nearly $200 billion.

TSMC is planning on investing at least $100B over the next four years.

GEOPOLICHIPS #3: How did America lose the semiconductor race?

For sixty years, Intel made the best chips in the world. As of 2020, they no longer do – and a company you’ve likely never heard of now holds the chip-making crown.

One of the key events reported in this episode concerns the firing of Intel Chief Engineering Officer Murthy Renduchintala after the chip maker announced delays in development of its all-important 7-nanometer semiconductors.

Not long after that, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich stepped down.

GEOPOLICHIPS #2: Why do computers get faster and smaller and cheaper?

More than 60 years ago, integrated circuits created a revolution in electronics that transformed the entire world. How are chips made? And why do we keep getting better at making them?

The ALTAIR 8800 was a landmark in computing – the first ‘microcomputer’, built around Intel’s breakthrough 8080 microprocessor. I remember it from the cover of Popular Electronics:

A magazine issue that changed the world, and kicked off ‘microcomputing’.

You could buy the ALTAIR 8800 in kit form, or fully assembled:

All of which led Paul Allen and Bill Gates to write ALTAIR BASIC, and sell it through their new company: MICROSOFT.

GEOPOLICHIPS #1: Why is there a global shortage of computer chips?

Manufacturers of video game consoles, automobiles – even toothbrushes – have been impacted by a global shortage of semiconductor integrated circuits – computer chips. How did these devices become so central to everything we make?

Read the amazing Playboy interview with William Shockley below…