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Musings from Half Moon Bay: ISS presenters scoff at Indian fab plans |
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Jan 09, 2007 at 03:17 PM |
While some semi industry folks snort bullish about the prospects of building an Indian chip-manufacturing base, others growl in a decidedly bearish manner.
During his forecast presentation Monday, IC Insights' Bill McClean repeated his belief that China will be the last major chipmaking region, saying the IC industry was "closed" to manufacturing startups. After showing a comparison list of Chinese and Indian economic, demographic, and technological capabilities, with China showing profound advantages across the board except for services exports, he railed, "Tell me why I want a big fab in India? It's what you make, not where you make it!"
In his talk earlier today on challenges facing the semiconductor industry in the nanometer era, UMC CEO Jackson Hu cited India, not China, as the the number-one "threat" to Taiwan's strong number-two position in the fabless/design market. He noted that during his passage to India last year, he learned about the subcontinent's large pool of IC design engineers, EDA talent, and engineering students. But when asked by his hosts about what he thought of India building a fab base, he politely told them that he didn't think it was good idea, due to the "lack of infrastructure." "India should focus on developing products suitable for its society and cultural needs," Hu believes.
If you have any comments about whether or not India will/should build fabs, please pass them along to Chip Shots.
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