[CuriousRose]

There was a point made recently by Musk that the whole clean room idea is outdated if you can just ensure the path the silicon takes from wafer to lidding is clean. Seems solvable to me, but leaves me wondering why it hasn’t been done before. I assume there is no human handling of raw/etched silicon now anyway, so why does the whole room need to be clean?

[spicymaki]

The semiconductor fab process changes dynamically to manage yield. It is not a static environment, automating with robotics is fine when things are static like a automotive assembly line, but high end semiconductor fabs are a different beast (The analogy I heard was repairing a plane while in flight). Robots are not purely clean as well they shed contaminates as well, which must be managed too. Entropy is the reason why we still need humans in the loop.

[deadfoxygrandpa]

hmm yeah. its cool that musk knows more about this than the entire industry

[CuriousRose]

You could probably apply that logic to any innovation in any industry no?

Reusable rockets likely got the same ridicule, as did fast satellite internet, self driving and fully electric vehicles.

I can understand that Musk does not have the most palatable personality, but floating ideas and at least attempting innovation regardless of outcome over a long time is a net positive for society and should not be discouraged.

[CamperBob2]

Reusable rockets likely got the same ridicule, as did fast satellite internet, self driving and fully electric vehicles.

In those areas, Musk successfully leveraged government largesse to compete with fat, lazy incumbents who had either coasted for decades (rockets and satellite Internet) or who didn't bother to show up to the game (EVs, self-driving and otherwise.)

That does not describe the semiconductor industry.

Musk has never beaten anybody who actually put up a fight, as far as I'm aware. I guess Blue Origin technically counts, but again that's not exactly TSMC.

[Danox]

Intel and Microsoft are having that same problem right now when the playing field is level, they have trouble competing.

[khriss]

> self driving

Aren't we still waiting for that?

[Auracle]

It wouldn’t be the first time an industry got bogged down by prior knowledge. Hell, it happens to all of us.

[andsoitis]

think different