RE: 2023 the future is here1 Jan 2023 14:03
Looks like China is able to produce microchips on their own that were previously only able to be designed and manufactured by the West. Article in todays Telegraph.
China cracks advanced chip design in blow to sanctions
Breakthrough by Huawei provokes Western fears that Beijing could develop new military capabilities
GARETH CORFIELD
CHINA has developed a microchip design method previously only mastered by the West, in a challenge that could undermine sanctions.
Patent filings reveal that Huawei has made advances in a crucial method of chip manufacture, raising the prospect that the company could start making some of the smallest and most powerful microchips by itself.
Such a development would allow Beijing to skirt Western sanctions. Washington, Brussels and London are all blocking access to advanced Western-made computer chips in China over fears that the Communist nation could develop new military capabilities beyond the power of Western armies to resist.
It comes as China faces pressure to revive its economy, after data out this weekend revealed a surge in cases of Covid-19 had pushed economic activity to its slowest pace since February 2020.
The reversal of Xi Jinping’s zero-Covid policy, and resulting outbreak of the virus in cities, has forced businesses to shut their doors, figures from the National Bureau of Statistics suggested.
China’s manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to 47 in December compared to 48 in November.
Huawei is one of the largest private companies in China.
Its patent filing for the microchip technology, made in November but only revealed to the world this month, describes a way of using ultraviolet light to etch a computer chip’s inner workings into a piece of silicon.
Using so-called extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) technology, transistors can be created that are just nanometres in size. The most powerful computer chips contain millions of transistors and advances in miniaturisation allow for the creation of hugely powerful chips.
The highly specialised technique had only been cracked by ASML, a Netherlands-based company.
A €208 billion (£184?billion) business, ASML’s chip-making secrets are jealously guarded by both the company and the West. Liesje Schreinemacher, the Dutch foreign trade minister, told the country’s parliament in November that ASML’s chip technology was a jewel in the country’s crown to be protected.
US trade sanctions imposed on China this summer specifically targeted EUV technology imports.
Dutch officials were leaned on by the US to refuse any export licences to China, according to Bloomberg.
News that local champion Huawei has found a way to develop the chips themselves is likely to spark alarm among Western officials.
Huawei did not respond to a request for comment.
EUV machines each cost between $150?million (£124?million) and $300?million and are about the size of a London bus. Factories typically need between nine and 18 machines, d
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