Humanity rarely thinks about, and often simply does not know, the crucial role of chips, which have actually created the modern world. The fate of entire countries, their past, present, and future positions in geopolitics are linked to chips and depend on their creation and printing, as well as on the extremely complex and expensive machines that produce them. US military power is based on chips, as is modern globalization. The fall of the USSR and then Russia is also due to chips, as is the economic and political growth of China and other Asian countries.
«Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology»
Author Chris Miller
Translator Volodymyr Tsybka
Publisher «Our Format»
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 432
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 140×210 mm
Website nashformat.ua
There are chips in every gadget or household appliance around you. Look around you, and within a few meters you will find several appliances, gadgets, or devices equipped with chips. It is these little gizmos that may lead to real military conflicts in the future, although the behind-the-scenes and economic struggle for them has been going on for decades. And judging by the book «Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology» by Chris Miller from «Our Format» this will definitely happen, and we can already see China’s desire to occupy Taiwan. There are many historical and political reasons for this, but one of the main ones, if not the main one, is the world’s largest semiconductor factory, TSMC.
A large part of this book is devoted to the history of the semiconductor industry, so anyone interested in this topic will find something to read here. The author provides many interesting facts that few people know. For example, the Taiwanese company TSMC was founded by Morris Chang, an American of Chinese descent who previously headed Texas Instruments. It also tells about the founder of Intel, Bob Noyce, who started at the legendary Fairchild Semiconductor, and about many other companies and their founders. I also didn’t know about the Dutch company ASML, which creates the world’s most technologically advanced machines for creating ultra-thin silicon chips. It is, without exaggeration, one of the most influential and important companies in the world today.
PlayStation 5 fans will be interested to hear the story of Sony’s founding and development. Especially how they started with a failed electric rice cooker and «rose to» on simple radios.
And connoisseurs of Samsung technology will be surprised to learn that long ago the company started by selling dried fish. Other goods and products followed, and the Korean giant entered the electronics segment much later, literally investing in the then new and promising semiconductor industry.
In general, the «Chip War» dates back to the 1940s, when scientists first invented semiconductors and started working with them. Therefore, it is also an interesting study of the industry, a fascinating historical work about the beginning, development, and present-day technologies. That’s why «Chip War» will be interesting for most ITC.ua readers, so I highly recommend it.
The book also explains different types of chips, the logic of conventional and GPUs in an accessible way. It clearly explains the different architectures (X86, ARM, and RISC), why and how they appeared, how they developed, etc.
«Chip War» — is a great overview of where we are now and where we are going in the semiconductor industry. And the reality is that every year, humanity will need more and more of these tiny elements that have a gigantic impact on the entire world.
Chris Miller logically explains how difficult it is to produce high-quality chips, and how few companies and countries can do it. For example, he talks about the aforementioned EUV machine from the Dutch company ASML, which is needed to create high-quality chips. No other company in the world is able to do this, and if something happens to ASML, the global semiconductor industry will probably be in a stalemate.
However, the complexity of these technologies is not only this. The fact is that very few companies in the world, including the well-known TSMC, Intel, Samsung and several others, can successfully use EUV technology to make silicon wafers.
The book «Chip War. The Struggle for the World’s Most Important Technology» I liked. It has an eye-catching cover, thick and yellow paper that is pleasant to the touch, and it has a comfortable binding. I also like the font used.