I took modules in semiconductor and very large-scale integrated circuit (VLSI) during university days. I understood semiconductor theory well, but generally ghost through VLSI. The best students got jobs in the semicon industry, such as with Intel, who would pay up to RM 4K in 2010. I joined a power plant, who paid around RM 2.3K (which was relative, as I was bonded. They had sponsored my studies for 5 years). Still, the brightest electronic engineers went to Singapore or Penang.
A colleague (specialist in semiconductor risk) introduced this book to me, and as a trained electrical engineer, I could recommend this book more.
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| Credits to NLB for this book |
The founders of Silicon Valley (in the 60’s) were physicist and electronic engineers, who were scientists at core.
It was
inspiring reading about people like Gordon Moore (CEO of Intel, famed for his 1965
Moore’s Law), Morris Chang (ex-Texas Instruments and founder of TSMC), Akio
Morita (co-founder of Sony, which in the 80’s invented the Sony Walkman), Robert
Noyce (co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel), Ren Zhengfei (founder
of Huawei), Jay Lathrop (co-inventor of photolithography) and other titans of
the semiconductor industry.
In 2023, we
talk about tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and social media platforms
like Facebook, Tik-Tok (which I don’t have an account), etc. All of these
require computer and processing power, originating from a chip. Those days, semiconductor
makers were the tech millionaires, and they were mostly located in Silicon Valley
or in Texas.
The book
gives a fun and interesting story of how a potato chip maker (Jack Simplot of
Idaho) invested in semicon chip manufacturing. He would later found Micron, one of the only remaining (important) American chip maker left. Micron focused ruthlessly on costs
because it had no choice. Survival was a real struggle (against the Japanese
and Taiwanese fabs).
