Always Be Curious #237: F1 and chipmaking, podcasts on ASML, and Flight Simulator 2024
This week in ABC: yours truly compares the phases of chipmaking to the phases of a typical race weekend, two high-profile podcasts spotlight ASML, and Flight Sim 2024 is released into the geeky wild.
A couple of years before we had a computer at home, my grandfather owned a PC for his accounting. That DOS box sat on his desk in the attic. And whenever I could, I would explore the computer and the array of floppy disks next to it. I played games, of course. 💾🕹 I had two favorites: Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego?…and Microsoft Flight Simulator 4.0. I distinctly recall the awesome feeling of taking off in a Sopwith Camel, flying over polygon Chicago and fiddling with the multitude of meters and gauges on the screen, then hopefully (and if so, proudly) landing the plane. Holy crap! I just flew an airplane! I’m a pilot! ✈️ I guess that feeling is shared across a generation of fellow nerds, who, like me, got their first taste of ‘open world’ gaming through Flight Simulator. So in this week’s “For The Love Of Tech” section down below, let’s celebrate the launch of Flight Simulator 2024, a testament to the incredible evolution of computing and graphics over the 42 years since Flight Simulator 1. 🥳
Have a good week, stay safe and sound,
👨💻The round-up in sci-tech💡
💡 This AI-powered invention machine automates eureka moments (IEEE Spectrum)
A Swiss firm’s software mines the world’s knowledge for patent opportunities
🎶 Making human music in an AI world (The Verge)
On The Vergecast: the future of music is technology. But it’s mostly humans.
🤖 Figure - BMW update (Figure)
Humanoid firm Figure released this new video, showing its robots at work in a BMW production line. In the future, repetitive work will ALL be done by robots. 🦾
✨ Thomas Kurtz, a creator of BASIC computer language, dies at 96 (The New York Times)🎁
At Dartmouth, long before the days of laptops and smartphones, he worked to give more students access to computers. That work helped propel generations into a new world.
🤓This week in chips⚠
🔎 The surprising link between F1 racing and chip manufacturing (Always Be Curious)
🏎️ In the weekend that Max clinched his 4th world championship (woo!!), here’s a cool comparison between the phases of taking a chip from lab to fab—and the phases in a typical race weekend.
🎧 The strange way the world’s fastest microchips are made (Planet Money)
“This is the story behind one of the most valuable — and perhaps, most improbable — technologies humanity has ever created. It's a breakthrough called extreme ultraviolet lithography, and it's how the most advanced microchips in the world are made.”
🎧 The geopolitics of chips: a manufacturing miracle (The Financial Times)
“Semiconductors are one of the most complex and technically difficult pieces of hardware to make in the world – which is why they’ve become a flashpoint for tensions between the US and China. For years, semiconductor technology has advanced at a breakneck pace - but there are signs that this might be slowing down. What will that mean for the global fight for chips? The FT’s longtime China correspondent James Kynge travels to the Netherlands to see ASML’s extreme ultraviolet lithography system, one of the most complex machines on the planet. Plus, we hear from the man at Intel charged with keeping Moore’s Law going, and from Chris Miller, author of Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology.”
👨💻 The giant supercomputer built to transform an entire country—and paid for by Ozempic (Wall Street Journal) 🔐
The world’s latest AI machine is powered by the success of two products: Nvidia’s chips and Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drugs.
🏢 SK hynix starts mass production of world's first 321-High NAND (SK hynix)
SK hynix announced that it has started mass production of the world’s first 321-high 4D NAND Flash with 1Tb capacity.
🏢 SK Hynix prepares 16-layer HBM3e DRAM for 2025 (EEnews Europe)
SK Hynix ALSO announced that its 16-layer HBM3e DRAM will be available in 2025. Let’s go Koreans! 🔥
⚛️ New fastest supercomputer will simulate nuke testing (IEEE Spectrum)
El Capitan is powered by AMD and is the world’s fastest supercomputer at 1.742 exaflops. The number 2, Frontier, is ALSO powered by AMD and computes at 1.35 exaflops. Ka-pow.
🔥 TSMC 2nm process is right on-track, slated for mass-production by 2025 and sees "all-time" high demand (wccftech)
TSMC is set to mass-produce its cutting-edge 2nm process by 2025, as the Taiwan giant is seeing massive interest from companies.
⚙️ Samsung reaches key milestone at new semiconductor R&D complex (Samsung)
Samsung holds tool-in ceremony for NRD-K, scheduled to start operation in 2025 Samsung plans to invest about KRW 20 trillion by 2030 for advanced semiconductor R&D
📈 Tower Semiconductor rides silicon photonics wave (EE Times)
The Israeli chip foundry is leading rivals with production of silicon photonics and silicon germanium that speed data transfers and save power.
🌱 Analog AI startup aims to lower gen AI's power needs (IEEE Spectrum)
Sagence emerges from stealth promising Llama 2 at 10 percent power
🇨🇳 China’s mature semiconductor overcapacity: does it exist and does it matter? (CSIS)
Instead of debating China's foundational chip overcapacity—a complex question with no expert consensus—U.S. and allied policymakers should focus on risks of strategic overreliance, nonmarket practices, and policy preparedness.
📈By the numbers📉
📊 NVIDIA announces financial results for Q3 fiscal 2025 (NVIDIA)
“The age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to NVIDIA computing,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Demand for Hopper and anticipation for Blackwell — in full production — are incredible as foundation model makers scale pretraining, post-training and inference. AI is transforming every industry, company and country. Enterprises are adopting agentic AI to revolutionize workflows. Industrial robotics investments are surging with breakthroughs in physical AI. And countries have awakened to the importance of developing their national AI and infrastructure.”
📊 Global semiconductor industry records strong growth in Q3 2024 (SEMI)
The global semiconductor manufacturing industry in the third quarter of 2024 showed strong momentum with all key industry indicators performing positive quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increases for the first time in two years
❤️For the love of tech❤️
Because of the horrendously buggy launch this week, I thought I’d add one Flight Sim clip for the ones who love… ❤️
And another for the ones who hate… 😈
Always Be Curious is the personal newsletter of Sander Hofman, Senior Creative Content Strategist at ASML. Opinions expressed in this curated newsletter are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.