EP#382: The Danger Pool

06/09/23 • 65 min

The CHIPS act is in full swing with Texas Instruments, TSMC, Intel and other chip manufacturers scaling up and building new facilities in the United States. There is just one problem however, the engineering manpower required to run these high tech facilities. TSMC is struggling to fill hiring quotas and articles are citing TSMC working conditions as the reason. Stephen and Parker decide to explore the possibility of more reasons for this on this week’s episode of the MacroFab Engineering Podcast.

Chipmaker TSMC needs to hire 4,500 Americans at its new Arizona plants.

We touched on this in the past with the chip act. 668,000 domestic manufacturing jobs for the chips act on Episode #345 - The Hot List of Tasty Chip Fabs
TSMC says it will hire 4,500 new workers to support its two Arizona fabs, a sizable chunk of the total new jobs created. So far TSMC has hired ~2000 but say it is tough to hire.
Compensation and hiring
- TSMC pays up to $160,000 annually for Ph.D.s with some good experience where that same Ph.D. can earn some $30,000 more at Intel
- Intel is giving raises of $10K - $20K over TSMC offers to stay.
More students in STEM in Taiwan vs US : 31% compared to 17.5%

Apple launches Vision Pro AR headset to ship next year

$3500 When the VR industry is getting less expensive and in a hardware purchasing decline?
Pro price but no pro applications?

The Danger Pool

What would it take to make a “solder pot”
- Assembling Transistor Radios 1955
Simple calculations
- 60/40 specific heat = 0.173 J/g-C
- 60/40 melting temp = 190c
- Energy to raise temp -> specific heat equation
- Energy to raise 5kg temp by 165C = 142.7 kJ
- Enthalpy of fusion = 37J/g
- Energy needed to “melt” = 185kJ
- Total Energy = 327 kJ
Joule is W.s
If we wanted to deliver this much power in 30 minutes
182 Watts
Kitchen stove burner
- Small ~1200W
- Medium ~1500 to 1800W
- Large ~2500W
500mm x 175mm size

MEP EP#382: The Danger Pool

Chipmaker TSMC needs to hire 4,500 Americans at its new Arizona plants.

We touched on this in the past with the chip act. 668,000 domestic manufacturing jobs for the chips act on Episode #345 - The Hot List of Tasty Chip Fabs
TSMC says it will hire 4,500 new workers to support its two Arizona fabs, a sizable chunk of the total new jobs created. So far TSMC has hired ~2000 but say it is tough to hire.
Compensation and hiring
- TSMC pays up to $160,000 annually for Ph.D.s with some good experience where that same Ph.D. can earn some $30,000 more at Intel
- Intel is giving raises of $10K - $20K over TSMC offers to stay.
More students in STEM in Taiwan vs US : 31% compared to 17.5%

Apple launches Vision Pro AR headset to ship next year

$3500 When the VR industry is getting less expensive and in a hardware purchasing decline?
Pro price but no pro applications?

The Danger Pool

What would it take to make a “solder pot”
- Assembling Transistor Radios 1955
Simple calculations
- 60/40 specific heat = 0.173 J/g-C
- 60/40 melting temp = 190c
- Energy to raise temp -> specific heat equation
- Energy to raise 5kg temp by 165C = 142.7 kJ
- Enthalpy of fusion = 37J/g
- Energy needed to “melt” = 185kJ
- Total Energy = 327 kJ
Joule is W.s
If we wanted to deliver this much power in 30 minutes
182 Watts
Kitchen stove burner
- Small ~1200W
- Medium ~1500 to 1800W
- Large ~2500W
500mm x 175mm size

Previous Episode

EP#381: Bil Herd - Back Into the Storm

MEP EP#381: Bil Herd - Back Into the Storm

Bil Herd, one of the early engineers of Home Computers, joins as a guest on this week’s episode of the podcast. Bil led the hardware design for the Commodore C128 and Plus4 Series of computers in the 1980’s and currently co-hosts a weekly webcast which can be seen at Coriolis-effect.com

Topics:

Back Into the Storm: A design engineers story of Commodore Computers in the 1980’s

Vintage Computer Festival

Returning to Texas this June
June 23rd - 25th VCF Southwest
August 4-5th VCF West
Vcfed.org

Coriolis-Effect

Bil co-hosts this along with Ben Jordan!
Summary of the show / Topics
- Deep dives into circuit analysis
- Signal integrity

DFM and assembly process

The Commodore C128 was designed during the era of through hole components.
How did the advent of Surface Mount Tech change design?
Through hole is still used today and what mistakes do modern engineers and designers do when using through hole components?
How often did “green wire” fixes go into production?

Next Episode

EP#383: Screaming into the Social Media Void

MEP EP# 383: Screaming into the Social Media Void

AutoDesk is dropping support and development for the dedicated Eagle EDA tool and moving efforts to the AutoDesk Fusion 360 Electronics. This has set the electronic enthusiast online communities ablaze with KiCad users and supporters frothing at this opportunity to take market share away from Eagle in the EDA space. Parker and Stephen discuss this and more on this week’s episode of the MacroFab Engineering Podcast!

Topics:

Parker was on The Coriolis Effect last Friday with Bill Herd and Ben Jordan! Check out the episode here.

AutoDesk dropping dedicated Eagle Support.

Effective June 7 2026. Autodesk will no longer sell Eagle
- Fusion 360 Electronics is the “path forward”
- Supposedly Eagle files are fully compatible with Fusion 360 Electronics
Hackaday’s take on this: “They used to be a big shot but now they are no more”
Discussion points:
- What will happen to all of the historic Eagle materials out in the world?
- What will happen to stand alone eagle?
- Is this a big deal because the hacker/maker community is loud?
- The move of everything to subscription models, is it a good business move, or the death knell for these products?
  - Pros
    - Continuous improvement
    - Access to most or all tools even the expensive ones
    - Support
  - Cons
    - You don’t own your tool
    - Your designs feel like they are held hostage
- Is KiCAD a good open source alternative to Eagle, and will it be competitive to Fusion?
Takeaways:
- What will the future look like for these types of products - will Fusion 360 be strong?
- Will subscription models continue to gain momentum?
- Hobby vs profit

Ex-Samsung executive alleged to have stolen tech to recreate chip plant in China

What was this executive planning to transfer?
Modern plants are highly integrated and specific with supporting equipment needed to drive those tools.
Maybe it was Samsung’s secret sauce? Software packages and tooling guidelines?

Unconventional fathers day gift ideas?