Just a week ago we heard that the US were planning to apply new limits when it comes to hardware sales on Huawei devices. Now, it seems like it’s finally happening as. Plans for new measures by the United States could threaten the supply of 14-nanometer chips by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) to China’s Huawei.
Huawei has been accused by several countries of maintaining close ties to China’s military establishment and of functioning as an arm of the communist government, leading to its 5G and other electronic systems becoming the focus of suspicions. Due to this, the Trump Administration was preparing a maximum limit of 10 percent U.S. technology for products to be supplied to Huawei, the Liberty Times reported earlier yesterday.
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Of TSMC chips, the 7-nm products only contain for 9 percent U.S. technology or parts, so they would not pose a problem, but for the 14-nm semiconductors, the U.S. content rises to 15 percent. This means that if the restriction comes into play, TSMC will no longer be able to ship 14nm chips to Huawei.
When reached out to for a comment on the likelihood of such a restriction, TSMC said that at present, the U.S. had not changed its rules. The company would not answer questions about purely hypothetical situations, according to the Liberty Times. This means that for now, all we can really do is wait and see what happens.
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(Source)
