How Japan Learned Semiconductors

[@leeatkinson9280]

Those guys worked hard. Out of school in 1984, I spent a few months in Texas Instrument's Hatogaya fab (northern Tokyo, their first Fab, started in 1970, Miho in the 1980s). First VLSI CMOS ("CSAG"), 4.5 micron on a 3" wafer. We'd come to work at 8:00am and some would leave at 6:00PM, but Jibiki-san (who I worked with closely) would work every day until 10:00pm, when we'd finally go for dinner (usually Dennys, being one of the few places still open) and in bed at midnight, to wake up at 7:00am the next day and go again. 90 hour work weeks were common. The ethos in Japan (and I heard it repeated many times), the Nation came first, the company second, and personal ambition could be priority #3. And it worked for the country, it built the companies, and indeed it did build the people. Deming was a national hero to Japan. The focus on teamwork and refusing to let the ball drop as a team meant that quality was religion. Quality is what built Japan, and Quality came from hard, hard work.

[@josho6854]

I worked in the DRAM industry for many years. It is pronounced dee-ram by everyone in the industry. I like your content, keep up the good work!

[@TavishMcEwen]

i was hoping everyone wasn't wrong lol

[@alansacks9815]

He doesn't know how it is pronounced, because he learned everything about this subject from reading it on the internet and places like wikipedia.

[@non-human3072]

It's the ultimate troll . . . .

[@vangildermichael1767]

I guess that is like Nvidia. Some say it all in one go, just like that (Nvidia) or others kinda put a Pause in there N-Vidia. Nobody ever actually demonstrated the "correct" pronunciation. But "BOTH" get the point across. I like the later (N-Vidia). In my English, it flows better. But this is not an "English" company. So I'm probably wrong. It wouldn't be the first time.

[@seanm2511]

I would guess the OP is aware of that and he's trolling all the pronunciation purists...

[@danielwong8640]

In the early 1980's the Japanese were so dominant in semiconductors that my father had to take Japanese language courses at his employer, VLS Technology, Inc. just so that he could collaborate with his Japanese counterparts.

[@perfectsplit5515]

And their country was able to accomplish all that - without any natural resources.

[@PoliticalMatter]

Yes, the Chinese need to learn or steal from someone!

[@bertkoerts3991]

My father (Philips) took Japanese lessons too! 👍😊

[@alice_agogo]

so.... kanemitsu corp?

[@harshvemuri4241]

As someone who grew up in Japan, hearing the rice cake saying was just amazing. The lack of research is what makes 99% of youtube channels trash - you are in the 1% my good sir. Thanks for the amazing video essays as always, love to hear about the industry as both my parents work at tech companies in Japan 🇯🇵

[@deathdoor]

About the research, this is something that I'm thinking for some time now. He does a LOT of research AND reading. He keeps pumping these videos at a rapid pace and all with a lot of research that should take some time, with the detail that on topics that I already know a bit he casually drops a lot of information that I rarely see mentioned by other channels covering the same topic. Asianomety is a machine man (or maybe he just knows how to google better?).

[@stellviahohenheim]

@@deathdoor no he's better than Google because he knows how to connect the dots and tell a coherent story. The human brain will always be the best computer

[@AllocatorsAsia]

@@stellviahohenheim exactly. Half man half machine! The best of both worlds

[@raunakshahi]

@@deathdoor Are you Indian by any chance? Cause I had a question.

[@howwitty]

@@stellviahohenheim Ha!

[@perseverance8]

As an electronics hobbyist & chip collector, Japanese manufactured parts are well sought after for their quality, there are still NUMEROUS new old stock Japanese made chips manufactured in the 1970’s through the 1990’s, the 1980’s & early 1990’s being Japan’s chip manufacturing heyday.

[@RolandElliottFirstG]

So very true

[@oldtwinsna8347]

Yea, compare to MOS (aka Commodore) chips that were made so poorly, only being fully realized decades after.

[@perfectsplit5515]

“Made in Japan” is much better than “Made in China”

[@whatispizza]

I can’t believe they’ve lasted this long

[@issamelarmi]

"Bro chill" that one cracked me up. Good video as always my guy

[@marklewus5468]

Anecdotal: in 1980 I was the lead engineer on a project that required an early microcontroller. In those days there was no flash so the code eas “masked” in ROM - that is, defined as part of the top layer of the semiconductor chip at time of manufacture. It was an 8049 MCU which was designed and originally sold by Intel. But in the end we chose Mitsubishi, who were able to provide the mask at 1/3 the set-up cost and deliver the parts in half the time at a much lower price. I don’t recall a single MCU failure in the two years we built the device, over which time thousands were sold.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Now that sounds like a fun job

[@AiOinc1]

Interesting! Are you allowed to tell us what the project was?

[@cranegantry868]

They underquoted on the job to 'steal' that type of work away, to gain experience and your company's expertise, in effect, they 'stole' the expertise at zero cost to themselves.

[@PRH123]

@@cranegantry868 that’s quite an assertion, can it be backed up with some kind of evidence…?

[@jacob476]

Nothing like selling out your country for profit

[@darkfoxfurre]

I've never heard DRAM pronounced as "DRAM" before. Always as "D-RAM". Probably to denote the difference between DRAM and SRAM, or Static RAM,

[@jwbowen]

@@orangestapler8729 I've heard exactly one other person pronounce it like that. It just makes me think of Scotch.

[@MikeTrieu]

Perhaps Asianometry his purely a cultural historian an not a technologist, despite his chosen subject matter.

[@jasbrar9873]

I for one, welcome Mr. "Derrr-Ammm" as my "overlord".

[@InTimeTraveller]

@@jwbowen I'm really curious how this makes you think of scotch 😛

[@cjjuszczak]

​@@InTimeTraveller The most common name for a measure of whisky is a "dram" :)

[@DataWaveTaGo]

At 15:10 DRAM Dominance As a hardware designer (starting in 1972) I specified only Japanese 64K DRAM for memory when it became available because no board manufacturer wanted to set up the re-work post assembly streams needed if American DRAM parts were used.

[@coraltown1]

Having worked in the US electronics/computer_chip industry for 40 years (retired 2013) , I find these walks down 'memory lane' quite enjoyable, and I definitely did learn some things. Thanks!

[@ntabile]

Well, Im still working in the semiconductor mfg. From assembly and test field up to wafer fabrication mfg from 90s up to present.

[@baraclude]

How does one enter such industry?

[@pjacobsen1000]

"Japan's reign as king would not last for long". And such a statement may cause some to feel a sense of despair, or 'what's the point in even trying'. But the back room benefits are still huge: The knowledge attained, the growth in educational resources, the basic technologies and machinery to start a new adventure. That is perhaps the real reward.

[@obsidianjane4413]

Because quite a few fortunes were built in that period of time. Capitalism is a ravaging fire. It burns resources wherever it derives its greatest return regardless of how long that lasts. Plus the future is never certain. That statement is very hindsighty.

[@celdur4635]

And decades of food on the table and the roof of your children paid.

[@jensenraylight8011]

dude, we are probably 30 years ahead technologically thanks to japan, compared to if japan didn't try to dominate the industry. if there was no japan, the US probably became complacent and fooling around in bureaucracy without having any need to innovate forward.

[@pjacobsen1000]

@@JohnWayne-dh8gl If you want to be a member of the club, you have to follow the rules. If you don't follow the rules, there will be sanctions. Pretty simple. Toshiba and a Norwegian company both sold highly sensitive military equipment to the Soviets against the rules. Their punishment was reasonable and light, there was no 'handing over' of IP to US companies, and that whole incident has nothing to do with the Japanese semiconductor industry. You're just spinning a yarn.

[@pjacobsen1000]

@@JohnWayne-dh8gl I think that just proves that having partners is better than trying to go it alone, but to each his own. You do you.

[@halghanson]

I very much enjoy your work as someone who, from the American side, was involved in Pacific rim technology, specifically Semiconductors, for 35 years until I retired. Minor complaint: in all my work (including working on the JEDEC memory standardization committees) I have never heard it pronounced “dram”. The general classification is random access memories (RAM) with different sub areas such dynamic-ram (pronounced in two syllables dee-ram), static - ram (pronounced s-ram into syllables) And other varieties that are less well-known and substantially less successful. Maybe this is an American - centric pronunciation, however in my discussions with representatives from Toshiba, NEC, Hitachi, Samsung, TSMC and others it was universally pronounced in two syllables Hal Hanson Senior principal semiconductor design engineer (ret)

[@asandax6]

I've never worked in any semiconductor related industry but never heard DRAM pronounced dram. All PC enthusiasts pronounce DRAM and SRAM in two syllables.

[@xenuburger7924]

the refresh requirement is enough to justify the dee-ram pronunciation. By the way, the idea of using refreshed capacitors as memory storage was conceived with the help of bourbon.

[@jamesbailey9512]

Brit here often called dram over here.

[@coraltown1]

In the US engineering labs I worked in, it was always dee-ram.

[@TAP7a]

@@jamesbailey9512 Brit here - not heard it out loud very much, but I'm on a 100% dee-ram and ess-ram streak

[@fer12prado]

Keep up the high quality job.

[@makerspace533]

I worked for TI in a research group. I remember in 1977 we were have serious discussions as to whether semiconductor memory would ever replace core. The concern was that core memory would retain data, even during a power outage. TI's was putting it's hope in bubble memory. I think the incredible growth of winchester technology came as a surprise.

[@GotYourWallet]

It would have been interesting to see how small they could go. According to the Wikipedia article they reached 0,33mm core diameter by 1966.

[@godfreypoon5148]

I still have some industrial control systems running on core. They run warm!

[@lotharschwab8376]

Your research is very well done. Sure - there is probably an inaccuracy here and there. We all make mistakes. But that doesn’t take away from the general high quality of both your research and your presentation. You know what you are doing. By the way: I like your fine and creative humor on your slides.

[@sneedsfeed757]

hello fellow bug enjoyer how is your life in the pod ?

[@audiodiwhy2195]

Excellent video. I find all the content on this channel interesting and informative.

[@capmidnite]

17:31 Nice reference! I believe the original quote is "Nobunaga pounded the rice, Hideyoshi baked the cake and Tokugawa ate it" in reference to the final winner of the Sengoku Wars. Although, the industry is so fast moving who knows what the outcome will be in 10 to 20 years?

[@marlinbially9628]

I still remember taking apart my first transistor radio when I was a kid back in the 70's to see what these magical transistor everyone was talking about looked like.

[@bertkoerts3991]

This series of mini documentaries are só good, I wish I had found this series much earlier. It’s good enough to be part of an academic course (history of the electronics industry). My father did a strategic study of Japan’s electronics industry for Philips in 1985- concluding that Philips should try to merge with Sony. Philips wasn’t ready for such profound conclusion.. 👍😊. Thanks for producing this great content!!

[@alice_agogo]

philips was my favorite brand decades ago so I was surprised in late 2000s that they pulled out of my country only selling dvd players, light bulbs etc., but no tv

[@joshuahernandez3216]

Dude, your knowledge and research into these videos is astounding. I love your videos and even the sense of humor you have with some of the subjects. Keep up the good work.

[@7wingsaseagles89]

Something to add to the Bell patent on the transistor. The anti-trust lawsuit that Bell was involved with the federal government eventually ruled that Bell labs Western electric AT&t Bell telephone could not manufacture and sell to any entity except themselves. It also prohibited them from operating outside the telephony industry. However they could license patents and collect royalties. Which prohibited them from getting into the computer industry or other various industries. After the lawsuit until 1984 when the giant was broken up in another Anti-Trust lawsuit. All equipment that was manufactured and used by the Bell group had stamped on it the property of Bell telephone not for sale. In both law cases due to Bell telephone being a massive company and wanting to protect their business interest these were actually negotiations with the federal government in which Bell telephone and it's arms agreed on certain conditions to end the lawsuits. Negotiations that were finally agreed upon in approximately 1982 and 2 years later would lead to the breakup of the Bell system. Removed the previous negotiations on the first antitrust lawsuit which was filed in the early 1930s.

[@ntabile]

I remember Lucent Technologies an offshoot of AT&T. They produces communication chips. Now its under Alcatel.

[@3markaw]

@@ntabile You are way out of date. Alcatel is no more having been itself taken over.

[@holyrosecross]

興味深い内容でした。 日本人として知っておきたい歴史ですね。

[@guaposneeze]

Anybody interested in the subject should check out a documentary series from the 90's called "A videohistory of Japan's electronic industry" If you look for the channel RC286 you can find it here in KZbin. It includes interviews from some of the people who were directly involved in this history, and was made by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I think it was originally on four VHS tapes, so it's a couple of hours all together. It has some objectively catchy episode titles like Circuits in Stone and The Calculator Wars. The fact that Japan could just arbitrarily reorganize what separate companies were doing, and tell them what to work on is interesting. The US economy just doesn't work that way. Back in the 80's, pretty much all Cyberpunk sci fi predicted a huge Japanese influence in 21st century because so many American companies assumed that the Japanese conglomerate alliances would be able to outcompete any individual American company. Go figure, that turned out very differently from what a lot of people expected.

[@InTimeTraveller]

Yeah, it's the Korean and Taiwanese that are leading the way in electronics 😛 But anyway, with the rise of multinational companies that have significant R&D facilities spread throughout the world, it doesn't make sense to call one company as Japanese or American or whatever.

[@deathdoor]

@Asionometry I know this DOC, there are two versions. An abridged 4 parts dubbed in English and the original 6 parts in japanese （電子な国 I think it s the tittle)

[@AlexanderSylchuk]

Thanks for the information, I just finished watching it, that was one of my favourite series NHK has ever produced.

[@AlexanderSylchuk]

@@deathdoor What where the two extra parts about, or the japanese version were simply divided into more episodes?

[@deathdoor]

@@AlexanderSylchuk The japanese version is longer for the single fact that there are two hosts talking between each other to explaining basic concepts to the audience using diagrams and models. But the english version is abridged, there parts that are shortened or completely cut. I don't remember seeing Faggin on the english version (like he does on the fifth episode). These are the titles: 1- New Stone Age - The Amazing Semiconductor Industry 2- Birth of Transistor 3- Electric Circuits in Stone 4- Calculator War 5- 8mm Square Computer 6- Technological Giant of the Micron World Just search there for "電子立国 日本の自叙伝". The english version is only available in low quality, the japanese version is here in 720p.

[@averyj.steele1074]

I've noticed that people who get really hung up on small, inconsequential details like VLSI tend to have severe emotional regulation issues. You're fine. Hope that guy gets some therapy. Maybe he can make a living doing research for KZbin channels.

[@theraygood]

True...

[@kly-kv7yh]

Angry Nippon man

[@No0dz]

Even doctoral theses 3 years in the making contain silly errors. Maybe the angry commenter should stick to fully peer reviewed research papers instead of KZbin channels?

[@brodriguez11000]

Depends upon the audience. If this was a legal channel, getting words correct would be very important.

[@averyj.steele1074]

@@brodriguez11000 That is true, but that's my point. If this was a legal channel and that kind of mistake was important it would be neither small or inconsequential. Here, it is.

[@oldtwinsna8347]

I recall the scare of Japan's 5th generation computer in the early 80s. It had the US fearing domination from Japan. As Japan had the technological capacity at that point, it was deemed dead serious they would be introducing systems that made existing big-time computing systems irrelevant and ultimately folding the big US firms. In reality, it was just one of the biggest forms of fear mongering as it never came to be.

[@davidt02]

It was the biggest fear mongering only to be overtaken the current fear mongering over the Chinese.

[@kludgeaudio]

Note that Bell Labs had both the patents on the point contact transistor (which is really not possible to mass produce) but also by 1954 had the patents on the diffused-junction transistor which WAS possible to mass-produce. Sony got interested in the transistor but by the time they actually licensed the technology what they were licensing was far more advanced than what they had originally been interested in. They were the right people at exactly the right time.

[@GoodBaleadaMusic]

I'll connect the dots on why they gave it to Japan. It was about building a capitalist power base in Asia. South Korea was later added. It was a military decision to give Japan keys to the technological kingdom.

[@bgshin2879]

One minor detail missing. In 80s in the midst of Cold War, Japanese supplied top of the range semiconductors (military grade) to Soviets. USA found out about such arrangements and slammed the door shut for the Japanese imports and export of lithography machines to Japan. Japanese developed their own lithography machines (which are still fairly reasonable even in today’s standard). The problem was two folds, i) Japanese were largely shut out from the world’s largest market hence lacked the momentum in sales - R&D cycle. ii) Plaza agreement drove Yen more expensive making Japanese products expensive in cut throat chip market. From 256k Japanese were en passed by Koreans and never took the lead back. They focused more on the materials and machines supply where they still maintained competitive edge not because of technology but because they were relatively reliable and cheap. . In 2019 Japanese blocked export to Korea and Koreans started to start to drive for domestic manufacturing of not inly the 3 products controlled by Japanese gov but all supplies. All Korean manufacturers demanded their suppliers comply with ‘Japan free’ supply chain. Dupon and other top names quickly joined the frenzy and Korean producers quickly replaced Japanese in an once in a life time oppotunity. As many suppliers work in partnership with chip makers from the development stage, it is notoriously difficult to make into the supplier club. Some Japanese producers moved their production to Korea, outside Japanese gov export control. Others followed suit and created R&D Centres in Korea to work with the next gen development, making Korea de facto the hub for global materials, equipment and final product hub. The talent pool that will be created is only matched by the USA. Even ASLM is building its R&D hub in Korea. Japanese gov just gave Koreans the best gift in a generation to consolidate their dominance in the sector. The end result is, far less Japanese producers are working with Korean on the next gen product development and the opportunity to supply in the future. It would not be surprising to see Japanese material and equipment supply vanishing in next 5-10 years. And total annihilation of Japanese market share and talent pool for any future opportunities. It is a classical case study of bad gov decisions (supply to Soviets, Plaza agreement, export control for Korea) demolishing once flourished industries.

[@deathdoor]

Oh man, I remember that recent decision, it was immediately obvious that it was one of the most stupid decisions the japanese could made. What were they thinking?!

[@kurikuraconkuritas]

@Zaydan Naufal so this is all trump fault?

[@capmidnite]

@@kurikuraconkuritas Uh no, not everything is about TRUMP. Japan and Korea have had their own local disputes. The most recent was sparked when the Korean courts upheld a suit against Japanese companies for compensation for forced labor during WW2 and allowed Japanese assets in South Korea to be seized. The Japanese retaliated by slowing the export of chemicals needed for semi-conductor production to Korea.

[@capmidnite]

I think in the 1980s there was also a scandal where Toshiba sold machine tools to the Soviets necessary to make quieter submarine propellers.

[@indeepjable]

you see, if we didnt have nations this wouldnt be a problem

[@LordBadenRulez]

You learn something new every day. I never heard about "Dram" before ;)

[@isaidromerogavino8902]

"to troll" is not what you would use to describe the things this channel is good at, yet I notice the trolling here and there, every once in a while. I really like it and your lack of research on the subject of Dram is peak Asianometry!

[@TheBaldr]

0:10 I read Kyoto Station(in Japanese), wondered where in Kyoto this is... Only to have it click that it is a past photo. Having spent hours waiting for the 59 Bus to my apartment right in the middle of the photo. Wow.

[@xenuburger7924]

1985 seemed to be peak Japan period. Can you do a video about the Plaza Accords? There seems to be some discussion in Asian media about whether Japan's problems came about as a result of the Plaza Accords, or as a result of the Japanese government's monetary policy in response to the Plaza Accords.

[@shreyvaghela3963]

plazza accords are largely overhyped. japans demographycs and asset bubble were largely responsible

[@lidarman2]

A radio receiver in your pocket, imagine that! A cassette player in your pocket, imagine that! A video game console in your pocket, imagine that! A phone in your pocket, imagine that! A solid state music player in your pocket in with all of your music collection, imagine that! ...Now you're entire digital life in your pocket with a super computer, Imagine that! :D

[@MrOiram46]

Imagine being able to teleport to work and back to home, and being able to store everything in your house, in your pocket

[@deang5622]

All the hobbies I used to have as a child are now all digital and can be done on a single device...except the fishing.

[@punditgi]

Most informative and interesting as always! 😃

[@toshiakisuzuki7224]

No. NTT in not a spin off of ETL. Do not confuse the MITI with the Ministry of Communications. ETL(電総研, part of the AIST) and former NTT-CRL(武蔵野通研、横須賀通研、物性科学基礎研究所 etc.) have indipendent origin.

[@LatitudeSky]

Japan getting ahold of the transistor was a huge leap for the whole world. While Bell Labs deserves credit for developing it, others made it a true success.

[@helmutzollner5496]

Was the VLSI project, where the etching technology was invented that allowed the buyer capacitors, or did that come later. I remember see in some corrections of nearly vertical wells more than 10 times the depth of the diameter during my university courses. I remember mention of a Japanese project of endless etching experiments which ultimately led to the capability to etch "any" 3D shape into Si substrate.

[@gr8bkset-524]

Interesting.. AT&T and the Japanese didn't stay in the semiconductor for different reasons - one because of antitrust, the other business competitiveness. If they could've foreseen how much growth the industry would have and will have, would they have remained? Currently, the USA is trying to hold on, Korean and Taiwan hold leads and China is trying to get in. What role should government play? Time and again, we've seen new technologies invented in the US, but made it big overseas.

[@temptemp563]

Ha, that's what we say in UK too! I mean about inventing stuff and then not following it up. Usually it's some idea the Americans profited from! That is the curse of being first, but (in the words of Diana Ross, 1984), "no it don't no it don't no it doesn't matter; cos nothing lasts forever [I was swept away]" etc.

[@gr8bkset-524]

@@temptemp563 maybe life is too easy (and labor is expensive) that it isn't worth the trouble fighting when we can get ahead by exploiting natural and human (cheap foreign labor) resources instead. Japan has few natural resources but lots of will and China is very competitive.

[@TAP7a]

@@temptemp563 yeah but the UK computer hardware industry was always rubbish apart from Acorn, Sinclair and a couple of their spinoffs. We absolutely could have got into semiconductors, we have the water, the infrastructure and the academics for rapidly building up the skills, but I can only assume that bungled decisions in the mid century meant no momentum was built up before neoliberal globalism encouraged production to centralise in (at the time) low cost places

[@CoolKoon]

"AT&T and the Japanese didn't stay in the semiconductor for different reasons - one because of antitrust, the other business competitiveness." - Actually AFAIK AT&T never was a hardware company to begin with, they haven't had the infrastructure (nor the experts) to mass-manufacture it anyway.

[@temptemp563]

@@TAP7a well yeah ... everything went down hill after the Turing Machine 🤣🤣 But I was speaking generally about IP competitiveness

[@msimon6808]

In '67 the Raytheon fabs were not always in clean rooms. I was working on TTL for the FAA inter-route computer - to keep track of flights between airports. The fab was right across the room in a glassed in enclosure.

[@VanDerLaars]

The way I see is that the fact that 5 different companies could work together, "helping each other" made Japan achieve that. It would never be possible with US companies.

[@stachowi]

wow, this was fantastic.

[@macky1738]

Great video! Possible to also do a video on Canon and nikon Lithography machines vs those by ASML? Tia

[@ashleypar4634]

I think he already made a video about that check "how asml won lithography (& why japan lost)"

[@macky1738]

Oh, ok. Will check on his past videos. Thanks!

[@msimon6808]

IC bonding was generally not to a board. It was to a lead frame (pronounced "leed" ) i.e. a chip package. 14 and 16 pin DIPs (Dual Inline Packages) were quite popular. Surface mount was starting to show up, but the parts were too small to handle. These days I'm fond of SOT23s (vs TOs) and the TSSOP (vs DIP) form factor. But I have to wear a magnifying glass to build anything.

[@danfairfw]

Your videos are like the "Rocky" movies but with the great exception of the analysis of why Rocky comes up on top!

[@tomschmidt381]

Thanks for the history lesson. I'm a US babyboomer, my 1961 8-th grade graduation present was a Motorola AM transistor radio. Later in the 1990s I worked for the NEC technology PC group. Unfortunately that business was short lived due to hyper competitive PC (IBM compatible) market.

[@bluestar2253]

11:54 I remember my father doing business with the Mostek company back in the 1970s.

[@studywid]

Striving after war, climbing up from zero's recipe: Horizontal growth spices. East Asian countries in general booksmart enough to do horizontal step, but bad at vertical one, meanwhile the west good at vertical but bad at horizontal

[@cks2k2]

i have to mention ex-Intel CEO Craig Barrett (also Bob Noyce co-founded Intel w/ Gordon Moore); who went to Japan to learn from the Japanese how they were able to do HVM (high-volume manufacturing). Ironically the Japanese earlier learned from the Americans i.e. Deming

[@acmefixer1]

One thing he got wrong was the Regency TR1. Texas Instruments made the silicon transistors for I.D.E.A. which made the Regency TR1 radio. Thanks.

[@JohnJones-oy3md]

12:26 - Good old Kimwipes. Still use them every time I deflux a PCB.

[@WingofTech]

You teach me so much Asianometry. Worth paying for!!

[@robertneill3057]

In looking at semiconductor theroy, learnt that the germanium atom has an extra electron orbit when compared to the silcon atom. This may explain the lower conduction voltage and the higher reverse leakage current that germanium devices have as the outermost electron orbit is slightly less influenced by the central nucleus in attraction properties. This may be a fairly old idea as to the behavior of the 2 different atoms under thermal and field charge conditions.

[@ap5672]

interesting sidenote. I live next to a holiday hotel owned and exclusively for the Tokyo electron company (TEL), an IC production equipment manufacturer.

[@MichelMohr]

Thank you for your video! I've found the subtitles you provide crucial to parse the information you present, thank you so much for those. But I've noticed that often text you put like "Winners of the 1956 Physics Nobel for the transitor effect" at 0:32 overlap with the positioning of youtube subtitles. Maybe something to keep in mind when you position stuff? Thanks!

[@akanhakan]

Great episode per usual. I would love to hear how you do your research for an episode.

[@JoeCiliberto]

I studied electronics back in the 1970s in high school. My teacher, a great man who recently passed away at 102 years old, told a variation of the story you told in the beginning of the presentation. In his version Bell Labs was demonstrating novel transistor technology at a trade fair and Sony (presumably a party including Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka) was present. Bell had lamented (or as my teacher said were frustrated) at its limited potential over traditional, non solid state components. He said that Sony immediately saw the potential, and jumped on the capability and applied it to consume electronics. The Teacher's lesson for us was to take what we have and understand how to solve problems with that understanding. As a kid, transistors and ICs were the rage, and companies like Motorola led the charge (remember HEP?). But in assembly and manufacture, the sun was setting in America and (no pun intended) rising in the East (東方日出).

[@jimmurphy6095]

Bell Labs was the most important US business in the mid 20th century.

[@BobCat0]

The picture at 2:03 is a building being moved, it has nothing to do with WWII bombing damage.

[@andymetzen]

DRAM Pronounced DEE-RAM. SRAM Pronounced ESS-RAM. (I have a degree in Electronics Engineering.)

[@seanm2511]

You don't need to say you have a degree in electrical engineering to be pedantic and annoying although it helps. (BTW I also have a degree in Electrical Engineering.)

[@Theoryofcatsndogs]

@@seanm2511 I have a diploma of EE. I don't care how to pronounce DRAM

[@thenimbo2]

@@seanm2511 true, and "dram" pronounced as the video does is just a small glass of whiskey

[@seanm2511]

​@@thenimbo2 Whiskey is of course tastier and isnt also at the moment universally subject to a 52 week+ lead time. I take it you also have a degree in Electrical Engineering?

[@William-Morey-Baker]

@@seanm2511 well, good whiskey actually has a longer lead time than that.. its takes years to age properly

[@willd1mindmind639]

Technology transfers led to a technology arms race but the whole reason why it benefited Western countries is due to everyone using the same core standards based on Western designs. And I think the Americans knew that having a technology arms race would help accelerate the evolution of the technology by having so many governments and industries working to push the state of the art forward. However, it is insane that while the USA was determined to break up the monopoly in AT&T they had no problem supporting monopolies and public private partnerships overseas which were a no no in American markets. Because in reality some things such as technology R&D work better when you have economies of scale where a monopoly allows for large sums of money to be spent on future innovations. And that was the benefit of AT&T being a monopoly in the telephone industry (keep in mind they developed the technology of the telephone). This is also why TSMC as a near monopoly on chip manufacturing also works as well, as economies of scale allows for absorbing the cost of manufacturing and design while also promoting better quality control and integration.

[@JinKee]

the mysterious reason why offshoring tolerated monopolies but broke up trusts inside america is explained by geostrategist Peter Zeihan in The Accidental Superpower- america was bribing up an alliance to stand in front of it and absorb the damage from a soviet - nato war

[@thek3317]

I really appreciate how you clearly are passionate about this stuff and you share you knowledge in such a well put togewther manner. :)

[@AppliedCryogenics]

Fascinating story. Thanks for the hard work and research.

[@theredscourge]

10:00 lol, the usual pronunciation is "D-Ram" not "Dram". The only time I've heard "Dram" is when someone is referring to Drambuie, a liquer often used with Scotch.

[@soulflower8687]

I have never heard D-RAM pronounced as "dram" before. I think I need to have a dram of whiskey to calm down.

[@karthikeyansrinivasan52]

Thanks for this excellent content

[@jylefranzcayabyab2982]

I used read some of this stuffs in different books, websites(like wikipedia but I have to verify the refence) and magazines. Gladly, we can now learn this informations on your channel, research made easy ☺️

[@mikemines2931]

Hate to burst your balloon but the Germans were playing with FET's in the 1920's/ 30's.

[@thyscott6603]

Can you make a video on NTT. It being a massive company and not having any proper competition.

[@obsidianjane4413]

"Japan was still recovering from its ill-advised participation in WWII..." You win Internet understatement of the day.

[@YouBrettcha]

This language is disturbing as it seems an attempt to dilute the very deliberate actions and horrific events of Japan's participation in WWII and the decades leading up to it.

[@obsidianjane4413]

@@YouBrettcha Or its just a nod to the context without divergence from the topic of the video.

[@robertpearson8546]

During the Japanese 2nd VLSI project, the US government tried to get American manufacturers to cooperate to counter "Japan Inc". They put an Admiral in charge. It failed miserably.

[@repatch43]

Nitpick: I've never heard DRAM pronounced DRAAM, it's always DEERAM. Perhaps certain areas say DRAAM, but I've been in the industry for over 2 decades and have never heard it said that way.

[@brodriguez11000]

Deer-RAM is the best. Made with all natural ingredients. Seriously the most important thing is does it help or hurt communications to say something one way or another.

[@repatch43]

@@brodriguez11000 FWIW, it really comes down to RAM being a 'word' in industry, because there are various types of 'RAM' (SRAM, pronounced ESSRAM, VRAM, pronounces VEERAM, etc).

[@SylphDS]

I enjoy how you pronounce "DRAM". It's very dramatic :)

[@awdrifter3394]

DRAMactic.

[@ntabile]

Heehee

[@ltrono]

Actually, I think there were multiple ideas of what VLSI meant. In the logic business we had SSI, MSI, LSI and VLSI Integrated circuits. I don't believe that there was a clear consensus of whether this meant "X" scale Integration or "X" scale Integrated circuit. It was common to say things like "X"SI Integrated circuit. I started designing stuff in about 1965 and felt it was a fairly loose concept. Mostly marketing BS so who really cared very much. Eventually the powers that be ran out of energy, so this cute naming convention withered away. LOL What made it even worse was that these abbreviations were also eventually used in the names of several different companies. At any rate, I enjoy your stuff very much.

[@publicspeaker4009]

he says DRAM... isn't it "D-RAM" ? ( not calling you out just wondering)

[@fernandocaye9951]

I just want to read comments and all there is is some noise about how a word is supposed to be pronounced.

[@KarimErrytouny]

Excellent video as always!

[@jean-christophelelann6308]

Great content as usual. It seems that Japan has not adopted so-called "RTL inference" early enough, a compilation process that generates an electronic structure from a software-like description (in VHDL or Verilog). It seems that Japan continued to resort to schematics capture a bit too longer. However, I cannot find the bibliographic reference about that. Anyone ??

[@JoeCiliberto]

at T- 15:20 in the 6X error were the Japanese already using Deming's quality management methodologies, which many of the American companies shunned?

[@kddiodox]

Many American companies tried to follow deming's quality management but failed to be "Japanese".... japan by the 1930s was already doing great quality and being praised abroad... for example... Fritz Haber, inventor of the Haber Bosch process, who visited Japan in 1924, he thought highly of the standard of Japanese technology and originated a number of proposals for japanese tech transfers to Germany. German newspapers began to run headlines such as "The Threat of Japan", "Japanese Competition". One article tried to explain low Japanese wages in terms of Japan's rice-eating culture. Actually , these articles were not always Japan-bashing as such : some of them tried to promote an understanding of Japanese competitive abilities. Overall, however, Japan's competitive abilities were observed with considerable concern. One book came out under the title Japan als Weltindustriemacht ( Japan as a World-Class Industrial Nation ). Another was entitled Japans Expansionsdrang ( Japan's Impulse to Expand ) . Books such as these , which demonstrated concern at the economic development of Japan, continued to appear even after the Nazis came to power.....

[@JoeCiliberto]

@@kddiodox apparently no where near as well. I don’t say that lightly. It’s a frogging shame.

[@silverc4s146]

Good research. Thanks

[@msimon6808]

Japanese quality control was legendary. It was invented by Americans but adopted wholesale by the Japanese. It was reshored by studying how Japan did it. I was reading all the books in the "QC" era.

[@xzactlly]

Would love to learn more, do you have some books to recommend?

[@brianschwarz]

Excellent. Thank you.

[@Cuboidm]

Superb work

[@robertmiller2173]

Wow, thank you so much for your great work! Excellent!

[@ntabile]

On the other hand, SONY acronyms stands for Sound of New York?

[@AiOinc1]

People talk about the transistor like it was some immediate major change in technology, but the fact of the matter is that despite their invention and entry of production in the early 50s, most consumers never saw a single one until the mid 60s and no electronics companies really took them seriously until the early 70s, after the moon landing had finally proved how capable they were. By the time solid-state electronics really started to catch on, the integrated circuit was already in full swing. The first all transistor television, the RCA XL-100 does not even show up until 1971. Also worthy of note, the way we see "Made in China" products now is the way "Made in Japan" products were viewed in America during much of this time. It was typically assumed that the Japanese product was cheaper, of inferior quality or design, and just good enough to get by. Obviously, this view has dramatically reversed in the last 40 years. Excellent video though very well researched, I just think it could have used some context on the state of consumers and consumer products for the era to really put all of this into perspective. I would love to hear the story behind the Korean start ups of the time and their meteoric rise, and the "bounce back" you briefly mentioned in the American semiconductor industry.

[@ovalwingnut]

Another ShOcK & AWE learning moment. One correction however, VLSI actually stands for: Viable Link Section IV Yeah! That's right baby. How about that for a breakthrough ;) Thank's so much. Cheers!

[@ntabile]

Someone is not happy with that!!

[@mariacheebandidos7183]

1:40 indigenous version? most (if not all of modern technology) and all of IT is an American invention and most American allies had access to these, directly or otherwise. some asian companies developed a competitive advantage mainly because of lower cost of manufacturing.

[@frogautistic]

Very helpful. Thankyou :)

[@rexmann1984]

Thanks for letting us know that wasn't actually footage. Could a fooled me.

[@tobiasgorny8974]

11:17 u mentioned prices dropping below 1 Dollar in 2008... but the graph u are showing only shows data from 2012-2017. please be more precise when presenting such data

[@theodorTugendreich]

Why did they licence the transistor? Because the first transistor production line was set up in France with german scientists and because of Bell not beeing far in the lead.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Wait, so we have: VLSI the concept VLSI the product group VLSI the Japanese government project VLSI the DARPA project VLSI the American chip company And VLS1, the Brazilian space launch the vehicle. That's one hell of a flexible acronym!

[@ntabile]

In the 80s and 90s they were the leading edge or in parity with the western world in producing memory chips. They are also good in producing semiconductor assembly tools either in the wafer fab or in post wafer fab assemblies. I work earlier in a post assembly company where japanese tools are better than american tools. I.e. dicing tools: DISCO as against KNS. Wirebonding: Shinkawa and Kaijo Denki versus Kulicke and Soffa. On the other hand at wafer fabrication they are at parity with the western companies in the memories and discrete components from the 80s to early 2000s. During the early 2000s there were a lot of fab around the world that produces memories that oversupplied the market thus price collapses which slowly closes down a lot of memory fabs. You can count on your fingers and toes the present fabs that produces memory chips. Thus the Japanese leads in chip mfg. and post assembly tools production slowed down.

[@ntabile]

Correction: Kaiju Denki

[@Curt_Sampson]

@@ntabile You can edit your posts here to correct them; it's an option in the menu you can drop down from the "three dots" button you'll see when you hover your mouse over your post.

[@rkaid7]

“Dram” not “D Ram” is a new one Sick video, thanks

[@deang5622]

Humans and animals can get sick, videos not so much.

[@prasadkirkire6311]

Please make video on USR semiconductor industry

[@deang5622]

USSR? What semiconductor industry?!

[@jolness1]

Great video. Side note: I’ve never heard anyone pronounce DRAM any way but Dee-RAM.

[@kuro68000]

Do you have a source for that claim about top secret semiconductor research being given to Japan? I can't find any mention of it happening.

[@thromboid]

Very interesting. I was hoping to see something about the analog side of the industry, e.g. JRC.

[@funkyboodah]

this channel is so boss

[@thinkinh]

Can you do an episode about Semiconductor Industry in Malaysia? The country has been attracting quite a number of chip investments recently.