This week’s edition of the Economist has a special article on technology in both India and China. Timely subject. China has a satellite orbiting the moon right now, in preparation for a manned landing next year or? And India has the same sort of plans, with a moon orbiting satellite launch very soon. China has already become a commercial launcher of satellites, supplying the vehicles and the expertise for those countries that need such services.
We’re fooling ourselves if we continue to think of these two countries as being backwards. China does far more than simply fill orders for Wal*Mart and India doesn’t use all of its manpower answering the Help Desk phones for Dell.
From the article, “China’s government does not have the luxury of choosing between progress and stability; it cannot enjoy social peace without economic advance.” With a population of well over a billion, it requires a lot of juggling to keep them all happy. And this, “By 2015 its research scientists and engineers may outnumber those of any other country.” That’s only seven years from now. And it’s the same story in India.
But at the same time, there is a sector where we (The USA) make a lot of money by importing goods to China. Semiconductors. Internally, the Chinese can only supply about $3.1 billion worth of chips for their industry which has a demand for $62 billion per year. A $59 billion shortfall which Intel and others are eager to help with. But, new chip foundries are being built in China all of the time and I doubt that the market will remain lucrative for long. Yes, Intel is building those foundries.
Memory: Back in the day, when I was working for PCI, we were told that Intel had plans for a new wafer Fab in China. Some excitement ensued. After all, it was a Fab and we loved building them! But… among all of the project engineers that I knew, not one wanted to be on the crew that would have to go and build it. No thanks. And that was about 5 years ago. I wonder what the thoughts are now?
No comments:
Post a Comment