fabfabfab

We had them at a fab. About $85k + accessories at the time (~ 7 years ago).

Grug develop doctor's appointment website, grug use jQuery + Flask/Django.

Grug try develop Notion or Google Sheets competitor, grug use React/Vue framework.

Speaking of purity, the first thing Hacker News would do is try to run SAP on a Kubernetes cluster, refactor crucial bits in Rust and shard the database into sqlite3.db files on per user basis. We'd also recommend you restructure your office for a more open space, bring down the cubicles and make sure the conference rooms are glasswalled and have funny names. Bringing pets to work is mandatory.

We need to look at ERP software in positive light. Fab guy here, there is another beast like this that runs the whole fab. It's made by Applied Materials, called FAB300. It connects to inventory systems, SAP & finance, all the fab tools and process data, automation control through interfaces like SECS/GEM, monitors fab output and wafer starts, material systems and movement of wafers, recipe management, copy exact audits, etc.

ERP/MRP systems are complicated because businesses and factory management is complicated. The fact that we have such pieces of software is a testament that however shitty you think they are, at least we have them. They run real businesses and fabs in prod. They bring revenue and are responsible for running multi-billion dollars of turnover. Whole nation states depend on them. That's kind of amazing.

Idk, I have much respect for SAP and such as I grow older. I feel like if I were to design such a thing with 10k engineers at my disposal, it'd be much worse. It can certainly improve, of course.

100%. I worked in the heart of semiconductor manufacturing. Quality primarily a result of systems such as COD (Contain-your-own-defect), SPC (statistical process control), inspection metrology (traceability to NIST, MCA, reproducibility, repeatability, etc.), 5M+E (man, machine, materials, methods, measurement and environment), copy exact, etc.

What OP is talking about is that good tools are the ones with better design. OP mistakes the technical term "quality" with "good design". Quality is producing things as per specifications and allowable tolerances.

A new horse is heading to Vietnam. There is still opportunity to stop it.

Fab guy here. This is excellent news and much needed, but vigilence is needed to make sure it doesn't end up being devoured by crony corporate agenda and it actually results in favorouble pro-US climate for semiconductor manufacturing.

I'd like to share personal experience with how we bankrupted American leadership in cutting edge nodes. Although, it is not lithography related, I was part of a few billion $ ROI program where we'd hot test the chip for binning, best I don't disclose too many details. Let's just say, it was critical so much so that I sat in unmarked buildings. I saw that get transfered under my personal watch to China. We had Chinese employees visit US for 6 months at a time and during this rotation, we'd teach them everything. Had to take a Chinese culture course. Process charts, metrics, drawings and schematics, whitepapers, how everything works, be part of troubleshooting process and then test them for their acuity. This was around 2012-2014. Usually, US semiconductor manufacturers do not transfer fab capabilities to China, only assembly/packaging. But, here, the was a clear violation of backend fab activities that were transferred to China and built out. I visited China for 3 months to get things up and running. This was a brand new process that no one in the world has. All custom equipment from a major Japanese equipment manufacturer. This process was so insane that it took 10 years of development internally to come to this point. Even today, in 2022, no one has replicated it.

This should not have happened IMO from a national security standpoint. But, these things continue to happen and US gov does not have enough insight into America's semiconductor industry when it comes to protecting IP. Far too many things do not require ITAR and are exported without oversight.

I am pretty much against over-regulation, but here there needs to be strict regulation for exporting any semiconductor technologies whether it is fab or assembly or what have you. The entire industry needs to be hamstrung with export control.

That someone was me when I used to be on call as a Fab engineer. I took responsibility and my team relied on my alertness when shit hit the fan a couple of times during my career. Yes, someone has to do it. The negativity and cynicism on HN astounds me.