A collection of links and resources relevant to semiconductor/electronics/CMOS industry
Additions/improvements welcome! (Email Errol)
- The semiconductor value chain : image
- Semiconductor manufacturing process: image
- Semiconductors: The Ultimate Bargaining Chip: video – Semiconductors’ role in society, future’s dependency on them. NZS Capital’s Jon Bathgate & Brinton Johns explain major semiconductor players, what’s important, how things work, complications of geopolitics.
- Global data centres: map
- Data centre numbers:
- Data centres = one third of total ICT energy, but it’s the third that is growing fastest
- Estimating $$ spent on data centre electricity in Australia. Data centres consume 4% of Aust’s electricity [ref], total Aust electricity consumption /year = 230bn kWhr [ref], so data centres ~ 9bn kWhr/yr. Assuming 15c/kWhr [ref] … Australian data centres spend $1.4bn /yr on electricity
- Rule of thumb = $1M per MW/year
- Five of the ten biggest data centres are in China. The biggest, the US$3bn Inner Mongolia Information Park, uses ten times as much electricity as NextDC’s M1 in Port Melbourne (15MW).
- SRC semiconductor-innovation decadal plan:
- identifies as one five “seismic shifts” that will define the future of semiconductors and computing: “#5. ever-rising energy demand for computing versus global energy production”
Proposed grand goal to resolve this (interim report, page 17 ): “Discover computing paradigms/architectures with a radically new ‘computing trajectory’ demonstrating >1,000,000x improvement in energy efficiency, providing immediate improvements but also providing many decades of buffer – much more cost effective than attempting to increase the world’s energy supply dramatically.” - link to report
- Sign up for SIA news
- relevant social-media thread (FLEETCentre)
- identifies as one five “seismic shifts” that will define the future of semiconductors and computing: “#5. ever-rising energy demand for computing versus global energy production”
- Demonstration of value of electricity/cooling: underwater data centres at Microsoft
- Carbon/environmental considerations
- ICT = same global warming contribution as entire aviation industry (~2% of total), pre Covid
- See Belong re carbon-neutral digital connection, and community education re ICT [Belong activity]
- See Microsoft carbon neutral program
- A rough video pitch aimed at industry/funding (quite technical, $ focussed) — FLEET starts at 14:00
- Australian Semiconductor Sector study (NSW Chief Scientist)
- Australian participation in semiconductor chain: image
- IEEE semiconductor roadmap (see instructions for download)
- Technology readiness level explanation (FLEET is 1-3: novel materials, new concepts, new theory -> prototype evaluation)
- Report: Growing Australia’s Quantum Technology Industry (CSIRO)
- Other links welcome!
