If you happen to’re studying this, you may thank a semiconductor. Telephones, tablets, computer systems—actually any machine extra digital than pen and paper—all rely on the tiny chips inside them to perform. The semiconductor business is huge, and on the middle of all of it is one large agency that makes the majority of the chips all of us depend on: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Firm. Identified extensively as simply TSMC, the corporate will not be solely an important entity within the chip business, but it surely’s additionally a strong and stabilizing power within the geopolitical standoff between Taiwan and China that, if ignited, would have an effect on the entire world. TSMC’s untouchable standing has earned it an amusing nickname: the Sacred Mountain of Safety.
This week on Gadget Lab, WIRED contributor Virginia Heffernan talks about her journey to the TSMC facility in Taiwan. She tells us how chips are made and explains how the semiconductor business—TSMC particularly—drives innovation whereas remaining largely invisible.
Present Notes
Learn Virginia’s story about her trip to the TSMC factory in Taiwan.
Suggestions
Virginia recommends the present Seven Seconds on Netflix. Mike recommends the Digital Frontier Basis’s podcast How to Fix the Internet, particularly the episode “So You Think You’re a Critical Thinker.” Lauren recommends the Apple TV present Bad Sisters.
Virginia Heffernan may be discovered on Twitter @page88. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the primary hotline at @GadgetLab. The present is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.
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