Ask HN: Best books to understand semiconductor business?
I've worked in tech a long time but always on software/internet side. Looking for some good books or guides to understand the semiconductor industry. Any suggestions?
46 comments
Investment banks produce pretty decent industry “primers” as part of their equity research business (basically it’s a service to bank clients). Someone on twitter recently shared a Dropbox folder filled with recent primers, and I see at least 2 in there about semiconductors:
https://x.com/clarksquarecap/status/1703495357940822207?s=46
https://x.com/clarksquarecap/status/1703495357940822207?s=46
anyone have leads on newer versions? many of these are over 10 years old
Try doing a google search like this:
"semiconductor" "primer" "Important Disclosures" filetype:pdf
"semiconductor" "primer" "Important Disclosures" filetype:pdf
Most of the stuff you'll find on the web is pretty old. In most industries it's not really a big issue-- waste management and industrial pump manufacturers don't change that quickly. But obviously in semis it matters more.
If you know anyone who works at a hedge fund or investment bank, you can ask them to grab some primers for you. All the big banks produce them for the major industries they cover. But they usually watermark every page of the report with the name of the client to discourage people from sharing more widely.
If you know anyone who works at a hedge fund or investment bank, you can ask them to grab some primers for you. All the big banks produce them for the major industries they cover. But they usually watermark every page of the report with the name of the client to discourage people from sharing more widely.
i used to read a lot of those as a financial journalist, afraid not exactly what i was hoping the top answer to be for an industry such as this
I'm cautious with Asianometry. I watched some about a year ago and he wasn't completely accurate. I don't remember which videos now, but letting people know they should consume more than just Asianometry to corroborate facts.
When describing someone who does vulgarization videos about the semi-conductor industry, "he wasn't completely accurate" seems like praising with faint damnation!
probably not 100% accurate but 95%. if you read his comment section tons of industry folks praise him for his content / correct him if he's wrong
thank you, that list looks like a beast.
what do you think about john coogan's semiconductor / tsmc videos?
TSMC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwnyA_N9ZM
ARM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgBI8drB-k
TSMC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNwnyA_N9ZM
ARM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgBI8drB-k
That ARM video is useful because it somewhat ties together lots of things in a short-ish video. But I hate the breathless style and the video confuses and mistakes many things. Also what's the point of that silly [the iPhone is british, Fitbit is british, DJI drones are British...]?
In the end it is not about the semiconductor business - just hits several aspects of it at the periphery.
In the end it is not about the semiconductor business - just hits several aspects of it at the periphery.
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+1 on Asianometry. It's more in depth than Chip War; in a much shorter amount of time.
Chip War focuses a lot on the personalities and comparatively little on the business/industry itself. It provides an entertaining read, I guess, but especially in the second half, I found myself reading on just to finish the book, rather than out of a desire/expectation to get informed.
Some representative paragraphs from the book. Some people probably like this style, but it's not for me.
> In 1985, Taiwan's powerful minister K. T. Li called Morris Chang into his office in Taipei. Nearly two decades had passed since Li had helped convince Texas Instruments to build its first semiconductor facility on the island. In the twenty years since then, Li had forged close ties with Texas Instrument's leaders, visiting Pat Haggerty and Morris Chang whenever he was in the U.S. and convincing other electronics firms to follow TI and open factories in Taiwan. In 1985, he hired Chang to lead Taiwan's chip industry. "We want to promote a semiconductor industry in Taiwan," he told Chang. "Tell me," he continued, "how much money you need."
...
> Lee Byung-Chul could make a profit selling almost anything. Born in 1910, just a year after Jack Simplot, Lee launched his business career in March 1938, a time when his native Korea was part of Japan's empire, at war with China and soon with the United States. Lee's first products were dried fish and vegetables, which he gathered from Korea and shipped to northern China to feed Japan's war machine. Korea was an impoverished backwater, with no industry or technology, but Lee was already dreaming of building a business that would be "big, strong, and eternal," he declared. He would turn Samsung into a semiconductor superpower thanks to two influential allies: America's chip industry and the South Korean state. A key part of Silicon Valley's strategy to outmaneuver the Japanese was to find cheaper sources of supply in Asia. Lee decided this was a role Samsung could easily play.
...
> Vladimir Vetrov was a KGB spy, but his life felt more like a Chekhov story than a James Bond film. His KGB work was bureaucratic, his mistress far from a supermodel, and his wife more affectionate toward her shih tzu puppies than toward him. By the end of the 1970s, Vetrov's career, and his life, had hit a dead end. He despised his desk job and was ignored by his bosses. He detested his wife, who was having an affair with one of his friends. For recreation, he escaped to his log cabin in a village north of Moscow, which was so rustic that there was no electricity. Or he'd simply stay in Moscow and get drunk.
Some representative paragraphs from the book. Some people probably like this style, but it's not for me.
> In 1985, Taiwan's powerful minister K. T. Li called Morris Chang into his office in Taipei. Nearly two decades had passed since Li had helped convince Texas Instruments to build its first semiconductor facility on the island. In the twenty years since then, Li had forged close ties with Texas Instrument's leaders, visiting Pat Haggerty and Morris Chang whenever he was in the U.S. and convincing other electronics firms to follow TI and open factories in Taiwan. In 1985, he hired Chang to lead Taiwan's chip industry. "We want to promote a semiconductor industry in Taiwan," he told Chang. "Tell me," he continued, "how much money you need."
...
> Lee Byung-Chul could make a profit selling almost anything. Born in 1910, just a year after Jack Simplot, Lee launched his business career in March 1938, a time when his native Korea was part of Japan's empire, at war with China and soon with the United States. Lee's first products were dried fish and vegetables, which he gathered from Korea and shipped to northern China to feed Japan's war machine. Korea was an impoverished backwater, with no industry or technology, but Lee was already dreaming of building a business that would be "big, strong, and eternal," he declared. He would turn Samsung into a semiconductor superpower thanks to two influential allies: America's chip industry and the South Korean state. A key part of Silicon Valley's strategy to outmaneuver the Japanese was to find cheaper sources of supply in Asia. Lee decided this was a role Samsung could easily play.
...
> Vladimir Vetrov was a KGB spy, but his life felt more like a Chekhov story than a James Bond film. His KGB work was bureaucratic, his mistress far from a supermodel, and his wife more affectionate toward her shih tzu puppies than toward him. By the end of the 1970s, Vetrov's career, and his life, had hit a dead end. He despised his desk job and was ignored by his bosses. He detested his wife, who was having an affair with one of his friends. For recreation, he escaped to his log cabin in a village north of Moscow, which was so rustic that there was no electricity. Or he'd simply stay in Moscow and get drunk.
Adding that if you prefer to read (since the question is about best books), asianometry's patreon includes transcripts. Plus it's always good to support someone doing good work.
one of the finest!
https://www.semianalysis.com/ is the best blog by far...all the YouTubers (Asianometry as well) get the analysis from that blog.
2nd this. Great mix of journalism, criticism and deep technical insight while being accessible people not in the industry.
The articles are great, but sadly the subscription model is quite expensive if one is just privately interested in the topic.
Chip War (2022) by Chris Miller
After reading Chip War I read Conquering the Electron by Eric Brach and Derek Cheung. Very good book that goes into a bit more detail than Chip War. Chip War focuses more on the geopolitics than the science.
I've read this and it gives a pretty good overview of the history as well as current events surrounding the semiconductor industry. I think it gives a good high-level overview so you'll have the foundation to dig deeper.
I don't think that this book by itself would be enough to understand the semiconductor business, but it's a great place to start to get acclimated.
Came here to say this. It's a fabulous history and easily one of the best and most informative books I read last year. It's not necessarily going to teach you much about the current "business" per se, but it's a must-read for the history and has quite a bit about the current global state of affairs, especially re PRC/ROC, and state of the technology.
+1. I have only finished around ~20% of the book - but it's been really informative covering a wide range of topics from early technical innovations, to to the companies involved like Fairchild, TI, Intel, Sony, TSMC etc (and by extension the nations involved US, Japan, Russia, Taiwan etc)
-1: dude was wrong about everything, missed the role of software and computer engineering.
1. China rapidly catching up
2. Companies can produce competitive offerings with old manufacturing processes
He took a manufacturing heavy view, but actually open archs like RISC-V or ARM's china division defecting provided avenues to make competitive offerings with last generation technology.
fastest chip today runs on 4 year old silicon: https://www.eetimes.com/groq-demos-fast-llms-on-4-year-old-s...
1. China rapidly catching up
2. Companies can produce competitive offerings with old manufacturing processes
He took a manufacturing heavy view, but actually open archs like RISC-V or ARM's china division defecting provided avenues to make competitive offerings with last generation technology.
fastest chip today runs on 4 year old silicon: https://www.eetimes.com/groq-demos-fast-llms-on-4-year-old-s...
I'm about 90% through this book that I picked up based on some other HN comment I had read. I would highly recommend it
+1 on this; one of the best books to intro one on the subject
For a stylized history of the early industry: The Tinkerings of Robert Noyce, by Tom Wolfe https://web.stanford.edu/class/e145/2007_fall/materials/noyc...
I also read "A History of Silicon Valley" back in college (~2010) and really enjoyed it; looks like it's been updated continuously since then: https://www.scaruffi.com/svhistory/sv.html
I also read "A History of Silicon Valley" back in college (~2010) and really enjoyed it; looks like it's been updated continuously since then: https://www.scaruffi.com/svhistory/sv.html
Steve Blank's Secret History of Silicon Valley: https://steveblank.com/secret-history/
American Experience did a great documentary about Bob Noyce and the founding of Intel.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/silicon/
Understanding the semiconductor business can be quite complex, but there are some excellent books that can help. "The Innovators" by Walter Isaacson provides historical context on the tech industry, including semiconductors. "Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology" by Michael Quirk and Julian Serda is a comprehensive guide to the manufacturing side.
For a broader view of the industry, "Semiconductor Basics" by Christopher Saint and "Microchip: An Idea, Its Genesis, and the Revolution It Created" by Jeffrey Zygmont are good choices.
These books offer valuable insights into the semiconductor world from various angles. Happy reading!
For a broader view of the industry, "Semiconductor Basics" by Christopher Saint and "Microchip: An Idea, Its Genesis, and the Revolution It Created" by Jeffrey Zygmont are good choices.
These books offer valuable insights into the semiconductor world from various angles. Happy reading!
Andy Grove: The Life and Times of an American
https://www.amazon.com/Andy-Grove-Life-Times-American/dp/159...
This appears to be out of print. I read it a long time ago when it was new. I enjoyed the book.
One of the things that I remember from it was how Intel really overestimated how quickly video calls would take off. They thought that video calls would be the "killer app" for desktop computers in the late 1990s / early 2000s.
https://www.amazon.com/Andy-Grove-Life-Times-American/dp/159...
This appears to be out of print. I read it a long time ago when it was new. I enjoyed the book.
One of the things that I remember from it was how Intel really overestimated how quickly video calls would take off. They thought that video calls would be the "killer app" for desktop computers in the late 1990s / early 2000s.
If you’re interested in the history then I recently read and mostly liked The Chip by TR Reid. I’d like to find something more up to date than that. Lots of buzz around Chip War by Chris Miller. I haven’t read it.
Two that I found really helpful were The Big Score and The Intel Trinity by Michael Malone. Both cover the earlier years, but great history.
The Idea Factory
Book by Jon Gertner
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation is a 2012 book by Jon Gertner that describes the history of Bell Labs, the research and development wing of AT&T, as well as many of its eccentric personalities, such as Claude Shannon and William Shockley. It is Gertner's first published book.
The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation is a 2012 book by Jon Gertner that describes the history of Bell Labs, the research and development wing of AT&T, as well as many of its eccentric personalities, such as Claude Shannon and William Shockley. It is Gertner's first published book.
Optical Lithography: Here is Why
https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/ebooks/PM/Optical-Lithogr...
https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/ebooks/PM/Optical-Lithogr...
Origin story, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Hi, both "High Output Management" and "Only the Paranoid Survive" by Andrew S. Grove detail how he managed and succeeded through the radical changes in the industry. Highly recommended reads.
Offering this title for asking opinions of it more than recommendation, as I've not yet read it:
'Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age', Riordan.
'Crystal Fire: The Invention of the Transistor and the Birth of the Information Age', Riordan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh4QGey2zTk overview by Vox
Intel folks recommended
“Chip War,” by Chris Miller
Richard S. Tedlow’s biography of Andy Grove.
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Email me and I’ll tell you everything you want to know. I’ll share my experiences, all the books, history, biographies, and industry nuances.
Not a book, but Moores Law is Dead & Adored TV youtube channels and podcasts are a great resource.