KirbyKhan posted:

Hello Asia thread, I need Indian racism help. I heard some hot goss about our toddler's cousin's friend cohort of rich people. The light skinned indian couple had an arranged marriage, they have rich people married problems that reaches my ear a whole state away, and I learn today they got a pre-nup and I'm like... that doesn't make sense, what responsible parents would agree to marry off their daughter to similar class known man-child with a prenup? What? I'm not Indian, is this like an Indian thing or is this a white people 2nd/3rd generation Indian thing?

i say swears online posted:

it's a sign their marriage isn't serious and she wants you to gently caress her

genericnick posted:

I mean, what's the scenario here? What kind of garbage are you producing that you couldn't in the worst case carry back to wherever you sleep at night?

Tankbuster posted:

its an indian-american thing lol. The Prenup not the arranged marriage thing.

Also

Marzzle posted:

need the context on this one or is it a joke can't tell

Atrocious Joe posted:

https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1718782589430022402

US media demonizing the Georgian government as pro-Russian

Atrocious Joe posted:

https://twitter.com/60Minutes/status/1718782589430022402

US media demonizing the Georgian government as pro-Russian

gradenko_2000 posted:

My understanding is that Japanese local governments spend double digit percentages of their budgets on things like sanitation and cleanup as a reason for why their cities look so relatively clean and then it's just a racial stereotype that outsiders think it's a cultural thing that they're just so "disciplined" to keep their surroundings neat and tidy

ughhhh posted:

In Nepal some ethnic groups do have a tradition of negotiations between the families before the wedding in agreed upon. Usually stuff regarding what happens to the woman after a divorce or who will hold the dowry etc so that if anything were to happen, the woman in the marriage the the children would be taken care of.

gradenko_2000 posted:

My understanding is that Japanese local governments spend double digit percentages of their budgets on things like sanitation and cleanup as a reason for why their cities look so relatively clean and then it's just a racial stereotype that outsiders think it's a cultural thing that they're just so "disciplined" to keep their surroundings neat and tidy

Votskomit posted:

The podcast If Books Could Kill did a double episode on just how unscientific and useless Nudge theory is.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nudge-part-1-a-simple-solution-for-littering-organ/id1651876897?i=1000611711937

Stringent posted:

i don't know what nudge theory is, but if it's the same as peer pressure it's remarkably effective with the people that live here.

i'd agree that it isn't gonna do poo poo for tourists tho.

Stringent posted:

i don't know what nudge theory is, but if it's the same as peer pressure it's remarkably effective with the people that live here.

i'd agree that it isn't gonna do poo poo for tourists tho.

quote:

Nudge theory is a concept in behavioral economics, decision making, behavioral policy, social psychology, consumer behavior, and related behavioral sciences[1][2][3][4] that proposes adaptive designs of the decision environment (choice architecture) as ways to influence the behavior and decision-making of groups or individuals. Nudging contrasts with other ways to achieve compliance, such as education, legislation or enforcement.[5]

The nudge concept was popularized in the 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, by behavioral economist Richard Thaler and legal scholar Cass Sunstein, two American scholars at the University of Chicago. It has influenced British and American politicians. Several nudge units exist around the world at the national level (UK, Germany, Japan, and others) as well as at the international level (e.g. World Bank, UN, and the European Commission).[6] It is disputed whether "nudge theory" is a recent novel development in behavioral economics or merely a new term for one of many methods for influencing behavior, investigated in the science of behavior analysis.[1][7]

...

A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a mere nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates. Putting fruit at eye level counts as a nudge. Banning junk food does not.

...

One of the most frequently cited examples of a nudge is the etching of the image of a housefly into the men's room urinals at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport, which is intended to "improve the aim."[19]

...

A nudge makes it more likely that an individual will make a particular choice, or behave in a particular way, by altering the environment so that automatic cognitive processes are triggered to favour the desired outcome.[22][23]

quote:

The United States and its allies are engaged in a technology cold war against China to block semiconductor computing capabilities used in artificial intelligence and military applications. In recent years, the US Commerce Department has applied a series of export restrictions to achieve just that — and yet, just a few weeks ago, Huawei shocked the world with advanced chip technology that those restrictions were intended to prevent.

A nation’s computing capabilities are directly related to a complex printing process called semiconductor lithography. Semiconductor factories — called fabs — build microchips by printing layers upon silicon wafer substrates. Scanners — the machines used to print these layers — expose a master image of the circuit pattern onto the substrate until an entire wafer has a grid of patterned chips.

This article dives into the little-known tricks of the lithography trade to understand how the process works behind the scenes. Armed with this insider knowledge, we will then explore:

The technical misunderstandings in prior export regulations between Commerce Department officials and lithographers,

The circumventions that resulted from these misunderstandings,

And whether Commerce’s latest export controls resolved those past loopholes.

...

Generational improvements in scanners have enabled ever finer patterns to be printed on silicon wafers; the shorter the wavelengths, the more accurate the designs. The latest improvements came in the form of immersion scanners and EUV (extreme ultraviolet) scanners.

Immersion scanners use argon fluorine excimer lasers to produce light at a wavelength of 193 nanometers.

EUV scanners are yet more complex: they use a carbon dioxide drive laser to strike a tin droplet which then creates plasma-emitting light at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometers.

US national security leaders are concerned with China’s access to these latest two innovations.

...

Scanners pattern silicon wafers by printing layers of a design — and for decades, the printing process made only a single image per layer. But as step-wise improvements to immersion lithography reached their limits (and before EUV was in the game), chipmakers moved to multi-patterning lithography, a process whereby scanners combine two or more images to make a single layer.

The stacking of layers in a semiconductor device involves two complex verification processes: alignment and overlay.

Pattern alignment is performed by the scanner: it measures the position of a prior image and then exposes a new image upon it.

Overlay is performed by a separate metrology tool after the scanner has completed its work. This measures the final positioning error between the current image and the prior images in the device.

Single-machine overlay (SMO) is the simplest form of this verification. Here, two layers are exposed on the exact same machine to see what the positioning error is. (The error tolerance needed for working microchips is so precise that it’s on the order of single-digit nanometers.) Limiting the verification process to one machine removes the risk of error arising from transferring wafers from one machine to another.

In practice, though, fabs never operate in SMO mode because of logistical realities in high-volume production. Instead, fabs conduct pattern alignment and overlay through matched-machine overlay (MMO). Here, a set of scanners is matched, and a wafer can run through any combination in the matched set. MMO allows for far greater operation flexibility in a fab, but at the cost of nearly doubling the overlay error. Process engineers attempt to reduce the MMO error rate by reducing “runpath combinations” (the number of different machines a wafer runs through), but this strategy works only to a limited extent.

All modern overlay strategies rely on maximizing the accuracy verification (metrology) of both the scanner and overlay tools used to overlap the layers. But metrology is massively expensive: additional alignment measurements require more scanners. Likewise, if the overlay tool required additional metrology, the fab would need a larger fleet of tools to make up for the capacity shortfall. With an eight-figure price tag on these tools, it’s just not affordable to increase metrology indefinitely.

Another ​​important aspect of the litho process which can heavily influence overlay performance is rework. The scanner images a pattern into a temporary organic material called photoresist. This temporary image is then measured to see what the overlay error is; if it’s satisfactory, the image is permanently etched into the device — otherwise, the photoresist is removed, recoated, and reimaged with a dedicated set of corrections. This process always yields the best possible outcome because the exact positions of the pattern are known. In production, the goal is to minimize rework because, for example, if the rework rate were 30%, the fab would need 30% more scanners to make up for the capacity shortfall. In the same way a fab can’t just add metrology due to tool costs, they also can’t demand automatic rework.

To recap, there are three ways to improve overlay performance: reduced runpath combinations such as SMO, increased metrology, and rework. All of these methods are routinely used, but they are also used sparingly in production due to risk or cost reasons.

...

Back in 2019, as TSMC was first releasing their 7nm-node logic ICs, Commerce pressured the Netherlands to impose a ban on China for EUV scanners made by ASML. Its reasoning was that EUV enabled 7nm to be produced at volume scale; indeed, prior to 2019 there was speculation as to whether EUV was going to be ready for the 7nm node. Thus the first iteration of these devices relied on immersion lithography using multi-patterning.

The 7nm node required three to four passes by the scanner to imprint its pattern for a handful of critical layers in the device. That’s the highest number of multi-patterning passes ever attempted with immersion lithography — and a high number of lithography passes plays directly into the production challenge of applying MMO for the 7nm node, and was the rationale for the export rules on immersion scanners that came later (the October 2022 rules, as well as the Netherlands’ June 2023 rules). The introduction of EUV at this node reduced the number of layers needed, and it was under these assumptions that 7nm “at production scale” could be enabled only by EUV. Ultimately, the Netherlands capitulated to this pressure in the same year and banned all EUV scanner exports to China, effectively stopping them at the 10nm node.

Note that the EUV ban covered only logic devices: DRAM (which relies on other methods for each new chip generation) had a ways to go before it would need EUV; NAND Flash, meanwhile, relies on 3D stacking to scale, not shrinking the device geometry, meaning they will never need EUV.

...

In lithography land, you’ll often hear references to words like “resolution,” “half-pitch,” “critical dimension” (CD), or generics like “features” or “geometries.” These all refer to the size of the tiny circuit parts which are printed in each layer. Each microchip generation’s improvement in computational capability relies on shrinking the minimum resolution that can be printed, such that more electronic components can be included. Today’s chips pack an astounding 80 billion transistors into a single exposure field imaged by the scanner.

A scanner’s ability to print smaller geometries is controlled by two aspects of the optical system: the wavelength of light, and the size of the lens. The novel aspect of immersion lithography is that it uses an optical “trick” to make the photoresist think the lens is much bigger than it really is. In the 1800s, scientists figured out that putting water between a microscope lens and the specimen improved visibility. That same concept was used 150 years later for printing chips (hence the name “immersion lithography”).

The resolution of any imaging system with a lens can be defined by way of the Rayleigh criterion: Resolution = k1-factor * wavelength / lens-size.1 Put simply, k1 is a scalar, and it measures how blurry an image is. (In the case of an immersion scanner, the minimum k1 that can be used is 0.27, corresponding to a minimum resolution of 38 nanometers.)

The export rules cite the Rayleigh criterion and a specific value for the k1 scaling factor to define what the resolution of an immersion scanner is. That approach is the reverse of how a lithography engineer uses the formula: the minimum geometry (resolution) is fixed on the master pattern, meaning that engineers instead calculate the k1 scalar.

The export rules do the reverse, setting a k1 value that is not even close to 0.27, and then imposing by fiat a k1 value on what the resolution definition for scanners must be — which of course doesn’t represent the real resolution of any system.

Fast forward to October 7, 2022 — Commerce announced a new set of export rules aiming to contain China’s logic capabilities even further, and also attempting to contain memory device performance. The rules require companies to apply for licenses to export the following items to China, effectively cutting off Chinese firms’ access to these chips:

FINFet Logic of 14nm or less

DRAM of 18nm or less

NAND Flash of 128 layers or more

With respect to an immersion scanner: one regulation on resolution restricted the minimum geometry to 45 nanometers or less — and as we discussed above, an immersion scanner can print down to 38 nanometers. The catch is that Commerce inserted a definition for resolution using the Rayleigh criterion, incorrectly setting the k1 factor as 0.35 — meaning that, by their definition, an immersion scanner has a resolution of only 50 nanometers, and was thus not restricted by this rule.

In June 2023, and in coordination with the US Department of Commerce, the Netherlands imposed its own export ban on ASML’s scanners that improved upon what the US had filed. The Dutch rules are as follows:

SMO less than 1.5nm

Resolution less than 45nm @ k1 = 0.25



Armed with your short lesson in lithography, you’ll notice right off the bat how these rules also don’t relate to how a fab actually runs. The above table shows updated scanner bans and the corresponding nodes which they are used for. The SMO rule allows the 1980Di scanner, which was used for 10nm logic and 18nm DRAM. And there is no containment for Flash memory by way of any overlay rule. In other words, these rules define the resolution for an immersion scanner beyond what is actually possible. Although on paper that would imply all immersion scanners were banned, this rule was not enforced; these rules were instead interpreted as allowing the 1980Di tools to be exported, but blocking anything newer.

It’s clear these rules didn’t work as intended. Allowing Chinese firms to purchase 1980Di scanners doesn’t prevent their ability to produce 14nm logic chips. And as we found out this year, it doesn’t even prevent 7nm logic.

Remember how fabs don’t run in SMO mode, lest a tool goes down and halts production? Well, as it turns out, ASML’s immersion scanners are something of an energizer bunny. They enjoy north of 97% uptime, and can run for months at a time without intervention. But what happens if a tool goes down hard for a long period of time? The Dutch take this lithography business very seriously, and the exorbitant fee that’s paid for the service contract comes with some big benefits. In the event of any catastrophic tool crash, an army of engineers is dispatched within hours and operates on the machine with the choreographed speed and precision far exceeding an Indy 500 pit crew. In other words, the logistical risk of operating in SMO mode for a handful of problematic, multi-patterning layers may not be such a big deal after all.

Remember, SMO has nearly double the performance of the MMO that everyone else operates with. Geometry scaling with multi-patterning is a possibility, as long as the logistical issues are addressed. And recall in our litho lesson that maximizing metrology and automatic rework also improve overlay performance. Further, by slowing down the speed the scanner operates at and increasing the number of alignment measurements, you can play games with how the system works — for instance, to improve the overlay performance enabling multi-patterning at 7nm. Put another way: throwing money at the problem — buying more scanners and overlay tools — is also a solution.

Time will tell if Commerce is right or not about the rule stopping SMIC from producing 7nm “at volume scale.” But so far, allowing ASML’s 1980Di scanner to be sold to China doesn’t block 7nm in the least — and the jury is still out on another leap to 5nm. It’s a similar story with DRAM: nothing prevents those fabs from running with SMO (since they do multi-pattern differently than other fabs), and DRAM companies — like Micron, Samsung, SK hynix, and China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT) — won’t need EUV for a number of nodes beyond 18nm DRAM, anyway. Meanwhile, Flash memory wasn’t contained at all: Flash companies — like China’s YMTC — can use any old immersion scanner they want, and nothing stops them from continuing to stack layers on top of each other to expand the memory capacity.

gradenko_2000 posted:

ChinaTalk: Litho World & Commerce: Lost in Translation?

TL; DR - the Department of Commerce didn't understand lithography well enough to form a set of rules that would be effective in stopping Chinese lithography in the ways which they wanted it to be stopped, when combined with ASML wanting to help China because they are a big customer, and China having enough money and effort to throw at a problem to overcome inefficiencies forced upon them by the rules that did have a notable effect.

gradenko_2000 posted:

ChinaTalk: Litho World & Commerce: Lost in Translation?

TL; DR - the Department of Commerce didn't understand lithography well enough to form a set of rules that would be effective in stopping Chinese lithography in the ways which they wanted it to be stopped, when combined with ASML wanting to help China because they are a big customer, and China having enough money and effort to throw at a problem to overcome inefficiencies forced upon them by the rules that did have a notable effect.

gradenko_2000 posted:

My understanding is that Japanese local governments spend double digit percentages of their budgets on things like sanitation and cleanup as a reason for why their cities look so relatively clean and then it's just a racial stereotype that outsiders think it's a cultural thing that they're just so "disciplined" to keep their surroundings neat and tidy

Palladium posted:

wanting more tourists but non of the baggage that comes with it is very neolib brains

Palladium posted:

wanting more tourists but non of the baggage that comes with it is very neolib brains

Votskomit posted:

The podcast If Books Could Kill did a double episode on just how unscientific and useless Nudge theory is.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nudge-part-1-a-simple-solution-for-littering-organ/id1651876897?i=1000611711937

gradenko_2000 posted:

ChinaTalk: Litho World & Commerce: Lost in Translation?

TL; DR - the Department of Commerce didn't understand lithography well enough to form a set of rules that would be effective in stopping Chinese lithography in the ways which they wanted it to be stopped, when combined with ASML wanting to help China because they are a big customer, and China having enough money and effort to throw at a problem to overcome inefficiencies forced upon them by the rules that did have a notable effect.

Tankbuster posted:

The inscrutable nature of the oriental makes them slow to respond but quick to swing into action - it is due to the japanese concept of Kanryō - which is unique to it.

KirbyKhan posted:

Hello Asia thread, I need Indian racism help. I heard some hot goss about our toddler's cousin's friend cohort of rich people. The light skinned indian couple had an arranged marriage, they have rich people married problems that reaches my ear a whole state away, and I learn today they got a pre-nup and I'm like... that doesn't make sense, what responsible parents would agree to marry off their daughter to similar class known man-child with a prenup? What? I'm not Indian, is this like an Indian thing or is this a white people 2nd/3rd generation Indian thing?

gradenko_2000 posted:

having posted all this, I would like to reiterate yet again that this entire concept has been debunked as having used bogus data. It's not loving real in any sense of the word.

Tankbuster posted:

The inscrutable nature of the oriental makes them slow to respond but quick to swing into action - it is due to the japanese concept of Kanryō - which is unique to it.

Stringent posted:

i don't see what the oriental bit has to do with it? japan's leadership systems, from top to bottom, are very much focused on consensus and nobody really sticking their necks out. that usually means that a problem has to get pretty bad before it gets addressed, but once it does get addressed there aren't any obstacles to getting it addressed quickly and thoroughly.

good example is cashless payments. used to be you couldn't go out in tokyo without carrying cash because so many places were still cash only. once covid hit, in the space of like 3-6 months tokyo at least went from maybe 40% of places being cash only to like, iunno, 5% tops?

fits my needs posted:

lol wtf, that sounds like how every other place works too. everyone did the same cashless poo poo here too and a lot of the world?

Votskomit posted:

The podcast If Books Could Kill did a double episode on just how unscientific and useless Nudge theory is.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nudge-part-1-a-simple-solution-for-littering-organ/id1651876897?i=1000611711937

quote:

China's economy is going to implode harder than the OceanGate Titan. The raw brilliance of collapsing the population of your low skill production country. US hegemony yet again preserved by the supreme stupidity of everyone else.

IDK which the next big semiconductor country is going to be, but it definitely won't be China.

gradenko_2000 posted:

gradenko_2000 posted:

Regarde Aduck posted:

collapsing the population? Low skill? What the gently caress is any of this?