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Showing posts from November, 2022

The Semiconductor Ecosystem

 https://steveblank.com/2022/01/25/the-semiconductor-ecosystem/     The Semiconductor Ecosystem We’re seeing the digital transformation of everything . Semiconductors – chips that process digital information — are in almost everything: computers, cars, home appliances, medical equipment, etc. Semiconductor companies will sell $600 billion worth of chips this year. Looking at the figure below, the industry seems pretty simple. Companies in the semiconductor ecosystem make chips (the triangle on the left) and sell them to companies and government agencies (on the right). Those companies and government agencies then design the chips into systems and devices (e.g. iPhones, PCs, airplanes, cloud computing, etc.), and sell them to consumers, businesses, and governments. The revenue of products that contain chips is worth tens of t rillions of dollars. Yet, given how large it is, the industry remains a mystery to most.  If you do think of the semiconductor in...

Xi's China has made 3 foreign policy mistakes

 Xi's China has made 3 foreign policy mistakes: Bilahari Kausikan https://asia.nikkei.com/Editor-s-Picks/Interview/Xi-s-China-has-made-3-foreign-policy-mistakes-Bilahari-Kausikan SINGAPORE -- At the Chinese Communist Party's national congress set to kick off on Oct. 16, President Xi Jinping will try to extend his tenure as the country's top leader. China's foreign policy has changed significantly under his decade in power, shifting to a more confident and assertive stance than his predecessors. Nikkei Asia spoke with retired Singapore Ambassador Bilahari Kausikan, former permanent secretary of the city-state's foreign service, to reflect on the Chinese leader's style and how U.S.-China tensions may play out in the years ahead. Veteran diplomat Kausikan served as his country's permanent representative to the United Nations in New York and ambassador to Russia. He is currently chairman of the Middle East Institute at the National University of Singapore. Edite...

Indonesia joins global race to become semiconductor hub, targets US investment

https://asianews.network/indonesia-joins-global-race-to-become-semiconductor-hub-targets-us-investment/    As the government pushes for the establish of a semiconductor hub in the country, experts and foreign government officials have welcomed this ambition, given how the sector has turned into a fundamental building block of the modern world. JAKARTA – As the government pushes for the establish of a semiconductor hub in the country, experts and foreign government officials have welcomed this ambition, given how the sector has turned into a fundamental building block of the modern world. The United Kingdom’s Department for International Trade, UK Defence and Security Exports director Mark Goldsack told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that deciding whether Indonesia should produce its own microchips was a game of finding balance. “We all need an essential minimum, an irreducible minimum of stuff that we can control ourselves. […] ‘Do we need to make all the microchips necessary t...

"They took it out on KAMAZ." How Russian soldiers and officers stole underpants, berets and body armor from the army

  https://www.bbc.com/russian/features-63177093 "They took it out on KAMAZ." How Russian soldiers and officers stole underpants, berets and body armor from the army Those mobilized for the war with Ukraine are forced to buy almost everything for themselves - from shorts and shoes to body armor and thermal imagers. “It is not clear to me where the one and a half million kits that were stored at the personnel reception points have gone,” said Lieutenant General of the Reserve and State Duma deputy Andrei Gurulev. The BBC found a partial answer to his question in court rulings: While Vladimir Putin was plotting an invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military robbed its own warehouses for years, sometimes stealing property with trucks. In mid-July, when Russian troops, together with the Wagner PMC, stormed the Uglegorsk thermal power plant in the Luhansk region, at the other end of Eurasia - on the Iturup Island of the Kuril chain - a meeting of the Kuril garrison military court was...

Russia’s underperforming military capability may be key to its downfall

  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/18/russia-military-underperforming-ukraine Russia’s underperforming military capability may be key to its downfall Jack Watling Despite superior firepower, Russian forces have failed to fulfil their potential and face a dispiriting battle to regain the upper hand over Ukraine Russia-Ukraine war: latest update A Russian  multiple-launch rocket system. The invading forces had superior equipment to the Ukrainians at the start of the war. A Russian multiple-launch rocket system. The invading forces had superior equipment to the Ukrainians at the start of the war. Photograph: Russian Defence Ministry/EPA Sun 18 Sep 2022 09.00 BST Viewed purely in terms of the size of their formations and equipment, Russian ground forces in Ukraine still pose a serious threat on a number of axes. In practice, however, it is highly unlikely the Russian military can recover from its increasingly terminal trajectory on the battlefield, though its defeat will...

What Could Bring Putin Down?

 https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/what-could-bring-putin-down Regime Collapse Is More Likely Than a Coup   an Russian President Vladimir Putin lose the war in Ukraine and retain power? As Ukraine’s driving counteroffensive erodes Russia’s position on the battlefield, that question is getting increasing attention. Discussion has focused on the possibility of a coup, whether an armed insurrection by disgruntled Russian generals or a mutiny by Kremlin insiders. Although not impossible, neither of these is currently very likely. In fact, a different danger is more plausible: a comprehensive meltdown of the regime, as multiple challenges overwhelm its capacity to react and dysfunction drains confidence in Putin’s leadership. NO COUP FOR YOU Losing a war is rarely a smart career move. History is littered with dictators who launched what they thought would be short, victorious offensives only to be swept from power as their troops floundered. Examples include France’s Napoleon ...