Economist, Apr 7, 2018 (I)

choi

There is no need to read the rest of either article.

(1) Semiconductor manufacturing | Shifting Silicon; TSMC is poised to become the world's most advanced chipmaker.

Quote:

Morris Chang "will step down as chairman in June. * * * Later that month the company will ship new semiconductors manufactured with its latest technology [7nm FinFET]. For the first time the world's most powerful chips will be made by TSMC, not by Intel, its American rival.

"Chipmaking also now requires a close partnership between manufacturers and designers. Mr [Mark] Liu[, currently a co-CEO who will become chairman in June,] describes this in painterly terms. 'A decade ago a customer would design a simple pattern and the factory would make it for them. But current designs have many shades and colours.' That may benefit large entrenched players. Whereas switching from one foundry to another was once trivial, now companies work within TSMC 'ecosystem' for years before chips are manufactured. * * * To switch fabs requires companies to duplicate R&D invested in TSMC's technology.

My comment: My guess about "for the first time" in quotation 1 is:
Alan Patterson, TSMC Logs First 10nm Sales. EE Times, July 13, 2017
https://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332009
("trailing Samsung, its main rival in the foundry business, by nearly four months")

This time around, TSMC is truly "world's most advanced chipmaker." subtitle.

choi

Economics degrees | Name Game; Luring students with a new label.
("ECONOMISTS do not much like their discipline being dubbed the dismal science. Some American universities are paying more attention to the noun than to the adjective. The reason is not philosophical, but pragmatic. Foreign STEM graduates (the acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics) can get visa extensions for three years of practical training (ie, work). Those from other disciplines are allowed only a year.  Two more years * * * means a better chance of finding an employer willing to sponsor an application for an H-1B visa * * * In 2012 the Department of Homeland Security expanded the list of STEM. Now any reasonably crunchy economics degree can count as STEM with a tweak to its federal classification code, from economics (45.0601) to econometrics and quantitative economics (45.0603).

Note:
(a) The federal classification code is officially Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP), by National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the Department of Education.
(b) CIP Codes 45.0601 and 45.0602 are for "Economics, General" and "Applied Economics," respectively. Neither is STEM.

According to Department of Education, Applied Economics is defined as: "A program that focuses on the application of economic principles and analytical techniques to the study of particular industries, activities, or the exploitation of particular resources."
https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcod ... =55&cipid=88579
(c) CIP Code 45.0603 Econometrics and Quantitative Economics, which is defined as: "A program that focuses on the systematic study of mathematical and statistical analysis of economic phenomena and problems."
https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/cipcod ... ipid=88580&y=55