Wired columnist Virginia Heffernan recently visited TSMC’s Fab 18 factory and shared some interesting information.
TSMC currently has 13 foundries in operation, of which Fab 18 carves and etches 1 quintillion (one billion billion, 10 to the 18th power) transistors for Apple.
The report that TSMC currently has more than 20,000 technicians, accounting for one-third of the total number of employees. The monthly starting salary of an engineer is US$5,400 (currently about 36,882 RMB), and as a measure, the one-bedroom rent in the area is about US$450 (currently about 3,074 RMB).
Heffernan pointed out that TSMC engineers see American engineers as “babies” who are mentally incapable of running a state-of-the-art fab.
