Thursday, May 23, 2024

Kill switch

"ASML and TSMC Can Disable Chip Machines If China Invades Taiwan" "Firms can remotely shut off advanced EUV chip-making machines"

Oh joy. I assume that mainland Chinese industrial espionage made those firms a target years ago, if only to be able to duplicate the work themselves sometime. I think I'm safe in further assuming that they were largely successful. If so, what are the odds that the mainland Chinese now have the ability to shut off those machines themselves?

3 comments:

Dave said...

All someone has to do is walk through the "clean" area with a lit highway flare.
The machines would be rendered useless.

Makes me wonder if some of these are stashed for just this occasion...

james said...

I'd guess they wouldn't survive nearby combat either.

Dave said...

Anything that would release particulates and/or corrosive gasses into the clean environment would do the trick. Thermite would be an excellent candidate.

I would not be surprised if there wasn't some innocuous "Hot Key" combination already in place.

[CTRL]+[ALT]+[Ka-Boom]