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The road to TSMC Part 1 of 2: the DARPA challenge behind TSMC's success
What happened
Background article (part 1 of a two-part series) traces the origins of TSMC's success: its modern-day success can be traced back to a public call from the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for innovative designs that could break through the 25nm physical limit. Chenming (Calvin) Hu, then a professor at UC Berkeley, was among those who answered the call, and he would go on to become TSMC's first chief technology officer in 2001. The article contains no price, capacity, inventory, or current supply-demand information; the source does not state the cause of any specific event.
Impact and signal
Low impactImpact score: 10/100
Affected components and suppliers
25nm
DARPAhistorybackground
Source and time
Source: DigiTimes Asia · 10/19/2026 · View original source
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