A second Sematech is being proposed by the US technology industry. This time it is not a bid to save the chip industry, but a bid to give it a car industry for when the automotive world goes electric.
Sematech 1 was the mid-1980s initiative of Charlie Sporck of National Semiconductor and Bob Noyce of Intel to get the US semiconductor industry up to speed after it looked like being swamped by Japan.
Sematech II will actually go under the less snappy moniker of the National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Battery Cell Manufacture. However it suggests that, for short, we can call it simply: 'The Alliance'.
The Alliance says it's modelling itself on Sematech I. It wants between $1bn and $2bn over the next five years to do the necessary research and build a manufacturing plant.
Members of The Alliance include: 3M, ActaCell, All Cell Technologies, Altair Nanotechnologies, Dontech Global, EaglePicher, EnerSys, Envia Systems, FMC, MicroSun Technologies, Mobius Power, SiLyte, Superior Graphite, and Townsend Advanced Energy.
The companies will share the plant because, at the moment, the market is too small for them to each have their own plant. Technical support is coming from the Argonne National Laboratory.
The threat being cited by The Alliance as justification for getting government backing is the same threat cited by Sematech I - i.e. the Asians.
The Alliance claims that Asian countries are ahead in the technology and will take over the market unless the US acts now to prevent it.
Earlier this week, Andy Grove called for Intel to get into the development of batteries for electric cars.
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