The National Science Council said it will help firms in the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park (台南科學園區) deal with vibrations that will come from the planned high speed railway, National Science Council Chairman Wei Che-ho (魏哲和) said yesterday.
Wei said at the Legislative Yuan that the council would help firms to enhance their ability to resist the vibrations.
"The priority now is to communicate with high-tech firms and help them understand the government's plan for the railroad," Wei said yesterday.
Wei repeated more than once on the vibration issue that problems would eventually be solved through technology.
Parts of the industrial park are only 200m from the planned rail line. Many firms believe that vibrations created by the railroad (about 68 decibels) is far beyond acceptable limits.
Since February, worries over the vibrations have resulted in a chain reaction of high-tech firms aborting projects at the park.
Most of the firms that have decided to look elsewhere are DRAM chipmakers, including Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), Silicon Integrated Systems Co (矽統科技) and Chi Mei Electronics Corp (奇美電子).
Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has initiated a project to figure out how to reduce the railroad's vibration down to about 50 decibels.
In an effort to offer a solution to the problem, officials at the Council's National Center for Research on Earthquake Engineering will soon carry out a field investigation in Japan to study the structure of the Shinkansen (
Wei said that the earthquake project would do its best to help companies to lower vibrations down to about 48 decibels, which most high-tech firms say they can accept.
Tainan County residents established a self-help group to call for a solution to the vibration problem.
Hou Shui-sheng (
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
BARRIERS: Gudeng’s chairman said it was unlikely that the US could replicate Taiwan’s science parks in Arizona, given its strict immigration policies and cultural differences Gudeng Precision Industrial Co (家登), which supplies wafer pods to the world’s major semiconductor firms, yesterday said it is in no rush to set up production in the US due to high costs. The company supplies its customers through a warehouse in Arizona jointly operated by TSS Holdings Ltd (德鑫控股), a joint holding of Gudeng and 17 Taiwanese firms in the semiconductor supply chain, including specialty plastic compounds producer Nytex Composites Co (耐特) and automated material handling system supplier Symtek Automation Asia Co (迅得). While the company has long been exploring the feasibility of setting up production in the US to address
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at