Asianometry

AT&T was once America’s biggest private company. In 1980, they had 1,040,000 employees. Including 7,400 Smiths. 5,880 Johnsons. 3,934 Williamses. Over 70% of American households had a telephone. 80% of those telephones came from the Bell System. 90% of the local calls made on those telephones were facilitated by an AT&T affiliated company. Almost 100% of the long distance calls were handled by AT&T itself, using its majestic nationwide network. How does such a company end? In today's video, we take the mightiest corporation the modern world has ever seen - I don't want to hear any meme comments about the East India Company - and break it up. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

Discover the fascinating history of Dennard Scaling and its pivotal role in semiconductor technology. Uncover how this concept revolutionized multi-core processors and shaped the tech industry. The discussion dives into the growing challenges of power management as scaling reaches its limits and explores new computing paradigms emerging from these constraints. It’s a deep dive into an often-overlooked aspect of modern technology that paved the way for future advancements.

Nice day, isn't it? Talking about the weather in California was always a bit drab, because it never really changes. But I have been spoiled. After moving abroad, I find myself very dependent on weather predictions. Such a mundane thing, and yet so immensely important. Accurate weather predictions are a perfect example of the progress enabled by the computer. I script this while watching the rain outside. In this video, we explore how the computer revolutionized the weather forecast. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

In the 1940s, penicillin was so hard to get, that scientists studied how to recycle it from patients' pee. It demonstrates how the human body does a poor job of metabolizing the antibiotics and other pharmaceuticals we ingest. It depends on the drug, but roughly speaking, 25-75% of the antibiotics we consume are excreted. Mostly as urine, due to the drugs' solubility. The average rate is 70%. So considering the thousands of tons of antibiotics we all consume each year, it makes me wonder. What are all those antibiotics in our wastewater doing? And what can we do about it? Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

The story of how Bell became AT&T has it all. Two fundamental patents filed by Alexander Graham Bell, giving one company an airtight monopoly on the next big thing. A historic, miraculously timed deal, taking out that company's only possible competitor. Then a brilliant, high-risk series of consolidations to put together a nationwide long-distance network. It came together to make the biggest company in modern history. In this video, we look back at how AT&T forged a monopoly. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

There is a Buddhist phrase that goes: 苦海無邊，回頭是岸 It means, “The sea of bitterness is boundless; turning back is the shore.” Almost forty years ago in 1985, the folks at Intel found themselves on their own sea of bitterness. Millions of dollars in losses. Horrible manufacturing yields. An entire product category under siege. And then somehow, they turned back and found the shore. How? In this video, we look back at how Intel once saved its Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

5G marks yet another next wireless technology transition. One part of the transition promised immense bandwidth and super-fast speeds: Millimeter-Wave. It is a fascinating technology. But a few years into the 5G rollout, difficult technical and economic challenges remain. If semiconductors are black magic, then Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits, or RFICs, are the darkest of the dark arts. Let us take our first Defense Against the Dark Arts class. No cursing allowed. In this video, we dip our toes into RFICs and the 5G mmWave deployment. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

The Compaq Computer Company's early years of absolutely insane growth remain the stuff of legends. Founded in 1982. First year revenue? $111 million. 0 to $111 million. One year. IPO, December 1983. And year 2, 1984? $329 million revenue, 200% growth. Year 3, $504 million, 53% growth and the Fortune 500. Later, Compaq hit $1.2 billion in revenue for 1987, the fastest ever in history. Along the way, Compaq led an insurgency of IBM PC clone-makers against Big Blue, overwhelming the old lion and unlocking the PC standard for a new generation of PC-makers. That is when the problems began. The tragedy of Compaq is that they led the revolution. And then as it so often happens, the revolution turned on them. In this video, we take a look at the fall of Compaq. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

Advanced Packaging has been the talk of the town. Ever since people have identified it as a roadblock in Nvidia's AI chip production, and thus its stock price. TSMC has accelerated construction on several Advanced Packaging fabs across Taiwan to unblock this plug. At the same time, they and the rest of the industry are moving forward on an interesting technology that not only cuts costs but also sounds cool. The most intriguing theme of the 2024 SEMICON show in Taipei? Panels. Chips on panels. In this video, we are going to talk about this thing on the semiconductor horizon. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.

In a telegram sent January 15th, 1918, Vladimir Lenin wrote: For God’s sake, take the most energetic and revolutionary measures to send grain, grain and more grain!!! The Bolsheviks came to power chanting the slogan, "Peace, Land, and Bread". But there was little of the latter available. Believing that the greedy peasants were hoarding all the grain, the Bolsheviks went to the countryside and forcibly seized it. The results were tragic. In this video, let us take a look at Soviet Russia's desperate, merciless campaign for grain. Get all episodes of Asianometry, Sharp Tech, Sharp China, Stratechery Updates and Interviews, Greatest of All Talk, and Dithering as part of Stratechery Plus for $15/month or $150/year. Listen to Stratechery. Listen to Dithering. Listen to Sharp China. Listen to Sharp Tech. Listen to Greatest Of All Talk.