Asianometry

By Jon YTechnology

Asianometry episodes

April 12 How To Test 208 Billion Transistors
Nvidia’s Blackwell Ultra has 208 billion transistors across 2 dies. Those dies are made in a titanic fab. Using an intricate process with hundreds of steps, dealing in the dozens of nanometers. So dumb question: How do we know it all worked? How can we be sure that the thing being made actually does its job and not be “the other guy”? This is why the multi-billion dollar Automated Test Equipment or ATE industry exists. In today’s video, an underrated part of the semiconductor ecosystem.
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30 min
April 09 Gas Turbine Blades and their Heat-Defying Single-Crystal Superalloys
A gas turbine’s high pressure rotor takes on some of the most extreme temperatures in industry. And must do it for 100,000 operating hours. Right now, we are booked out of gas turbines for the rest of the decade. The shortage got me thinking about fan blades.
Today, modern gas turbine inlet temperatures can reach an infernal 1,600 degrees Celsius. That’s hotter than most lavas. What can handle such extreme conditions? Some of the most special metals you will ever see in your life. Metals tortured to survive things that regular metals never can. And it is still not enough. In today’s video, my friends, we study the blade. And the materials that make them.
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0 min
April 05 VLIW: The “Impossible” Computer
You are walking down an alleyway late one night, and suddenly behind you, a mysterious dark figure appears and says. Sir, I promise you a computer. A computer up to 20 times faster than what is on the market. You think. Well, what sort of unholy, insane 2-nanometer silicon will this computer be using? No, the dark figure replies. Ordinary hardware. Same as what everyone else is using. Maybe even a bit slower, clock time-wise. So what is the catch? If you accept this computer, then you must also accept some of the most brilliant but maniacal compiler software ever created. Oh. In today’s video, we trace a radical idea to a computer 10-30 times faster than anything thought possible. They said it was impossible. An intrepid platoon of geniuses proved them wrong.
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40 min
March 29 The Supercritical CO2 Turbine: Waterless Wonder
For over a hundred years, steam turbines have generated power using water and steam. Over the years, that steam got hotter and more pressurized. It made the turbines more efficient, but also made them big and complicated. Now here comes a different type of turbine. Radically smaller. Drastically simpler. These turbines have CO2 running through their veins instead of steam. In today’s video, supercritical carbon dioxide turbines. The waterless wonder that may be 10 times smaller than their counterparts.
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.
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22 min
March 22 Singapore’s Sound Card Hero
It used to be that if you wanted to get good audio on your computer, you had to get a sound card. And if you needed a sound card, there was just one choice: Sound Blaster. The company behind this iconic brand, Creative Labs or Technology, actually came from the city of the Merlion: Singapore. Their fortunes rose and fell with that of their most iconic product. In today’s video, a look at Singapore’s sound card tech hero.
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44 min
March 19 Mexico City’s Sinking Lands
Mexico City is Mexico’s most important city. Today the greater metropolitan area is home to 23 million people, over 17% of the country’s entire population. Economically, it is the powerhouse - contributing a quarter of Mexico’s GDP. All of the biggest companies are based there. The place is also famously built on top of a lakebed. A sinking lakebed. Sinking maybe an overall average of 35 to 50 centimeters per year. In this video, we look at Mexico City’s land subsidence issues and how they came about.
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.
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23 min
March 15 From Fiber to AI: A Laser Giant’s Rebirth
Lumentum makes lasers, fiber optics, and some other stuff. It has a wild history. During the peak of the telecom bubble, this company - with less than $2 billion in revenue - was worth more than GM and Ford combined. After it all came crashing down, the company languished in obscurity for over a decade. But now, thanks to the massive AI data center boom, it is SO back. In today’s video, the glorious rebirth of a fiber optic high-flyer. And why. I want to thank Irrational, author of the Irrational Analysis newsletter, for inspiring me to do this video and working with me on the AI and laser section.
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.
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31 min
March 08 The Wildly Infectious Banana Plague
Ecuador is the world’s largest exporter of bananas - supplying 70 different countries and responsible for a third of global exports. In September 2025, they reported their first official case of Fusarium oxysporum, special form Cubense, Tropical Race 4. The modern banana plague. The Ecuadorean authorities rapidly quarantined the area, and so far it seems to have been contained to small regions. But the fungus has been spreading elsewhere. It has been wrecking havoc in Southeast Asia since it first emerged there in the late 1960s. And in 2019, it entered Latin America for the first time. First in Colombia and then Peru and then Venezuela. Fusarium is one of the most destructive plant diseases ever discovered. In today’s video, we discuss the Banana. Ever convenient. Ever delicious. Now in a slow-burn crisis.
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.
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30 min
March 05 Vancomycin: The Iconic Antibiotic of Last Resort
The soil sample was collected in a remote Indonesian jungle by a Christian missionary. A few grams of dirt scooped into a sample bag and shipped to the United States. Little did anyone know what those few grams would contain. A drug so special that its Chinese characters literally mean “The Antibiotic of the Ages”. It has been nearly 70 years since its market entry. In today’s video, I want to pay tribute to an iconic compound. The unique, mysterious, infuriating but life-saving antibiotic: Vancomycin. For over three decades, our drug of last resort.
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.
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0 min
March 01 Thyristors Did to Power What Transistors Did to Logic
In December 1957, Business Week profiled a new device from General Electric. The author begins by saying:
A new device in a pea-sized package stands a good chance of hitting the electrical industry as thunderously as its older and more famous relative, the transistor, struck electronics
How often does a business article hail some new technology like this? And how often does the thing actually live up to such words? The article was talking about the Silicon Thyristor. And it did indeed revolutionize the electric industry. In this video, the discovery and nearly 70 year impact of the first solid-state power electronics device.
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.
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25 min

About Asianometry

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Newsletter for the Asianometry channel. Studies on Asia - Financials, semiconductors, history, demography, development and other stuff.

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