The road to TSMC Part 1 of 2: the DARPA challenge behind TSMC's success

The foundations of TSMC's 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. Among those who answered it was Chenming (Calvin) Hu, then a professor at UC Berkeley, who would go on to become TSMC's first chief technology officer in 2001.