Coming late to memory-chip fabrication, they had more recent technology than Japan and South Korea.

ECONOMIST: Semiconductors

There have also been stories around that Apple is looking to either bring inhouse the chip fabrication itself, or to look for another fab house to bake them.

FORBES: Samsung Raises Prices To Apple: I Wonder Why?

The goal is to take the same optics functions that have traditionally been done with esoteric and expensive parts and processes and bring them into a regular chip fabrication facility.

FORBES: Why IBM and Intel Are Chasing the $100B Opportunity in Nanophotonics

Management has cut costs, jettisoned underperforming products, and spun off a chip-fabrication business that was draining needed capital.

FORBES: AMD Still Gets Bullied By Intel And Isn't Worth Your Lunch Money

Critics complain that no one makes anything in Silicon Valley anymore, a two-decade-long gripe that arcs from Apple s decision to shut down its Fremont, California factory in 1992 through Intel s shuttering of its last Silicon Valley chip-fabrication plant in 2009.

FORBES: Made In Silicon Valley

This alloy isn't new--it's been used as a neutron absorber in nuclear power plants--but hafnium's use as a chip insulator required a fabrication breakthrough.

FORBES: Magazine Article

This fingerprint (aka Physically Unclonable Function, or PUF) is a byproduct of tiny errors in the fabrication process -- something chip makers usually try to minimize.

ENGADGET

Whereas creating a memory-chip industry is mostly a matter of buying fabrication equipment off the shelf, classier chips require lots of well-trained engineers, research and technology partners elsewhere in the computer industry.

ECONOMIST: Semiconductors