Noise

Source: Statistics Netherlands

2015 2018

Machines and machine parts

Metal and metal products Horticulture Natural gas High-quality plastics

Top 5 highest-earning domestic Dutch exports (in billion euros)

In terms of domestic added value due to exports, the Netherlands earns the most from machinery and machine parts, such as chip manufacturing and food processing equipment. Last year, the added value for these products approached 16 billion euros, according to Statistics Netherlands. That’s almost 4 billion more than in 2015 and far more than the second most profitable exports, ie metal and metal products. However, Statistics Netherlands considers meat, dairy, beverages and so on as separate items. If one would create a single food and beverage category, that would be the one with the highest earnings (25.1 billion euros in 2018). PvG

Semicon Will TSMC have to pick sides? According to the Financial Times, US officials are asking their Taiwanese counterparts to persuade TSMC to stop manufacturing chips for Huawei. Both TSMC and the Taiwanese government deny having received any such requests but given the effort the US has been putting into slowing down China’s technological development – Huawei’s in particular – it’s hard to imagine TSMC isn’t at all in American crosshairs. After all, except for Samsung and TSMC, most of the world’s chip firms rely on the foundry to manufacture the most advanced semiconductor processes. The Americans would love to deny those to the Chinese, though they also fear getting cut off themselves at some point. That puts TSMC in an awkward position. It doesn’t want to choose sides, and can probably afford not to right now, but it might have to at some point. Something to think about, for Europeans as well. PvG Credit: TSMC

Software Linus Torvalds is not a programmer anymore Asked how Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux kernel, spends his working hours these days, he answered: “I read and write a lot of e-mail.” Coding is rarely, if ever, on his to-do list anymore. Of course, as Linux’s principal developer, a lot of code still passes his desk every day while reviewing patches and pull requests. But, if he doesn’t reject a proposal outright, he’ll suggest improvements only using pseudo-code. In short, Torvalds is a code manager and maintainer these days, not a programmer, and that’s fine with him. “My job really is, in the end, to say no. Somebody has to say no. And because developers know that if they do something that I’ll say no to, they do a better job of writing the code.” A little tip for those trying to get Torvalds to sign off on their submissions: explain what you’re doing. PvG

Quantum technology The latest quantum conundrum So did Google achieve quantum supremacy or not? It didn’t, some agree with IBM, because the series of calculations Google had its 53-qubit quantum computer do can still be performed in a reasonable time by a classical computer. It did, others say, because the

Credit: IBM

quantum computer did it over a thousand times faster than the world’s fastest supercomputer. And then there’s the issue of relevancy. Google’s task was specifically designed to showcase quantum supremacy but hardly useful in the real world. Some people argue that only by solving something of at least some practical use, quantum supremacy can be achieved. There’s probably no right answer here because the concept of quantum supremacy just isn’t well-defined. Relevancy was never factored into it, nor did anyone bother to define how much faster a quantum computer should be to be able to claim supremacy. But it’s fair to say Google’s work represents another step forward towards the quantum computer the world has been dreaming about. PvG