Taiwan has just slapped a ban on all contemporary chip exports to Russia and Belarus. The administration took the decision in response to Russia's continuing invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) released a list of all high-tech commodities that will be prohibited from export to Russia and Belarus (Via DigiTimes). The ministry also stated that these new high-tech devices will be prohibited in Belarus because they may aid Russia in circumventing the sanctions. As a result, enterprises from these two areas will no longer be allowed to buy specific semiconductors, such as microprocessors and microcircuits.
This includes those with a performance speed of 5 gigaflops or higher, a frequency rate of 25MHz or higher, an external interface with a data transfer rate of 2.5 MB/s or higher, more than 144 pins, or a basic propagation delay time of less than 0.4 nanoseconds. To put it another way, Russia and Belarus are no longer able to obtain sophisticated technology produced in Taiwan.
Aside from contemporary chipsets, Taiwan will not supply any chip manufacturing equipment to these countries. In other words, they are unable to obtain the necessary equipment to manufacture their own chips. This comprises wafer fabrication alignment and exposure devices, scanners, and even scanning electron microscopes.
