Guatemala, one of Taiwan's few remaining diplomatic allies, has designed its first homegrown microchip and will have it made with TSMC technology — a small but symbolic win for Taiwan's chip diplomacy.

• Universidad del Valle in Guatemala designed the chip, nicknamed "the great jaguar," entirely in-country.
• The chip uses an older 65-nanometer process, far behind today's cutting edge, and will be produced with TSMC technology.
• Electronic engineering students did the design work using professional chip design software.
• The project grew out of a program started in 2009 to build up Guatemala's own semiconductor know-how, with the country's first microelectronics course opening in 2013.

Outlook: Expect Taiwan to keep using chip training and manufacturing ties as a way to hold on to its shrinking list of diplomatic allies.