TSMC

　　臺(tái)積電

　　A fab success

　　一家晶圓廠的成功之道

　　The smartphone boom has been a boon for apioneer in semiconductors

　　智能手機(jī)的大爆發(fā)讓這個(gè)半導(dǎo)體行業(yè)的先鋒獲益不少

　　WHEN he founded Taiwan SemiconductorManufacturing Company in 1987, Morris Changrecalls,

　　張忠謀回憶起1987年創(chuàng)立臺(tái)積電之初時(shí)說道：

　　Nobody thought we were going anywhere.

　　沒人會(huì)料想到臺(tái)積電會(huì)無處不在。

　　Back then the rule was that semiconductor companies both designed and made chips.

　　當(dāng)時(shí)半導(dǎo)體公司的業(yè)務(wù)都涉及了芯片的設(shè)計(jì)以及制造領(lǐng)域。

　　TSMC was the first pure foundry, making chips for designers with no factories, or fabs, oftheir own.

　　臺(tái)積電是第一家純代工廠商為沒有屬于自己晶圓工廠的芯片設(shè)計(jì)公司代工生產(chǎn)芯片。

　　The doubts of others suited TSMC nicely.

　　所以它們的產(chǎn)業(yè)模式也遭受過質(zhì)疑。

　　Mr Chang, at 82 still chairman and in his second stint as chief executive, says that meant itsuffered no competition in its first eight years.

　　年屆82的張忠謀目前仍舊是臺(tái)積電的總裁，這也是他第二次擔(dān)任臺(tái)積電的首席執(zhí)行官一職，他說正是因?yàn)檫@些質(zhì)疑使得臺(tái)積電在創(chuàng)立的頭八年里所向披靡。

　　These days the idea is more popular.

　　現(xiàn)如今這種產(chǎn)業(yè)模式已經(jīng)越來越受到歡迎。

　　Last year foundries made about half ofall logic chips.

　　去年芯片代工廠生產(chǎn)的邏輯芯片已經(jīng)達(dá)到全球總產(chǎn)量的一半。

　　United Microelectronics Corporation, a slightly older Taiwanese company, turned itself into apure-play foundry in 1995.

　　創(chuàng)業(yè)時(shí)間稍早的聯(lián)電也在1995年開始轉(zhuǎn)型，專注芯片代工。

　　GlobalFoundries, with factories in America, Germany and Singapore, was set up in 2009.

　　在美國，德國以及新加坡都擁有工廠的格羅方德公司，由AMD拆分而來、與阿聯(lián)酋阿布扎比先進(jìn)技術(shù)投資公司和穆巴達(dá)拉發(fā)展公司聯(lián)合投資成立的半導(dǎo)體制造企業(yè)也在2009年正式成立。

　　Yet the pioneer still dominates.

　　不過行業(yè)先鋒臺(tái)積電目前仍舊是業(yè)界的龍頭老大。

　　This year, predicts Samuel Wang of Gartner, a research firm, TSMC s revenues will exceedthose of all other foundries combined.

　　根據(jù)咨詢公司高德納的薩穆埃爾?王預(yù)測今年臺(tái)積電的營收將會(huì)超過所有對手的總和。

　　He reckons it has 90% of the world market for advanced 28-nanometre chips, which areessential to smartphones and tablets.

　　其中對于智能手機(jī)和平板電腦來說至關(guān)重要的28nm晶圓，臺(tái)積電的全球份額達(dá)到了90%。

　　TSMC s sales in the second quarter, reported on July 18th, were NT156 billion, 21% morethan a year before. Its net income rose by 24%, to NT52 billion.

　　臺(tái)積電于7月18日報(bào)道了其第二季度的營收情況：總銷售額達(dá)到了1560億新臺(tái)幣，同比增長21%。其中凈收益同比增長24%，達(dá)到了52億新臺(tái)幣。

　　That said, growth should slow in the second half of the year, Mr Chang told analysts, becausesmartphone-makers have been building up their inventories of chips ahead of new-productlaunches and because sales of PCs and some smartphones have been weaker than expected.

　　張忠謀告訴分析師，由于智能手機(jī)制造商已經(jīng)建立了自己的芯片倉庫以滿足自己將要發(fā)布的新產(chǎn)品所需要的產(chǎn)能。同時(shí)，個(gè)人電腦以及智能手機(jī)的發(fā)展低于預(yù)期，故下半年芯片市場增長將放緩。

　　Sales could even shrink in the fourth quarter.

　　第四季度的銷售額可能會(huì)進(jìn)一步萎縮。

　　TSMC has thrived on a mixture of serendipity and anticipation.

　　由于市場需求的旺盛以及對于行業(yè)的正確判斷，臺(tái)積電的風(fēng)頭一時(shí)無兩。

　　The market moved in the direction in which we were heading, says Mr Chang.

　　對此張忠謀表示：我們的前進(jìn)方向與市場一致。

　　The boom in mobile computing has meant a bonanza for several long-standing customers,which range from Qualcomm, an American firm that dominates the market for smartphones application processors, to MediaTek, a Taiwanese neighbour that has burst onto the scenemore recently.

　　移動(dòng)計(jì)算機(jī)處理技術(shù)的繁榮發(fā)展讓臺(tái)積電固定了數(shù)家長期大客戶：不僅有來自美國的智能手機(jī)處理器芯片制造巨頭高通，還有臺(tái)灣的當(dāng)紅小生聯(lián)發(fā)科。

　　Sales to Chinese designers such as Allwinner, Rockchip and Spreadtrum, whose chips powerinexpensive Android tablets and phones, have doubled in the past year;

　　臺(tái)積電去年對稱雄低價(jià)安卓平板和手機(jī)領(lǐng)域的全志，瑞芯微以及展訊等公司的銷售額已經(jīng)翻番。

　　these all license low-energy chip technology from ARM, a British firm that has been apartner of TSMC s since 2004.

　　這些公司都是從英國的ARM公司獲得的低功耗芯片技術(shù)授權(quán)，而ARM從2004年起就已經(jīng)是臺(tái)積電的合作伙伴了。

　　The grand alliance of TSMC and the chip designers, as Mr Chang has called it, has done farbetter from the shift to mobile devices than Intel, the world s biggest chipmaker.

　　張忠謀所說的大聯(lián)盟在電腦終端市場向移動(dòng)設(shè)備轉(zhuǎn)型過程中的表現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)好過世界頭號(hào)芯片商Intel。

　　Intel both designs and makes chips.

　　同時(shí)設(shè)計(jì)和制造芯片，

　　Its processor chips are the brains of most personal computers, but demand for these hasbeen falling.

　　其生產(chǎn)的處理芯片是絕大部分個(gè)人電腦的核心，不過這一塊的市場需求在不斷下降。

　　Although Intel s newest processors are much less thirsty and the firm is determined tobreak into the mobile market, it has so far struggled.

　　雖然Intel最新的處理器不再那么地噬能，它們也打算切入移動(dòng)處理器市場，不過他們將要面臨的是重重困難。

　　Its second-quarter revenues fell by 5% and its net income by 29%.

　　Intel第二季度的營收降低了5%，而凈利潤則下降了29%。

　　A combination of fabless designers and a pure foundry works well, Mr Chang explains,

　　張忠謀表示：純芯片設(shè)計(jì)商和芯片代工廠可以完美兼容，

　　because the designers don t have to worry about the capital-intensive part of the businessany more: the foundry provides the scale.

　　因?yàn)樵O(shè)計(jì)商不用為了企業(yè)中資本密集的部分擔(dān)憂，大規(guī)模量產(chǎn)的工作交給代工廠就行了。

　　At the same time, fabless companies, of which he reckons there are about 50 with annualrevenues of at least 100m, compete with one another and with IDMs.

　　同時(shí)，張忠謀表示：那些沒有直屬晶圓廠的公司，要面臨同行以及IDM企業(yè)的競爭。

　　This diverse group has in total produced more innovation than any single IDMJust look atthe mobile products, he says.

　　他們的設(shè)計(jì)更加多元化，其總體創(chuàng)造力將會(huì)超過任意一家IDM公司看看移動(dòng)芯片產(chǎn)品你就知道了。

　　The battle lines between the alliance and its rivals continue to shift.

　　大聯(lián)盟和它們的對手的戰(zhàn)線也在不斷改變。

　　Intel has entered the foundry businessand recently snaffled a contract with Altera, anAmerican designer that has been a customer of TSMC s for 20 years.

　　Intel也切入了代工領(lǐng)域他們成功地?fù)尩搅撕团_(tái)積電合作了20年的老客戶美國的芯片設(shè)計(jì)商阿爾特拉的合同。

　　I really regret that very much, Mr Chang says. I had an investigation into why that happened.

　　對此張忠謀非常懊惱，并表示要好好調(diào)查一下這一切發(fā)生的根源。

　　On another front, TSMC is fighting Samsung.

　　另一邊，臺(tái)積電與三星也在激烈鏖戰(zhàn)。

　　The South Korean company makes processors not only for itself but also for Apple, eventhough the two are deadly rivals in smartphones and tablets.

　　這家韓國公司不僅為自己生產(chǎn)處理器，他們還供貨給蘋果公司。

　　In addition it is the world s biggest maker of memory chips.

　　同時(shí)，三星還是世界上最大的記憶芯片制造商。

　　Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that TSMC, after years of effort, had won acontract to make chips for iPhones and iPadsa victory that will have stung Samsung.

　　最近，華爾街日報(bào)報(bào)道了臺(tái)積電經(jīng)過一年的努力獲得了為iPhones和iPads代工芯片合同的消息，這讓三星郁悶不已。

　　Mr Chang says that he takes neither Intel nor Samsung lightly, but insists: We have one bigadvantage: we are a pure foundry. We do not compete with our customers.

　　張忠謀表示他不會(huì)小瞧Intel和三星，但是他堅(jiān)持他有一大優(yōu)勢：他就是代工廠，他不會(huì)與他的客戶競爭。

　　No matter how hard Intel and Samsung try, he says, they will not enjoy the same trust.

　　無論Intel和三星怎么努力，他們都不會(huì)獲得客戶的信任。

　　The big question hanging over TSMC is whether it can find a worthy successor to itsoctogenarian boss.

　　臺(tái)積電所面臨的大問題是他們能否為他們年過80的老板找到合格的繼承人。

　　It has had one false start already:

　　此前他們已經(jīng)有過失敗的經(jīng)歷：

　　he stood down as chief executive in 2005, but took the helm again in 2009.

　　張忠謀曾在2005年卸任首席執(zhí)行官一職，不過在2009年再度上任。

　　No handover is planned yet,

　　目前，還沒有制定任何交接計(jì)劃，

　　but last year three men were appointed co-chief operating officers.

　　不過去年有三位管理人被任命為聯(lián)合首席運(yùn)行官。

　　Probably at least two of these, or maybe all three, will end up as joint chief executives.

　　很可能至少三人中的兩人也可能是全部三人，最終成為聯(lián)合首席執(zhí)行官。

　　A menage a trois could prove farcical. But perhaps TSMC s board thinks its founder is toogood an act for one man to follow.

　　三頭執(zhí)政實(shí)在是有點(diǎn)荒誕，不過這也許是因?yàn)槎聲?huì)考慮到他們的創(chuàng)始人實(shí)在是太成功了，以至于光靠一個(gè)人的努力是無法成為合格的繼承者的。

　　TSMC

　　臺(tái)積電

　　A fab success

　　一家晶圓廠的成功之道

　　The smartphone boom has been a boon for apioneer in semiconductors

　　智能手機(jī)的大爆發(fā)讓這個(gè)半導(dǎo)體行業(yè)的先鋒獲益不少

　　WHEN he founded Taiwan SemiconductorManufacturing Company in 1987, Morris Changrecalls,

　　張忠謀回憶起1987年創(chuàng)立臺(tái)積電之初時(shí)說道：

　　Nobody thought we were going anywhere.

　　沒人會(huì)料想到臺(tái)積電會(huì)無處不在。

　　Back then the rule was that semiconductor companies both designed and made chips.

　　當(dāng)時(shí)半導(dǎo)體公司的業(yè)務(wù)都涉及了芯片的設(shè)計(jì)以及制造領(lǐng)域。

　　TSMC was the first pure foundry, making chips for designers with no factories, or fabs, oftheir own.

　　臺(tái)積電是第一家純代工廠商為沒有屬于自己晶圓工廠的芯片設(shè)計(jì)公司代工生產(chǎn)芯片。

　　The doubts of others suited TSMC nicely.

　　所以它們的產(chǎn)業(yè)模式也遭受過質(zhì)疑。

　　Mr Chang, at 82 still chairman and in his second stint as chief executive, says that meant itsuffered no competition in its first eight years.

　　年屆82的張忠謀目前仍舊是臺(tái)積電的總裁，這也是他第二次擔(dān)任臺(tái)積電的首席執(zhí)行官一職，他說正是因?yàn)檫@些質(zhì)疑使得臺(tái)積電在創(chuàng)立的頭八年里所向披靡。

　　These days the idea is more popular.

　　現(xiàn)如今這種產(chǎn)業(yè)模式已經(jīng)越來越受到歡迎。

　　Last year foundries made about half ofall logic chips.

　　去年芯片代工廠生產(chǎn)的邏輯芯片已經(jīng)達(dá)到全球總產(chǎn)量的一半。

　　United Microelectronics Corporation, a slightly older Taiwanese company, turned itself into apure-play foundry in 1995.

　　創(chuàng)業(yè)時(shí)間稍早的聯(lián)電也在1995年開始轉(zhuǎn)型，專注芯片代工。

　　GlobalFoundries, with factories in America, Germany and Singapore, was set up in 2009.

　　在美國，德國以及新加坡都擁有工廠的格羅方德公司，由AMD拆分而來、與阿聯(lián)酋阿布扎比先進(jìn)技術(shù)投資公司和穆巴達(dá)拉發(fā)展公司聯(lián)合投資成立的半導(dǎo)體制造企業(yè)也在2009年正式成立。

　　Yet the pioneer still dominates.

　　不過行業(yè)先鋒臺(tái)積電目前仍舊是業(yè)界的龍頭老大。

　　This year, predicts Samuel Wang of Gartner, a research firm, TSMC s revenues will exceedthose of all other foundries combined.

　　根據(jù)咨詢公司高德納的薩穆埃爾?王預(yù)測今年臺(tái)積電的營收將會(huì)超過所有對手的總和。

　　He reckons it has 90% of the world market for advanced 28-nanometre chips, which areessential to smartphones and tablets.

　　其中對于智能手機(jī)和平板電腦來說至關(guān)重要的28nm晶圓，臺(tái)積電的全球份額達(dá)到了90%。

　　TSMC s sales in the second quarter, reported on July 18th, were NT156 billion, 21% morethan a year before. Its net income rose by 24%, to NT52 billion.

　　臺(tái)積電于7月18日報(bào)道了其第二季度的營收情況：總銷售額達(dá)到了1560億新臺(tái)幣，同比增長21%。其中凈收益同比增長24%，達(dá)到了52億新臺(tái)幣。

　　That said, growth should slow in the second half of the year, Mr Chang told analysts, becausesmartphone-makers have been building up their inventories of chips ahead of new-productlaunches and because sales of PCs and some smartphones have been weaker than expected.

　　張忠謀告訴分析師，由于智能手機(jī)制造商已經(jīng)建立了自己的芯片倉庫以滿足自己將要發(fā)布的新產(chǎn)品所需要的產(chǎn)能。同時(shí)，個(gè)人電腦以及智能手機(jī)的發(fā)展低于預(yù)期，故下半年芯片市場增長將放緩。

　　Sales could even shrink in the fourth quarter.

　　第四季度的銷售額可能會(huì)進(jìn)一步萎縮。

　　TSMC has thrived on a mixture of serendipity and anticipation.

　　由于市場需求的旺盛以及對于行業(yè)的正確判斷，臺(tái)積電的風(fēng)頭一時(shí)無兩。

　　The market moved in the direction in which we were heading, says Mr Chang.

　　對此張忠謀表示：我們的前進(jìn)方向與市場一致。

　　The boom in mobile computing has meant a bonanza for several long-standing customers,which range from Qualcomm, an American firm that dominates the market for smartphones application processors, to MediaTek, a Taiwanese neighbour that has burst onto the scenemore recently.

　　移動(dòng)計(jì)算機(jī)處理技術(shù)的繁榮發(fā)展讓臺(tái)積電固定了數(shù)家長期大客戶：不僅有來自美國的智能手機(jī)處理器芯片制造巨頭高通，還有臺(tái)灣的當(dāng)紅小生聯(lián)發(fā)科。

　　Sales to Chinese designers such as Allwinner, Rockchip and Spreadtrum, whose chips powerinexpensive Android tablets and phones, have doubled in the past year;

　　臺(tái)積電去年對稱雄低價(jià)安卓平板和手機(jī)領(lǐng)域的全志，瑞芯微以及展訊等公司的銷售額已經(jīng)翻番。

　　these all license low-energy chip technology from ARM, a British firm that has been apartner of TSMC s since 2004.

　　這些公司都是從英國的ARM公司獲得的低功耗芯片技術(shù)授權(quán)，而ARM從2004年起就已經(jīng)是臺(tái)積電的合作伙伴了。

　　The grand alliance of TSMC and the chip designers, as Mr Chang has called it, has done farbetter from the shift to mobile devices than Intel, the world s biggest chipmaker.

　　張忠謀所說的大聯(lián)盟在電腦終端市場向移動(dòng)設(shè)備轉(zhuǎn)型過程中的表現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)好過世界頭號(hào)芯片商Intel。

　　Intel both designs and makes chips.

　　同時(shí)設(shè)計(jì)和制造芯片，

　　Its processor chips are the brains of most personal computers, but demand for these hasbeen falling.

　　其生產(chǎn)的處理芯片是絕大部分個(gè)人電腦的核心，不過這一塊的市場需求在不斷下降。

　　Although Intel s newest processors are much less thirsty and the firm is determined tobreak into the mobile market, it has so far struggled.

　　雖然Intel最新的處理器不再那么地噬能，它們也打算切入移動(dòng)處理器市場，不過他們將要面臨的是重重困難。

　　Its second-quarter revenues fell by 5% and its net income by 29%.

　　Intel第二季度的營收降低了5%，而凈利潤則下降了29%。

　　A combination of fabless designers and a pure foundry works well, Mr Chang explains,

　　張忠謀表示：純芯片設(shè)計(jì)商和芯片代工廠可以完美兼容，

　　because the designers don t have to worry about the capital-intensive part of the businessany more: the foundry provides the scale.

　　因?yàn)樵O(shè)計(jì)商不用為了企業(yè)中資本密集的部分擔(dān)憂，大規(guī)模量產(chǎn)的工作交給代工廠就行了。

　　At the same time, fabless companies, of which he reckons there are about 50 with annualrevenues of at least 100m, compete with one another and with IDMs.

　　同時(shí)，張忠謀表示：那些沒有直屬晶圓廠的公司，要面臨同行以及IDM企業(yè)的競爭。

　　This diverse group has in total produced more innovation than any single IDMJust look atthe mobile products, he says.

　　他們的設(shè)計(jì)更加多元化，其總體創(chuàng)造力將會(huì)超過任意一家IDM公司看看移動(dòng)芯片產(chǎn)品你就知道了。

　　The battle lines between the alliance and its rivals continue to shift.

　　大聯(lián)盟和它們的對手的戰(zhàn)線也在不斷改變。

　　Intel has entered the foundry businessand recently snaffled a contract with Altera, anAmerican designer that has been a customer of TSMC s for 20 years.

　　Intel也切入了代工領(lǐng)域他們成功地?fù)尩搅撕团_(tái)積電合作了20年的老客戶美國的芯片設(shè)計(jì)商阿爾特拉的合同。

　　I really regret that very much, Mr Chang says. I had an investigation into why that happened.

　　對此張忠謀非常懊惱，并表示要好好調(diào)查一下這一切發(fā)生的根源。

　　On another front, TSMC is fighting Samsung.

　　另一邊，臺(tái)積電與三星也在激烈鏖戰(zhàn)。

　　The South Korean company makes processors not only for itself but also for Apple, eventhough the two are deadly rivals in smartphones and tablets.

　　這家韓國公司不僅為自己生產(chǎn)處理器，他們還供貨給蘋果公司。

　　In addition it is the world s biggest maker of memory chips.

　　同時(shí)，三星還是世界上最大的記憶芯片制造商。

　　Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that TSMC, after years of effort, had won acontract to make chips for iPhones and iPadsa victory that will have stung Samsung.

　　最近，華爾街日報(bào)報(bào)道了臺(tái)積電經(jīng)過一年的努力獲得了為iPhones和iPads代工芯片合同的消息，這讓三星郁悶不已。

　　Mr Chang says that he takes neither Intel nor Samsung lightly, but insists: We have one bigadvantage: we are a pure foundry. We do not compete with our customers.

　　張忠謀表示他不會(huì)小瞧Intel和三星，但是他堅(jiān)持他有一大優(yōu)勢：他就是代工廠，他不會(huì)與他的客戶競爭。

　　No matter how hard Intel and Samsung try, he says, they will not enjoy the same trust.

　　無論Intel和三星怎么努力，他們都不會(huì)獲得客戶的信任。

　　The big question hanging over TSMC is whether it can find a worthy successor to itsoctogenarian boss.

　　臺(tái)積電所面臨的大問題是他們能否為他們年過80的老板找到合格的繼承人。

　　It has had one false start already:

　　此前他們已經(jīng)有過失敗的經(jīng)歷：

　　he stood down as chief executive in 2005, but took the helm again in 2009.

　　張忠謀曾在2005年卸任首席執(zhí)行官一職，不過在2009年再度上任。

　　No handover is planned yet,

　　目前，還沒有制定任何交接計(jì)劃，

　　but last year three men were appointed co-chief operating officers.

　　不過去年有三位管理人被任命為聯(lián)合首席運(yùn)行官。

　　Probably at least two of these, or maybe all three, will end up as joint chief executives.

　　很可能至少三人中的兩人也可能是全部三人，最終成為聯(lián)合首席執(zhí)行官。

　　A menage a trois could prove farcical. But perhaps TSMC s board thinks its founder is toogood an act for one man to follow.

　　三頭執(zhí)政實(shí)在是有點(diǎn)荒誕，不過這也許是因?yàn)槎聲?huì)考慮到他們的創(chuàng)始人實(shí)在是太成功了，以至于光靠一個(gè)人的努力是無法成為合格的繼承者的。