網(wǎng)友熱論：臺(tái)積電制造出全球最頂尖的芯片且無(wú)人可復(fù)制，這是怎么做到的“臺(tái)灣將半導(dǎo)體制造業(yè)作為主導(dǎo)產(chǎn)業(yè)來(lái)扶持”“得益于蘋果公司的資助”“半導(dǎo)體行業(yè)存在著許多相互依存關(guān)系，美國(guó)控制著其中幾個(gè)關(guān)鍵瓶頸點(diǎn)”
ELI5: My understanding is that 1 company in Taiwan makes the greatest chips in the world and no one else can replicate them. How is that possible?
譯文簡(jiǎn)介
臺(tái)積電（TSMC）是全球最大的半導(dǎo)體代工廠，全球大約60%的半導(dǎo)體和90%的先進(jìn)半導(dǎo)體產(chǎn)自臺(tái)灣。緊隨其后的是三星晶圓廠（Samsung Foundry），占據(jù)了13%的市場(chǎng)份額，而聯(lián)華電子（UMC）、格芯（GlobalFoundries）和中芯國(guó)際（SMIC）各占6%。此處提到的僅為為其他公司制造半導(dǎo)體芯片的代工廠，像英特爾這樣大量生產(chǎn)自家芯片的企業(yè)并未被計(jì)入其中。
臺(tái)積電，這家成立于1987年的公司是怎么做到的呢？
正文翻譯
@DarkAlman
That's not entirely true
TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited) is one of the premiere chip manufacturing companies in the world but they are hardly the only one.
They are of note because they make everything from common chips used in everything from cars to cellphones to AMDs processors. Apple, Nvidia, AMD, and Qualcomm for example all use TSMC to manufacture their chips.
But Samsung (Korea) and Intel (US) also have chip foundries of that caliber.
TSMCs secret is just that they have large numbers of highly experienced people working for them and have developed very good processes. Samsung and Intel are similar in that regard, but TSMC is special in that the Taiwanese government has in a sense made semiconductor manufacturing the countries primary industry.
Other companies like Texas instruments can also make microchips and have facilities all over the US but can't make chips as complex as Computer microprocessors. Importantly though there's nothing stopping them from investing capital to build such a facility, they just don't want to. (Developing an in house microprocessor to compete with AMD and Intel at this point would require an outrageous investment)
Israel is also another big up and comer in chip manufacturing.
Why TSMC is of note is the Pandemic showed just how vulnerable the US and the West are to losing access to TSMC production. If China for example were to invade Taiwan it could be a really big problem for the economy and availability of these chips.
This is why TSMC is building a Chip Foundry in Texas Arizona right now so chip production can happen domestically in the US.
這并不完全正確
臺(tái)積電（臺(tái)灣半導(dǎo)體制造股份有限公司）是全球頂尖的芯片制造企業(yè)之一，但并非唯一的一家。
它們之所以引人注目，是因?yàn)樗鼈兩a(chǎn)各種芯片，這些芯片廣泛應(yīng)用在從汽車到手機(jī)乃至AMD處理器等眾多領(lǐng)域。例如，蘋果、英偉達(dá)、AMD和高通等公司均采用臺(tái)積電來(lái)制造他們的芯片。
但三星（韓國(guó)）和英特爾（美國(guó)）也同樣擁有同等水平的芯片代工廠。
臺(tái)積電的成功秘訣在于，他們擁有大量高度專業(yè)的人員，并且已經(jīng)開(kāi)發(fā)出非常優(yōu)秀的制造流程。在這方面，三星和英特爾與之類似，但臺(tái)積電特別之處在于，臺(tái)灣政府在某種意義上將半導(dǎo)體制造業(yè)作為主導(dǎo)產(chǎn)業(yè)來(lái)扶持。
此外，像德州儀器這樣的公司也能制造微芯片，并在美國(guó)各地?fù)碛性O(shè)施，但他們目前無(wú)法制造出與計(jì)算機(jī)微處理器同樣復(fù)雜的芯片。然而重要的是，并沒(méi)有什么因素阻止他們投入資金來(lái)建設(shè)這種高級(jí)設(shè)施，只是他們目前沒(méi)有這樣的意愿（要自主研發(fā)能與AMD和英特爾競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的微處理器，在當(dāng)前階段需要進(jìn)行巨額投資）。
以色列也是芯片制造業(yè)中迅速崛起的重要一員。
臺(tái)積電之所以值得注意，是因?yàn)橐咔楸砻髅绹?guó)和西方國(guó)家在失去對(duì)臺(tái)積電生產(chǎn)的接觸時(shí)有多么脆弱。例如，如果臺(tái)海戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)爆發(fā)，這可能對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)和芯片供應(yīng)產(chǎn)生重大影響。
這就是為什么臺(tái)積電目前正計(jì)劃在美國(guó)德克薩斯州亞利桑那州建設(shè)芯片代工廠，以便在美國(guó)本土實(shí)現(xiàn)芯片生產(chǎn)。
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To OP: We're also talking about bleeding edge technology - it's not generally available techniques like what you would have in older industries. And the investment necessary to get to the same level, when these large, existing actors in the field are still gradually reducing their level (from "5 nm" to "3 nm" and to "2 nm" these days) - there's simply not any easy way of "just starting up something on the same level".
You have to come out of the gate as one of the best in the world, and that's generally a very hard thing to do. (TSMC: 73k employees, Intel: 124k, Samsung Electronics: 270k, but Intel and Samsung has a far wider product range than TSMC).
They're on their own level for what they do, and there's only a few actors in the world that has the resources and know how to get to that level (Samsung and Intel generally as you already mentioned).
To OP：我們正在討論的實(shí)際上是前沿技術(shù)，這并非像傳統(tǒng)行業(yè)那樣廣泛應(yīng)用的技術(shù)。當(dāng)該領(lǐng)域的大型現(xiàn)有企業(yè)仍在逐步推進(jìn)技術(shù)節(jié)點(diǎn)（從“5納米”進(jìn)步到“3納米”，再到如今的“2納米”），要達(dá)到與之相同的水平所需的投資是非常巨大的，并不存在任何簡(jiǎn)單的途徑可以輕易地“從頭開(kāi)始就達(dá)到同一水準(zhǔn)”。
新進(jìn)入者必須在一開(kāi)始就成為全球最頂尖的企業(yè)之一，而這通常是一項(xiàng)極其艱難的任務(wù)。（例如，臺(tái)積電擁有7.3萬(wàn)名員工，英特爾擁有12.4萬(wàn)名員工，三星電子擁有27萬(wàn)名員工，盡管英特爾和三星的產(chǎn)品線比臺(tái)積電更為廣泛。）
這些企業(yè)在其所從事的領(lǐng)域內(nèi)處于領(lǐng)先地位，世界上只有少數(shù)幾家擁有足夠資源和專業(yè)技術(shù)能夠達(dá)到這一層次的企業(yè)（如您提到的三星和英特爾）。
And the investment necessary
yeh, TSMC spend something like $5.5billion on R&D per year, a 3-4nm fab cost something like $20 billion
研發(fā)投資是巨大的，臺(tái)積電每年在研發(fā)上的投入約為55億美元，而一座3-4納米芯片工廠的成本大約為200億美元。
Am I just brain broken by big company numbers or do these seem like reasonable enough numbers to not be the only factor.
20 - 30 billion dollars can't be the thing stopping China from getting better chips
是不是大公司的數(shù)字讓我感到困惑了？這些數(shù)額看似合理，并不應(yīng)該是阻礙中國(guó)獲得更先進(jìn)芯片的唯一因素。200億至300億美元不至于阻止中國(guó)芯片技術(shù)的進(jìn)步吧？
You spend that every year for 40 years and get in line for the latest production tech. There's only one brand of photolithography machines in the world that can enable production of the most advanced chips.
You gotta build a relationship with ASML and denmark if you want those machines.
你需要連續(xù)40年每年投入這么多資金，才能跟上最新生產(chǎn)技術(shù)的步伐。世界上只有一種光刻機(jī)品牌能支持最先進(jìn)芯片的生產(chǎn)。如果你想要這種機(jī)器，就必須與ASML公司及丹麥建立緊密的合作關(guān)系。
upvoting this for truthiness. if you don't have asml basically setting up a small office in your fab, you don't get the coolest toys. sauce: worked for coorstek ceramics who makes the "slider" (outrageous huge chunk of SiC) inside the EUV machine and the previous gen twinscan's ceramic air bearing surfaces (which were alumina ceramic, but still bleeding edge tols at temperture for the years we made them)
贊同這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)，如果沒(méi)有ASML公司在一定程度上將小型辦公室設(shè)在你的晶圓廠里，你就無(wú)法獲得最先進(jìn)的設(shè)備。來(lái)源：曾在Coorstek Ceramics工作過(guò)，該公司生產(chǎn)的“滑塊”（一塊巨大的碳化硅部件）被應(yīng)用于EUV機(jī)器內(nèi)部，以及上一代雙工件掃描機(jī)的陶瓷氣浮表面（采用氧化鋁陶瓷材料制造，在我們生產(chǎn)那幾年也是溫度條件下的尖端工具）。
Sounds like trying to get a Rolex. Like do I have to buy boatloads of their shittier tools before I’ll “get an opportunity” to buy their nm stuff?
感覺(jué)就像是試圖購(gòu)買勞力士手表。是不是要先買一大堆他們低端的產(chǎn)品，才能“有機(jī)會(huì)”購(gòu)買到他們的納米級(jí)設(shè)備呢？
Yes and no.
Say you were a CEO of a company that wants to start producing cutting-edge chips. No matter how much money you have, your country better have good relations to countries like the US, Netherlands. So if you're in a country that has bad relations (china), better hope you can steal the info on how to make the machine.
Even if your country is friendly with the US and the Netherlands, the machine costs around 200 million dollars , and there are only 140 in the world as of 2022.
Even if you somehow managed to buy the machine, and get it set up correctly, you still need to hire people who can work with this very specialised machine (again 140 as of 2022 in the entire world).
After you manage to find people who can use the machine and get the machine installed, you still need to iinvest alarge amount of money in R&D to research a chip to produce.
So before you even start producing, you are more than likely looking close to 1 billion $.
是的，也不是完全這樣。
假如您是一家尋求生產(chǎn)尖端芯片公司的一位CEO，那么無(wú)論您擁有多少資金，您的國(guó)家必須與美國(guó)、荷蘭等國(guó)保持良好關(guān)系。這意味著，如果您所在國(guó)家與其關(guān)系緊張（比如中國(guó)），則可能需要設(shè)法獲取制造這種機(jī)器的相關(guān)信息。
即使貴國(guó)與美國(guó)和荷蘭保持著友好關(guān)系，一臺(tái)此類尖端光刻機(jī)的價(jià)格大約在2億美元左右，且截至2022年全球僅有約140臺(tái)。
就算您設(shè)法購(gòu)買到了這臺(tái)機(jī)器，并成功安裝調(diào)試，接下來(lái)還需要招聘能夠操作這種高度專業(yè)設(shè)備的技術(shù)人員（同樣截至2022年，全球范圍內(nèi)能熟練使用這類設(shè)備的人才極其有限）。
當(dāng)您成功找到合適的操作員并完成機(jī)器安裝后，仍需投入大量資金進(jìn)行研發(fā)，以研究要生產(chǎn)的芯片設(shè)計(jì)。
綜上所述，在真正開(kāi)始生產(chǎn)之前，整個(gè)過(guò)程的投入很可能接近甚至超過(guò)10億美元。因此，進(jìn)入頂尖芯片制造領(lǐng)域不僅限于資金問(wèn)題，還涉及國(guó)際關(guān)系、稀缺設(shè)備采購(gòu)、專業(yè)技術(shù)人才引進(jìn)以及高額的研發(fā)投資等多個(gè)復(fù)雜層面。
The fabs cost billions of dollars, and the price of the chip you sell decreases dramatically over time, if I recall correctly you get back about 50% of your investment in the first two years -- but only if you're first to the new bleeding edge transistor size. If you're six months late to the tech, you will never pay off the fab.
And that's the challenge for someone like AMD, who know what the hell they're doing. These are the most absurdly complex manufacturing processes ever created, and each generation of chips they have to reinvent it. You can't just follow the process from the last generation and make it smaller. It is absurdly difficult to do.
芯片工廠的建設(shè)成本高達(dá)數(shù)十億美元，而且您所出售的芯片價(jià)格會(huì)隨著時(shí)間推移急劇下降。據(jù)我所知，只有在率先采用最新前沿的晶體管尺寸時(shí)，大約能在前兩年收回約一定比例的投資。如果技術(shù)上落后六個(gè)月，那么這座晶圓廠可能永遠(yuǎn)都無(wú)法回本。
對(duì)于像AMD這樣深知其中門道的企業(yè)來(lái)說(shuō)，這是一項(xiàng)巨大的挑戰(zhàn)。半導(dǎo)體制造工藝是迄今為止人類創(chuàng)造的最為復(fù)雜的過(guò)程，每一代芯片都需要從頭重新研發(fā)。你無(wú)法簡(jiǎn)單地沿用上一代工藝并將其縮小規(guī)模，實(shí)現(xiàn)這一目標(biāo)的難度極其之高。因此，對(duì)于AMD這樣的企業(yè)而言，在每個(gè)新世代節(jié)點(diǎn)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中保持領(lǐng)先地位至關(guān)重要，否則將面臨難以回收巨額投資的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
Another factor: There is currently only one manufacturer (ASML) for these machines and they are based in the Netherlands. There is no second player. ASML also has an export embargo for China, so even if they wanted to they couldn't sell China any of these machines.
Additionally these machines are very complicated. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but a few years back China actually managed to somehow get ahold of one.
They tried to reverse engineer it and broke it when they reassembled it. They couldn't get it to work anymore and nothing of substance was learned, partly because of the insane precision required in the processes.
另一個(gè)重要因素是，目前這類機(jī)器僅有一家供應(yīng)商——ASML公司，且總部位于荷蘭，沒(méi)有其他競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。此外，ASML對(duì)中國(guó)實(shí)施了出口禁運(yùn)，因此即使他們有意出售，也無(wú)法向中國(guó)提供任何此類機(jī)器。
另外，這些機(jī)器極其復(fù)雜。如果我記憶有誤，請(qǐng)糾正：幾年前，中國(guó)實(shí)際上設(shè)法得到了一臺(tái)這樣的機(jī)器。他們?cè)噲D逆向工程仿制這臺(tái)機(jī)器，在重新組裝時(shí)卻損壞了它，導(dǎo)致其無(wú)法再次正常工作。部分原因在于該過(guò)程中所需達(dá)到的精度極高，因此在嘗試拆解和重組的過(guò)程中，并未學(xué)到實(shí)質(zhì)性的技術(shù)內(nèi)容。
ASML sends engineers on site (something like or so for its most advanced machinery) to Taiwan and those engineers remain on-site at the fabs for the entire life of the ASML machine.
In other words, it’s not just having the precision to reassemble it, but maintaining it and operating it requires an extreme
對(duì)于最尖端的設(shè)備，ASML會(huì)派遣工程師到現(xiàn)場(chǎng)（比如臺(tái)灣晶圓廠），大約會(huì)有幾十名工程師常駐在工廠中，負(fù)責(zé)整個(gè)ASML機(jī)器在其壽命周期內(nèi)的運(yùn)作。換句話說(shuō)，這不僅僅是擁有高精度重新組裝的能力，保持機(jī)器運(yùn)行并進(jìn)行維護(hù)也需要極高的理解和專業(yè)技術(shù)支持，而這并不是簡(jiǎn)單通過(guò)投入資金和人力就能迅速掌握的。
Its not just money. That helps, but there much more and it takes time.
Starting early, having a specialised workforce, recruitment and training systems, deals with companies that provide essential tools and material, investing that kind of money yearly and being backed by the right companies and goverments.
These companies also rely on some of the most complex supply chaines in the world. China is said to be generations behind and have very little outside help. Better than the russians, but a long way from parity.
這不僅僅是資金的問(wèn)題。雖然資金確實(shí)有幫助，但還需要更多，并且需要時(shí)間。要從早期開(kāi)始布局，培養(yǎng)一支專業(yè)的員工隊(duì)伍，建立有效的招聘和培訓(xùn)體系，與提供關(guān)鍵工具和材料的公司達(dá)成協(xié)議，每年進(jìn)行大規(guī)模投資，并得到合適的企業(yè)和政府支持。這些芯片制造企業(yè)依賴于世界上最復(fù)雜的供應(yīng)鏈。據(jù)說(shuō)中國(guó)在這一領(lǐng)域落后了幾代，而且能得到的外部援助非常有限，盡管其情況優(yōu)于俄羅斯，但仍需經(jīng)歷漫長(zhǎng)的道路才能實(shí)現(xiàn)并駕齊驅(qū)。
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There are numerous interdependencies in the semi industry, and there are a couple of choke points that the US controls. One of them is chip design software. TSMC builds the chips, but the design of those chips is done primarily on US-based software providers. Second, ASML (mentioned above) assembles the most cutting edge lithography tools in the world. But they source portions of their equipment from an ASML subsidiary in San Diego called “Cymer”.
The US controls the flow of chip design software and certain tools (like those made by Cymer) to China. Further, ASML (a Netherlands company) has agreed to back US embargoes to china. But even if ASML wanted to provide tools to china, those tools that come from the US would be off limits and therefore cripple the process.
You can throw hundreds of billions of dollars at an industry, but if you are locked out from fundamental components of the industry then no amount of money can solve it.
China would have to develop ALL of its own tools for the entire process. It is not only cost prohibitive, but it’s technically prohibitive - at least for the near term.
半導(dǎo)體行業(yè)中存在著許多相互依存關(guān)系，美國(guó)控制著其中幾個(gè)關(guān)鍵瓶頸點(diǎn)。首先，芯片設(shè)計(jì)軟件方面，臺(tái)積電雖然負(fù)責(zé)制造芯片，但芯片的設(shè)計(jì)主要依賴于美國(guó)的軟件供應(yīng)商。其次，提到的ASML公司組裝了世界上最先進(jìn)的光刻工具，但他們部分設(shè)備來(lái)自位于圣地亞哥的ASML子公司——Cymer。
美國(guó)控制著流向中國(guó)的芯片設(shè)計(jì)軟件以及某些特定工具（比如Cymer生產(chǎn)的工具）的出口。此外，荷蘭公司ASML也同意支持對(duì)中國(guó)的禁運(yùn)措施。即使ASML有意向中國(guó)提供工具，由于來(lái)自美國(guó)的那些工具受到限制，這將嚴(yán)重阻礙整個(gè)生產(chǎn)流程。
你可以向一個(gè)行業(yè)投入數(shù)千億的資金，但如果被排除在該行業(yè)的核心組件之外，再多的錢也無(wú)法解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題。中國(guó)必須為整個(gè)芯片制造過(guò)程自主研發(fā)所有的工具。這不僅成本高昂，而且在技術(shù)上也具有挑戰(zhàn)性——至少在短期內(nèi)是如此。
IBM was really good but they went fabless some years ago.
IBM曾經(jīng)非常出色，但幾年前他們決定轉(zhuǎn)型為無(wú)晶圓廠模式（fabless）。
IBM went fabless because they started falling behind in the leading edge
IBM之所以選擇成為無(wú)晶圓廠模式，是因?yàn)樵诩舛思夹g(shù)領(lǐng)域他們開(kāi)始落后于競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。
Same with AMD's spin-off Global Foundries. Global Foundries basically came to the conclusion that they couldn't compete at the bleeding edge anymore and AMD had to go to TSMC while Global Foundries makes things on larger process size nodes.
AMD剝離出的子公司Global Foundries也面臨類似情況。Global Foundries最終得出結(jié)論，它們無(wú)法在最前沿技術(shù)上與對(duì)手競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，因此AMD轉(zhuǎn)向了臺(tái)積電，而Global Foundries則專注于更大工藝尺寸節(jié)點(diǎn)的產(chǎn)品制造。
TSMC's emergence as the pre-eminent advanced chip manufacturer was largely funded by Apple. They wanted to get away from Samsung, who was also their biggest phone competitor but supplied all the CPUs for all the early iPhones. So they basically bankrolled TSMC's most advanced fabs in return for certain exclusivity. The amount of money Apple spends on advanced chips is mind boggling, and if they switched wholesale to someone else, those folks would probably surpass TSMC in 5 years.
臺(tái)積電成為尖端芯片制造領(lǐng)頭羊的地位在很大程度上得益于蘋果公司的資助。蘋果希望擺脫三星，因?yàn)槿羌仁撬麄冏畲蟮氖謾C(jī)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，同時(shí)也是早期所有iPhone CPU的供應(yīng)商。因此，蘋果基本上為臺(tái)積電最尖端晶圓廠提供了資金支持，以換取一定的獨(dú)家供應(yīng)權(quán)。蘋果在先進(jìn)芯片上的花費(fèi)數(shù)額驚人，如果他們將訂單全部轉(zhuǎn)給其他廠商，那么這些廠商很可能在5年內(nèi)超越臺(tái)積電。
At this point, I’d imagine TSMC is basically self sustaining. If Apple stopped bankrolling them, someone else like Nvidia or AMD would. Even Intel is buying fab capacity from TSMC now. But yes, it takes a lot of investment over a long period of time to get to the bleeding edge and stay there.
現(xiàn)在來(lái)看，臺(tái)積電已經(jīng)基本實(shí)現(xiàn)了自我維持。即便蘋果停止對(duì)其資助，像英偉達(dá)或AMD這樣的公司也會(huì)接手。甚至英特爾現(xiàn)在也開(kāi)始從臺(tái)積電購(gòu)買晶圓廠產(chǎn)能。但是，要達(dá)到并保持技術(shù)前沿確實(shí)需要長(zhǎng)期大量的投資。
from "5 nm" to "3 nm" and to "2 nm"
In a couple of years it will be measured in angstroms.
從“5納米”發(fā)展到“3納米”，再到“2納米”，
在未來(lái)幾年內(nèi)，這一測(cè)量單位可能會(huì)縮小至埃（angstroms）。
Nah, we'll have to go back to thicker chips and the tech world will lose 3-5 years of hardware progress.
Inconvenient, sure, but we're not going back to steam machine.
不，我們可能不得不退回到使用更厚的芯片技術(shù)，科技界會(huì)因此損失3-5年的硬件進(jìn)步成果。雖然確實(shí)很不方便，但我們不至于倒退回蒸汽機(jī)時(shí)代。
America is going to spite the entire world because they dont want China controlling some chip factories? Sounds pretty selfish to me
美國(guó)為了不讓中國(guó)控制某些芯片工廠，而打算犧牲全世界的利益？在我看來(lái)這確實(shí)顯得相當(dāng)自私。
No, China wouldn't risk damaging such a valuable industry
It's far more likely that they would nationalize TSMC and disrupt production to the West.
不，中國(guó)不會(huì)冒著破壞如此有價(jià)值的產(chǎn)業(yè)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
更有可能的是他們會(huì)將臺(tái)積電收歸國(guó)有并擾亂對(duì)西方的生產(chǎn)。
They absolutely would be blown to smithereens either by
A.) China, because of carpet bombing
B.) The West, to prevent China from getting the technology
C.) Taiwan, knowing they lost to make sure China doesn't get it
它們絕對(duì)會(huì)被徹底摧毀，方法可能有以下幾種：
A）中國(guó)可能采取地毯式轟炸來(lái)摧毀這些設(shè)施；
B）西方國(guó)家可能采取行動(dòng)，以防止中國(guó)獲得相關(guān)技術(shù)；
C）臺(tái)灣可能已經(jīng)有所準(zhǔn)備，確保不讓中國(guó)獲得這些設(shè)施。
No, China wouldn't risk damaging such a valuable industry
They're not saying they would be blown up by China, they would be blown up by the West to stopping China getting access to the technology
Hence why a foundry is being constructed in Texas
不，中國(guó)不會(huì)冒著破壞如此有價(jià)值的產(chǎn)業(yè)的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)。
他們并不是在說(shuō)設(shè)備會(huì)被中國(guó)摧毀，而是會(huì)被西方國(guó)家炸毀，以阻止中國(guó)獲取技術(shù)。
因此，這也是為什么在德克薩斯正在建設(shè)一個(gè)鑄造廠的原因。
I would think the more important resource would be the k highly skilled workers with knowledge and experience being the best in the world at what they do. The consensus seems to be that physically building the facilities isn’t the hardest part. China would want to secure those skilled and experienced workers and “motivate” them to industry secrets. Then they could replicate the facilities in mainland china, and curb any motivation the west has for reprisals
我認(rèn)為更重要的資源是那些在芯片制造領(lǐng)域擁有世界頂級(jí)知識(shí)和經(jīng)驗(yàn)的高技能工人。普遍認(rèn)為，建設(shè)這些設(shè)施并非最困難的部分。中國(guó)希望確保這些技術(shù)嫻熟且經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的工人，并對(duì)他們進(jìn)行“激勵(lì)”以分享行業(yè)知識(shí)。然后他們可以在中國(guó)大陸復(fù)制這些設(shè)施，并遏制西方對(duì)報(bào)復(fù)的動(dòng)力。
Would they be willing to do it correctly, I imagine they would be as uncooperative as they could reasonably be.
You can kiss further innovation goodbye. I don't think you can beat or threaten that out of a worker.
But the destroying to reduce their appeal to the West is an interesting idea that would unfortunately probably work.
這些工人是否會(huì)愿意配合，我推測(cè)他們會(huì)盡可能地不合作。你可以預(yù)見(jiàn)，在這種情況下，進(jìn)一步的創(chuàng)新將很難實(shí)現(xiàn)。我認(rèn)為無(wú)法通過(guò)威脅或強(qiáng)迫的方式來(lái)從工人那里獲取技術(shù)。
但摧毀工廠以降低其對(duì)西方吸引力的想法雖然不幸，卻可能奏效。
It's been reported that Taiwan has planned the destruction of the plants as a step in their defense of the island.
據(jù)報(bào)道，臺(tái)灣已經(jīng)計(jì)劃在保衛(wèi)該島的過(guò)程中，將破壞這些工廠作為防御措施之一。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處
*TSMC is currently building its North American fab plant in Phoenix, AZ
臺(tái)積電目前正在美國(guó)亞利桑那州鳳凰城建設(shè)其北美晶圓廠。
Also in Dresden, Germany in the coming years. Deal is already signed.
在未來(lái)幾年內(nèi)，臺(tái)積電還將在德國(guó)德累斯頓建廠，協(xié)議已經(jīng)簽署。
TSMC is still at the bleeding edge of EUV. TSMC facilities in the US are always made to be at least one node behind those in Taiwan. Taiwan made a huge gamble by putting pretty much everything into chip fab, and it worked. It's also a major national defense strategy.
臺(tái)積電在極紫外光刻（EUV）技術(shù)上仍處于最前沿。在美國(guó)的臺(tái)積電工廠通常會(huì)比臺(tái)灣本土的工廠落后至少一個(gè)工藝節(jié)點(diǎn)。臺(tái)灣通過(guò)幾乎全力投入芯片制造，進(jìn)行了一場(chǎng)巨大的賭博，并且成功了。這也成為了其重要的國(guó)家防御策略之一。
You forgot the part where they're making the smallest transistors with high yield that nobody else is capable of.
您遺漏了關(guān)鍵的一點(diǎn)，即臺(tái)積電能夠以高良品率制造出其他廠商無(wú)法企及的最小尺寸晶體管。
Intel isn't really in the same league as TSMC. They used to not be direct competitors as Intel manufactures chips for itself primarily, only recently trying to become a foundry as well and manufacture for external customers. But Intel is also multiple generations behind TSMC and in general losing to AMD and to Android. Apple even switched from Intel in its macs to an in-house chip manufactured by TSMC.
Even Samsung is still a few years behind TSMC in the leading edge. They claim they can catch up, but so far the evidence isn't there.
英特爾實(shí)際上并不屬于與臺(tái)積電同一級(jí)別的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者。過(guò)去，由于英特爾主要為自己制造芯片，并未將自己定位為晶圓代工廠，直到最近才嘗試成為代工廠并開(kāi)始為外部客戶提供制造服務(wù)。但即便如此，英特爾在技術(shù)上仍落后臺(tái)積電多代，在市場(chǎng)上正逐漸輸給AMD和搭載高通/驍龍?zhí)幚砥鞯陌沧吭O(shè)備。蘋果甚至已在其Mac電腦產(chǎn)品線上從英特爾轉(zhuǎn)向自家設(shè)計(jì)、由臺(tái)積電生產(chǎn)的芯片。
即使像三星這樣的巨頭，在最前沿的技術(shù)節(jié)點(diǎn)上也仍然落后臺(tái)積電幾年時(shí)間。雖然他們聲稱能夠迎頭趕上，但目前還沒(méi)有足夠的證據(jù)表明這一點(diǎn)。
I mis-typed it. Intel never really gained a foothold in mobile, so they're not really losing to Android because they never had any to begin with.
AMD is the primary gainer at Intel's expense both in PCs and also in the datacenter. But given how much Mac has grown, Apple switching to their in-house chip was a fairly big loss for Intel, although that's also been a few years now at this point.
英特爾實(shí)際上從未在移動(dòng)市場(chǎng)取得穩(wěn)固地位，所以他們并沒(méi)有真正意義上因?yàn)榘沧慷ナ袌?chǎng)份額，因?yàn)樗麄儚囊婚_(kāi)始就沒(méi)有在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域擁有多少份額。AMD是主要從英特爾手中奪走市場(chǎng)份額的一方，無(wú)論是在個(gè)人電腦還是數(shù)據(jù)中心領(lǐng)域都取得了顯著增長(zhǎng)。盡管蘋果轉(zhuǎn)向自家芯片已經(jīng)過(guò)去幾年了，但鑒于Mac業(yè)務(wù)的大幅增長(zhǎng)，蘋果轉(zhuǎn)用自研芯片對(duì)英特爾而言確實(shí)是一個(gè)重大損失。
AMD is quite big and has money, why don’t they invest in their own foundry?
Seems a bit strange to be so dependent on one supplier
AMD規(guī)模很大且財(cái)力雄厚，為什么它們不投資建立自己的晶圓廠？如此依賴單一供應(yīng)商似乎有些奇怪。
AMD sold its stake in Global Foundries which previously made their chips.
AMD decided to focus on design, RND, and testing instead of manufacture.
That way all the costs and risks associated with fabricating chips is carried by someone else instead.
AMD之前曾持有Global Foundries股份，后者曾為AMD生產(chǎn)芯片。但后來(lái)AMD決定將重心放在設(shè)計(jì)、研發(fā)和測(cè)試上，而不是制造環(huán)節(jié)。這樣，與芯片制造相關(guān)的所有成本和風(fēng)險(xiǎn)都由其他公司承擔(dān)。
This is why TSMC is building a Chip Foundry in Texas Arizona right now so chip production can happen domestically in the US.
I think there are a few chip fabs being built in the US now. The government realized this was a critical weakness where an enemy could hobble the whole US. Also, companies like Apple and Intel have realized that outsourcing everything to overseas suppliers, even if less expensive, comes with its own set of problems so are starting to bring some production back to the US.
But, it takes years to get these factories online. It is a super complex task.
在建中。政府已經(jīng)意識(shí)到這是一個(gè)關(guān)鍵弱點(diǎn)，敵人可能會(huì)借此阻礙整個(gè)美國(guó)的發(fā)展。同時(shí)，像蘋果和英特爾這樣的公司也意識(shí)到即使外包給海外供應(yīng)商成本較低，但也帶來(lái)了一系列問(wèn)題，所以開(kāi)始將部分生產(chǎn)活動(dòng)帶回美國(guó)本土。但是，建立這些工廠并投入運(yùn)營(yíng)需要數(shù)年時(shí)間，是一項(xiàng)極其復(fù)雜的任務(wù)。
It's not that other companies can't replicate them, it's that the amount of startup money needed to get a top of the line chip manufacturing facility running is immense. In the s, the Taiwanese government put up a large amount of that startup money believing that it would pay off later, and it did. Lots of companies decided they'd rather pay Taiwan's company to manufacture their chips for them instead of build their own facilities.
問(wèn)題并非其他公司無(wú)法復(fù)制這種模式，而是要啟動(dòng)一家頂級(jí)芯片制造工廠所需的初始資金極其龐大。上世紀(jì)80年代，臺(tái)灣政府提供了大量啟動(dòng)資金，相信此舉將在未來(lái)得到回報(bào)，并且確實(shí)取得了成功。許多公司寧愿支付費(fèi)用讓臺(tái)灣的臺(tái)積電為其代工生產(chǎn)芯片，而不是自建設(shè)施。
You also can't replicate them either. At this point there are trade secrets, billions of R&D, and general employee expertise that make it almost impossible for a newcomer to compete with TSMC and Samsung at the leading edge.
Intel had all the resources in the world and was competitive until maybe -ish years ago when it started to fall behind TSMC. It's not entirely clear why they weren't able to achieve the same success as TSMC, whether it's a leadership issue or maybe something cultural.
除了高昂的啟動(dòng)資金外，實(shí)際上你也不能輕易復(fù)制臺(tái)積電或三星在尖端領(lǐng)域的地位。目前存在大量的商業(yè)秘密、數(shù)十億美元的研發(fā)投入以及員工專業(yè)知識(shí)，使得新進(jìn)入者幾乎不可能與臺(tái)積電和三星相抗衡。英特爾擁有全世界的資源，在幾年前還能與臺(tái)積電保持競(jìng)爭(zhēng)態(tài)勢(shì)，但后來(lái)逐漸落后于臺(tái)積電。尚不清楚為何英特爾未能取得與臺(tái)積電同樣的成功，這可能是由于領(lǐng)導(dǎo)層問(wèn)題，或者是文化層面的某些因素所導(dǎo)致。
Semi conductors manufacturing is the most difficult mass production on the planet.
It requires tremendous amounts of investment to build and operate a fab. Each successive semi-conductor generation (often called a "node") is getting more difficult and expensive to design and produce, with the possibility of it being delayed / faulty increasing (this happened with Intel's nm process). As a result, a lot of companies dropped out, and at the bleeding edge we're left with main players: Intel, Samsung, and TSMC.
Currently, TSMC has the best process - right now it's being used for the new iPhone Pro and Apple M series and should expand to more products from AMD and and Nvidia by the end of the year.
There's also one main company left producing the machinery to make these highly advanced nodes economical: ASML. These machines are very complex, expensive, and limited in quantity per year.
TSMCs leadership role isn't a guarantee. Intel and Samsung aren't THAT far behind, and Intel in the last few years has dumped tremendous amounts of money into R&D (more than AMD, Nvidia, and TSMC combined) in an effort to close that gap. Intel claims they will take leadership from TSMC within the next months of so (but this is certainly not a guarantee and remains to be seen).
Another aspect is that Intel is only now just beginning to open their fabs to external design companies. For a long time, companies like AMD, Qualcomm, Nvidia, etc. Went with TSMC because they were the best available for them. A few years ago, Global Foundries was close enough to be considered, but they've since dropped out of the leading node market, and last gen Nvidia sourced from Samsung because their nm node was "good enough" and cheaper than TSMC's nm node and Nvidia was able to compete due to their extremely good architecture design that offset some of this discrepancy.
半導(dǎo)體制造是地球上最具挑戰(zhàn)性的大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)行業(yè)。建立和運(yùn)營(yíng)晶圓廠需要巨額投資，而且每一代新的半導(dǎo)體技術(shù)（通常稱為“節(jié)點(diǎn)”）的設(shè)計(jì)與生產(chǎn)難度和成本都在增加，延遲或出現(xiàn)故障的可能性也隨之提高（英特爾的10納米工藝就曾遇到這種情況）。因此，許多公司退出了競(jìng)爭(zhēng)，在尖端領(lǐng)域僅剩下幾家主要廠商：英特爾、三星以及臺(tái)積電。
當(dāng)前，臺(tái)積電擁有最先進(jìn)的制程技術(shù)，目前正應(yīng)用于新款iPhone Pro系列及蘋果M系列芯片，并預(yù)計(jì)在年內(nèi)擴(kuò)展至AMD和Nvidia等更多公司的產(chǎn)品中。
此外，全球只剩下一家主要企業(yè)——ASML，能夠生產(chǎn)用于制造這些高度先進(jìn)節(jié)點(diǎn)的經(jīng)濟(jì)高效的設(shè)備。這類機(jī)器極其復(fù)雜、昂貴且每年產(chǎn)量有限。
盡管臺(tái)積電目前處于領(lǐng)先地位，但這一地位并非穩(wěn)固不變。英特爾和三星并未落后太多，過(guò)去幾年來(lái)，英特爾投入了巨額資金進(jìn)行研發(fā)（超過(guò)了AMD、Nvidia和臺(tái)積電研發(fā)投入的總和），力圖縮小差距。英特爾聲稱將在未來(lái)幾個(gè)月內(nèi)奪回領(lǐng)導(dǎo)地位（但這當(dāng)然不是保證，還需拭目以待）。
另一個(gè)方面是，英特爾直到最近才開(kāi)始將其晶圓廠開(kāi)放給外部設(shè)計(jì)公司使用。長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，像AMD、高通、Nvidia等公司選擇與臺(tái)積電合作，因?yàn)榕_(tái)積電是當(dāng)時(shí)他們可獲得的最佳選擇。幾年前，Global Foundries也曾接近達(dá)到尖端水平，但后來(lái)退出了領(lǐng)先節(jié)點(diǎn)市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。上一代Nvidia的部分產(chǎn)品采用了三星的8納米節(jié)點(diǎn)，因?yàn)樗鼘?duì)于Nvidia來(lái)說(shuō)已經(jīng)足夠好，同時(shí)比臺(tái)積電的7納米節(jié)點(diǎn)更便宜。由于Nvidia在架構(gòu)設(shè)計(jì)方面的出色表現(xiàn)抵消了部分性能差距，使其能夠在市場(chǎng)上保持競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力。
Samsung production technology is quite close to TSMC. According to them “Samsung's 4 nm technology is two years behind TSMC's, and our 3 nm is about a year behind. But things will change when TSMC enters the 2 nm process," So quite similar and the difference will become smaller over time.
The reason one or a few companies are dominant is because of the cost. The cost to develop a process at a smaller scale is billions of dollars. The cost to build a factory for it is billions. Whe a process changes to a smaller scale the upgrade cost is almost the same as a new factory, the buildings are not the most expensive part, it is the equipment in them.
TMSC built a new factory in Phoenix, Arizona The initial investment was $12 billion and when the factory grows the total investment will be around $40 billion. The construction of the first parts started in 2021 and production is expected at the end of 2024.
Because of the high development cost a single company that can build many factories has the advantage, It can spread out the development cost over all factories and chips made.
If you try to create a competitor you will first need to get people, the ones that know how to do it and already work at the other funders. You would also need to do a lot of research to get to the level they were when the new process development started, the you will need to repeat what they did. The complied that is first and developed new technology will get lots of patents and can stop you from doing some parts exactly like they do. This makes it harder if you are late.
Fo there is one part of the semiconductor manufacturing industry only one company can do that is ASML in the Netherlands. They mate the photolithography machins that is used to project the pattern onto the wafers other processes is to add and remove material. No other company can make machines that project them for the smaller processes.
三星的生產(chǎn)工藝與臺(tái)積電相當(dāng)接近。據(jù)稱，“三星的4納米技術(shù)落后于臺(tái)積電約兩年時(shí)間，而我們的3納米技術(shù)大約滯后一年。但當(dāng)臺(tái)積電進(jìn)入2納米工藝時(shí)，情況將會(huì)有所改變?！眱烧卟罹嚯m存在，但隨著時(shí)間推移會(huì)逐漸縮小。
一兩家公司在市場(chǎng)中占據(jù)主導(dǎo)地位的原因在于高昂的成本。開(kāi)發(fā)更小尺寸工藝的成本高達(dá)數(shù)十億美元，而建造相應(yīng)的工廠也需要數(shù)十億美元的投資。當(dāng)工藝升級(jí)至更小尺度時(shí)，升級(jí)成本幾乎等同于新建一座工廠，建筑本身并非最昂貴的部分，真正貴重的是其中的生產(chǎn)設(shè)備。
臺(tái)積電正在美國(guó)亞利桑那州鳳凰城建設(shè)一座新工廠，初期投資為120億美元，隨著工廠擴(kuò)建，總投入預(yù)計(jì)將達(dá)400億美元左右。該工廠部分設(shè)施建設(shè)始于2021年，預(yù)計(jì)到2024年底開(kāi)始投產(chǎn)。
由于高昂的研發(fā)成本，能夠建立多個(gè)工廠的單一企業(yè)具有優(yōu)勢(shì)，它們可以將研發(fā)成本分?jǐn)偟剿泄S及生產(chǎn)的芯片上。
若試圖創(chuàng)建一個(gè)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手，首先需要找到人才，即那些已經(jīng)在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域工作并熟知業(yè)務(wù)的人才，并且還需要進(jìn)行大量的研究以達(dá)到當(dāng)前先進(jìn)工藝的發(fā)展水平，之后再重復(fù)領(lǐng)先者所做的工作。先行研發(fā)并取得新技術(shù)突破的企業(yè)會(huì)獲得大量專利，可以通過(guò)專利阻止后來(lái)者完全復(fù)制其做法，這無(wú)疑增加了后入局者的難度。
在半導(dǎo)體制造業(yè)中，有一部分只能由荷蘭的一家公司完成，那就是ASML。ASML制造用于光刻工藝的光刻機(jī)，這種設(shè)備將圖案投影到晶圓上，其他工藝則包括添加和去除材料。對(duì)于更小尺寸的制造工藝，目前沒(méi)有其他公司能夠制造出能實(shí)現(xiàn)此類精密投影的機(jī)器。
Why is ASML the only one?
為什么ASML是唯一的供應(yīng)商？
Your understanding ist wrong. ASML ist the only company that makes the machines to produce chips. It's a durch company.
So all the world ist not dependend on a taiwanese company. It's a dutch company.
您的理解有誤。ASML 是唯一一家生產(chǎn)芯片制造機(jī)器的公司，它是一家荷蘭公司。因此，全世界并非僅依賴一家臺(tái)灣公司，而是依賴于這家荷蘭企業(yè)。
For the same reason TSMC is the leading manufacturer, or iPads are better than other tablets. You pour your profits into R&D, so your product gets better, so more people work with you, so you gain invaluable experience and even more profits, which you keep pouring into R&D, which keep increasing the lead between you and your nearest competitor.
ASML成為領(lǐng)先供應(yīng)商的原因與臺(tái)積電成為頂級(jí)制造商、iPad優(yōu)于其他平板電腦的原因相似。你將利潤(rùn)不斷投入到研發(fā)中，使得產(chǎn)品變得更好，從而吸引更多合作伙伴，積累寶貴的經(jīng)驗(yàn)并獲得更多利潤(rùn)，這些利潤(rùn)又被繼續(xù)投入研發(fā)，進(jìn)一步拉大了與最接近的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手之間的差距。
There were companies trying to make EUV lithography (now the most cutting edge) possible. Canon, Nikon and ASML. Canon and Nikon stopped development as they thought the technology would never be feasible at mass production levels. ASML continued. Samsung, intel, tsmc all invested heavily in ASML so they could get the technology to work. They managed to do it. Now they are the sole supplier of the most cutting edge technology.
曾有3家公司嘗試開(kāi)發(fā)極紫外光刻技術(shù)（如今是最尖端的技術(shù)），它們分別是佳能、尼康和ASML。佳能和尼康認(rèn)為該技術(shù)無(wú)法實(shí)現(xiàn)大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)而停止了研發(fā)工作。但ASML堅(jiān)持了下來(lái)。三星、英特爾和臺(tái)積電都對(duì)ASML進(jìn)行了大量投資，以幫助其攻克這項(xiàng)技術(shù)難題。最終ASML成功做到了，并且目前成為了唯一能夠提供最尖端極紫外光刻技術(shù)的供應(yīng)商。
You'll often find this with very specialized knowledge. Once a company has it setup, the barrier to entry is so high that not too many other people are doing bother even trying to get into that business. This is especially true if the business is pretty open.
What I mean by that is TSMC (The Taiwan) company will make the computer chips for anyone. If you're a US company and want to make a chip. You send TSMC the design and the money and they will make it for you. They're very open.
You couldn't do this with Intel (at least historically). Intel only chips for Intel.
So when AMD (Intel's competitor) wanted to make chips, they just sent their design to TSMC instead of building their own chip factories. TSMC grew really fast and powerful like this because they kept improving their process, having specialized knowledge, and making chips for anyone.
As others have said, Samsung and Intel both have similar knowledge.
It may not be the case forever. There has been some tension between China and USA/Taiwan and there were some restrictions on the kind of chip TSMC could make for China. Now there is an incentive for China to be able to make it's own chips. So China has been investing heavily trying to duplicate the process. The USA is also trying to get more chip production in the USA itself as it doesn't want to be so reliant on Taiwan in case stuff happens.
在非常專業(yè)化的知識(shí)領(lǐng)域中，這種情況很常見(jiàn)。一旦一家公司建立起這樣的技術(shù)壁壘，其他競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手進(jìn)入該領(lǐng)域的難度就非常高，因此沒(méi)有太多人愿意嘗試。如果這個(gè)行業(yè)相對(duì)開(kāi)放的話，這種現(xiàn)象尤為明顯。
例如，臺(tái)積電（臺(tái)灣積體電路制造股份有限公司）會(huì)為任何需要的人制造計(jì)算機(jī)芯片。如果你是一家美國(guó)公司，想要生產(chǎn)一款芯片，只需將設(shè)計(jì)和資金發(fā)給臺(tái)積電，他們就會(huì)為你制造出來(lái)。臺(tái)積電的業(yè)務(wù)模式非常開(kāi)放。
相比之下，英特爾（至少在歷史上）僅為自己生產(chǎn)芯片，不對(duì)外提供代工服務(wù)。
所以當(dāng)AMD（英特爾的主要競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手）想生產(chǎn)芯片時(shí)，他們選擇將設(shè)計(jì)方案交給臺(tái)積電而非自建晶圓廠。臺(tái)積電憑借持續(xù)改進(jìn)生產(chǎn)工藝、積累的專業(yè)知識(shí)以及為任何人制造芯片的方式，迅速成長(zhǎng)為一個(gè)強(qiáng)大企業(yè)。
如其他人所說(shuō)，三星和英特爾同樣擁有類似的知識(shí)和技術(shù)。
但這種情況可能不會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)持續(xù)下去。中美之間以及中國(guó)大陸與臺(tái)灣之間存在一定的緊張關(guān)系，曾有一些針對(duì)臺(tái)積電為中國(guó)大陸生產(chǎn)某種芯片的限制措施。因此，中國(guó)現(xiàn)在有了自主研發(fā)芯片的動(dòng)力，并已大力投入資源試圖復(fù)制這一過(guò)程。同時(shí)，美國(guó)也希望增加本土芯片生產(chǎn)，以減少對(duì)臺(tái)灣地區(qū)的依賴，以防萬(wàn)一出現(xiàn)狀況。
As other responders have said, it’s not that other vendors don’t have leading edge transistor technology. So what TSMC does can, to a degree, be replicated. But what is very difficult to replicate is the combined volume and reliability at which TSMC does it. It’s a weird side-effect of semiconductor manufacturing: the more volume (number of wafer starts) you have, the more reliable (higher yield) the semiconductors produced will be. TSMC has been a leader at this for years, putting a steady percentage of their profits into technology and reliability improvements that bring them more and larger customers, which bring them higher profits and … around it goes. The only other companies which achieve a similar degree of volume and quality are the remaining DRAM and Flash makers: Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron. There are no non-DRAM, non-Flash foundries that are better than TSMC in terms of volume and reliability.
正如其他回答者所說(shuō)，其他供應(yīng)商并不缺乏先進(jìn)的晶體管技術(shù)。因此，某種程度上可以復(fù)制臺(tái)積電的技術(shù)。但是，非常難以復(fù)制的是臺(tái)積電在組合產(chǎn)能和可靠性方面的優(yōu)勢(shì)。這是半導(dǎo)體制造中的一個(gè)奇特副作用：產(chǎn)能（晶圓開(kāi)啟數(shù)量）越大，所生產(chǎn)的半導(dǎo)體可靠性（良率）就越高。多年來(lái)，臺(tái)積電一直在這方面處于領(lǐng)先地位，穩(wěn)定地將利潤(rùn)的一部分投入到技術(shù)和可靠性改進(jìn)中，從而吸引更多更大的客戶，帶來(lái)更高的利潤(rùn)……如此循環(huán)。實(shí)現(xiàn)類似產(chǎn)能和質(zhì)量水平的其他公司僅有一些DRAM和閃存制造商：三星、SK海力士和美光。就產(chǎn)量和可靠性而言，沒(méi)有非DRAM、非閃存廠商能比得上臺(tái)積電。
TSMC, the company in question doesn't design chips, and is dependent on a Dutch company for the machines.
That's not to say they don't have their own process, one that's given them a competitive edge, but it's not like other "foundries" (the name for this type of company) couldn't achieve the same result next year. TSMC has been ahead of their competition, but they do have competition.
Said Dutch company (ASML) however does not. No one can make current gen high end chips without a machine from Eindhoven, and despite the Chinese stealing company secrets, that's unlikely to change any time soon.
臺(tái)積電，也就是我們討論的這家企業(yè)，并不設(shè)計(jì)芯片，其制造工藝依賴于一家荷蘭公司所提供的機(jī)器。
這并不是說(shuō)臺(tái)積電沒(méi)有自己的獨(dú)特生產(chǎn)工藝，正是這一工藝賦予了他們競(jìng)爭(zhēng)優(yōu)勢(shì)，但也不能認(rèn)為其他“晶圓代工廠”（這種類型公司的名稱）明年就無(wú)法取得同樣的成果。臺(tái)積電在競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中確實(shí)領(lǐng)先，但他們確實(shí)面臨著競(jìng)爭(zhēng)壓力。
然而，上述那家荷蘭公司（ASML）的地位則獨(dú)一無(wú)二。如果沒(méi)有來(lái)自埃因霍溫的設(shè)備，目前任何公司都無(wú)法生產(chǎn)出高端的最新一代芯片。盡管中國(guó)存在竊取該公司商業(yè)機(jī)密的情況，但在可預(yù)見(jiàn)的未來(lái)，這種情況不太可能發(fā)生改變。
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Most nations know the broad strokes of how to make a nuclear weapon but the how is so nuanced that it’s almost impossible to reverse engineer without incredible financial resources.
Same with chips. They have insane in-house knowledge curated over decades that is so sensitive, should China attack Taiwan, they would more likely destroy their processes rather than let them fall into *** possession. We can see the final result, but trying to reverse engineer it without access to the process is challenging
The US is now committing huge financial resources to try to catch up with state-side competition.
大多數(shù)國(guó)家都知道制造核武器的大致方法，但細(xì)節(jié)非常微妙，幾乎不可能在沒(méi)有極大財(cái)力的支持下進(jìn)行逆向工程。
芯片也是一樣。臺(tái)積電擁有經(jīng)過(guò)數(shù)十年培育的瘋狂內(nèi)部知識(shí)，這些知識(shí)非常敏感，如果中國(guó)(大陸)攻擊臺(tái)灣，他們更有可能摧毀他們的制程，而不是讓它們落入＊＊＊的手中。我們可以看到最終的成果，但在沒(méi)有獲取到完整的制程的情況下進(jìn)行逆向工程是具有挑戰(zhàn)性的。
美國(guó)現(xiàn)在正在投入巨大的財(cái)力，試圖趕上國(guó)內(nèi)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。
Intel and Samsung can. The 'nanometer' thing is mostly marketing fluff. It actually doesn't refer to any single measurement on a transistor. Thus, there is no part on a 3nm chip that is 3nm. TSMC just has the largest capacity to produce a chip that is in the '3nm class'.
Intel 和三星也具備相關(guān)技術(shù)。所謂的“納米”概念在很大程度上是一種營(yíng)銷術(shù)語(yǔ)，實(shí)際上它并不指代晶體管上的任何單一尺寸測(cè)量值。因此，在一塊3納米芯片上，并沒(méi)有哪個(gè)部分的實(shí)際尺寸是3納米。這里的“3nm級(jí)別”是指臺(tái)積電擁有最大的產(chǎn)能來(lái)生產(chǎn)這種最尖端的芯片。盡管如此，臺(tái)積電能夠在“3nm等級(jí)”的芯片制造方面保持領(lǐng)先，擁有最高的產(chǎn)量和最先進(jìn)的工藝水平。
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That largest capacity aspect is critical to success though. TSMC has the highest yields, which means its actually economical for them to produce 3nm chips. Samsung could get there, Intel has had plenty of issue with yields in multiple generations.
產(chǎn)能規(guī)模這一方面對(duì)成功至關(guān)重要。臺(tái)積電的良品率最高，這意味著他們制造3納米芯片在經(jīng)濟(jì)上是可行且有利可圖的。三星有可能達(dá)到這一水平，而英特爾在多個(gè)產(chǎn)品世代中都遇到了良品率問(wèn)題。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處
Pretty much the biggest reason is that there isn't enough volume in chip manufacturing to justify it. If we added similar chip manufacturer, it wouldn't double the amount being produced because there aren't enough people to consume all of them. That means the investment would likely not be returned. All it would do is hurt TSMC, but it would hurt the investor more.
主要原因在于當(dāng)前芯片制造業(yè)的需求量不足以支撐更多類似制造商的加入。即使增加一個(gè)類似的芯片制造商，由于市場(chǎng)需求有限，并不會(huì)導(dǎo)致產(chǎn)量翻倍，因?yàn)闆](méi)有足夠多的消費(fèi)者來(lái)消化這些額外的芯片。這意味著投資可能無(wú)法得到回報(bào)。這樣做不僅會(huì)沖擊臺(tái)積電的地位，但對(duì)投資者來(lái)說(shuō)損失可能會(huì)更大。因此，在當(dāng)前市場(chǎng)環(huán)境下，新增同類芯片制造商并不劃算。
The Taiwanese government made the strategic economic and military decision that relying on other people's inate love freedom and philosophical support for western-style democracy was all well and good, but being as indispensable to what they thought the modern global economy would be as possible was better.
As such the Taiwanese government invested metric fucktons of money and resources and social capital in promoting the growth of the semiconductor industry and a few other sectors.
Others could replicate their success, but they would have to be able to, if not match their drive and intensity, at least match (or more likely exceed) their resource expenditure in order to even have a chance at succeeding. TSMC was a very large bet for the government of Taiwan, and it took decades of investment before it really began to pay off. If you aren't under the same sort of existential pressures that they are ,it is probably a lot more difficult to maintain that level of investment for decades before seeing results.
The US used to be the world leader in semiconductors, and it is beginning to reinvest there, but even in such historically fertile grounds and even with the resources of the US, results are not guaranteed, especially given how fractious our political process has become.
臺(tái)灣政府在戰(zhàn)略上做出了一項(xiàng)經(jīng)濟(jì)和軍事決策，認(rèn)為依賴他人對(duì)自由的內(nèi)在熱愛(ài)以及對(duì)西方民主理念的支持固然重要，但成為現(xiàn)代全球經(jīng)濟(jì)中不可或缺的一環(huán)更為明智。因此，臺(tái)灣政府投入了巨額資金、大量資源和社會(huì)資本來(lái)推動(dòng)半導(dǎo)體行業(yè)和其他幾個(gè)關(guān)鍵領(lǐng)域的發(fā)展。
其他人可能可以復(fù)制他們的成功，但他們必須能夠，至少在資源支出方面能夠匹敵（或更可能是超過(guò)）他們的投入，才有機(jī)會(huì)成功。對(duì)于臺(tái)灣政府來(lái)說(shuō)，臺(tái)積電是一個(gè)非常大的賭注，花費(fèi)了幾十年的投資才真正開(kāi)始取得回報(bào)。如果你沒(méi)有面臨與他們相同的生存壓力，要在數(shù)十年的時(shí)間里保持如此巨額的投資才能看到成果可能會(huì)更加困難。
美國(guó)曾經(jīng)是半導(dǎo)體領(lǐng)域的世界領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者，現(xiàn)在正在重新投資，但即使在如此歷史悠久的沃土上，即使擁有美國(guó)的資源，也不能保證取得成果，尤其是考慮到我們政治進(jìn)程變得多么分裂。
Its not
TSMC is a factory / machinery provider, other people buy time on its machinery and make THEIR designs.
TSMC doesn't design chips, it simply mass produces them cheaply and reliably.
It also doesn't make the machines it makes chips with, it buys them.
So REALLY, TSMC just buys a huge amount of chip making machines, employs a very skilled workforce to use said machines, and leases those machines operational hours on favourable rates to others.
Chip foundries are expensive and to be profitable you need to run them 24/7/365
Intel makes 70% of the worlds PC's it can run its fabs none stop, AMD makes 20%, better and cheaper to forward order hours for new products then pick up slack hours for the back orders.
臺(tái)積電并非芯片設(shè)計(jì)者，它更像是一個(gè)工廠和設(shè)備提供商。其他公司購(gòu)買臺(tái)積電的機(jī)器使用時(shí)間，并利用這些設(shè)備生產(chǎn)自己的芯片設(shè)計(jì)。臺(tái)積電并不參與芯片的設(shè)計(jì)工作，而是專注于高效且低成本的大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)。同時(shí)，臺(tái)積電所使用的芯片制造機(jī)器也是采購(gòu)自其它供應(yīng)商，而非自行制造。
實(shí)際上，臺(tái)積電所做的就是大量購(gòu)入芯片制造機(jī)器，雇傭一批技術(shù)熟練的員工操作這些機(jī)器，并以優(yōu)惠的價(jià)格將機(jī)器的運(yùn)營(yíng)時(shí)間租賃給其他客戶。半導(dǎo)體晶圓廠的運(yùn)營(yíng)成本高昂，為了實(shí)現(xiàn)盈利，通常需要全天候（24小時(shí)/7天/全年無(wú)休）運(yùn)作。
英特爾生產(chǎn)的芯片占據(jù)了全球PC市場(chǎng)70%的份額，因此可以不間斷地運(yùn)行其晶圓廠；AMD則占據(jù)約20%市場(chǎng)份額。對(duì)于新產(chǎn)品的訂單，提前預(yù)定生產(chǎn)線工時(shí)更為經(jīng)濟(jì)有效，而對(duì)于補(bǔ)單或追加訂單，則可以在非滿負(fù)荷時(shí)段進(jìn)行生產(chǎn)。
This is grossly oversimplifying how difficult it is to do what TSMC does. They are by far the leading foundry in the world at the leading edge. The manufacturing aspect is much more difficult than the actual design of the chip. Hence why there used to be a lot more foundries and most of them have stopped competing at the leading edge because they couldn't achieve sufficient yield.
There are plenty of companies like Amazon, Google, Apple, etc who have designed their own chips, but there are only TSMC and maybe Samsung that can actually produce them.
對(duì)臺(tái)積電所做的事情進(jìn)行了過(guò)于簡(jiǎn)化。臺(tái)積電目前是全球領(lǐng)先的尖端晶圓代工廠，其制造工藝遠(yuǎn)比芯片設(shè)計(jì)更為復(fù)雜艱難。過(guò)去有很多晶圓代工廠，但由于難以達(dá)到足夠的良品率，大多數(shù)已經(jīng)停止在最尖端領(lǐng)域與臺(tái)積電競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。雖然有許多像亞馬遜、谷歌、蘋果這樣的公司設(shè)計(jì)出了自家的芯片，但真正能夠生產(chǎn)這些芯片的只有臺(tái)積電和可能的三星。
原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.top-shui.cn 轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處
Chip fabrication is extremely expensive, building a fab alone costs billions of dollars, so there are only a handful of companies that are in the field at all. TSMC, Samsung, Intel, GloFo, Huawei, Micron, a few smaller ones.
Each fab has its own proprietary processes and technologies, and it takes years of research and huge sums of money to improve those processes.
TSMC got its lead by consistently pouring more money into R&D than its competitors during the s and s, and now that it's on top it keeps spending on R&D so that others can't catch up.
芯片制造是一項(xiàng)極其昂貴的業(yè)務(wù)，僅建設(shè)一座晶圓廠就需要數(shù)十億美元的投資，因此在這個(gè)領(lǐng)域中活躍的公司數(shù)量極為有限。包括臺(tái)積電（TSMC）、三星（Samsung）、英特爾（Intel）、格芯（GlobalFoundries）、華為海思半導(dǎo)體和美光科技（Micron）在內(nèi)的幾家大公司，以及一些規(guī)模較小的企業(yè)。
每座晶圓廠都有各自獨(dú)特的工藝流程和技術(shù)，而要改進(jìn)這些生產(chǎn)工藝需要經(jīng)過(guò)數(shù)年深入研究，并投入巨額資金。在上世紀(jì)90年代至21世紀(jì)初，臺(tái)積電通過(guò)持續(xù)投入比競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手更多的研發(fā)資金，逐漸建立了領(lǐng)先地位。如今臺(tái)積電繼續(xù)保持高額的研發(fā)投資，確保其他公司在技術(shù)上難以趕超其領(lǐng)先地位。