台積電超越Intel?

台積電研發飛快！Intel傳7、10奈米落後 龍頭不保？

  

台積電(2330)奈米製程超進度，英特爾(Intel Corp.)面臨嚴重威脅，長久以來的晶片龍頭地位可能不保！

台積電的奈米製程研發速度超越每兩年可研發出新技術的摩爾定律(Moore`s Law)，2016年底量產10奈米製程晶片之後，7奈米製程不必等兩年、2018年上半年就可投產。另外，5奈米製程則會在7奈米投產兩年後開始量產，時間點大約落於2020年，與摩爾定律相符。

相較之下，英特爾在14/16奈米製程的競賽中雖然擊敗台積電，但10奈米的投產進度卻反而將稍稍落後台積電。

為何會如此？Motley Fool獨家引述消息人士指出，台積電自10奈米起將晶片研發模式全面翻新，不再沿襲過去一個團隊同時研發兩個世代製程的做法，如今團隊僅專注一個特定製程，工程師不必分心研究兩種技術。

也就是說，20奈米的團隊完成工作後，被分配到16奈米技術的開發工作，然後台積電創立了新團隊專門研製10奈米。一旦16奈米組員的工作告一段落，就會被指定7奈米的開發作業，而10奈米團隊之後則會接手5奈米研發工作。

相較之下，英特爾則尚未採取台積電雙火車頭的研發模式。據傳，英特爾因為想把22奈米製程技術做到最好，使得14奈米製程遭到擱置。結果，英特爾為了趕進度，14奈米製程進入量產的時間足足提早一年，良率問題也接踵而至，進而拖累到接下來10奈米、7奈米的研發時程表。

歐洲半導體設備業龍頭艾司摩爾(ASML Holding NV)執行長Peter Wennink才剛在20日於財報新聞稿中表示，邏輯IC客戶將自第2季起接收ASML的高階浸潤式機台(immersion tool)，以便為10奈米製程技術預作準備

barron`s.com報導，Cowen & Co.分析師Timothy Arcuri說，調查顯示台積電最近已獲得蘋果(Apple Inc.)承諾、會在2017年續拿10奈米的A11處理器訂單，預估英特爾、台積電擴充10奈米產能，有望讓ASML Q2營收明顯攀高。

台積電靠著蘋果肥單，以雙班制度搶進度，除非英特爾能改變研發模式、追隨台積電的做法，否則遲早會喪失領先地位。

＊編者按：本文僅供參考之用，並不構成要約、招攬或邀請、誘使、任何不論種類或形式之申述或訂立任何建議及推薦，讀者務請運用個人獨立思考能力，自行作出投資決定，如因相關建議招致損失，概與《精實財經媒體》、編者及作者無涉。

資料來源-MoneyDJ理財網

01/22/2016

雷電打擊最多的地區

NASA Map Shows Where Lightning Strikes Most Around the World

BY DOUGLAS MAIN 4/7/15 AT 3:57 PM

太空總署的地圖顯示雷電打擊最多的地區

Lightning strikes worldwide between 1995 and 2013. Areas with the most activity appear light pink. NASA

NASA has been recording just about every lightning strike for much of the past 20 years, and it has produced a map to show where this phenomenon is most common.

It turns out that the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and Lake Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela have the most lightning. Both places have a lot of precipitation and the ideal humidity and atmospheric conditions for thunderstorms to form, according to the NASA Earth Observatory.

As the map shows, lightning is much more frequent over land than water, and it is more common in the tropics, where there is more heat, and thus more energy for producing storms. Areas that are lighter in color have more lightning, and some places have as much as 150 strikes per square kilometer per year; one square kilometer is about one-third the size of New York's Central Park.

The map was produced using data collected between 1995 and 2013 by NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite and the OrbView-1/Microlab satellite.

Lightning is formed within clouds. “As ice particles within a cloud collide and break apart, the smaller particles acquire positive charge and the larger particles acquire negative charge,” explains LiveScience, a science news site. “Updrafts of wind then push the small particles upward, until the top of the cloud is positively charged, while the bottom of the cloud is negatively charged. This separation of charge creates a huge electric potential within the cloud, and between the cloud and the ground.” Lightning is the discharge of electricity between cloud and Earth, which diffuses this difference in potential. 

Lightning strikes over Lake Maracaibo, in Venezuela, which has some of the most frequent lightning in the world.JORGE SILVA / REUTERS

Condensed from Newsweek.

jUSTIN lAI 

04/08/15  (Eng.)