思科掷10亿美元找英特尔为其芯片代工

在斯洛伐克的Bratislava，最近盛传英特尔(Intel)的代工业务可能会扩展到为思科(Cisco)制造芯片的消息。重点在于，这项交易可能高达10亿美元。 我们在上周由Future Horizons公司于Bratislava举办的国际电子论坛上听到这个消息。该消息是一位演讲者提及，但称这“不过是个谣言”，不过，据报导，投资银行Piper Jaffray的分析师也在一份研究报告中对客户表示，思科与英特尔可能已签署价值10亿美元的代工协议。 英特尔晶圆代工业务的已知客户包括 FPGA 公司 Achronix 和 Tabula ，以及网络处理器供货商 Netronome 。 目前思科大多数硅芯片都采用40nm制程，少数采用28nm。而英特尔则以22nm FinFET技术提供代工服务。 因此，对思科这家拥有约750名芯片设计师的企业来说，似乎正是朝下一代制程节点转移的时间。看起来，英特尔的高性能硅芯片对网络设备和芯片公司似乎别具意义，因为这些公司将能把自有的知识产权及IP核心导入设计过程中。 在国际电子论坛上提到该协议的正是英特尔客户Achronix公司主席暨创办人John Lofton Holt。 在遥远的过去(2004年)，思科曾用IBM作为其芯片代工厂商。然而，金额达10亿美元的协议相当惊人，即使该协议的时间可能长达许多年，但对其他芯片公司而言，这也是相当难得的订单。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译： Joy Teng 参考英文原文：London Calling: Is Cisco Intel's $1 billion foundry deal?，by Peter Clarke

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{pagination} London Calling: Is Cisco Intel's $1 billion foundry deal? Peter Clarke The word on the street in Bratislava, Slovakia, is that Intel's foundry operation has started or will start to make chips for Cisco. What is more the deal could be worth as much as $1 billion. That's what we heard at the International Electronics Forum held in Bratislava last week and organized by market analysis firm Future Horizons. It did come couched as a "just a rumor" from one of the speakers, but in addition analysts at investment bank Piper Jaffray have reportedly told clients in a note that Cisco could cut a foundry partnership deal with Intel worth $1 billion. Known users of Intel foundry services include FPGA companies Achronix and Tabula and network processor company Netronome. Most of Cisco's silicon right now is at the 40-nm level with a number of 28-nm chip designs in the pipeline. But Intel is known to have been offering its 22-nm FinFET process as a foundry option for some time. So it would be the right time for Cisco, which employs about 750 chip designers, to be working on IC designs intended for implementation at the next node. And it would seem that the step up to high-performance Intel silicon could make sense for a networking equipment and chip company that is likely to bring all its own intellectual property and IP cores to the design process. And who was it that mentioned the possibility of a billion-dollar Intel foundry deal to the assembled executives at the IEF? It was non-other than John Lofton Holt, chairman and founder of Intel foundry user Achronix. In the dim and distant past (2004) Cisco used IBM as a foundry supplier of its chips. But a billion dollars does make you stop and think. Even though it may be spread over several years a billion dollars is a significant amount of other foundries' lunch that Intel would be eating.