传苹果联手台积电美国建芯片厂，加速去三星化

最近有消息传出，俄勒冈州经济发展局和纽约官员相继竞争邀请芯片制造商来本地区投资建厂，项目代号为 Azalea（“杜鹃计划”）。而苹果将投资 100 亿美元，在俄勒冈州建立大型芯片制造工厂。分析师认为苹果之所以进行巨额投资建立新工厂是因为他们想取代三星。 另有消息称，俄勒冈州经济发展局已与神秘制造商签订了保密协议。紧接着纽约官员同时就“杜鹃计划”透露了些许消息，半导体工厂占地320万平方英尺，雇佣至少1000名员工。这个传闻中神秘的“杜鹃”芯片工厂不是别人，正式台湾的半导体制造商台积电公司（TSMC），新工厂或许建在纽约，也有可能是俄勒冈州。 消息称，TSMC与苹果投资的其实是同一座工厂，目的是将三星挤出局，这个工厂将由TSMC和苹果一起运作。而苹果明年推出的A7X CPU就将在这个工厂生产。 TSMC能吃下多少苹果单？ 但是 TSMC 的 CEO 则否认了这样的说法，称美国工厂也在他们考虑范围之内，但是与苹果无关。他指出，新的芯片制造工厂将能满足 Qualcomm 和 Nvidia 等客户的更多要求。 《台湾电子时报》认为苹果订单大量增加是对 TSMC 盈利能力的考验，市场观察者也很关心 TSMC 将如何分配他们的产能，还有就是如果 2013 年他们接受苹果订单，那么他们的收入和盈利将为几何。 今年 10 月份，TSMC 透露每年苹果需要 2 亿枚 CPU，而他们每月的 28 纳米 CPU 产量为 68,000。TSMC CEO 预计明年所有生产线都将满负荷运转，明年 1/3 的收入将来自 28 纳米芯片。 另一方面，三星奥斯丁工厂投资 40 亿美元以提高产量，该工厂主要为 iPhone、iPad 以及 iPod 的生产处理器。 去三星化的必然结果 由于三星电子和苹果公司争议一直持续不断，促使苹果考虑重新选择合作伙伴。在过去两年里，关于苹果和台积电合作的传闻不绝于耳。三星目前生产定制的A-系列处理器，苹果将这批处理器用在德州奥斯汀工厂的iOS系统设备上，其中包括iPhone 5内的32纳米A6芯片处理器和第四代iPad的A6X芯片。预计苹果使用台积电的20纳米处理器要到2013年底才能实现。 今年年初，在竞标生产芯片时，台积电曾因为产能问题拒绝苹果和高通。这表示，如果台积电完成“杜鹃计划”，势必会影响苹果处理器代工厂的选择，苹果设备芯片或许将来在美国本土就可实现生产。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译：Luffy Liu 参考英文原文：Report: TSMC confirms U.S. wafer fab site hunt,by Peter Clarke

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{pagination} Report: TSMC confirms U.S. wafer fab site hunt Peter Clarke LONDON – Amid plans to increase capital spending to a record $9 billion in 2013, Taiwanese foundry TSMC is seeking a location for a wafer fab, with the U.S. as a possibility, according to a local news report. Commenting on speculation that TSMC (Hsinchu, Taiwan) might build a fab in New York, Morris Chang, chairman and CEO of TSMC, said that his company is looking for a location for a wafer fab. "The U.S. is one of the places under consideration. But this has nothing to do with Apple," the Taipei Times quoted Chang as saying. Chang was speaking at the Supply Chain Management Forum in Hsinchu, Taiwan. It has been speculated that TSMC might be the entity behind Project Azalea that is considering build a factory in New York state, or behind a similarly named project in Oregon. It has also been speculated that TSMC might be considering a U.S. site under pressure from Apple, which has become an important buyers of foundry services for the processors it uses in its smart phones and tablet computers. TSMC has budgeted $8.3 billion for capital spending in 2012, which it will increase to $9 billion in 2013. At the same time the budget for R&D is $1.37 billion in 2012 and is due to expand by 17 percent to $1.6 billion in 2013, the report quoted Chang as saying. The capital spending will help TSMC expand manufacturing capacity particularly of leading-edge 28-nm process technology which has been in short supply during 2012. TSMC also expects to bring up a 20-nm bulk planar CMOS process in 2013. Chang said he expects the global chip market to grow 3 percent next year after a fall of 2 percent in 2012, although he expects TSMC to grow by 15 to 20 percent in 2013, the report added.