Intel hails revolution in 3D chip technology?

2011年05月05日 06:21 AM
英特爾稱芯片設計取得重大突破
Intel hails revolution in 3D chip technology
英國《金融時報》 理查德•沃特斯克里斯•納托爾舊金山報導




Intel has claimed the biggest breakthrough in microprocessor ​​design in more than 50 years, potentially raising the stakes significantly for rivals in the increasingly capital-intensive global chip industry.


英特爾(Intel)宣布實現了微處理器設計在50多年裡的最重大突破，對於其競爭對手而言，這在日益資本密集型的​​全球芯片行業可能大大增加了賭注。

The world's biggest chipmaker said on Wednesday that it would begin producing chips later this year using a revolutionary 3D technology that has been nearly a decade in the making, and which it said would act as the foundation for generations of computing advances to come.


這家全球最大芯片製造商周三表示，今年晚些時候將開始利用革命性的3D技術生產芯片，這項技術開發了近10年之久，英特爾表示，它將作為未來數代運算能力提升的基礎。

The new technology represents one of Intel's biggest gambles in the race to maintain and even extend its long-standing lead over other chipmakers in making chips smaller and faster, while breathing fresh life into the remorseless cycle of chip improvements on which the modern computing and electronics industries are founded.


在讓芯片變得更小、運行速度更快，同時為現代電腦和電子工業據以生存的無情的芯片改進週期注入新的生命力方面，這項新技術代表著英特爾在保持——甚至擴大——其相對於其它芯片製造商的長期優勢的競賽中的最大賭注之一。

The impact of Intel's attempt to push ahead of the rest of the industry was felt more widely on Wednesday, as Applied Materials, which supplies Intel with manufacturing equipment, announced a $4.9bn acquisition to keep up with the new technology.


週三，市場更廣泛感受到了英特爾超越業內其它廠家的努力的影響，向英特爾供應製造設備的應用材料公司(Applied Materials)宣布了一項49億美元的收購交易，以跟上這項新技術。

The US equipment maker said it would buy Varian Semiconductor Equipment to give it the capability to handle chips of greater complexity than those whose circuits are only 22 billionths of a metre wide – the scale at which Intel said it would begin manufacturing before the end of this year.


這家美國設備製造商表示，將收購Varian Semiconductor Equipment，以具備處理比目前22納米芯片更複雜的芯片的能力，英特爾表示，將在今年底之前開始生產這種芯片。

Intel called its new chip design the most significant advance since the introduction in the 1950s of the silicon transistor, the building block in electronics. It said the breakthrough would also extend Moore's Law – the accurate 1965 prediction by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that the number of transistors on a chip could be doubled roughly every two years.


英特爾將其最新芯片設計稱為自上世紀50年代矽晶體管問世以來最為重大的進步，晶體管是電子系統的基本構件。該公司表示，這項技術突破還將延長摩爾定律(Moore's Law)，這是英特爾聯合創始人戈登•摩爾(Gordon Moore)1965年做出的一項準確預測，他認為，芯片上晶體管的數量每兩年就可增加約一倍。

That exponential rise in processing power has formed the basis for the steady advances in electronics since, though many in the industry fear that the chipmakers are approaching the limits of their ability to continue the improvements.


處理能力的指數級提升成為此後電子領域穩步發展的基礎，儘管該行業很多人擔心，芯片製造商正接近不斷改進的能力極限。