Skulltrail, TSMC to Expand R&D Capacity in Taiwan

英特爾新主板挑戰“終極”性能
2008年02月19日13:28 WSJ

英

特爾(Intel Corp.)以芯片著稱。但這家公司也生產銷售主板﹐目前一款新主板已經開始吸引這個行業中異常關注性能玩家的目光。

這款代號為Skulltrail的新主板帶有兩個CPU插槽﹐可連接兩個英特爾四核CPU。除了擁有相當於8個中央處理芯片之外﹐這也是首個能夠安裝多個來自Nvidia Corp.或高級微設備公司(Advanced Micro Devices Inc.)顯卡的主板。它有四個插槽可以安裝這類顯卡。

一台採用Skulltrail主板、且配置齊備的台式電腦的售價預計將在6,000美元以上。但專為遊戲玩家和技術專業人士生產高端電腦的公司預計﹐這個價格不會嚇倒這部分人群。

Falcon Northwest的總裁凱爾特•瑞夫斯(Kelt Reeves)說﹐這是我們所見到的最偉大的事情。這家公司以生產性能卓越的電腦而聞名﹐受到追求性能玩家的青睞。

預計英特爾將在本週的舊金山遊戲開發人員會議(Game Developers Conference)上討論Skulltrail。但採用這類主板的電腦一開始可能會大量用於圖片和視頻處理等工作中。對這些工作而言﹐時間就是金錢﹐因此軟件公司一直是最先調整其軟件產品﹐以充分利用多處理器的企業之一。

Boxx Technologies Inc.正在開發基於Skulltrail的電腦系統﹐以讓導演能立即回放用最高分辨率的數碼攝像機拍攝的圖像。這種攝像機通常因數據量過大﹐而難以用接近影片最終圖像的質量水平進行快速回放。Boxx主要生產用於製作電影視覺效果的工作站。

Boxx的營銷主管弗蘭索斯•伍爾夫(Francois Wolf)說﹐總有一天你幾乎可以同步看到所進行的工作﹐而這個主板的誕生就是邁向這一時刻的第一步。這的確是一件大事。

目前基於四核處理器的電腦遊戲還不是很多。但市場研究機構Insight 64的分析師內森•布魯克伍德(Nathan Brookwood)預計﹐2008年年底前就會湧現大量此類遊戲。

Skulltrail的正式名稱為Dual Socket Extreme Desktop Platform。這款主板也表明英特爾不時會與競爭對手AMD進行合作。儘管AMD正在加緊完善四核芯片以與英特爾進行競爭﹐但是Skulltrail如果能幫助提振其旗下ATI顯卡的需求﹐AMD也會從中受益。AMD於2006年收購了ATI Technologies﹐獲得ATI顯卡業務。

英特爾的發言人丹•施耐德(Dan Snyder)在談到AMD顯卡子公司時表示﹐我們同它們的合作很密切。我們彼此間既存在競爭﹐也在進行合作。

Don Clark

TSMC to Expand R&D Capacity in Taiwan

Contract chip maker TSMC is spending $5 billion to turn one of its manufacturing plants into an R&D center.

PC World
Wednesday, March 12, 2008; 4:19 AM

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chip maker, will spend US$5 billion to expand a manufacturing plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan, using the new production lines as a research and development center, a company spokesman said Tuesday.

"When complete, this will be our main R&D center for the next six years," said J.H. Tzeng, a TSMC spokesman.

The company will use the expanded Fab 12 plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan, to research and develop 32-nanometer, 22-nm and 15-nm process technologies, and to provide additional manufacturing capacity, Tzeng said.

Last year TSMC began producing chips using its most advanced manufacturing technology yet, in which the smallest features on the chips measure just 45 nm on average. Smaller is generally better, allowing chip makers to shrink the size of a chip and reduce unit production costs, for example. More advanced process technology can also speed the performance of chips, or allow chip makers to add new features, such as more memory capacity.

Tzeng did not say when TSMC expects to put the 32-nm process technology into volume production, but TSMC is on pace to introduce a new process technology every other year, he said. With the 45-nm process entering production last year, the company should be using the 32-nm process in 2009. The 22-nm process would then enter production in 2011, to be followed by the 15-nm process in 2013.

When fully operational, the new production lines in phases four and five of Fab 12 will employ up to 3,000 workers, Tzeng said.

Tzeng declined to say what the monthly production capacity of the new production lines will be, saying the main focus of the facility will be R&D. At the end of 2007, Fab 12 had a quarterly production capacity of 212,000 wafers 300 mm in diameter, while Fab 14 had a capacity of 176,000 wafers.

Once new process technologies have entered production at Fab 12, they will then be brought online at the company's other 300-millimeter wafer plant, Fab 14 in Tainan, Taiwan, he said.

Editor's Note: This article was updated on March 11 to clarify the capacity of the manufacturing plants, and to make it clear that the new lines will be used as an R&D facility.