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商业报道
TSMC
台积电
A fab success
一家晶圆厂的成功之道
The smartphone boom has been a boon for a pioneer in semiconductors
智能手机的大爆发让这个半导体行业的先锋获益不少
WHEN he founded Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company in 1987, Morris Chang recalls,
张忠谋回忆起1987年创立台积电之初时说道：
Nobody thought we were going anywhere.
没人会料想到台积电会无处不在。
Back then the rule was that semiconductor companies both designed and made chips.
当时半导体公司的业务都涉及了芯片的设计以及制造领域。
TSMC was the first pure foundry, making chips for designers with no factories, or fabs, of their own.
台积电是第一家纯代工厂商—为没有属于自己晶圆工厂的芯片设计公司代工生产芯片。
The doubts of others suited TSMC nicely.
所以它们的产业模式也遭受过质疑。
Mr Chang, at 82 still chairman and in his second stint as chief executive, says that meant it suffered no competition in its first eight years.
年届82的张忠谋目前仍旧是台积电的总裁，这也是他第二次担任台积电的首席执行官一职，他说正是因为这些质疑使得台积电在创立的头八年里所向披靡。
These days the idea is more popular.
现如今这种产业模式已经越来越受到欢迎。
Last year foundries made about half of all logic chips.
去年芯片代工厂生产的逻辑芯片已经达到全球总产量的一半。
United Microelectronics Corporation, a slightly older Taiwanese company, turned itself into a pure-play foundry in 1995.
创业时间稍早的联电也在1995年开始转型，专注芯片代工。
GlobalFoundries, with factories in America, Germany and Singapore, was set up in 2009.
在美国，德国以及新加坡都拥有工厂的格罗方德公司，由AMD拆分而来、与阿联酋阿布扎比先进技术投资公司和穆巴达拉发展公司联合投资成立的半导体制造企业也在2009年正式成立。
Yet the pioneer still dominates.
不过行业先锋台积电目前仍旧是业界的龙头老大。
This year, predicts Samuel Wang of Gartner, a research firm, TSMC's revenues will exceed those of all other foundries combined.
根据咨询公司高德纳的萨穆埃尔•王预测今年台积电的营收将会超过所有对手的总和。
He reckons it has 90% of the world market for advanced 28-nanometre chips, which are essential to smartphones and tablets.
其中对于智能手机和平板电脑来说至关重要的28nm晶圆，台积电的全球份额达到了90%。
TSMC's sales in the second quarter, reported on July 18th, were NT156 billion, 21% more than a year before. Its net income rose by 24%, to NT52 billion.
台积电于7月18日报道了其第二季度的营收情况：总销售额达到了1560亿新台币，同比增长21%。其中净收益同比增长24%，达到了52亿新台币。
That said, growth should slow in the second half of the year, Mr Chang told analysts, because smartphone-makers have been building up their inventories of chips ahead of new-product launches and because sales of PCs and some smartphones have been weaker than expected.
张忠谋告诉分析师，由于智能手机制造商已经建立了自己的芯片仓库以满足自己将要发布的新产品所需要的产能。同时，个人电脑以及智能手机的发展低于预期，故下半年芯片市场增长将放缓。
Sales could even shrink in the fourth quarter.
第四季度的销售额可能会进一步萎缩。
TSMC has thrived on a mixture of serendipity and anticipation.
由于市场需求的旺盛以及对于行业的正确判断，台积电的风头一时无两。
The market moved in the direction in which we were heading, says Mr Chang.
对此张忠谋表示：我们的前进方向与市场一致。
The boom in mobile computing has meant a bonanza for several long-standing customers, which range from Qualcomm, an American firm that dominates the market for smartphones' application processors, to MediaTek, a Taiwanese neighbour that has burst onto the scene more recently.
移动计算机处理技术的繁荣发展让台积电固定了数家长期大客户：不仅有来自美国的智能手机处理器芯片制造巨头高通，还有台湾的当红小生联发科。
Sales to Chinese designers such as Allwinner, Rockchip and Spreadtrum, whose chips power inexpensive Android tablets and phones, have doubled in the past year;
台积电去年对称雄低价安卓平板和手机领域的全志，瑞芯微以及展讯等公司的销售额已经翻番。
these all license low-energy chip technology from ARM, a British firm that has been a partner of TSMC's since 2004.
这些公司都是从英国的ARM公司获得的低功耗芯片技术授权，而ARM从2004年起就已经是台积电的合作伙伴了。
The grand alliance of TSMC and the chip designers, as Mr Chang has called it, has done far better from the shift to mobile devices than Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker.
张忠谋所说的大联盟在电脑终端市场向移动设备转型过程中的表现远远好过世界头号芯片商Intel。
Intel both designs and makes chips.
同时设计和制造芯片，
Its processor chips are the brains of most personal computers, but demand for these has been falling.
其生产的处理芯片是绝大部分个人电脑的核心，不过这一块的市场需求在不断下降。
Although Intel's newest processors are much less thirsty and the firm is determined to break into the mobile market, it has so far struggled.
虽然Intel最新的处理器不再那么地噬能，它们也打算切入移动处理器市场，不过他们将要面临的是重重困难。
Its second-quarter revenues fell by 5% and its net income by 29%.
Intel第二季度的营收降低了5%，而净利润则下降了29%。
A combination of fabless designers and a pure foundry works well, Mr Chang explains,
张忠谋表示：纯芯片设计商和芯片代工厂可以完美兼容，
because the designers don't have to worry about the capital-intensive part of the business any more: the foundry provides the scale.
因为设计商不用为了企业中资本密集的部分担忧，大规模量产的工作交给代工厂就行了。
At the same time, fabless companies, of which he reckons there are about 50 with annual revenues of at least 100m, compete with one another and with IDMs.
同时，张忠谋表示：那些没有直属晶圆厂的公司，要面临同行以及IDM企业的竞争。
This diverse group has in total produced more innovation than any single IDM…Just look at the mobile products, he says.
他们的设计更加多元化，其总体创造力将会超过任意一家IDM公司…看看移动芯片产品你就知道了。
The battle lines between the alliance and its rivals continue to shift.
大联盟和它们的对手的战线也在不断改变。
Intel has entered the foundry business—and recently snaffled a contract with Altera, an American designer that has been a customer of TSMC's for 20 years.
Intel也切入了代工领域—他们成功地抢到了和台积电合作了20年的老客户—美国的芯片设计商阿尔特拉的合同。
I really regret that very much, Mr Chang says. I had an investigation into why that happened.
对此张忠谋非常懊恼，并表示要好好调查一下这一切发生的根源。
On another front, TSMC is fighting Samsung.
另一边，台积电与三星也在激烈鏖战。
The South Korean company makes processors not only for itself but also for Apple, even though the two are deadly rivals in smartphones and tablets.
这家韩国公司不仅为自己生产处理器，他们还供货给苹果公司。
In addition it is the world's biggest maker of memory chips.
同时，三星还是世界上最大的记忆芯片制造商。
Recently the Wall Street Journal reported that TSMC, after years of effort, had won a contract to make chips for iPhones and iPads—a victory that will have stung Samsung.
最近，华尔街日报报道了台积电经过一年的努力获得了为iPhones和iPads代工芯片合同的消息，这让三星郁闷不已。
Mr Chang says that he takes neither Intel nor Samsung lightly, but insists: We have one big advantage: we are a pure foundry. We do not compete with our customers.
张忠谋表示他不会小瞧Intel和三星，但是他坚持他有一大优势：他就是代工厂，他不会与他的客户竞争。
No matter how hard Intel and Samsung try, he says, they will not enjoy the same trust.
无论Intel和三星怎么努力，他们都不会获得客户的信任。
The big question hanging over TSMC is whether it can find a worthy successor to its octogenarian boss.
台积电所面临的大问题是他们能否为他们年过80的老板找到合格的继承人。
It has had one false start already:
此前他们已经有过失败的经历：
he stood down as chief executive in 2005, but took the helm again in 2009.
张忠谋曾在2005年卸任首席执行官一职，不过在2009年再度上任。
No handover is planned yet,
目前，还没有制定任何交接计划，
but last year three men were appointed co-chief operating officers.
不过去年有三位管理人被任命为联合首席运行官。
Probably at least two of these, or maybe all three, will end up as joint chief executives.
很可能至少三人中的两人—也可能是全部三人，最终成为联合首席执行官。
A menage a trois could prove farcical. But perhaps TSMC's board thinks its founder is too good an act for one man to follow.
三头执政实在是有点荒诞，不过这也许是因为董事会考虑到他们的创始人实在是太成功了，以至于光靠一个人的努力是无法成为合格的继承者的。
