Business.
       商业。
       Semiconductors.
       半导体行业。
       Chipping in.
       共同出资。
       A deal to keep Moore's law alive.
       Intel与ASML的交易使摩尔定律继续生效。
       THE arrival of a new generation of semiconductors has come a little closer. On July 9th ASML, a Dutch company that dominates the market for the lithographic equipment that etches circuits onto silicon, struck a deal with Intel, the world's largest chipmaker. Intel has agreed to pay about 2.5 billion ($3.1 billion) for 15% of ASML. It will provide 829m for ASML's research-and-development efforts and will buy the resulting tools, due in a few years. ASML has also been talking to its two other biggest customers, Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation. It is willing to sell 25% of itself in all.
       距离新一代的半导体的诞生时间更近了。 7月9日，一家名为ASML（Advanced Semiconductor Material Lithography，中文名称：阿斯麦）的荷兰公司与全球最大的芯片制造商Intel达成了一项交易，ASML在光刻设备（其作用为在硅片上蚀刻电路）市场上占据主导地位。 在这项交易中，Intel同意向ASML支付约25亿欧元（31亿美元）购买后者15%的股份。 在接下来的几年，Intel将会提供8.29亿欧元支持ASML研发活动并购买研究成果。 此外，ASML同时也在和三星（Samsung）以及台积电（Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation）这两个大客户开展谈判。 ASML愿意出售总共25%的股份。
       Of Intel's RD money, 553m will go on technology to make chips on silicon wafers 450mm in diameter. Twice as many chips could be cut from these as from today's biggest, which are 300mm across. The rest of the cash is for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology, which the industry hopes will push the width of circuits below today's frontier of 20 nanometres (billionths of a metre). This will enable more circuitry to be packed onto smaller chipsand allow the life of Moore's law, which says that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every 18 months or so, to be extended yet again.
       Intel研发资金中，5.53亿欧元会投入到450毫米晶圆技术开发上。 450毫米晶圆的芯片切割数为现时300毫米晶圆的两倍。 余下的资金会投入到极紫外线光刻（EUV）技术开发上，芯片行业希望缩小电路宽度，突破现在20纳米的极限（1纳米等于十亿分之一米）。 这项技术能够使更小的芯片集成更多的电路使得摩尔定律继续生效（摩尔定律：集成电路上可容纳的晶体管数量，约每隔18个月便会增加一倍）。
       With customers taking equity, putting up research money and making advance orders, ASML will be surer of having a market for products that take a lot of time and money to create. It reckons that EUV will cost it and its suppliers 3.4 billion. Moving to 450mm will require new machines and the reconfiguration of factories. A report in 2005 by VLSI, a research firm, estimated that the shift from 200mm to 300mm wafers a decade ago cost the industry $11.6 billion. Until Intel promised to pay (the resulting economies of scale matter more to Intel than to its rivals), ASML had been reluctant to press on with 450mm technology.
       通过客户持股、设立研究资金和获得预订单的方式，ASML无疑将会占据这个需要大量时间和金钱投入的市场。 ASML预计，EUV技术开发需要公司和投资者投入34亿欧元。 生产450毫米晶圆需要新的机器以及重新配置厂房。 研究公司VLSI在2005年发布的一份报告对10年前从200毫米晶圆转换到300毫米晶圆的成本作出评估，结果显示这项转变使整个行业付出116亿美元的代价。 如果没有Intel的投资（相关投入所产生的经济效益对于Intel的意义比其竞争对手大得多），ASML将不会继续450毫米晶圆技术的开发。
       The development of EUV, in contrast, was likely anyway. EUV has been very important, says Richard Windsor of Nomura, an investment bank. Most semiconductor companies consider it critical to taking them beyond 20 nanometres. Deals like this week's should help to get the market goingand cement ASML's lead in the lithographic race.
       相比之下，EUV技术无论从哪个角度来看都具有开发前景。 EUV一直以来都非常重要，投资银行野村控股的Richard Windsor表示， 大部分半导体公司都认为，EUV对于他们能否制作小于20纳米宽度的电路起着决定性作用。 类似这周的交易将会促进市场的发展，巩固ASML在光刻市场竞争中的领先地位。