三星将超越英特尔成为世界头号芯片制造商

Samsung Electronics is expected to overtake Intel as the world’s largest chipmaker in the current quarter, for the first time ever, on the back of strong demand for chips for mobile devices and data servers.

在移动设备芯片和数据服务器芯片的强劲需求带动下，三星电子(Samsung Electronics)预计将在本季度超越英特尔(Intel)成为全球最大的芯片制造商。

Intel has been the number one chipmaker since 1993 after releasing the Pentium CPU (central processing unit) for personal computers. However, the rapid adoption of mobile devices around the world has enabled Samsung to close the gap in chip sales in recent years.

自1993年发布用于个人电脑的奔腾(Pentium)中央处理器(CPU)以来，英特尔一直是全球头号芯片制造商。然而，移动设备在全球的迅速普及，令三星得以在最近几年缩小在芯片销售额上的差距。

Samsung is estimated to have generated $15.1bn in chip sales for the April-June quarter, surpassing Intel’s estimated sales of $14.4bn, according to Nomura. Samsung is also expected to displace Intel as the industry leader for the full year, unless memory chip prices fall sharply in the second half. Samsung’s 2017 chip sales are forecast at $63.6bn, versus Intel’s estimated $60.5bn.

根据野村(Nomura)的数据，在4月份到6月份的这个季度，三星芯片销售额估计会达到151亿美元，超过英特尔的144亿美元的销售额估计值。而只要内存芯片价格在下半年不急剧下滑，三星全年的销售额也有望超越英特尔，一跃成为行业领跑者。三星2017年的芯片销售额预计会达到636亿美元，英特尔估计会为605亿美元。

Analysts have pointed to surging prices of memory chips as the biggest reason for Samsung’s stronger position as consumers want more powerful smartphones and other internet-connected devices.

分析师指出，由于消费者想要更强大的智能手机和其他连入互联网的设备，内存芯片价格出现暴涨，这是三星势头增强的最大原因。

Samsung is the world’s largest maker of memory chips, which are essential for all smartphones, tablets, personal computers and servers. Samsung also makes its own application processors for smartphones and produces processors designed by Apple and Qualcomm, while Intel has struggled to break into mobile.

三星是全球最大的内存芯片制造商。对于一切智能手机、平板电脑、个人电脑和服务器来说，这种芯片都是必不可少的。此外，三星还为智能手机生产其自有品牌的应用处理器，并生产由苹果(Apple)和高通(Qualcomm)设计的处理器，而英特尔一直难以打入移动设备市场。

“In the mobile era, demand for D-Ram [a type of memory chip] and SSDs [solid state drives] has surged, boosting their prices since last year amid tight supply,” said CW Chung, an analyst at Nomura. “The memory chip market has grown bigger than the CPU market.”

野村分析师CW Chung表示：“在移动时代，对DRAM（一种内存芯片）和SSD（固态硬盘）的需求激增，它们的价格从去年起就因供应紧张而上扬。内存芯片市场已发展到比CPU市场还要大的程度。”

Intel is good at making the CPU chips that power personal computers. Unfortunately for the US firm, consumer demand is sliding for these devices.

英特尔擅长生产驱动个人电脑的CPU芯片。但对这家美国企业来说遗憾的是，消费者对个人电脑的需求正在下滑。