broadsword
Brigadier
Wrong thread.
News on China's scientific and technological development.
- Thread starter Quickie
- Start date
Wrong thread.
No health thread.
Anyway it is a "scientific" issue. 16,000 dead pigs and not an answer as to why.
broadsword
Brigadier
If you want to classify that as scientific issue, it does not compare with H7N9 chicken disease in closeness and if you dump all health and environmental issues reports here, it becomes a ecological thread and way off topic from China's scientific and technological development. If this is an ecological thread, then it is an emplacement for those pig and chicken as well as scientific and technological reports but it is not. This thread is for China's R & D in science and technology like Popular Science, Scientific American and Gizmag. Let's keep it that way. Take a look at Escobar's postings here to get the idea.
The "science" of 16,000 dead pigs is not yet the kind science defined here. It is a pollution issue, at best a science of dumping. Come back with the reasons behind the death when it is found.
Last edited:
In4ser
Junior Member
China just surpassed the US in semiconductor manufacturing—and the trend is likely to accelerate
By Christopher Mims
April 9, 2013
For the first time since the depths of the Great Recession, the the total value of materials consumed by all the world’s makers of microchips was down—2%, to $47.11 billion. But that’s just one of the stories told by data from the annual tabulation of the total value of materials consumed by all the world’s makers of microchips, compiled by industry association SEMI.
Assembling data from SEMI’s last four annual reports—which together cover the past 5 years, a number of trends are apparent.
China is now a bigger consumer of the raw materials used for making microchips than North America is.
This is a huge change from 2008, when China consumed only $3.57 billion of silicon ingots and the other materials used for semiconductor manufacture, compared to $4.99 billion consumed by North America. This means that the number and productivity of plants for making microchips—which are high-investment, high-tech, finished product type manufacturing operations requiring a high level of expertise—are expanding in China even as they decline in North America. Compared to 2008, consumption of semiconductor materials in North America is down $250 million to $4.74 billion, while in China consumption has shot up 42% to $5.07 billion.
The decline of the PC is probably to blame for the overall drop in consumption of microchip materials in 2012.
In 2012, manufacturers shipped record numbers of mobile devices. Demand for set-top boxes and embedded systems (e.g. industrial control systems and the computers that go into cars) remained soft on account of a troubled global economy, but to see a drop in semiconductors shipped in the absence of an outright recession suggests that what’s really going on here is the decline of the PC—and the expensive, materials-hungry processors and memory it incorporates.
Production of microchips in Japan is declining rapidly.
What a difference five years makes. Japan, in 2008 the world’s most rapacious consumer of semiconductor materials, has seen production crash, especially in the 2011-2012 period—down 8% to $8.35 billion. Compare that with nearly $10 billion in 2008.
The harder it is to make microchips, the more consolidation there is in the hands of fewer manufacturers.
From 2011 to 2012, consumption of microchip precursor materials was flat or down in every region except for China and Taiwan. Taiwan has come to dominate this industry, with contract manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company churning out chips for countless chip design companies that do not own their own manufacturing facilities—including mobile and telecommunications giants like Qualcomm and now, Apple.
What’s going on here is that, as we approach the end of Moore’s Law—which says, essentially, that we can expect microchips to improve at a rapid clip on a predictable timetable—we are reaching the physical limits of current manufacturing. That means factories are more expensive than ever, with price tags into the billions for a single facility. If a manufacturer wants the latest and fastest chip technology, there are only a few companies that can play at that level, and you can count them on one hand: TSMC in Taiwan, Intel and Global Foundries in North America, and Samsung in South Korea.
Consumption of microchips in China is exploding—and more and more of them are being sourced locally.
In 2012, China consumed 33% of the world’s integrated circuits (i.e. microchips) while the US consumed only 13.5%. Much of that, of course, is incorporated into products that will ultimately be exported—like iPhones. China’s share of world microchip consumption came to $137.5 billion in 2012, according to SEMI China. Meanwhile, the total value of microchips produced in China was only $28.5 billion. Closing that gap are companies like Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), Shanghai Huali Microelectronics (HLMC), Shanghai HuaHong NEC Electronics Company (HHNEC), Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (ASMC).
In the long run, the general emphasis on electronics manufacturing in China, along with this gap between production and demand, indicates that China is, as usual, the sleeping giant in this field. While mainland China’s production of microchips lags behind most other regions, in 2012 it saw the biggest percentage growth in consumption of microchip materials and matched the absolute value of growth in Taiwan, the only other region that saw growth last year.
Here’s the thing about microchips: China’s government views them, rightly, as an important strategic asset. It’s a stretch to compare them to, say, oil, but they are clearly very important in our increasingly connected world. It’s hard to imagine a future in which they are any less important an economic enabler than they are now. So the overall trend in where they are manufactured has implications for everything from national defense to overall competitiveness in high tech.
Source:
By Christopher Mims
April 9, 2013
For the first time since the depths of the Great Recession, the the total value of materials consumed by all the world’s makers of microchips was down—2%, to $47.11 billion. But that’s just one of the stories told by data from the annual tabulation of the total value of materials consumed by all the world’s makers of microchips, compiled by industry association SEMI.
Assembling data from SEMI’s last four annual reports—which together cover the past 5 years, a number of trends are apparent.
China is now a bigger consumer of the raw materials used for making microchips than North America is.
This is a huge change from 2008, when China consumed only $3.57 billion of silicon ingots and the other materials used for semiconductor manufacture, compared to $4.99 billion consumed by North America. This means that the number and productivity of plants for making microchips—which are high-investment, high-tech, finished product type manufacturing operations requiring a high level of expertise—are expanding in China even as they decline in North America. Compared to 2008, consumption of semiconductor materials in North America is down $250 million to $4.74 billion, while in China consumption has shot up 42% to $5.07 billion.
The decline of the PC is probably to blame for the overall drop in consumption of microchip materials in 2012.
In 2012, manufacturers shipped record numbers of mobile devices. Demand for set-top boxes and embedded systems (e.g. industrial control systems and the computers that go into cars) remained soft on account of a troubled global economy, but to see a drop in semiconductors shipped in the absence of an outright recession suggests that what’s really going on here is the decline of the PC—and the expensive, materials-hungry processors and memory it incorporates.
Production of microchips in Japan is declining rapidly.
What a difference five years makes. Japan, in 2008 the world’s most rapacious consumer of semiconductor materials, has seen production crash, especially in the 2011-2012 period—down 8% to $8.35 billion. Compare that with nearly $10 billion in 2008.
The harder it is to make microchips, the more consolidation there is in the hands of fewer manufacturers.
From 2011 to 2012, consumption of microchip precursor materials was flat or down in every region except for China and Taiwan. Taiwan has come to dominate this industry, with contract manufacturers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company churning out chips for countless chip design companies that do not own their own manufacturing facilities—including mobile and telecommunications giants like Qualcomm and now, Apple.
What’s going on here is that, as we approach the end of Moore’s Law—which says, essentially, that we can expect microchips to improve at a rapid clip on a predictable timetable—we are reaching the physical limits of current manufacturing. That means factories are more expensive than ever, with price tags into the billions for a single facility. If a manufacturer wants the latest and fastest chip technology, there are only a few companies that can play at that level, and you can count them on one hand: TSMC in Taiwan, Intel and Global Foundries in North America, and Samsung in South Korea.
Consumption of microchips in China is exploding—and more and more of them are being sourced locally.
In 2012, China consumed 33% of the world’s integrated circuits (i.e. microchips) while the US consumed only 13.5%. Much of that, of course, is incorporated into products that will ultimately be exported—like iPhones. China’s share of world microchip consumption came to $137.5 billion in 2012, according to SEMI China. Meanwhile, the total value of microchips produced in China was only $28.5 billion. Closing that gap are companies like Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), Shanghai Huali Microelectronics (HLMC), Shanghai HuaHong NEC Electronics Company (HHNEC), Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing and Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing (ASMC).
In the long run, the general emphasis on electronics manufacturing in China, along with this gap between production and demand, indicates that China is, as usual, the sleeping giant in this field. While mainland China’s production of microchips lags behind most other regions, in 2012 it saw the biggest percentage growth in consumption of microchip materials and matched the absolute value of growth in Taiwan, the only other region that saw growth last year.
Here’s the thing about microchips: China’s government views them, rightly, as an important strategic asset. It’s a stretch to compare them to, say, oil, but they are clearly very important in our increasingly connected world. It’s hard to imagine a future in which they are any less important an economic enabler than they are now. So the overall trend in where they are manufactured has implications for everything from national defense to overall competitiveness in high tech.
Source:
In4ser
Junior Member
IBM in Talks to Sell Part of Its Server Unit to Lenovo
International Business Machines Corp. IBM -8.28% is looking to part ways with the servers that have powered much of the Internet.
The company is in advanced discussions to sell its so-called x86 server business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd., 0992.HK +9.46% people familiar with the matter said.
An exact sale price wasn't known, but one of the people said a deal, if one is struck, could be worth billions of dollars.
IBM doesn't break out server revenue, but Morgan Stanley estimates the x86 server business generated about $4.9 billion of the company's $15.4 billion in server sales last year.
News of the talks surfaced as IBM reported a disappointing quarter, with particularly weak hardware sales. IBM's shares dropped 4.9% in after-hours trading on Thursday.
Lenovo said in a separate statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it is in preliminary negotiations with a "third party in connection with a potential acquisition." But it said it had not reached any agreements.
As when IBM announced plans to sell its personal computer business in 2004—also to Lenovo—a sale would signal a sea change in the computing market.
The x86 servers were once a fast-growing and lucrative technology that lifted sales at companies like Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ -3.22% and Dell Inc., DELL -3.94% which still rely on them for billions of dollars in sales.
IBM, having struggled to compete with those companies, now may stop selling a product that produces the server market's highest volumes but lowest profit, according to industry analysts.
In 2012, IBM was the No. 3 player in the low-end server market after H-P and Dell, according to technology research firm Gartner. IBM ended the year with 15% of the market by revenue, down from 16.4% in 2011, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, H-P's share fell to 32.4% from 35%, and Dell's slipped to 21.4% from 21.8%.
Dell said it has seen strong growth in x86 servers. A spokesman for H-P declined to comment.
It wasn't clear how advanced IBM's talks with Lenovo were or whether a deal would materialize. Technology trade publication CRN reported the talks earlier Thursday.
IBM has a history of aggressively shifting its business mix to areas with better growth and higher profit margins. The company shocked the technology industry when it agreed to sell off its PC business to Lenovo before personal computers had been largely commoditized. IBM then beefed up its operations in higher margin software and consulting businesses.
A sale of the low-end part of the server business would fit this pattern, as new Chief Executive Virginia "Ginni" Rometty looks for ways to expand the company's revenue and earnings. A divestiture of the x86 business would mark Ms. Rometty's first major asset sale since taking over the top job a year ago.
IBM is likely to hold on to the higher end parts of its server business where it can generate a competitive advantage. IBM invests billions of dollars in research and development to help fuel the development of its mainframe computer business, where it remains the industry's dominant player. The company makes the computer chips, operating system and much of the infrastructure software that powers those machines.
The acquisition marks a significant shift in strategy for Lenovo as the Chinese company has primarily focused on PCs. Nonetheless, it has taken some steps to boost its server business. In an agreement last summer, Lenovo began cooperation with U.S. data-storage provider EMC Corp. EMC -3.76% to jointly develop and sell servers and network storage, a move broadly seen as a play by Lenovo to boost a still nascent business for the company.
Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said at the time the company is first targeting the China market before going abroad, and it is the company's goal to become the country's biggest provider of servers. Lenovo is a small but fast-growing player in the low end server market. Last year, the company saw more than $360 million in worldwide x86 server sales, up from about $154 million in 2010, according to tech research firm Gartner.
News of a possible sale came as IBM ran into trouble in the first quarter of 2013. The company said its profit fell 1% to $3.03 billion as its revenue dropped 5% to $23.41 billion.
The computer hardware business was a particular area of weakness. Total revenue for hardware systems declined 13% in the first quarter, and the business reported a pretax loss of $405 million. While sales of mainframes rose 7%, sales of IBM's x86 products—"System x"—fell 9%.
The market for x86 servers, named for the chip design used by Intel Corp. INTC +0.90% and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., AMD -1.59% grew quickly in the 1990s as the Internet took off. But technologies like "virtualization" let users squeeze more power out of fewer machines.
Moreover, some high-growth Internet companies like Google Inc., GOOG +4.43% which in the past would typically have purchased large numbers of x86 servers to power websites, now make their own, hurting the growth potential of the market.
Write to Spencer E. Ante at [email protected] and Sharon Terlep at [email protected]
Source:
International Business Machines Corp. IBM -8.28% is looking to part ways with the servers that have powered much of the Internet.
The company is in advanced discussions to sell its so-called x86 server business to China's Lenovo Group Ltd., 0992.HK +9.46% people familiar with the matter said.
An exact sale price wasn't known, but one of the people said a deal, if one is struck, could be worth billions of dollars.
IBM doesn't break out server revenue, but Morgan Stanley estimates the x86 server business generated about $4.9 billion of the company's $15.4 billion in server sales last year.
News of the talks surfaced as IBM reported a disappointing quarter, with particularly weak hardware sales. IBM's shares dropped 4.9% in after-hours trading on Thursday.
Lenovo said in a separate statement to the Hong Kong stock exchange that it is in preliminary negotiations with a "third party in connection with a potential acquisition." But it said it had not reached any agreements.
As when IBM announced plans to sell its personal computer business in 2004—also to Lenovo—a sale would signal a sea change in the computing market.
The x86 servers were once a fast-growing and lucrative technology that lifted sales at companies like Hewlett-Packard Co. HPQ -3.22% and Dell Inc., DELL -3.94% which still rely on them for billions of dollars in sales.
IBM, having struggled to compete with those companies, now may stop selling a product that produces the server market's highest volumes but lowest profit, according to industry analysts.
In 2012, IBM was the No. 3 player in the low-end server market after H-P and Dell, according to technology research firm Gartner. IBM ended the year with 15% of the market by revenue, down from 16.4% in 2011, according to Gartner. Meanwhile, H-P's share fell to 32.4% from 35%, and Dell's slipped to 21.4% from 21.8%.
Dell said it has seen strong growth in x86 servers. A spokesman for H-P declined to comment.
It wasn't clear how advanced IBM's talks with Lenovo were or whether a deal would materialize. Technology trade publication CRN reported the talks earlier Thursday.
IBM has a history of aggressively shifting its business mix to areas with better growth and higher profit margins. The company shocked the technology industry when it agreed to sell off its PC business to Lenovo before personal computers had been largely commoditized. IBM then beefed up its operations in higher margin software and consulting businesses.
A sale of the low-end part of the server business would fit this pattern, as new Chief Executive Virginia "Ginni" Rometty looks for ways to expand the company's revenue and earnings. A divestiture of the x86 business would mark Ms. Rometty's first major asset sale since taking over the top job a year ago.
IBM is likely to hold on to the higher end parts of its server business where it can generate a competitive advantage. IBM invests billions of dollars in research and development to help fuel the development of its mainframe computer business, where it remains the industry's dominant player. The company makes the computer chips, operating system and much of the infrastructure software that powers those machines.
The acquisition marks a significant shift in strategy for Lenovo as the Chinese company has primarily focused on PCs. Nonetheless, it has taken some steps to boost its server business. In an agreement last summer, Lenovo began cooperation with U.S. data-storage provider EMC Corp. EMC -3.76% to jointly develop and sell servers and network storage, a move broadly seen as a play by Lenovo to boost a still nascent business for the company.
Lenovo Chief Executive Yang Yuanqing said at the time the company is first targeting the China market before going abroad, and it is the company's goal to become the country's biggest provider of servers. Lenovo is a small but fast-growing player in the low end server market. Last year, the company saw more than $360 million in worldwide x86 server sales, up from about $154 million in 2010, according to tech research firm Gartner.
News of a possible sale came as IBM ran into trouble in the first quarter of 2013. The company said its profit fell 1% to $3.03 billion as its revenue dropped 5% to $23.41 billion.
The computer hardware business was a particular area of weakness. Total revenue for hardware systems declined 13% in the first quarter, and the business reported a pretax loss of $405 million. While sales of mainframes rose 7%, sales of IBM's x86 products—"System x"—fell 9%.
The market for x86 servers, named for the chip design used by Intel Corp. INTC +0.90% and Advanced Micro Devices Inc., AMD -1.59% grew quickly in the 1990s as the Internet took off. But technologies like "virtualization" let users squeeze more power out of fewer machines.
Moreover, some high-growth Internet companies like Google Inc., GOOG +4.43% which in the past would typically have purchased large numbers of x86 servers to power websites, now make their own, hurting the growth potential of the market.
Write to Spencer E. Ante at [email protected] and Sharon Terlep at [email protected]
Source:
That is the point. Where is the research by the Government Scientists in to the dead animals? The pollution issue is the effect & not the cause. I would be happy to see any links from the Chinese media from any members here discussing what actions are being taken to identify the cause.
This really questions the ability of the Gov. Scientists to be transparent to the public.
I take it you want to to know the cause of death, well scientists don't handle these autopsies, veterinarians handle autopsies for animals. I really don't see how scientists have anything to do with dead pigs.
broadsword
Brigadier
When you find the link to cause, post it here. In the meantime, leave the pollution effects of human activities out of this thread and they are intentional, not even some by products of life, which are not welcome here too. We are not interested in the effect of bad human behavior here. If there are processes that can take care of pollution, then those are scientific and technological developments worth posting. This thread is about China's achievements that we can be proud of and inform fellow readers so that they can gloat over. I suggest you start a thread on "China life" and these reports there.
