Talk about a rebound. Heading into this year, chipmakers were in trouble. Prices of benchmark dynamic random access memory (D-Ram) chips, which help power most computers, fell from a high of more than $6 in 2007 to just 85 cents in January. The slide, exacerbated by recession, pushed German chipmaker Qimonda into bankruptcy. Some Taiwanese rivals, beset by overcapacity – during the boom, the Taiwanese accounted for almost half of $23bn of global D-Ram capital spending – looked to be following close behind. Things got so bad that by March that Taipei uncorked a plan to consolidate the local industry, whose companies account for about a quarter of global supply.
說說芯片業的回暖吧。芯片制造商們在困境中踏進了2009年。多數電腦中都要用到的基準動態隨機存取存儲器(D-Ram)芯片的價格，已從2007年的逾6美元暴跌至今年1月的85美分。經濟衰退加劇了跌勢，將德國芯片制造商奇夢達(Qimonda)推入破產境地。一些深受產能過剩困擾的臺灣制造商似乎也將步其后塵。在行業繁榮時期，全球230億美元D-Ram資本支出中，臺灣占了近一半。情況變得如此糟糕，以至于今年3月臺灣政府披露了有關計劃，擬對當地芯片制造業進行整合。臺灣占了全球芯片市場供應總量的四成。