第 10 课 · Silicon Valley

Silicon valley

硅谷

Technology trends may push Silicon Valley back to the future.

技术发展的潮流，也许会把硅谷推回“未来”。

Carver Mead, a pioneer in integrated circuits and a professor of computer science at the California Institute of Technology, notes there are now workstations that enable engineers to design, test and produce chips right on their desks, much the way and editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh.

卡弗·米德是集成电路领域的先驱、加州理工学院的计算机科学教授。他指出，如今已有工作站能让工程师就在自己的办公桌上设计、测试并生产芯片，就像编辑在 Macintosh 电脑上编一份业务通讯一样。

As the time and cost of making a chip drop to a few days and a few hundred dollars, engineers may soon be free to let their imaginations soar without being penalized by expensive failures.

当制造芯片的时间和成本降到只需几天、几百美元时，工程师们也许很快就能放开手脚、任想象力翱翔，而不必因代价高昂的失败而受罚。

Mead predicts that inventors will be able to perfect powerful customized chips over a weekend at the office -- spawning a new generation of garage start-ups and giving the U. S. a jump on its foreign rivals in getting new products to market fast.

米德预言，发明者将能利用一个周末的办公时间完善功能强大的定制芯片——这将催生新一代“车库创业公司”，并使美国在快速推出新产品方面领先于外国对手。

'We've got more garages with smart people,' Mead observes. 'We really thrive on anarchy. ' And on Asians. Already, orientals and Asian Americans constitute the majority of the engineering staffs at many Valley firms.

“我们的车库更多，里面尽是聪明人，”米德评论道，“我们真正是靠无序兴旺起来的。”也靠亚洲人。如今，东方人和亚裔美国人已在许多硅谷公司构成工程人员的主体。

And Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Indian engineers are graduating in droves from California's colleges.

而中国、韩国、菲律宾和印度的工程师，正成群结队地从加利福尼亚州的各所大学毕业。

As the heads of next-generation start-ups, these Asian innovators can draw on customs and languages to forge tighter links with crucial Pacific Rim markets.

作为下一代创业公司的掌门人，这些亚裔创新者能够凭借共同的风俗习惯和语言，同至关重要的环太平洋市场缔结更紧密的纽带。

For instance, Alex Au, a Stanford Ph. D. from Hong Kong, has set up a Taiwan factory to challenge Japan's near lock on the memory-chip market.

例如，来自香港的斯坦福大学博士 Alex Au 在台湾建起一家工厂，向日本对存储芯片市场近乎垄断的地位发起挑战。

India-born N. Damodar Reddy's tiny California company reopened an AT&T chip plant in Kansas City last spring with financing from the state of Missouri.

出生于印度的 N. Damodar Reddy 在加利福尼亚开的小公司，去年春天重新启动了堪萨斯城的一家 AT&T 芯片工厂，资金来自密苏里州。

Before it becomes a retirement village, Silicon Valley may prove a classroom for building a global business.

趁硅谷还没变成一座“退休村”，它或许会证明自己是学习经营全球生意的一间课堂。