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Lesson 10
Silicon valley
硅谷
What does the computer industry thrive on apart from anarchy?
Technology trends may push Silicon Valley back to the future. Carver Mead,
a pioneer in integrated circuits and a professor of computer science at the
California Institute of Technology, notes there are now work-stations that
enable engineers to design, test and produce chips right on their desks, much
the way an editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh. 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. 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. '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. And Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Indian engineers are graduating in
droves from California's colleges. 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. 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. 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. Before it becomes a retirement village, Silicon Valley
may prove a classroom for building a global business.
US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT, October 2, 1989
New words and expressions 生词与短语
silicon
n. 硅
integrated
adj. 综合的
circuit
n. 线路，电路
California
n. 加利福尼亚(美国州名)
workstation
n. 工作站
chip
n. 芯片，集成电路片，集成块
newsletter
n. 时事通讯
Macintosh
n. 苹果机，一种个人电脑
penalize
v. 处罚，惩罚
customize
v. 按顾客具体需要制造
spawn
v. 引起，酿成
thrive
v. 兴旺，繁荣
anarchy
n. 无政府状态，混乱
oriental
n. 东方人
constitute
v. 构成
drove
n. 群
innovator
n. 发明者
forge
v. 发展
memory-chip
n. 内存条
AT & T
美国电话电报公司 (American Telephone and Telegraph)
Kansas
n. 堪萨斯(美国州名)
Missouri
n. 密苏里(美国州名)
本文参考译文
技术的发展趋势有可能把硅谷重新推向未来。卡弗.米德 -- 集成电路的一位先驱，加州理工学院的计算机教授 --
注意到，现在有些计算机工作站使工程技术人员可以在他们的办公桌上设计、试验和生产芯片，就像一位编辑在苹果机上编出一份时事通讯一样。由于制造一块芯片的时间已缩短至几天，费用也只有几百美元，因此，工程技术人员可能很块就可充分发挥他们的想像力，而不会因失败而造成经济上的损失。米德预言发明者可以在办公室用一个周末的时间生产了完美的、功能很强的、按客户需求设计的芯片
-- 造就新一代从汽车间起家的技术人员，在把产品推向市场方面使美国把它的外国对手们打个措手不及。
“我们有更多的汽车间，那里有许多聪明人，”米德说。“我们确实是靠这种无政府状态发展起来的。”
靠的是亚洲人。硅谷许多公司中工程技术人员的大多数是东方人和亚裔美国人。中国、韩国、菲律宾和印度的工程师一批批地从加州的大学毕业。作为新掘起一代的带头人，亚裔发明家可以凭借他们在习惯和语言上的优势，与关键的太平洋沿岸市场建立起更加牢固的联系。比如说，亚历克斯.奥，一位来自香港的斯坦福大学博士，已经在台湾建厂，对日本在内存条市场上近似垄断的局面提出了挑战。印度出生的N.达莫达.雷迪经营的小小的加州公司在堪萨斯城重新启用了美国电话电报公司的一家芯片工厂，并从密苏里州获取了财政上的支持。在硅谷变成一个退休村之前，它很可能成为建立全球商业的一个教学场地。
（兼职编辑：张博） |
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发表于 2016-7-11 22:47:48