2021年经济学人 芯片巨头Intel还能逆风翻盘,向阳而生吗?(2)

Manufacturing stumbles have cost it business. AMD, its most direct rival, outsources production to Taiwan Semiconductor¹ Manufacturing Company (TSMC), whose technology is now ahead of Intel's. That means AMD's chips are generally faster, and consume less power; its market share has more than doubled since 2019.

芯片制造上的挫败使英特尔伤到元气。其最直接的竞争对手AMD将生产外包给台积电（TSMC），而后者的技术目前领先于英特尔。这意味着AMD公司的芯片速度普遍更快，功耗更低；自2019年以来，AMD的市场份额翻了一番多。

A second challenge is the industry’s growing specialisation—a problem for Intel’s traditional forte² of general-purpose chips, especially if desktop³ pcs continue to stagnate⁴. Technology giants, flush with cash and keen to extract every drop of performance for their specific purposes, increasingly design their own semiconductors⁵. In 2020 Apple said it would drop Intel from its laptops and desktops⁶ in favour of custom-designed chips. Amazon is rolling out its “Graviton” cloud-computing processors, also designed in-house and made by TSMC. Microsoft, whose cloud business is second only to Amazon’s, is rumoured⁷ to be working on something similar.

英特尔面临的第二个挑战是芯片制造行业逐渐走向定制化，这是英特尔通用芯片（英特尔的传统王牌产品）所面临的问题，尤其是在台式电脑继续停滞不前的情况下。科技巨头们资金充裕，热衷于为自己的特定需求而榨取全部性能，进而不断更新自家的半导体设计。2020年，苹果表示将放弃在其笔记本电脑和台式机上使用英特尔芯片，转而采用定制设计的芯片。亚马逊正在推出其“Graviton”云计算处理器，该处理器也经由台积电（TSMC）自主设计和制造。云计算业务仅次于亚马逊的微软据传也在进行类似的工作。

Intel has also failed to make any headway in smartphones, the most popular computers ever made. An effort in the late 1990s to build graphics⁸ chips, which have also proved handy for artificial intelligence (AI), and to which Nvidia owes its enviable valuation, petered out. Attempts to diversify⁹ into clever new sorts of programmable or memory chips—in 2015 it paid $16.7bn for Altera, which makes them—have so far not paid off in a big way.

英特尔在智能手机这一有史以来最受欢迎的计算机领域也未能取得任何进展。上世纪90年代末，英特尔公司致力于研发图形芯片，事实证明，图像芯片也有益于人工智能（AI）。英特尔逐渐放弃了研发工作，而英伟达在图形芯片上的努力使其获得了令人羡慕的估值。英特尔试图实现产品多样化，开发新型可编程芯片或内存芯片，2015年，英特尔斥资167亿美元收购制造上述芯片的阿尔特拉公司（Altera），但迄今尚未获得大的回报。

Mr Gelsinger has yet to say how he plans to deal with the challenges. He does not look like a revolutionary. He began working at Intel aged¹⁰ 18, before leaving in 2009 to preside over EMC, a data-storage firm, and for the past nine years heading VMware, a software firm. In an email to Intel’s staff after his appointment was announced he invoked¹¹ its glory days, recalling being “mentored at the feet of Grove¹², Robert Noyce and Gordon Moore”, the last two being the firm’s founders¹³. Like them but unlike his predecessor¹⁴, Bob Swan, Mr Gelsinger is an engineer, who in 1989 led the design of a flagship chip.

基尔辛格还没有说明他计划如何应对这些挑战。他看起来不像一位革命者。他18岁时开始在英特尔工作，2009年离职后执掌数据存储公司易安信（EMC），过去九年来一直领导软件公司威睿（VMware）。宣布就任后，在给英特尔员工的一封电子邮件中，他提到了英特尔的辉煌岁月，回忆起自己“曾接受过格罗夫、罗伯特·诺伊斯和戈登·摩尔的指导”（后两位是英特尔的创始人）。基尔辛格与他们一样是工程师（这点与前任总裁鲍勃·斯旺不同），他在1989年领导了一款旗舰芯片的设计。

1 semiconductor   

n.半导体

参考例句：

• In the beginning,engineers hoped to use semiconductor lasers.在开始时，工程师们希望能够利用半导体激光器。
• The main agent of the company brand semiconductor sales.本公司主要代理各品牌半导体销售。

2 forte   

n.长处，擅长；adj.(音乐)强音的

参考例句：

• Her forte is playing the piano.她擅长弹钢琴。
• His forte is to show people around in the company.他最拿手的就是向大家介绍公司。

3 desktop   

n.桌面管理系统程序；台式

参考例句：

• My computer is a desktop computer of excellent quality.我的计算机是品质卓越的台式计算机。
• Do you know which one is better,a laptop or a desktop?你知道哪一种更好，笔记本还是台式机？

4 stagnate   

v.停止

参考例句：

• Where the masses are not roused,work will stagnate.哪里不发动群众，哪里的工作就死气沉沉。
• Taiwan's economy is likely to stagnate for a long time to come.台湾经济很可能会停滞很长一段时间。

5 semiconductors   

n.半导体( semiconductor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Crystals may be insulators, semiconductors, or conductors. 晶体可以是绝缘体，半导体，或导体。 来自辞典例句
• Semiconductors containing such impurities are called p-type semiconductors. 含有这类杂质的半导体叫做P型半导体。 来自辞典例句

6 desktops   

桌面( desktop的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You switch between these virtual desktops by clicking on the one you want to make active. 只需单击你所希望激活的桌面就可以在这些虚拟桌面之间进行切换。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Laptops outsell desktops for the first time in the United States. 膝上型电脑首次在美国销售量胜过桌上型电脑。

7 rumoured   

adj.谣传的；传说的；风

参考例句：

• It has been so rumoured here. 此间已有传闻。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• It began to be rumoured that the jury would be out a long while. 有人传说陪审团要退场很久。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

8 graphics   

n.制图法，制图学；图形显示

参考例句：

• You've leveraged your graphics experience into the video area.你们把图形设计业务的经验运用到录像业务中去。
• Improved graphics took computer games into a new era.经改进的制图技术将电脑游戏带进了一个新时代。

9 diversify   

v.（使）不同，（使）变得多样化

参考例句：

• Our company is trying to diversify.我们公司正力图往多样化方面发展。
• Hills and woods diversify the landscape.山陵和树木点缀景色。

10 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

11 invoked   

v.援引( invoke的过去式和过去分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求

参考例句：

• It is unlikely that libel laws will be invoked. 不大可能诉诸诽谤法。
• She had invoked the law in her own defence. 她援引法律为自己辩护。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 grove   

n.林子，小树林，园林

参考例句：

• On top of the hill was a grove of tall trees.山顶上一片高大的树林。
• The scent of lemons filled the grove.柠檬香味充满了小树林。

13 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

14 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。