10 · 硅谷
Silicon Valley
区分观点、依据、例子与限制，用自己的话准确重建论述。
课文精读整篇课文
点选一句，句末即可听读；连起意思，大声读一遍。
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 workstations 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.
本课原文与译文
展开完整文本 · 便于查阅与检索
整篇课文
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 workstations 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.
技术发展的新趋势，或许会让硅谷带着昔日的创业方式走向未来。集成电路先驱、加州理工学院计算机科学教授卡弗·米德指出，如今已有工作站，能让工程师在自己的桌上设计、测试并生产芯片，就像编辑用麦金塔电脑制作通讯刊物一样。当芯片制作所需的时间和费用降到几天、几百美元时，工程师也许很快就能尽情发挥想象力，不再因失败而付出高昂代价。米德预测，发明者只需一个周末，就能在办公室完善性能强大的定制芯片，由此催生新一代车库创业公司，并让美国在迅速把新产品推向市场方面抢在外国对手前面。“我们有更多车库，里面有聪明人，”米德说，“这种不受拘束的环境，恰恰让我们兴旺起来。”
硅谷的兴旺也离不开亚洲人。在硅谷许多企业，亚洲人和亚裔美国人已经占了工程技术人员的大多数。中国、韩国、菲律宾和印度的工程师，正成批从加州各大学毕业。作为新一代初创企业的领头人，这些亚洲创新者可以利用自己的文化习惯和语言背景，与重要的环太平洋市场建立更紧密的联系。比如，来自香港、获斯坦福大学博士学位的区先生，在台湾设厂，挑战日本在存储芯片市场上近乎垄断的地位。出生于印度的N．达莫德尔·雷迪，在加州经营一家小公司；借助密苏里州的资金支持，他于去年春天重新启用了美国电话电报公司在堪萨斯城的一座芯片工厂。硅谷在变成退休者聚居地之前，也许会先成为一间教人如何开展全球业务的课堂。
学完这一课
先说一个工具能做什么，再用熟悉活动解释它。
译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第43—46页，2022年2月第2版。