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来源Intel Hopes Sci-Fi Will Help Future Products - BusinessWeek
译者wizky
Star Trek: Paramount Pictures/Photofest; Chip: Bloomberg
星际迷航：派拉蒙影业/Photofest；芯片：彭博社
For decades, measuring progress in semiconductors was easy. Every year the chips got faster and the industry moved forward. Speed matters far less these days. Phones, cars, and other everyday objects are becoming computers, and the chips in them need to run graphics, operate radios, and browse the Web, all while using as little power as possible.
几十年来，在半导体行业衡量进步是很容易的。每年芯片都变得更快，工业向前进展。近些日子以来速度不再重要。手机、汽车和其他日常物品都在变成电脑，其中的芯片需要处理图像、操作无线电和浏览网络，所有这些都要尽可能的省电。
Intel (INTC) has struggled to understand this shift. It excelled in the faster-is-always-better world, but rivals like ARM (ARMH) and Qualcomm (QCOM) have been far better at designing chips geared for consumers’ needs. Users “don’t care about the technology anymore,” says Jim McGregor, chief technology strategist at researcher In-Stat. “They care about how they can use it. It’s cultural change that needs to happen” at Intel, says McGregor.
英特尔(INTC)努力理解这个转变。它很擅长于“更快总是更好”的世界，但像ARM(ARMH)和高通(QCOM)这样的对手更擅长于设计针对消费者需求的芯片。用户“不再关心技术”，研究机构In-Stat的首席技术战略家，Jim McGregor称。“他们关心他们如何使用技术。这是英特尔需要发生的文化变革”McGregor称。
The chipmaker is trying to speed along the change by reaching engineers in a language they understand: science fiction. Last year Intel hired four sci-fi writers to study the company’s latest research projects and produce an anthology, The Tomorrow Project, envisioning how cutting-edge processors might be used in the near future. Published online in February, the book supplements an ongoing series of short stories about artificial intelligence by Brian David Johnson, Intel’s resident futurist. His latest story, The Machinery of Love and Grace, about a grieving space station, was published online in late July. The goal of both projects is to help Intel’s engineers design chips tailored to specific consumer uses with wide market potential.
芯片制造商试图通过一门工程师们理解的语言来加速这个变革：科幻小说。去年英特尔雇用了四名科幻小说作家来学习公司的最新研究项目并出版了一部文集：《明日计划（The Tomorrow Project）》，想象尖端处理器在不久的未来可能的用途。于二月在网络上出版，这本书补充了驻守英特尔的未来主义者David Johnson的一系列有关人工智能最新进展的短篇小说。他的最新小说，《爱与优雅的机器（The Machinery of Love and Grace）》，关于一座令人悲伤的空间站，于七月下旬在线出版。这两个项目的目标是帮助英特尔的工程师们为有广阔市场潜力的特定消费者量身设计芯片。
In one of the stories in The Tomorrow Project, a couple dashes from Paris to the south coast of France to provide an injured relative with a blood transfusion. They travel in a car that navigates and drives itself. Medical information is wirelessly beamed to the vehicle’s dashboard and into mobile phone-like ear studs. In another story, robotic automation has rendered jobs a thing of the past, and one human mulls what to do with his free time. “It’s an incredibly useful technique for those of us who grew up watching Star Trek, or still do,” says Jack Weast, an Intel engineer.
在《明日计划（The Tomorrow Project）》其中一篇小说中，一对夫妇从巴黎赶往法国南海岸去为一个受伤的亲戚输血。他们通过一辆能自我导航和驾驶的汽车旅行。医疗资讯被无线发送到车辆的仪表盘和像手机一样的耳钉中。在另一篇小说中，机器人自动化宣布工作成为明日黄花，一个人类琢磨如何打发空闲时间。“对于我们中那些看着《星际迷航》成长起来或还在成长的人来说，这是一项难以置信地有用的技术。”一名英特尔工程师，Jack Weast称。
Intel’s sci-fi publishing arm is an extension of its 12-year-old social science division. The division assesses technological trends by sending anthropologists and sociologists to hang out in living rooms, senior care centers, and hospitals. The logic behind the effort: Understand how technology is used and you’re more likely to design chips people will buy. “The world of computing isn’t what it used to be,” says Johnson. “It is my job to get out in front of our tech-nology road map.”
英特尔的科幻小说出版大军是它有着12年历史的社会科学部门的一项延伸。该部门通过派出人类学家和社会学家外出到起居室、高级护理中心和医院闲逛来评估技术趋势。这项努力背后的逻辑：理解技术如何被运用，你才更有可能设计出人们愿意购买的芯片。“计算的世界不再是过去的样子了，”Johnson称，“我的工作是走在我们的技术路线图之前。”
Johnson worked closely with Weast while the engineer’s team designed Intel’s E3100 and E4100 chips, processors for Internet-enabled televisions and set-top boxes. The company started work on the chip specifications five years ago under the assumption that viewers would want to stream movies and shows from the Internet to their TV. Johnson’s research, which included surveys and observation teams, showed that consumers don’t just want to stream videos—they want to browse the whole of the Web on their big screens. In response to the research, Weast’s engineering team redesigned the chips.
当英特尔的工程师团队设计E3100和E4100芯片——为可上网的电视和机顶盒设计的处理器——时，Johnson与Weast通力合作。在观众想要从英特网上下载电影和节目到他们的电视中的假设下，该公司五年前就开始研究芯片技术参数。Johnson的研究——包括调查和观察团队——显示，消费者不只是想要下载视频——他们想要在大屏幕上浏览整个网络。作为对该项研究的回应，Weast的工程团队重新设计了芯片。
That hasn’t exactly led to a home run. Logitech (LOGI) said in April that its Intel-equipped Google (GOOG) TV device, introduced in October, was off to a “slow start.” The price has been slashed by a third, to $99, in the face of weak demand. In Europe, the Intel-based devices have fared better and are selling at a rate of “tens of thousands” a day, according to the company.
确切地说，这并没有带来一个本垒打。在四月，罗技(LOGI)称它的配备英特尔芯片的谷歌 (GOOG) 电视设备——去年十月上市——“启动缓慢”。面对需求疲软的局面，价格已经削减了三分之一，降至99美元。在欧洲，基于英特尔芯片的设备卖的更好，并以每天“成千上万”的速率销售，据英特尔称。
Johnson stresses that no number of surveys, observation teams, or sci-fi stories can accurately predict the future. But he says that Intel’s social science efforts are helping to transform the company’s engineering culture, and he plans to release another sci-fi anthology in October. “We no longer design technology just for technology’s sake,” says Weast. “Although we can always go bigger, faster, better, the research that Brian David and his team do is helping us to understand where are the right places to do that.”
Johnson强调，来自调查、观察团队或科幻小说的任何数字都不能精确预测未来。但他称，英特尔的社会科学努力正在帮助转变这家公司的工程文化，他计划在十月释出另一部科幻小说文集。“我们不再为技术目的而设计技术，”Weast称。“虽然我们总能变得更大、更快、更好，Brian David和他的团队所做的研究正在帮助我们理解何处是走向更大、更快、更好的正确位置。”
The bottom line: Insight from sci-fi writers and social scientists is helping Intel’s chip engineers envision how their processors will be used by consumers.
本质内容：来自科幻小说作家和社会科学家的洞察力正在帮助英特尔的芯片工程师想象他们的处理器将如何被消费者使用。
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