双语阅读｜云计算：全球芯片大战的主战场

双语阅读

It is easy to think of the computing cloud as the placeless whereabouts of the latest Netflix series, your Spotify playlists, millions of wanton selfies and your digital assistant. It is even easier to ignore it altogether, at least until Alexa alerts you that your storage space is filling up and helpfully offers to rent you extra room, of which there always appears to be more available.

翻译

人们很容易把计算云看作是无处不在的Netflix最新剧集、你的Spotify播放列表、数百万张随心所欲的自拍和你的数字助理所存储的地方。甚至更容易完全忽略了它的存在，直到Alexa语音助手提醒你，你的存储空间快满了，并提出帮你租用额外的存储空间，让你感到似乎总是有更多空间可用。

Necessary, disembodied and, for $9.99 a month, to all intents and purposes limitless: it is the ether of the digital age. This ether, though, has a very unethereal side—the vast data centres where all this information is physically stored and, increasingly, processed by powerful computers known as servers. The semiconductor hardware that makes the servers powerful is fast becoming the hardest-fought front in the battle over the $600bn global market for computer chips.

翻译

必要、非实体、每月仅需9.99美元、使用目的无限制：它是数字时代的以太。然而，这种以太有一个非常实际的一面——所有这些信息都以物理方式存储在海量数据中心，并且更多地由一种名为服务器的强大计算机进行处理。在价值6000亿美元的全球电脑芯片市场的争夺战中，让服务器获得如此强大的功能的半导体硬件，正迅速成为竞争最激烈的战线。

Today the market for server processors is getting bigger, more crowded and more complex. (The business of memory chips, which store data rather than crunch it, is distinct, more commoditised and less lucrative.) Intel, which both designs and manufactures semiconductors, derives 33% of its revenues from server chips, up from 29% in 2016. Specialist chip designers that do not do their own manufacturing are expanding their server-chip businesses even more quickly. Data centres now account for 39% of the sales of Nvidia, up from 7% six years ago.

翻译

如今，服务器处理器市场正变得越来越大、竞争者越来越多，也越来越复杂。(芯片存储业务是对数据进行存储而不是加工，这一业务比较独特，商品化程度更高，利润也更低。)设计和制造半导体的英特尔服务器芯片业务的收入比重从2016年的29%上升至33%。不自行生产的专业芯片设计商正在以更快的速度扩张他们的服务器芯片业务。数据中心业务现在占到了英伟达销售额的39%，高于六年前7%的比重。

Two factors explain the competitive storm. The first is the market’s size and growth. Data-centre chips are a bright spot in an otherwise dark year for the semiconductor industry, which is in the grip of a cyclical downturn that has wiped two-fifths from the market value of the world’s chipmakers this year. Whereas sales of PCs and smartphones, and the chips inside them, are expected to fall this year, server demand is forecast to rise.

翻译

有两个因素可以解释这场竞争风暴。首先是市场的规模和增长。尽管今年个人电脑和智能手机中以及内置于其中的芯片销量预计将下降，但服务器需求预计将上升。

The second reason for the upheaval is the growing sophistication of what the cloud does. It no longer acts merely like a large external hard drive. It is bursting with new capabilities that require different chip architectures. In some cases, that means repurposing existing technology.

翻译

引发剧变的第二个原因是云计算的功能越来越复杂。它不再单纯扮演一个巨大的外部硬盘驱动器的角色。它迸发出了很多新的功能，需要不同的芯片架构（予以支持）。在某些情况下，这意味着改变现有技术的用途。

本文节选自：The Econ（经济xue人）

发布时间：2022.10.06

作者：Business

原文标题：The cloud is the fiercest front in the chip wars

词汇积累

1.wanton

/ˈwɒntən/adj.嬉戏的；繁茂的；荒唐的；无节制的；放纵的vi.放肆；嬉戏；闲荡n.荡妇；水性杨花的女人

2. ethereal

/ɪˈθɪərɪəl/adj.优雅的；轻飘的；缥缈的；超凡的

3.crunch

/krʌntʃ/v. 嘎吱嘎吱地嚼; (使)发出碎裂声; 嘎吱嘎吱地行进; (大量地)处理(数字)n. 压碎声，碎裂声; 危急关头，艰难局面(the crunch); 不足，短缺; 仰卧起坐

4. cyclical

/ˈsaɪklɪkəl/adj. 周期的，循环的

词组搭配

1.in the grip of 受…控制

写作句总结

It no longer acts merely like a large external hard drive.

结构: It no longer acts merely like a …. 它不再单纯扮演一个…的角色

例句: It no longer acts merely like a small branch of economics.