巨頭英特爾的美好願景:萬物聯網
After missteps in mobile, Intel is betting big on the next big shift in computing: The Internet of Things.
In June, Intel pulled back the veil on a number of significant advancements in processing technology. It introduced its next-generation Xeon Phi processor, a piece of technology that the company predicts will drive 20 percent annual revenue growth in its high-performance computing business in the next few years. It announced new architecture for its versatile Atom chip, found in everything from tablet computers to cars. And it offered an update to the myriad processor projects—Bay Trail! Merrifield! Avaton! Rangely!—in development.
今年六月，英特爾（Intel）披露了一些處理器技術的重大進展。首先是推出了英特爾的下一代至強融核（Xeon Phi）處理器。據英特爾公司自行估計，未來五年，這款處理器將給它的高性能計算業務帶來每年20%的收入增長點。同時，英特爾還公佈了Atom芯片的新架構。Atom可以說是芯片界的萬金油，從平板電腦到汽車，幾乎隨處都是它大顯身手之地。另外，英特爾還對正在研發中的很多處理器項目（如Bay Trail、Merrifield、Avaton和Rangely等等）進行了升級。Much of this plays into Intel’s vision of the future, one that signals the company’s commitment to developing the so-called Internet of Things—and, perhaps more important, its intense desire not to miss out on another major shift in computing.
英特爾的這番大手筆充分彰顯了它對未來的雄心壯志，以及它致力於開發所謂“物聯網”的決心。更重要的是，它彰顯了英特爾絕不放棄計算行業另一次重大變革的決心。
The world’s largest maker of semiconductors was, without question, a late entrant to the mobile computing space. Though Intel has historically dominated the supercomputing and personal computer markets, its lack of foresight (or timing) for the sudden and rapid growth of the mobile market allowed competitors like AMD and Qualcomm to steal market share in the fastest-growing computing arena. With PC sales declining—Intel derives some 70 percent of its revenues from the PC market—the chipmaker is certainly aware of its own mortality. It doesn’t plan to miss the boat a second time.
雖然英特爾是全球最大的半導體產品製造商，但它在移動計算行業無疑起步較晚。雖然英特爾一直主宰着超級計算機和個人電腦市場，但近年來由於對移動市場的突然崛起缺乏遠見（又或許是時機把握得不好），使得AMD和高通（Qualcomm）等競爭對手得以在這個快速崛起的市場上從容地竊取不少市場份額。隨着PC銷量逐漸下滑（英特爾有70%左右的收入來自PC市場），英特爾顯然已經意識到繼續墨守成規的命運。它不打算第二次錯過這條船。“We’ve seen the screenification of the world, and now we’re moving to computational power in the environment,” says Brian David Johnson, Intel’s resident futurist and principal engineer, of the transition from smartphone- and tablet-centric computing toward wearable technology and other new types of computing that comprise the Internet of Things. “Before, we had to ask ourselves, ‘Can we take a desktop and make it fit onto somebody’s lap? Can we take a laptop and make it small enough to fit in somebody’s pocket?’ The question was always, ‘Can we do it?’ But now, as the size of meaningful computing power approaches zero, you can turn anything into a computer. So the question now becomes, ‘What do we want to turn into a computer, and why?’”
英特爾公司的未來學家、首席工程師布萊恩o大衛o約翰遜指出：“我們已經見證了世界的屏幕化，我們也在讓我們的計算能力順應這種環境進行轉變。”也就是把以智能手機和平板電腦爲中心的計算能力，向以可穿戴技術和物聯網技術爲中心的計算能力轉變。“從前我們曾經問過自己：‘我們可以把臺式電腦縮小到可以放在人們的膝蓋上嗎？我們能把筆記本電腦縮小到能放到人們的口袋裏嗎？’當時問題總是‘我們能做到嗎？’但是現在，隨着承載重要計算能力的芯片尺寸縮小到幾乎可以忽略不計，大家幾乎可以把任何東西變成一臺電腦。因此現在的問題也就變成了：‘我們想把什麼東西變成一臺電腦？爲什麼？’”Intel clearly expects the answers to that question to be vast and diverse. During the June announcement, Johnson and other company representatives drove home the idea that the possibilities for computing applications grow exponentially as the size of meaningful computing power approaches zero, creating opportunities for mobile computing that go far beyond the tablet or smartphone. Intel thinks 500 million pieces of wearable tech will be sold globally each year by 2020. Each will pack some degree of processing power to consume and create data. (According to Gartner research cited by Intel, all of that data will generate some $2 trillion in value.)
在英特爾看來，這個問題的答案顯然非常廣泛。在六月份的一份公告中，約翰遜和英特爾的其他代表們詳細闡述了隨着承載重要計算能力的芯片尺寸縮小到幾乎可以忽略不計，移動計算能力可以從平板電腦和智能手機發展到其它物品上的可能性。英特爾公司認爲，到2020年，全球每年將能夠售出5億部可穿戴設備。其中任何一臺可穿戴設備都具有一定的處理能力，消費、產生數據。【據英特爾公司引用高德納研究公司（Gartner）的數據，這些可穿戴設備產生的數據所具有的價值將高達2萬億美元。）Key to Intel’s bid in the area are two new products, Galileo and Edison. The first is a $60 development board that is compatible with Arduino, the open source electronics prototyping platform popular with “makers” and other do-it-yourself tinkerers. The second is a tiny system-on-a-chip, roughly the size of an SD card, that can be integrated into consumer products to provide processing, memory, storage, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connectivity and compatibility with a range of pluggable sensors.
英特爾對物聯網領域的賭注主要集中在兩款新產品上，一款產品叫做“伽利略”，另一款叫做“愛迪生”。“伽利略”是一塊售價60美元的開發板，可以與深受DIY愛好者們喜愛的Arduino開源電子原型設計平臺兼容。“愛迪生”是一個小巧的系統芯片，雖然只有一張SD卡大小，但卻可以集成到消費產品中，提供數據處理、存儲、Wi-Fi、藍牙功能，還可以與一系列即插式傳感器兼容。Galileo is notable because it allows someone to retrofit a disconnected electronic device to become connected and be controlled from a smartphone. It’s a capability that other controller boards already allow, albeit with different architectures. Edison takes the general concept a step further, Johnson says, by allowing product developers to use it in items such as clothing, smart watches, smart glasses, personal robots, and other Internet-enabled appliances and devices.
“伽利略”之所以非常有名，是因爲人們可以用它把一臺不能聯網的設備改裝成一臺聯網設備，然後用智能手機對它進行控制。這個功能並不新鮮，市面上的其它控制板也能做到，只不過基礎架構全然不同。“愛迪生”則把這個理念推進得更深了一步，使開發者可以把它用在衣服、智能手錶、智能眼鏡、私人機器人和其它能夠聯網的器具和設備上。If product developers take to Edison in a major way—”if” being the key word—it could put Intel out in front of its competition in the early days of the Internet of Things, a position the company has deeply coveted in the age of mobility. Better still, growth in Internet of Things technologies will also drive growth in Intel’s other major non-PC segments, a fact not lost on the company. More connected devices mean more data generated by those devices and the consumers that use them. More data means more data crunching, which means more processors needed to drive high-performance computing hardware as big data increasingly becomes a cornerstone technology for all kinds of enterprises.
如果“愛迪生”成了產品開發者們採用的主流產品——當然只是“如果”——那麼英特爾就將在物聯網的早期發展階段佔盡先機，這也正是移動時代以來英特爾一直夢寐以求的局面。此外，物聯網技術的發展還能促進英特爾其它非PC業務的增長。聯網的設備越多，意味着這些設備產生的數據就越多，同時也意味着使用這些設備的人越多。更多的數據意味着需要更強大的數據處理能力。另外，隨着大數據越來越成爲各種類型的企業的支柱技術，要帶動大數據所需的高性能計算機硬件，自然也就需要更多的處理器。This summer’s launch of Edison should provide Intel with an honest measure of whether the product designers already developing the wearable and embedded technologies that will populate the future will align their vision with Intel’s own. If they do, Intel could soon find itself powering any number of newly-connected devices that fall outside of the traditional computing markets. Which, Johnson notes, is exactly where Intel would like to be: inside.
“愛迪生”在今夏的發佈，讓英特爾有機會老老實實地檢驗一下，看看那些已經在研發可穿戴設備和嵌入式技術的產品設計師們的願景是否與英特爾自己的願景一致。如果設計師們真的與英特爾一拍即合，那麼英特爾的芯片不久就會安裝在各種新型聯網設備裏，而這些新型設備必將超出計算市場的範疇。約翰遜指出，這正是英特爾想要達到的目標——進入物聯網。“We’re not a PC company, we’re not a tablet company, we’re not a smartphone company. We’re an intelligence company,” Johnson says. “We can bring intelligence to anything. To me, Edison and Galileo are the first expression of that vision.”
約翰遜說：“我們並不是一家PC公司，也不是一家平板電腦公司或智能手機公司，我們是一家智能公司。我們可以把智能帶到任何東西上。在我看來，‘愛迪生’和‘伽利略’就是這種願景的第一次表達。”
