精读丨美国年度畅销书：芯片战争
为什么芯片成了中美地缘政治的顶级筹码？
课程导读
▸ 图灵和香农各自为芯片产业的诞生做了怎样的奠基性工作？
▸ 为什么电子管最终被晶体管所取代？
▸ 贝尔实验室、英特尔或德州仪器这样的半导体巨头出现在美国是偶然的吗？
▸ 米勒的《芯片战争》在讲述芯片产业史时，采取了一种怎样的视角？
▸ 张忠谋的台积电和德州仪器有什么不解之缘？
▸ 为什么美国可以阻止荷兰公司 ASML 将顶级光刻机卖给崛起的中国？
▸ 你知道“Moore's Law”这个短语是什么意思吗？
The Bargaining Chips Are … Chips: On Chris Miller's "Chip War"
Silicon chips power everything from cars and toys to phones and nukes. "Chip War," by Chris Miller, recounts the rise of the chip industry and the outsize geopolitical implications of its ascendancy.
According to canonical accounts, several key milestones have shaped the history of computing, at least when viewed from the United States. These typically start with the year 1937, when the British mathematician Alan Turing published a paper that proposed building a "universal computing machine." In that same year, American engineer Claude Shannon suggested that electrical switches set in an "on" or "off" state could perform logic operations using Boolean algebra. In the next decade, these two strands came together when the first programmable digital computers — machines like the ENIAC, completed in Philadelphia in 1945 — were used for military applications. Meanwhile, in 1947, researchers at Bell Labs invented the transistor. These solid-state devices, crafted out of semiconducting materials like germanium and silicon, soon replaced the larger and more power-hungry vacuum tubes that had served as the logic elements in early digital computers.
来源：Los Angeles Review of Books
参考译文
讨价还价的筹码是……芯片：论克里斯 · 米勒的“芯片之争”
从汽车、玩具到手机和核武器，硅芯片为一切提供动力。克里斯•米勒(Chris Miller)的《芯片大战》(Chip War)讲述了芯片行业的崛起及其优势所带来的巨大地缘政治影响。
根据权威的说法，几个关键的里程碑事件塑造了信息处理技术的历史，至少从美国来看是这样。1937 年，英国数学家艾伦·图灵发表了一篇论文，提议建造一台“通用计算机”。同年，美国工程师克劳德·香农提出，处于“开”或“关”状态的电子开关可以使用布尔代数进行逻辑运算。在接下来的十年里，当第一批可编程数字计算机——如1945年在费城研制成功的ENIAC——被用于军事应用时，这两种理论结合在了一起。与此同时，1947年，贝尔实验室的研究人员发明了晶体管。这些由锗和硅等半导体材料制成的固态器件很快取代了在早期数字计算机中用作逻辑元件的更大、更耗电的真空电子管。
重点词汇
bargaining chip n. 讨价还价的筹码，谈判中的有利条件
○ a fact or a thing that a person or a group of people can use to get an advantage for themselves when they are trying to reach an agreement with another group
○ e.g. Rubio suggests that oil be used as a bargaining chip in any trade talks. 鲁比奥建议把石油当作所有贸易谈判的筹码。
canonical /kəˈnɒnɪkl/ adj. 典型的，典范的
○ If something has canonical status, it is accepted as having all the qualities that a thing of its kind should have.
○ e.g. Ballard's status as a canonical writer 巴拉德的经典作家地位
strand /strænd/ n.（计划或理论的）部分，方面
○ A strand of a plan or theory is a part of it.
○ e.g. He's trying to bring together various strands of radical philosophic thought. 他正试图把各种激进的哲学思想综合在一起。
transistor /trænˈzɪstə(r)/ n. 晶体管
○ a small electronic device used in computers, radios, televisions, etc. for controlling an electric current as it passes along a circuit
craft /krɑːft/ v.（尤指用手工）精心制作
○ to make sth. using special skills, especially with your hands
○ e.g. All the furniture is crafted from natural materials. 所有的家具均采用天然材料精心制作而成。
semiconducting /ˌsemɪkənˈdʌktɪŋ/ adj.（材料，装置）有半导体特性的
○ (of a material or device) having the properties of a semiconductor
germanium /dʒɜːˈmeɪniəm/ n. 锗
○ Germanium is a shiny grey element that is similar to a metal.
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