英特爾的愿景：萬物聯網

????英特爾當初錯過了搶占移動市場的先手，被AMD和高通鉆了空子。但眼下，英特爾決心豪賭計算領域的下一次大變革：物聯網，讓英特爾的芯片進入一切有形的物體。

????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，英特爾還公布了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。

????英特爾的這番大手筆充分彰顯了它對未來的雄心壯志，以及它致力于開發所謂“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。

????雖然英特爾是全球最大的半導體產品制造商，但它在移動計算行業無疑起步較晚。雖然英特爾一直主宰著超級計算機和個人電腦市場，但近年來由于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。隨著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。

????英特爾公司的未來學家、首席工程師布萊恩?大衛?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為中心的計算能力，向以可穿戴技術和物聯網技術為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里嗎？’當時問題總是‘我們能做到嗎？’但是現在，隨著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：‘我們想把什么東西變成一臺電腦？為什么？’”

????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.

????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.

????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.

????“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?’”