技术趋势可能将硅谷推回到未来。
Technology trends may push Silicon Valley back to the future.
卡弗·米德——集成电路领域的先驱、加州理工学院计算机科学教授——指出，现在已有工作站可以让工程师直接在桌上设计、测试和生产芯片，就像编辑用 Macintosh 电脑制作简报一样。
Carver Mead, a pioneer in integrated circuits and a professor of computer science at the California Institute of Technology, notes there are now workstations that enable engineers to design, test and produce chips right on their desks, much the way an editor creates a newsletter on a Macintosh.
随着芯片制造的时间和成本降至区区几天、几百美元，工程师们或许很快就能自由地让想象力纵情驰骋，而不必再为代价高昂的失败付出惨重代价。
As the time and cost of making a chip drop to a few days and a few hundred dollars, engineers may soon be free to let their imaginations soar without being penalized by expensive failures.
米德预测，发明家们将能够在办公室里利用一个周末的时间打磨出强大的定制芯片——由此催生出新一代车库创业公司，并使美国抢先于外国竞争对手将新产品迅速推向市场。
Mead predicts that inventors will be able to perfect powerful customized chips over a weekend at the office — spawning a new generation of garage start-ups and giving the U.S. a jump on its foreign rivals in getting new products to market fast.
"我们有更多充满聪明人的车库，"米德评述道，"我们真的靠无政府状态茁壮成长。"
'We've got more garages with smart people,' Mead observes. 'We really thrive on anarchy.'
还靠亚洲人。如今，东方人和亚裔美国人已经构成许多硅谷公司工程师队伍的大多数。
And on Asians. Already, orientals and Asian Americans constitute the majority of the engineering staffs at many Valley firms.
而且，中国、韩国、菲律宾和印度裔工程师正成群结队地从加州各高校毕业。
And Chinese, Korean, Filipino and Indian engineers are graduating in droves from California's colleges.
作为下一代创业公司的领军人物，这些亚裔创新者能够借助自身的文化习俗和语言优势，与至关重要的太平洋沿岸市场构建更紧密的联系。
As the heads of next-generation start-ups, these Asian innovators can draw on customs and languages to forge tighter links with crucial Pacific Rim markets.
举例来说，来自香港的斯坦福大学博士亚历克斯·欧已在台湾设立工厂，以挑战日本对存储芯片市场近乎垄断的控制。
For instance, Alex Au, a Stanford Ph.D. from Hong Kong, has set up a Taiwan factory to challenge Japan's near lock on the memory-chip market.
印度出生的 N. 达摩达尔·雷迪的那家规模极小的加州公司，去年春天在密苏里州的资助下重新开启了堪萨斯城的一家 AT&T 芯片工厂。
India-born N. Damodar Reddy's tiny California company reopened an AT&T chip plant in Kansas City last spring with financing from the state of Missouri.
在硅谷沦为"退休村"之前，它或许将证明自己是构建全球商业版图的一所课堂。
Before it becomes a retirement village, Silicon Valley may prove a classroom for building a global business.