新年伊始，領(lǐng)先的芯片制造商齊齊亮相拉斯維加斯CES年度科技盛會(huì)，寄希望于利用新產(chǎn)品的發(fā)布來一掃之前的負(fù)面新聞。在這些新發(fā)布的芯片中，有的能夠提供更順暢的視頻游戲體驗(yàn)，有的能夠讓筆記本變得更加輕薄，還有的將加速自動(dòng)駕駛汽車的到來。

英偉達(dá)、英特爾、AMD和高通均率先在CES展示了其新產(chǎn)品。在發(fā)布新品之時(shí)，高通仍在與其最大的客戶蘋果公司對(duì)簿公堂，并試圖避開博通不請(qǐng)自來的收購行動(dòng)。

英特爾和AMD則希望客戶們能夠忘卻近來出現(xiàn)的諸如Spectre和Meltdown這樣的安全漏洞。但由于這一問題著實(shí)嚴(yán)重，這兩家公司可謂是忙得不可開交。

英偉達(dá)在CES上的發(fā)布內(nèi)容

雖然英偉達(dá)為其傳統(tǒng)的客戶群——視頻游戲迷們帶來了諸多新消息，但公司卻把主要精力放在了未來的自動(dòng)駕駛汽車市場(chǎng)。

游戲迷們獲得了一個(gè)名為GeForce Now的新流媒體服務(wù)。即便是筆記本并未配置強(qiáng)大的圖形芯片，這一服務(wù)也能夠讓游戲粉絲們以最精美的畫質(zhì)來角逐各類游戲賽事。英偉達(dá)將利用云端服務(wù)器上的顯卡來處理所需的海量運(yùn)算，然后通過互聯(lián)網(wǎng)將顯示內(nèi)容傳輸至玩家端筆記本屏幕。借助這一技術(shù)，即便是顯卡配置較差的筆記本也能運(yùn)行復(fù)雜的游戲。

該公司還推出了新型PC游戲監(jiān)視器標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，名為Big Format Gaming Display（BFGD）。這一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)能夠讓游戲以4K分辨率在65英寸的顯示屏上運(yùn)行，并提供更廣泛的色域，也就是人們所熟知的高動(dòng)態(tài)范圍。最終，人們將在大屏幕上看到更大、更清晰、更賞心悅目的游戲畫面。??

然而，游戲迷們還是會(huì)不由自主地發(fā)現(xiàn)，這個(gè)云系統(tǒng)仍處于測(cè)試階段，而且其價(jià)格也尚未公布。符合BFGD標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的顯示器預(yù)計(jì)將于今年夏季與世人見面，但其價(jià)格仍是個(gè)未知數(shù)。

同時(shí)，英偉達(dá)并未發(fā)布帶有其最新Volta芯片的消費(fèi)級(jí)顯卡產(chǎn)品。這類產(chǎn)品到目前為止仍僅用于企業(yè)級(jí)的機(jī)器學(xué)習(xí)和人工智能產(chǎn)品。數(shù)月以來，游戲迷們一直在翹首期盼，希望知道自己何時(shí)才能用上帶有Volta芯片的主流產(chǎn)品。

英偉達(dá)在CES上的重點(diǎn)內(nèi)容是無人駕駛汽車技術(shù)及其Xavier芯片。該芯片于去年發(fā)布，如今隨時(shí)可供制造商進(jìn)行測(cè)試。這個(gè)小裝置的微處理器在芯片上封裝了90億個(gè)晶體管，能夠?yàn)槠囁械淖詣?dòng)駕駛功能提供支持。

英偉達(dá)首席執(zhí)行官黃仁勛在介紹時(shí)指出，Xavier的開發(fā)動(dòng)用了2000個(gè)工程師，耗費(fèi)了20億美元。大眾表示將在自家自動(dòng)駕駛汽車上采用英偉達(dá)的芯片，同時(shí)優(yōu)步也透露，其沃爾沃自動(dòng)駕駛車隊(duì)已在使用英偉達(dá)的產(chǎn)品。

AMD在CES上的發(fā)布內(nèi)容

在主流芯片制造商中，AMD今年針對(duì)普通消費(fèi)者和企業(yè)客戶的芯片升級(jí)發(fā)布在數(shù)量上可謂是獨(dú)占鰲頭。

采用去年突破性Ryzen構(gòu)架的新CPU同樣整合了顯卡芯片，其筆記本型號(hào)和臺(tái)式機(jī)型號(hào)將分別于本月和下月面世。速度更快的第二代Ryzen處理器組將于4月與世人見面，而以處理視頻、照片編輯等復(fù)雜任務(wù)見長(zhǎng)的AMD超速Threadripper處理器預(yù)計(jì)將于今年下半年上市。

AMD還表示，公司將在年底把Vega圖形芯片的制程升級(jí)至7納米，而現(xiàn)在所使用的為12和14納米。制程的升級(jí)將允許制造商在相同的芯片空間內(nèi)封裝更多的晶體管，從而提升顯卡性能，并有可能降低能耗。

英特爾在CES上的發(fā)布內(nèi)容

英特爾試圖通過與AMD合作，搶奪英偉達(dá)的些許人氣。在于11月份首次發(fā)布與AMD合作這一令人震驚的消息之后，英特爾表示將推出5款融合自家CPU與AMD Vega圖形芯片的筆記本芯片。

高通在CES上的發(fā)布內(nèi)容

這家移動(dòng)芯片巨頭在周一CES上所宣布的內(nèi)容涉及多個(gè)領(lǐng)域。它針對(duì)有意在新設(shè)備上整合智能數(shù)字語音助手的硬件制造商，打造了一款工具包。高通表示，這一技術(shù)兼容市場(chǎng)上三大主流語音助手：Amazon Alexa、Microsoft Cortana和Google Assistant。

公司還宣布，為谷歌、HTC、LG、三星和索尼即將發(fā)布的新智能手機(jī)提供芯片和天線，從而讓這些手機(jī)享受千兆位傳輸速度和更快的通訊服務(wù)。然而，人們明顯注意到，聲明中并未提到全球最賺錢的智能手機(jī)制造商蘋果公司，后者正日漸依靠英特爾為其iPhone提供手機(jī)組件。

在汽車方面，高通宣布了多項(xiàng)交易，并藉此為本田和路虎的多種車型提供更多的技術(shù)。2018年本田雅閣將配備由高通芯片支持的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)連接、導(dǎo)航和娛樂系統(tǒng)，而路虎將在其部分車型上使用高通芯片來提供移動(dòng)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)連接。（財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)）

譯者：馮豐

審稿：夏林

To kick off the new year, the leading chipmakers all appeared at the annual CES technology show in Las Vegas, hoping to take the spotlight on（off）the bad news by introducing new products. Their new chips make video games play faster, allow for even thinner notebook computers, and speed the way for self-driving cars.

Nvidia, Intel, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm were among the first to show off new products at CES. The announcements came even as Qualcomm remains enmeshed in litigation with one of its biggest customers, Apple, and is trying to fend off an unwanted takeover bid from Broadcom.

And Intel and AMD would love customers to forget about the recently revealed security flaws known as Spectre and Meltdown. But considering the seriousness of the problem, the companies have their work cut out for them.

Nvidia’s CES announcements

Nvidia had a couple of announcements for its traditional customer base of avid video gamers, but most of the emphasis was on the future self-driving car market.

Gamers got a new streaming service called GeForce Now that will let them play titles with the most complex imagery even on laptops without powerful graphics chips. Nvidia will do the massive calculating needed on graphics cards running on cloud servers and then send the result that determine what the laptop should display on the screen back to the game player over the Internet. That should allow even a laptop with a relatively wimpy built-in graphics card to run complex games.

The company also introduced a new PC gaming monitor standard dubbed the Big Format Gaming Display, or BFGD, which allows games to run on 65-inch screens at 4K resolution with support for a broader range of colors known as high dynamic range. The end result should be larger, sharper and better looking gaming images on a big screen.

But gamers couldn’t help but notice that the cloud system is still in beta and that the price consumers will have to pay wasn’t announced. Nor was pricing available for BFGD monitors, which are expected to hit the market this summer.

And Nvidia (NVDA, +2.97%) did not release a consumer-oriented version of its line of graphics cards featuring its newest Volta chip, which has thus far been reserved for corporate-oriented machine learning and artificial intelligence products. Gamers have been waiting for months to hear about when they’ll get access to Volta in mainstream products.

The main focus at CES was on Nvidia’s autonomous car effort and its Xavier chipset, announced last year and now ready for manufacturers to test. The microprocessor packs 9 billion transistors onto a chip in a small package that can power all of a car’s self-driving features.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang bragged that it took 2,000 engineers and cost $2 billion to develop Xavier. Volkswagen said it would use Nvidia chips for its self-driving vehicles and Uber disclosed it has been using Nvidia in its fleet of autonomous Volvos.

Advanced Micro Devices’ CES announcements

Among the major chipmakers, AMD had the most announcements of updated chips for this year for ordinary consumers and corporate customers.

New central processors based on last year’s groundbreaking Ryzen design that also integrate built in graphics chips are coming this month for laptops and next month for desktop computers. A second generation of Ryzen chips that will be even faster arrives in April, while an update to AMD’s super-speedy Threadripper processor, best for handling complex tasks like video and photo editing, are expected for the second half of the year.

AMD (AMD, +3.37%) also said that by the end of the year it would be able to reduce the scale of its Vega graphics chips to just 7 nanometers, down from 12 and 14 nanometer designs now in use. The smaller scale allows more transistors to be packed into the same space, speeding up performance and likely saving energy.

Intel’s CES News

Intel tried to steal some of Nvidia’s spotlight by teaming up with AMD. Following up on a surprise deal first disclosed in November, Intel said it would sell five versions of a chip aimed at laptops that combine its own central processor with AMD’s Vega graphics chip.

Qualcomm’s CES announcements

The mobile chip giant had news on several fronts at CES on Monday. Qualcomm created a kit for hardware makers that want to incorporate smart digital voice assistants into new devices. And Qualcomm said its effort would be compatible with all three major assistants on the market: Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana and Google Assistant.

The company also announced deals to supply chips and antennas to bring gigabit speed and faster cellular service to upcoming smartphones made by Google, HTC, LG, Samsung, and Sony. Noticeably missing from the announcement, however, was the world’s most profitable smartphone maker, Apple, which has been increasingly relying on Intel for the cellular components in iPhones.

On the automotive front, Qualcomm (QCOM, -0.33%) unveiled deals to add more technology to cars from Honda and Land Rover. The 2018 Honda Accord will feature Internet connectivity, navigation and entertainment systems powered by Qualcomm chips. And Land Rover will use Qualcomm chips to offer cellular Internet connectivity in some of its models, too.