Consumer products and video-gaming technology are boosting the performance and reducing the price of military equipment.
消费品与电子游戏技术正助力军用装备提升性能、降低成本。
Video games have become increasingly realistic, especially those involving armed combat. America's armed forces have even used video games as recruitment and training tools. But the desire to play games is not the reason why the United States Air Force recently issued a procurement request for 2,200 Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) video-game consoles. It intends to link them up to build a super computer that will run Linux, a free, open-source operating system. It will be used for research, including the development of high-definition imaging systems for radar, and will cost around one-tenth as much as a conventional supercomputer. The air force has already built a smaller computer from a cluster of 336 PS3s.
*console=（电子游戏）主机 ；control console（控制台）
电子游戏的真实感日益增强，尤其是涉及武装战斗的游戏。美国军方甚至将电子游戏用作征兵与训练工具。但美国空军近期申请采购 2200 台索尼 PlayStation 3（PS3）游戏机，并非出于游戏需求。其计划将这些游戏机连接起来，搭建一台运行 Linux 系统（一款免费开源操作系统）的超级计算机。该计算机将用于科研工作，包括研发雷达高清成像系统，而成本仅约为传统超级计算机的十分之一。此前，美国空军已通过 336 台 PS3 游戏机集群，搭建了一台规模较小的计算机。
This is merely the latest example of an unusual trend. There is a long tradition of technology developed for military use filtering through to consumer markets: satellite-navigation systems designed to guide missiles can also help hikers find their way, and head-up displays have moved from jet fighters to family cars. But technology is increasingly moving in the other direction, too, as consumer products are appropriated for military use.
*“filter through to” 意为 “逐渐渗透到、慢慢扩散到”
这只是这一特殊趋势的最新例证。长期以来，存在 “军用技术向消费市场渗透” 的传统：原本用于引导导弹的卫星导航系统，也能帮助徒步旅行者定位；平视显示器则从战斗机应用到了家用轿车上。但如今技术也日益呈现 “反向流动” 的趋势 —— 消费品正被应用于军事领域。
Traditionally the military has preferred to develop and control its own technology, not just for tactical advantage but also to ensure that equipment was tough and reliable enough for those whose lives would depend on it. That began to change after the cold war as defence budgets became constrained and the development of sophisticated industrial and consumer products accelerated. As some of these technologies have become commoditised products which are available to everyone — friend and foe alike — there seems less reason not to buy them and use the savings for more critical equipment that needs to be built-to-order, And consumer products can often be tweaked to make them more rugged or secure when necessary.
* friend and foe alike=朋友与敌人都一样
传统上，军方更倾向于自主研发和掌控技术，这不仅是为了获取战术优势，更是为了确保装备足够坚固可靠，毕竟军人的生命安危将依赖这些装备。冷战结束后，这一情况开始改变：国防预算收紧，同时精密工业产品与消费品的研发进程加速。随着部分技术逐渐成为 “大众化商品”（敌我双方均可获取），军方似乎没有理由不采购这类产品 —— 节省下来的资金可用于研发更关键、需 “定制化生产” 的装备。此外，必要时还可对消费品进行改造，增强其耐用性或安全性。
A new piece of military kit can take years to specify, test and acquire using a traditional procurement process, only to arrive already outdated. So, where possible, it is quicker and cheaper to buy commercial off-the-shelf items. These range from industry-standard components, like processor chips incorporated into military equipment, to products that consumers would recognise. Sometimes these are made more rugged, like Panasonic Toughbook computers, or converted for other uses, like Xbox 360 video-game controllers adapted to operate small robotic ground vehicles used for reconnaissance.
按照传统采购流程，一款新型军用装备的规格确定、测试与采购可能需要数年时间，然而装备交付时往往已过时。因此，在条件允许的情况下，采购 “现成商用产品” 更快捷、成本更低。这类产品既包括军用装备中使用的处理器芯片等行业标准组件，也包括消费者熟悉的各类产品。有时，这些产品会被改造得更耐用（如松下 “坚固本” 计算机）；有时则会被改装用于其他用途（如将 Xbox 360 游戏机手柄改装后，用于操控执行侦察任务的小型地面机器人）。
Apple’s iPod and iPhone are among the latest additions to a soldier's kit. American forces in Afghanistan and lrag are using them for translation (one such device is pictured above) and to view intelligence information, such as pictures transmitted from unmanned reconnaissance drones. An iPhone app called Bullet Flight enables snipers to calculate range and trajectory for their shots, and built-in satellite-positioning allows local weather conditions to be taken into account. The basic version costs $3.99 and the full military one-which even calculates how the Coriolis effect from the rotation of the Earth will influence a bullet's flight costs $29.99.
苹果公司的 iPod 和 iPhone 已成为士兵装备的新成员。在阿富汗和伊拉克的美军正将其用于翻译（上图为其中一款设备），以及查看情报信息（如无人侦察机传输的图像）。一款名为 “子弹飞行”（Bullet Flight）的 iPhone 应用程序，能帮助狙击手计算射击距离和弹道轨迹，而手机内置的卫星定位功能还可让系统将当地天气状况纳入考量。该应用的基础版售价 3.99 美元，而完整版军用版本（甚至能计算地球自转产生的科里奥利效应对子弹飞行轨迹的影响）售价 29.99 美元。
In the fast-moving consumer-electronics industry, where some products are lucky to have a shelflife of more than a year, companies can spread their research-and-development costs across aglobal mass market. Defence contractors, however, usually supply only a limited amount of equipment designed to meet the specific requirements of a particular customer. Exports can helpspread costs, but different countries demand different specifications, which pushes costs back up. Consumer-electronics companies also adopt aggressive pricing strategies to grab market share. The PS3, which now costs $300 in America, was initially sold at a loss by Sony in order to boostits popularity. (The company hopes to recoup its losses by taking a cut from the sale of each game for the console.)
在更新换代迅速的消费电子行业，部分产品的货架寿命能超过一年已属幸运。企业可通过全球庞大的消费市场分摊研发成本。然而，国防承包商通常仅为满足特定客户的具体需求而生产少量装备。出口虽能在一定程度上分摊成本，但不同国家对装备规格的要求各异，反而会推高成本。此外，消费电子企业还会采取激进的定价策略抢占市场份额。以目前美国售价 300 美元的 PS3 为例，索尼最初曾以低于成本的价格销售该产品，目的是提高其市场普及率（索尼希望通过从每款 PS3 游戏的销售额中抽取分成来弥补亏损）。
In many cases it is probably now impossible for companies outside the consumer-electronics industry to match the price and performance of mass-market components. BAE Systems, a British aerospace and defence contractor, has calculated that a £pound300 ($500) video card from NVIDIA, a Californian company which is a leader in gaming graphics, can replace£pound30,000 worth of other computing equipment used for engineering simulation.
如今在许多情况下，非消费电子行业的企业或许已无法在 “大众市场组件” 的性价比上与之匹敌。英国航空航天与国防承包商 BAE 系统公司测算发现：加州企业英伟达（NVIDIA，游戏图形领域的领军企业）生产的一款售价 300 英镑（约合 500 美元）的显卡，可替代价值 3 万英镑、用于工程模拟的其他计算设备。
What has changed in the past two years, says David Standingford, group leader of electromagnetic modelling at BAE, is that products such as the PS3 and NVIDIA graphics cards have become immensely powerful computers in their own right. He adds that the emergence of new industry standards and a leap in power from the use of multi-core processors, which contain several number-crunching engines working in parallel, has made it easier to incorporate and link up such devices to tackle much bigger tasks.
BAE 系统公司电磁建模部门负责人戴维・斯坦丁福德（David Standingford）表示，过去两年发生的变化是，PS3 和英伟达显卡等产品本身已成为性能极强的计算机。他补充称，新行业标准的出现，以及 “多核处理器”（内含多个可并行运算的计算引擎）带来的算力飞跃，使得整合这类设备、将其连接起来处理更庞大任务的难度大幅降低。
Last year an IBM supercomputer called Roadrunner, based at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, established a new record by operating at more than one petaflop (1,000 trillioncalculations a second). Roadrunner is the world's first “hybrid” supercomputer, having been assembled in part from off-the-shelf equipment, including 12,960 Cell processor chips like those found inside the PS3. It will be used to simulate the behaviour of nuclear weapons.
去年，位于美国新墨西哥州洛斯阿拉莫斯国家实验室的 IBM “走鹃”（Roadrunner）超级计算机，以每秒超过 1 拍字节（即每秒 1000 万亿次计算）的运算速度创下新纪录。“走鹃” 是全球首台 “混合式” 超级计算机，其部分组件采用现成商用设备，包括 12960 块 “Cell” 处理器芯片 —— 与 PS3 游戏机内置的芯片同款。该超级计算机将用于模拟核武器的运行状态。
In Britain, BAE Systems, Airbus, Rolls-Royce, Williams (a Formula 1 racing team) and other shave set up a not-for-profit laboratory based in Bristol called CFMS to evaluate consumer products and components that could reduce the cost of engineering simulations. Jamil Appa of BAE, who is involved in the project, says one aim is to see how easily the internal architecture of video-games consoles can handle the complex algorithms used in simulations. The lab will provide feedback to consumer-product suppliers, he adds.
在英国，BAE 系统公司、空中客车公司、劳斯莱斯公司、威廉姆斯车队（一级方程式赛车车队）等机构，在布里斯托尔联合成立了一家名为 “CFMS” 的非营利实验室。该实验室旨在评估可降低工程模拟成本的消费品及组件。参与该项目的 BAE 员工贾米尔・阿帕（Jamil Appa）表示，实验室的目标之一是研究 “游戏机的内部架构” 能否轻松处理模拟运算中使用的复杂算法。他补充称，实验室还会向消费品供应商反馈相关信息。
NVIDIA already recognises that it is not just gamers who are interested in its products. In September, when Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s CEO, unveiled the company's latest graphics technology, he described it as the “'soul of a supercomputer" with applications beyond gaming.
英伟达已意识到，对其产品感兴趣的并非只有游戏玩家。去年 9 月，英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋（Jen-Hsun Huang）在发布公司最新图形技术时，将其描述为 “超级计算机的核心”，称其应用场景远超游戏领域。
Nor is it just the military that is keen to employ consumer technology in sophisticated applications. The Swedish police are already using a virtual autopsy system based on gaming technology to help solve crimes (see box). And Siemens, a German electronics and engineering giant, recently launched an ultrasound scanner which allows expectant mothers to see their unborn child in 3-D. It uses an NVIDIA graphics card and 3-D glasses devised for gaming. Soldiers have also been spotted wearing 3-D glasses, which will add another dimension to modern warfare.
热衷于将消费技术应用于高端领域的并非只有军方。瑞典警方已在使用基于游戏技术的 “虚拟尸检系统” 协助破案（见专栏）。德国电子与工程巨头西门子公司近期推出了一款超声波扫描仪，可让孕妇通过 3D 图像看到未出生的胎儿 —— 该设备使用了英伟达显卡和为游戏设计的 3D 眼镜。此外，已有士兵被拍到佩戴 3D 眼镜，这一装备或将为现代战争增添新的维度。