旧金山，10月7日：分析师称，微软将于周三推出一款搭载英伟达芯片的新笔记本电脑，试图将Windows打造成一个AI代理平台，让代理无需访问云端即可处理编写代码等任务。
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 7 : Microsoft will unveil on Wednesday a new laptop powered by Nvidia's chips, seeking to turn Windows into a platform for AI agents to handle tasks such as writing code without having to access the cloud, analysts said.
对微软而言，此举意味着一种押注：目前在其昂贵的Azure云计算数据中心进行的部分工作，可以转移到企业和家庭中的高性能Windows机器上。在这个市场上，这家总部位于华盛顿州雷德蒙德的公司仍占据着强势地位——而且硬件费用由客户承担。长期竞争对手苹果也正凭借新款Mac电脑追逐这一市场机会。
For Microsoft, the move represents a bet that some work that currently takes place in its costly Azure cloud computing data centers can be shifted to high-powered Windows machines in businesses and homes, a market where the Redmond, Washington-based firm retains a stronghold — and where its customers foot the hardware bills. It is a market opportunity that longtime rival Apple is also chasing with new Mac computers.
对英伟达来说，打入Windows PC市场，有助于它进军其长期竞争对手英特尔和超威半导体所主导的最后一批主要市场之一。
For Nvidia, cracking the Windows PC market could help it go after one of the last major markets dominated by its longtime rivals Intel and Advanced Micro Devices.
这场由微软在旧金山主办的活动，被该公司宣传为对其Windows操作系统和Surface硬件产品线的更新。这将是这家PC旗舰操作系统制造商与AI芯片公司多年合作的结晶，旨在将编写计算机代码或处理复杂商业项目等许多任务直接带到配备英伟达6月发布的RTX Spark芯片的台式机和笔记本电脑上。
The Microsoft-hosted event in San Francisco, which the company billed as an update on its Windows operating system and Surface line of hardware, will be the culmination of years of work between the flagship operating system maker for PCs and the AI chip company to bring many tasks such as writing computer code or tackling complex business projects directly to desktops and laptops with Nvidia's RTX Spark chips announced in June.
微软首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉和英伟达首席执行官黄仁勋将同台亮相，介绍这款名为Surface Laptop Ultra的新机器。
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will take the stage to introduce the Surface Laptop Ultra, as the new machine will be called.
微软和英伟达面临的关键挑战之一，是要证明代理——那些能够自主处理复杂问题的长期运行AI系统——可以安全地运行在个人电脑上。英伟达已试图防止AI中心Hugging Face遭黑客攻击的事件重演，而苹果则正在收紧让AI代理完全访问Mac电脑硬盘的流程。
One of the key challenges for Microsoft and Nvidia will be to show that agents, the long-running AI systems that can tackle complex problems on their own, can be safely contained on personal computers. Nvidia is already trying to prevent a repeat of the hack of AI hub Hugging Face, while Apple is looking to tighten up the process for giving AI agents full access to a Mac computer's hard drive.
但分析师表示，最大的问题将是新产品的价格，因为内存芯片短缺已推高了台式机和笔记本电脑的价格。
But analysts said the biggest question will be the price of the new offerings after a memory-chip crunch has driven up prices for desktop and laptop machines.
两年前，当微软最初提出在PC上运行人工智能任务以节省成本的想法时，笔记本电脑的价格大多低于2，000美元，但最近几周，英伟达将一款名为DGX Spark的人工智能台式机的价格提高了约75%，达到6，950美元，这要归功于其128 GB内存的成本飙升。
When Microsoft originally pitched the idea of running AI tasks on PCs two years ago to save on costs, the laptops were mostly priced below $2,000, but in recent weeks, Nvidia increased the price of an AI desktop machine called the DGX Spark by about 75 per cent to $6,950, thanks to the surging costs of its 128 gigabytes of memory.
Moor Insights & Strategy分析师Anshel Sag告诉路透社，内存价格正在影响苹果和微软的努力。
Anshel Sag, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told Reuters that the memory prices are affecting both Apple and Microsoft's efforts.
两年前，“软件还没有准备好，但硬件已经准备好了。现在软件已经准备好，但硬件太贵，无法在本地运行，”萨格说。“因此，只有有预算的人才能真正负担得起在本地运行人工智能的费用。"
Two years ago, "the software wasn't ready, but the hardware was. Now the software is ready and the hardware is too expensive to actually run it locally," Sag said. "So it's becoming this thing where only the people who have the budget can really afford to run AI locally."