听力文本
Computer chips have two important parts—the logic on the chip, which computes and executes programs.
Then there's the part that sends and receives—gets data to crunch, sends back the answer.
And while that first part, chip logic, has gotten much faster over the years, the transmission part has lagged behind.
Because data gets sent via electrical signals passing through copper.
So researchers designed a chip that exchanges data with light instead.
"By going into optics, we're able to relieve this fundamental bottleneck of copper, and in doing so we're able to increase the bandwidth density on the chip, so how fast the chip can take data in and out, by an order of magnitude."
Chen Sun, a computer hardware researcher at UC Berkeley, and the startup Ayar Labs.
A metal pin on the memory chip in your computer might transmit at 1.6 gigabits per second.
Sun's optical connection ups that rate to 2.5 gigabits per second.
Not a huge difference on the face of it.
But the killer app here is that multiple wavelengths of light—up to 11—can be used simultaneously to send data through a single fiber.
Which means this technology has potential speeds of 27.5 gigabits per second—more than an order of magnitude faster than today's standard.
"So that's the extra dimension we have to scale bandwidth that we don't have with normal electrical signals."
The findings appear in the journal Nature.
These chips with optical connections are not just high-speed—they also require less energy than the copper versions.
That could be a big deal, with server farms projected to outpace every other commercial use of electricity within the next decade.
Going optical could thus be a win-win: faster processing using a fraction of the energy.

参考译文
计算机芯片有两个至关重要的作用—其一是芯片上用于计算及执行程序的逻辑电路);Wy~*ehvqM#+AD。
另外则是用于数据处理，返回结果的发送及接收#%&xH~Cc6_。
而计算机芯片上的逻辑电路，由于近年来的发展运算速度得到快速提升，但数据传输部分却相对落后dy^KFZH|by#v%t^+3m。
因为数据要通过铜线这种介质才能发送电子信号ux(TS1!uDdt。
因此研究人员研发出一款光子芯片，它可以用光来传输数据，速度相比过去大幅提升，能耗也大大减少Ex|q8(&,3]zp;i7vd。

“通过用光来传输数据，我们能够缓解铜线传输所遇到的瓶颈问题，这样我们可以增加芯片的宽带密度及数据传输速度&UvLRCnqx6sb8。”
加州大学伯克利分校及 Ayar实验室的计算机硬件研究员孙辰说道K0Wl.|aLwIA。
计算机内存芯片上的金属针脚的速度传输速度为每秒1.6 Gbps3taH_kA&wiKoVUWq;V。
而孙的超级芯片数据传输速度可达到每秒2.5 Gbps.LYQ3xNwlI[tSjG&F。
看来似乎并不是太大差异0fH^v~]]thYY^D-cM,。
但其过人之处在于通过单一的光纤进行数据传输最多可达11条的多条光波25fL,MtXZws。
这也就意味着其传输速度可达到每秒27.5 Gbps，比当今标准快一个数量级yhB]NCfU_AZ。
“如果我们没有正常的电信号，就必须扩展宽带O-w9,-ll2-(。”
这项研究已经在《自然》杂志上发表ml]@o0J,H~]egrLX%1。
这些通过光进行传输数据的芯片，速度相比过去大幅提升，能耗也大大减少o6&msY_ojcmH~.。
在接下来的10年中服务器群耗电量将会超过商业用电，这可是个大问题Z*0gdg^(D#OhzW。
但光学的应用则会带来双赢的局面: 速度相比过去大幅提升，能耗也大大减少1RAa~TeeJd8TJ85!x。

译文为可可英语翻译，未经授权请勿转载！

重点讲解

1.lag behind 落后

例句:ICT access by women tends to lag behind that of men, but the gaps are generally becoming smaller.
女性获得信通技术的机会似乎落后于男性，但整体来说差距正在缩小6;LRP3Exrw@54Vn6Zps,。

2.able to 能;会

例句:He had never been able to disbelieve it completely.
他从未能够对此予以全盘否定4(h-wNj(jN~~fKk~=O。

3.more than超过

例句:He had notched up more than 25 victories worldwide.
他已赢得了超过25次国际级别赛事的胜利GL7GX.PQQUOq。

4.killer app 迷人的应用程序

例句:Alibaba has been searching for a killer app to challenge the leadership of Tencent ' s WeChat and QQ.
阿里巴巴一直在寻找杀手锏应用来挑战腾讯微信和QQ的领先地位cS08QVy47f^wL+1Yv1Ph。