(单词翻译:单击)
FEDEX BANDWIDTH
联邦快递VS互联网
Q. When–if ever–will thebandwidth of the Internet surpass that of FedEx?
Q．什么时候——如果真的可能的话——互联网的传输带宽能够超过联邦快递（FedEx）的带宽？
Johan Öbrink
——约翰•奥布林克
Never underestimate the bandwidth of astation wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.
永远不要低估一辆装满磁带在高速公路上飞驰的小货车的传输带宽。
–Andrew Tanenbaum, 1981
——安德鲁•塔能鲍姆，1981
A. IF YOU WANT TO transfer a few hundredgigabytes of data, it's generally faster to FedEx a hard drive than to send thefiles over the Internet. This isn't a new idea-it's often dubbed“SneakerNet”-and it's even how Google transfers large amounts of data internally.
A．如果你想传输几百GB的数据，那么一般来说用联邦快递把硬盘直接快递过去要比你通过互联网传输更快。这个想法并不新鲜——它经常被冠以“步行网”（SneakerNet）的名称——这也是谷歌内部传输大量数据的方法。
But will it always be faster?
但它一直能快下去吗？
Cisco estimates that total Internet trafficcurrently averages 167 terabits per second. FedEx has a fleet of 654 aircraftwith a lift capacity of 26.5 million pounds daily. A solid-state laptop driveweighs about 78 grams and can hold up to a terabyte.
思科估计目前互联网的总流量约相当于每秒167TB。联邦快递拥有654架飞机组成的机队，每天能够运输1.2吨的货物，而笔记本电脑固态硬盘的重量一般是78克，容量最高可达1TB。
That means FedEx is capable of transferring150 exabytes of data per day, or 14 petabits per second-almost a hundred timesthe current throughput of the Internet.
这意味着联邦快递每天可以传输150EB的数据，换言之它每秒可以传输14PB——几乎是现在互联网总流量的100倍。
If you don't care about cost, this10-kilogram shoebox can hold a lot of Internet.
如果你不在乎花多少钱，一个10千克的鞋盒就能装下许多互联网上的内容。
We can improve the data density evenfurther by using microSD cards:
选用MicroSD卡还可进一步提高数据的存储密度。
Those thumbnail-sized flakes have a storagedensity of up to 160 terabytes per kilogram, which means a FedEx fleet loadedwith microSD cards could transfer about 177 petabits per second, or 2zettabytes per day-a thousand times the Internet's current traffic level. (Theinfrastructure would be interesting-Google would need to build huge warehousesto hold a massive card-processing operation.)
这些指甲盖大小的小薄片的存储密度达每千克160TB，也就是说满载MicroSD卡的联邦快递机队每秒可以运送177PB（或每天运输2ZB）的数据——这可是目前互联网流量的1000倍。（不过所需的基础设施也相当可观——谷歌需要建一个巨大的厂房来容纳这些处理SD卡的机器。）
