System.Xml.XmlElement

Last month’s AiSalon was quite fun.

上个月的AiSalon很有趣。

I had a good time moderating the panel, discussing the current AI market trend as well as things to come.

我在主持小组讨论中度过了一段愉快的时光，讨论了当前的人工智能市场趋势以及未来的发展趋势。

We are doing another one on November 19th at Appier’s office in Taipei, featuring Jeffrey Abbott, GP at Blitzscaling Ventures.

我们将于 11 月 19 日在台北 Appier 办公室举办另一场活动，由 Blitzscaling Ventures 的普通合伙人 Jeffrey Abbott 主持。

It would be fun to see you guys there.

在那里见到你们会很有趣。

In the wake of this ruin, an extraordinary company was founded.

在这场废墟之后，一家非凡的公司成立了。

And through a series of fortuitous events, they came across an extraordinary technology.

通过一系列的偶然事件，他们遇到了一项非凡的技术。

The discovery of the first transistor set off a race around the world to produce and use it.

第一个晶体管的发现引发了世界各地生产和使用它的竞赛。

What can it be used for?

它可以用来做什么？

How do we manufacture it?

我们如何制造它？

Amidst this race, this scrappy company - led by an extraordinary pair of founders - defied the odds and used the transistor to make a breakthrough radio.

在这场竞赛中，这家斗志旺盛的公司——由一对非凡的创始人领导——克服了困难，利用晶体管制造出了突破性的收音机。

I know the Acquired podcast did an episode on Sony's beginnings already.

我知道 Acquired 播客已经制作了一集关于索尼的起源的节目。

They did a great job, but stick around for this one.

他们做得很好，但要坚持下去。

Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka first met in 1944.

盛田昭夫和井深大第一次见面是在 1944 年。

They had been assigned to a team to produce a heat-seeking missile - the Ke-Go - and save the country from a losing war.

他们被分配到一个团队来生产热寻导弹——Ke-Go——并把国家从一场失败的战争中拯救出来。

Ibuka was then 37 years old.

当时井深大已经37岁了。

Taller and heavier, he wore thick glasses and spoke with a working class accent.

他更高、更重，戴着厚厚的眼镜，说话带有工人阶级口音。

He was the chief engineer of a company supplying vacuum tube-based voltmeters and radar frequency control devices for the military.

他是一家为军方提供真空管电压表和雷达频率控制设备的公司的总工程师。

Morita was then 24 years old.

当时森田24岁。

Shorter, but thin and with an aristocratic side profile.

较短但较薄，具有贵族般的侧面轮廓。

He was then serving as a lieutenant in the Imperial Navy, a naval liaison officer.

当时他在帝国海军担任中尉，担任海军联络官。

Working on this missile project, the two men spent a great deal of time together.

在这个导弹项目的工作中，两人一起度过了很多时间。

The project failed, but the two became friends.

该项目失败了，但两人成为了朋友。

When the Allies started bombing Tokyo, Ibuka relocated the company to an apple orchard in Nagano.

当盟军开始轰炸东京时，井深将公司迁至长野的一个苹果园。

After the war ended, Ibuka brought his seven engineers back to Tokyo and set up a little lab in a room on the third floor of the Shirokiya Department Store.

战争结束后，井深大带着他的七名工程师回到东京，并在白木屋百货商店三楼的一个房间里建立了一个小实验室。

Times were hard back then.

那时的日子很艰难。

The first autumn, they took rucksacks to the countryside to get rice and potatoes.

第一个秋天，他们背着背包到乡下去取米和土豆。

Ibuka - who long considered his greatest asset to be his team and worked hard to keep them engaged - paid his staffers out of his own pocket.

井深大长期以来一直认为自己最大的资产是他的团队，并努力让他们保持敬业度，他自己掏腰包支付员工工资。

They thought about making anything from golf equipment to sweet bean soup.

他们想过制作从高尔夫球具到甜豆汤的任何东西。

But they soon found work repairing old radios during the military era.

但他们很快就找到了修理军事时期旧收音机的工作。

It got them featured in a column in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, which caught the eye of Ibuka's former colleague, Akio Morita.

这让他们在《朝日新闻》的专栏中得到专题报道，引起了井深大前同事盛田昭夫的注意。

Morita reached out and the two rekindled their bond.

森田伸出手来，两人重新点燃了联系。

Ibuka wanted Morita to come to Tokyo and join him, but since that was risky, Morita thought to split that with a part-time teaching job.

井深大希望森田能来东京和他一起，但由于这样做有风险，所以森田想用兼职教学工作来分担这件事。

But then the American occupation General Headquarters or GHQ banned former military officers from teaching.

但随后美国占领军总司令部禁止前军官从事教学工作。

That fateful decision let Morita go all in on working with his friend.

这个决定性的决定让森田全力以赴和他的朋友一起工作。

Morita's family ran one of Japan's biggest and oldest sake distilleries - been around for over 300 years.

森田家族经营着日本最大、最古老的清酒酿酒厂之一，已有 300 多年的历史。

Akio's father took over the business while it was in a sorry state and built it up again.

Akio 的父亲在公司陷入困境时接管了公司，并将其重新建立起来。

Thusly, he groomed Akio - his first-born son and 15th generation heir - to eventually take over and run the business.

因此，他培养了他的长子、第 15 代继承人 Akio 最终接管并经营公司。

But Akio wanted to be an engineer, building vacuum tube radios and dissembling appliances in his youth.

但秋雄年轻时想成为一名工程师，制造真空管收音机和拆卸电器。

After a momentous meeting, the elder Morita agreed to - for now - release his son from the obligation to run the family business on a day-to-day basis.

在一次重要的会议之后，老森田同意暂时免除儿子日常经营家族企业的义务。

Though Akio did become its chairman and dutifully attended every board meeting.

尽管 Akio 确实成为了董事长，并尽职尽责地出席了每次董事会会议。

The Morita family also agreed to invest what is said to be about $60,000 - which even for them was a lot of money - into the newly founded Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha.

森田家族还同意向新成立的东京通信工业株式会社投资约 6 万美元——即使对他们来说这也是一笔巨款。

Later, whenever the company sought more capital for growth, Akio did like as any good millennial does and went back to his parents for more money in exchange for stock.

后来，每当公司寻求更多资本来发展时，秋生都会像任何优秀的千禧一代一样，回到父母那里寻求更多资金以换取股票。

At one point, the family owned 17% of Tokyo Telecommunications.

该家族一度拥有东京电信 17% 的股份。

The private funds of the Morita family plus the connections of the company's first president Tamon Maeda - who also happened to be Ibuka's first father-in-law - kept the little company alive where many other similar businesses died.

森田家族的私人资金加上公司第一任社长前田多文（Tamon Maeda）（他也恰好是井深大的第一任岳父）的人脉，使这家小公司在许多其他类似企业倒闭的情况下得以生存。

Morita and Ibuka worked well together.

森田和井深合作得很好。

Correction.

更正。

They were absolutely perfect for each other.

他们绝对是完美的一对。

Both were extremely technical.

两者都非常技术性。

I already established Ibuka to be a talented and creative engineer, but Morita was no chopped liver.

我已经将井深视定为一位才华横溢、富有创造力的工程师，但森田并不是一个被切碎的肝脏。

He was a trained physicist who ghost-wrote a science column for the Asahi Shimbun in his early days.

他是一位训练有素的物理学家，早年为《朝日新闻》代写了一篇科学专栏。

Ibuka was 13 years the senior.

井深大比他大13岁。

Quiet but impulsive.

安静但冲动。

A dreamer type with an idealistic vision.

具有理想主义愿景的梦想家类型。

Maybe a bit naive.

也许有点天真。

His goal in life was to make electronics for everyday people, but honestly he lacked a good sense for what those people wanted.

他的人生目标是为日常生活制造电子产品，但说实话，他对人们想要什么缺乏良好的认识。

In the beginning before Morita arrived, Ibuka invented and tried to sell an electric rice cooker.

最初在森田到来之前，井深大发明并尝试销售电饭锅。

It looked like a wooden tub and didn't cook rice well, which is a fairly important prerequisite.

看起来像个木桶，煮不好饭，这是一个相当重要的前提。

The company made a hundred and sold none of them.

该公司生产了一百个，但没有卖出去。

Morita on the other hand is animated and energetic.

另一方面，森田则充满活力、充满活力。

He largely ran the business, and liked to move fast to make things happen.

他主要负责经营业务，并且喜欢快速行动以实现目标。

Morita is strict, but towards Ibuka he was astoundingly protective, saying:

森田虽然严厉，但对井深却有着惊人的保护欲，说道：

> Ibuka is a such a warm and honest person, that I saw at once that I had to become tough and shrewd to protect him.

> 井深是一个如此热情和诚实的人，我立刻意识到我必须变得坚强和精明才能保护他。

My mission is to realize Ibuka's dream.

我的使命是实现井深的梦想。

Without Morita, Masaru Ibuka would have never sold any of his inventions.

如果没有森田，井深大就永远不会出售他的任何发明。

And without Ibuka, Akio Morita would not have anything to sell.

如果没有井深大，盛田昭夫就没有任何东西可卖。

They really were perfect for each other.

他们真的非常适合彼此。

And unlike another famous engineer-sales co-founder pair, people at Sony never recalled Ibuka and Morita fighting.

与另一对著名的工程师兼销售联合创始人不同，索尼的员工从未回忆起井深大和森田的争斗。

It is a bond described as something like love.

这是一种被描述为类似爱情的纽带。

One of their first successes was a vacuum tube-based voltmeter first invented by an engineer on their team.

他们的第一个成功是基于真空管的电压表，该电压表由他们团队的一名工程师首先发明。

They sold maybe about 30 to 40 of these each month, which kept the doors open and the workshops busy.

他们每个月大约售出 30 到 40 个这样的产品，这让车间保持着营业额和忙碌状态。

The company also grew close ties with the broadcaster NHK, providing high quality broadcasting equipment and other professional equipment to replace that which had been lost in the war.

该公司还与NHK广播公司建立了密切的联系，提供高质量的广播设备和其他专业设备来替换在战争中丢失的设备。

These projects kept food on the table, but Morita and Ibuka wanted more - a machine for the consumer, the ordinary man.

这些项目保证了人们的饭碗，但森田和井深大想要更多——一台为消费者、普通人服务的机器。

During a visit to the GHQ, they came across a paper tape recorder used for radio transmission.

在参观总司令部期间，他们发现了一台用于无线电传输的纸质录音机。

The team knew audio, and they felt that a tape recorder might be well received by the Japanese.

该团队了解音频，他们认为录音机可能会受到日本人的欢迎。

They acquired a few patents, hired some engineers, and with the help of some nifty reverse-engineering, produced the G-type tape recorder.

他们获得了一些专利，聘请了一些工程师，并在一些巧妙的逆向工程的帮助下，生产出了 G 型录音机。

Tape recorder performance heavily depended on the quality of the tapes.

录音机的性能在很大程度上取决于磁带的质量。

But plastic was then still hard to come by.

但当时塑料仍然很难获得。

So the team made magnetic tape from paper covered in iron oxide powders and lacquer.

因此，该团队用覆盖有氧化铁粉末和漆的纸制作了磁带。

In the beginning, they had people run back and forth across the paper with an hairbrush.

一开始，他们让人们用发刷在纸上来回跑动。

The first tapes were so bad that you could not even hear someone say "Moshi Moshi" or "Hello" in Japanese.

第一批磁带非常糟糕，你甚至听不到有人用日语说“Moshi Moshi”或“Hello”。

Not to mention the chonk baby weighed 35 kilograms and cost 170,000 yen or about $14,400 in today's dollars.

更不用说这个chonk婴儿重35公斤，售价17万日元，换算成今天的美元约合14,400美元。

With the help of a trading company owned by the descendants of the Tokugawa Shogunate - yes, really - they sell their first tape recorder to an Oden shop in Tokyo station where it played a jingle to attract customers.

在德川幕府后裔拥有的一家贸易公司的帮助下（是的，确实如此），他们将第一台录音机卖给东京车站的一家关东煮商店，在那里播放叮当声来吸引顾客。

The Ministry of Justice bought the G-type in higher volumes, leading to new versions like the H-type and the more portable P-type.

司法部大量购买了 G 型，从而催生了 H 型和更便携的 P 型等新版本。

Morita, a talented salesperson, helped sell plenty of tape recorders to companies and government.

森田是一位才华横溢的销售人员，帮助向公司和政府销售了大量录音机。

But yet again, consumers spurned the big bulky machine.

但消费者再次拒绝了这种笨重的机器。

Ibuka remained vexed.

井深仍然很烦恼。

Whilst in an antiquities shop, he saw someone buy a carved ivory thingy that he felt was worthless, paying a crazy high price.

在一家古物店里，他看到有人花高价买了一件他觉得不值钱的象牙雕刻品。

Frustrated, he thought "Why would someone buy this when they can buy Japan's first tape recorder?"

他沮丧地想：“既然可以买到日本第一台录音机，为什么有人还要买这个呢？”

The answer, of course, is obvious.

答案当然是显而易见的。

The thing was too chonk and too expensive.

这东西太笨重而且太贵。

It needed to get smaller and cheaper.

它需要变得更小、更便宜。

But what technology can possibly help make that happen?

但什么技术可以帮助实现这一目标呢？

Yeah, I wonder ...

是的，我想知道...

Japanese companies in the early 1950s looking to get into transistors had two options.

20 世纪 50 年代初期，想要进入晶体管领域的日本公司有两种选择。

The technology had to come from America, obviously.

显然，这项技术必须来自美国。

But from which American company?

但来自哪家美国公司呢？

You can sign a patent licensing agreement with either RCA or Western Electric, Bell Labs' commercial telephone device subsidiary.

您可以与 RCA 或贝尔实验室的商用电话设备子公司 Western Electric 签署专利许可协议。

The first transistor that Bell Labs publicly announced in 1948 was the "point contact transistor".

贝尔实验室于1948年公开发布的第一个晶体管是“点接触晶体管”。

It can amplify signals like a vacuum tube can, but it turned out to be too unstable for commercial use.

它可以像真空管一样放大信号，但事实证明它太不稳定，不适合商业用途。

Soon thereafter, Bell Labs' genius William Shockley announces the junction transistor, a more resilient and commercially viable transistor.

此后不久，贝尔实验室的天才威廉·肖克利 (William Shockley) 宣布推出结型晶体管，这是一种更具弹性且商业上可行的晶体管。

RCA's physicists immediately recognize it as the one.

RCA 的物理学家立即认出它就是那个。

So RCA did their own crash program on transistor development and made rapid progress.

因此RCA在晶体管开发上做了自己的速成计划并取得了快速进展。

One of their big successes involved a variant of the junction transistor first invented by GE, the alloy junction transistor.

他们的一大成功涉及 GE 首次发明的结型晶体管的变体，即合金结型晶体管。

You made it by heat-fusing or alloying two very small pellets of indium about a millimeter large on opposite sides of a thin slice of germanium.

它是通过在一片锗薄片的两侧热熔合或合金化两个大约一毫米大的非常小的铟丸而制成的。

RCA improved GE's processes and made it more commercially viable.

RCA 改进了 GE 的流程并使其更具商业可行性。

By 1952, they started licensing their patents and holding symposiums to teach people how to make their transistors.

到 1952 年，他们开始授权专利并举办研讨会来教人们如何制造晶体管。

RCA did this because it was their business model.

RCA 这样做是因为这是他们的商业模式。

Until 1957, they licensed their patents as part of a big expensive bundle, "package licensing".

直到 1957 年，他们将自己的专利作为昂贵的大捆绑包“一揽子许可”的一部分进行许可。

Patent licensing as a business model incentivized RCA to also sell agreements to teach people how to use their technology.

专利许可作为一种商业模式，激励 RCA 也出售协议来教人们如何使用他们的技术。

This made them the preferred licensor of transistor technology - some 80 companies attended their first symposium.

这使他们成为晶体管技术的首选许可方 - 大约 80 家公司参加了他们的第一次研讨会。

By contrast, Western Electric's main business was making telephone product.

相比之下，西部电气的主要业务是生产电话产品。

They were only licensing out the transistor technology because of their anti-trust agreement with the US Government.

他们只是因为与美国政府签订了反垄断协议才授予晶体管技术许可。

Such an agreement did not mean they had to teach people how to adopt said technology.

这样的协议并不意味着他们必须教人们如何采用上述技术。

It reminds me of how Bell Labs treated Unix's early licensees.

这让我想起贝尔实验室是如何对待 Unix 的早期授权者的。

They just sorta threw it at people and said “Here, go nuts”.

他们只是把它扔向人们并说“在这里，发疯”。

And kind of like the Unix situation, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

有点像 Unix 的情况，事实证明这也是因祸得福。

In 1952, Ibuka takes his first trip to the United States to check out the American tape recorder industry for learnings.

1952年，井深大第一次前往美国，考察美国录音机行业并学习。

But while in New York City, he learns through a stockbroker friend Shido Yamada about the Western Electric transistor licensing opportunity.

但在纽约期间，他通过一位股票经纪人朋友 Shido Yamada 了解了 Western Electric 晶体管许可机会。

$25,000 US dollars paid upfront against future royalties for some transistor knowledge.

为某些晶体管知识的未来特许权使用费预付了 25,000 美元。

Why Western Electric and not RCA?

为什么选择 Western Electric 而不是 RCA？

Most likely, Ibuka just couldn't get in touch with them.

井深很可能只是无法联系到他们。

Moreover, Tokyo Telecommunications probably would not have been able to afford the RCA package license anyway.

此外，东京电信无论如何也可能无法负担 RCA 套餐许可证。

At the time, Ibuka knew as much about transistors as I know about European soccer, but he is immediately convinced that it is the next big thing.

当时，井深大对晶体管的了解和我对欧洲足球的了解一样多，但他立即确信这是下一件大事。

Ibuka reaches out to Western Electric.

井深大向西部电气伸出援手。

Suspicious, Western Electric asks for a lot of detailed information like company history and recent financial reports.

西方电气公司对此表示怀疑，要求提供大量详细信息，例如公司历史和最近的财务报告。

But eventually he convinces them the sincerity of his outreach.

但最终他让他们相信了他的真诚。

$25,000 happens to be a lot of money - about $300,000 today.

25,000 美元恰好是一大笔钱——今天大约是 300,000 美元。

Worse yet, you needed it in dollars at a time when US dollars were hard to come by in Japan.

更糟糕的是，当日本很难获得美元时，你需要美元。

The government tightly controlled its disbursement.

政府严格控制其支出。

Upon returning to Tokyo, Ibuka goes to MITI, Japan's top industrial policy body, for the money and was ridiculed.

回到东京后，井深大向日本最高产业政策机构通产省讨钱，遭到嘲笑。

A small company with no experience even in making vacuum tubes.

一家小公司，甚至没有制造真空管的经验。

Why do they deserve the foreign currency for this?

为什么他们应该为此获得外汇？

But Ibuka is undeterred.

但井深大并没有被吓倒。

He has now come up with something to use the transistor technology for: Radios.

他现在想出了一些可以使用晶体管技术的东西：收音机。

Radios small enough for a single person to even put in his pocket - "pocketable".

收音机小到一个人甚至可以放进口袋里——“可随身携带”。

Ibuka gets fired up over the idea and when he is like this no one can stop him.

井深大因为这个想法而兴奋不已，当他变成这样的时候，没有人可以阻止他。

In August 1953, Ibuka takes a risk and sends the charismatic Morita over to New York City to secure the license.

1953 年 8 月，井深大冒险将魅力超凡的森田送到纽约市以获得执照。

Morita barely knows English.

森田几乎不懂英语。

But he is so persuasive and anxious to get going that Western Electric grants him a license, provisional to the Japanese government releasing the funds.

但他非常有说服力，也非常渴望开始工作，以至于西部电力公司向他授予了许可证，以供日本政府发放资金。

Western Electric's VP of licensing Frank Mascarich recalled later:

西部电气公司的授权副总裁弗兰克·马斯卡里奇后来回忆道：

> I wasn’t terribly pleased with the arrangement ...

> 我对这个安排不是很满意......

but he was so persuasive, and so anxious to proceed with his plans, and after all, it took considerable time and expense for him to travel to the United States from Japan, that I decided to give him some of the technical information so that he could take it back with him and immediately embark on his project to manufacture transistors.

但他很有说服力，也很急于执行他的计划，毕竟他从日本到美国花了相当多的时间和费用，所以我决定给他一些技术信息，以便他可以带回去并立即开始他的晶体管制造项目。

Thusly, Morita came back with a few sample transistors, Germanium crystal, and a copy of the book "Transistor Technology", edited by members of Bell Labs.

于是，森田带着一些晶体管样品、锗晶体和贝尔实验室成员编辑的《晶体管技术》一书回来了。

In July 1953, even before Morita left for New York, Ibuka formed an elite five-person transistor task force led by Morita's brother-in-law, Kazuo Iwama.

1953 年 7 月，甚至在森田前往纽约之前，井深大就组建了一支由 5 人组成的精英晶体管特别工作组，由森田的妹夫岩间一夫 (Kazuo Iwama) 领导。

Iwama grew up with Akio, their two families having known each other for a long time.

岩间和昭夫一起长大，他们两个家庭已经认识很长时间了。

Despite originally trained as a geophysicist, Morita had him join Tokyo Telecommunications soon after its founding.

尽管他最初是一名地球物理学家，但森田在东京电信成立后不久就让他加入了东京电信。

35 years young, rational and very level-headed, he ran the tape recorder division before being switched into transistor production.

35 岁的他年轻、理性、头脑冷静，在转入晶体管生产之前负责磁带录音机部门。

He too knew nothing about transistors, but had the tremendous energy to go learn.

他对晶体管也一无所知，但有巨大的精力去学习。

But first, MITI.

但首先是通产省。

MITI is obviously annoyed as heck that Tokyo Telecommunications signed a deal without first running it by them.

通产省显然对东京电信在没有先由他们运营的情况下签署协议感到恼火。

However, Ibuka cannot be denied.

然而，井深却无法否认。

He goes to MITI and lobbies the bureaucrats, concluding:

他前往通产省游说官僚，得出的结论是：

> "We intend to move forward with or without you ...

> “无论有没有你，我们都打算继续前进......

but if you approve our deal with Western Electric and give us some development money, you will look smart!"

但如果你批准我们与西部电力的交易并给我们一些开发资金，你就会看起来很聪明！”

A change in leadership shifted MITI's opinion on the discretion, and they finally approved the funds in January 1954.

领导层的变动改变了通产省对酌情决定权的看法，他们最终于 1954 年 1 月批准了这笔资金。

Iwama and his team spent the time reading Shockley's 1950 book "Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors", and then the Bell Labs "Transistor Technology" book after that.

Iwama 和他的团队花时间阅读了肖克利 1950 年的书《半导体中的电子与空穴》，然后又阅读了贝尔实验室的《晶体管技术》一书。

Neither book was very useful.

这两本书都不是很有用。

As soon as MITI approved the funds, Ibuka and Iwama boarded a plane to New York to take the next step in transistor technology.

MITI 批准资金后，Ibuka 和 Iwama 就登上了飞往纽约的飞机，以在晶体管技术方面迈出下一步。

Meanwhile, the rest of the team back in Japan starts cobbling together a primitive semiconductor manufacturing line - furnaces, crystal pullers for making crystal, assembly tools, and so on.

与此同时，回到日本的团队其他成员开始拼凑一条原始的半导体生产线——熔炉、用于制造晶体的拉晶机、组装工具等。

Unfortunately, the transistor as transferred over from Western Electric was not good enough to be used in a transistor radio.

不幸的是，从西电公司转移来的晶体管不够好，无法用于晶体管收音机。

Western Electric originally thought Morita and Tokyo Telecommunications were going to use their transistors for hearing aids - a reasonable thought.

西电最初认为森田和东京电信将使用他们的晶体管来制造助听器——这是一个合理的想法。

Some of the first transistorized products were hearing aids.

一些最早的晶体管产品是助听器。

Upon learning that Morita wanted to use it for a radio, they told him that twelve other licensees were then trying to make transistors capable of the higher frequencies for radios.

在得知森田想要将其用于收音机后，他们告诉他，其他 12 个被许可人当时正在尝试制造能够用于收音机更高频率的晶体管。

None had yet succeeded.

还没有一个人成功。

Nevertheless, Ibuka and Iwama got on a plane and flew to Western Electric's transistor factory in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

尽管如此，井深和岩间还是登上了飞机，飞往西部电气位于宾夕法尼亚州阿伦敦的晶体管工厂。

But there, faced with what it means to run a transistor business for the first time, Ibuka wondered if he might have gotten himself into a pickle.

但在那里，面对第一次经营晶体管业务意味着什么，井深怀疑自己是否可能陷入困境。

But Iwama did his homework.

但岩间做了他的功课。

He walked across the factory floor, taking in everything.

他走过工厂车间，观察着一切。

Whenever he saw something of interest, he stopped and tried to ask about it in the best English he possibly could.

每当他看到感兴趣的东西时，他都会停下来，尝试用最好的英语询问。

At night, he writes and sketches everything he possibly could remember.

晚上，他写下并画下所有他能记得的东西。

Pages of documents - referred to within the company as the "Iwama Report" - start flowing back to the team in Japan in February.

一页页的文件——在公司内部被称为“岩间报告”——从二月份开始流回日本团队。

Until April 1954, Iwama visits several Western Electric, Bell Labs, and even Westinghouse transistor factories - eventually filling four folders with his letters.

直到 1954 年 4 月，岩间参观了多家西方电气公司、贝尔实验室，甚至西屋电气晶体管工厂，最终将他的信件装满了四个文件夹。

He and his team compared what they saw in the factory with what was laid out in the Transistor Technology book for clues.

他和他的团队将他们在工厂看到的情况与《晶体管技术》书中列出的内容进行了比较，以寻找线索。

What Tokyo Telecommunications was trying to build is a superheterodyne receiver.

东京电信试图制造的是超外差接收器。

It works using the principle of the same name and is what all the modern FM radio receivers do.

它的工作原理与同名原理相同，是所有现代调频收音机接收器的工作原理。

The superheterodyne receiver receives that signal, amplifies it, and then mixes it with another high frequency signal created by an oscillator.

超外差接收器接收该信号，将其放大，然后将其与振荡器产生的另一个高频信号混合。

The resulting mixed signal, called the Intermediate Frequency or IF, is more convenient to process and amplify before turned into an audio signal.

由此产生的混合信号称为中频或 IF，在转换为音频信号之前更方便处理和放大。

High frequency transistors are needed for the oscillator and mixer to create the Intermediate Frequency as well as to amplify the IF itself.

振荡器和混频器需要高频晶体管来产生中频以及放大中频本身。

The core issue in transistorizing the radio is creating those high frequency transistors with good yield.

无线电晶体管化的核心问题是制造具有良好良率的高频晶体管。

Iwama had to decide which of the two existing variants of junction transistors to pursue: Alloy, which we discussed earlier, or grown junction transistors?

Iwama 必须决定采用现有的两种结型晶体管中的哪一种：我们之前讨论过的合金，还是生长结型晶体管？

The junction transistor is a sandwich of three components - the emitter, base, and collector with the base in the middle.

结型晶体管是由三个组件组成的三明治：发射极、基极和集电极，基极位于中间。

The PN junctions or barriers in between these areas give the junction transistor its name.

这些区域之间的 PN 结或势垒使结型晶体管得名。

Pioneered by Bell Labs, the grown junction transistor produces the sandwich using the Czochralski process - where you pull out or "grow" a whole crystal out of its melt from a small seed.

由贝尔实验室首创，生长的结型晶体管使用直拉工艺生产三明治——在这种工艺中，你可以从一颗小种子的熔体中拉出或“生长”出整个晶体。

By selectively adding dopants as we pull out the crystal, we can produce the transistor sandwich at the same time as the crystal.

通过在拉出晶体时选择性地添加掺杂剂，我们可以在生产晶体的同时生产晶体管三明治。

During his visits, Iwama drew these crystal-pulling tools and how they carefully pulled the crystals out of the melt.

在访问期间，岩间画了这些拉晶工具以及它们如何小心地将晶体从熔体中拉出。

He asked Western Electric for detailed schematics of the machines but was rebuffed.

他向西方电气公司索要机器的详细原理图，但遭到拒绝。

Sad.

伤心。

The difficulty and cost in recreating the crystal-pulling machine forced Iwama to decide for the team to start making PNP Germanium alloy junction transistors.

重建拉晶机的难度和成本迫使 Iwama 决定团队开始制造 PNP 锗合金结晶体管。

Some of Tokyo's Telecommunications' first alloy junction transistors were completed in June 1954.

东京电信公司的部分首批合金结晶体管于 1954 年 6 月完成。

A few were inserted into a prototype portable radio, but failed to make the cut.

其中一些被插入原型便携式收音机中，但未能成功。

High frequency was not achieved.

没有达到高频。

If you recall, you make an alloy junction transistor by soldering two beads of Indium onto the sides of a crystal slab of Germanium.

如果您还记得的话，您可以通过将两颗铟珠焊接到锗晶体板的侧面来制造合金结晶体管。

This particular arrangement got you a positive-negative-positive or PNP transistor.

这种特殊的排列方式为您提供了正-负-正或 PNP 晶体管。

It was theorized that it might be possible to achieve faster frequencies by reversing the polarities, so negative-positive-negative or NPN rather than PNP.

理论上，通过反转极性（即负-正-负或 NPN 而不是 PNP）可能可以获得更快的频率。

This was based on the notion that negative charge carriers or electrons travel faster than positive ones, or electron holes.

这是基于负电荷载流子或电子比正电荷载流子或电子空穴移动得更快的概念。

At the same time, Iwama came to believe that the alloying process cannot be scaled to high volume production.

与此同时，Iwama 开始相信合金化工艺无法扩大到大批量生产。

His conceptual reasoning was that the grown junction process was simpler.

他的概念推理是生长结过程更简单。

With that, you have one step, the crystal pull.

这样，你就完成了一步，水晶拉力。

By contrast, the alloy junction process had two: First the crystal pull and then the alloying of the beads onto the sides.

相比之下，合金接合工艺有两个：首先是晶体拉制，然后是珠子侧面的合金化。

So the team shifted to making NPN Grown Junction transistors, which meant finding the right dopants to add to a growing Germanium crystal so to produce this unique NPN arrangement.

因此，该团队转而制造 NPN 生长结晶体管，这意味着找到合适的掺杂剂添加到生长的锗晶体中，从而生产出这种独特的 NPN 排列。

The team tried adding many different dopant impurities to produce the right effect.

该团队尝试添加许多不同的掺杂杂质以产生正确的效果。

During this process, a scientist named Tetsuo Tsukamoto - a Japanese born in Taiwan - tried phosphorous and antimony, which failed.

在此过程中，一位出生于台湾的日本科学家冢本哲夫尝试了磷和锑，但失败了。

He then tried phosphorous and indium, a weird combination.

然后他尝试了磷和铟，这是一种奇怪的组合。

But amazingly, the resulting transistor had a higher frequency when tested.

但令人惊讶的是，所得到的晶体管在测试时具有更高的频率。

It was incredibly encouraging ...

这是令人难以置信的鼓舞......

except Tsukamoto could not replicate the result despite how many more efforts.

只是尽管付出了多少努力，冢本仍无法复制结果。

Another team went to the library and found an early issue of the Bell System Technical Journal, the Bible of semiconductors, with an article saying that phosphorus doping did not work.

另一个团队去图书馆找到了一份早期的《贝尔系统技术期刊》，半导体的圣经，其中有一篇文章说磷掺杂不起作用。

It was incredibly discouraging for the team members, who saw Bell as the "voice of the gods".

对于将贝尔视为“众神的声音”的团队成员来说，这非常令人沮丧。

Right then, Iwama dropped by to see on things.

就在这时，岩间顺便过来看看情况。

He listened to their efforts and the discovery of the Bell journal article ruling out Phosphorous and said:

他听取了他们的努力以及贝尔期刊文章排除磷的发现并说道：

> But I remember you said you succeeded once.

> 但我记得你说过你成功过一次。

I still hope you will succeed again.

我仍然希望你能再次成功。

I will take all the responsibility, so don't worry if you use a little more time.

我会承担所有的责任，所以你再多用一点时间就不用担心了。

Why don't you try again?

你为什么不再尝试一下呢？

So Tsukamoto kept at it.

于是冢本就坚持了下来。

Three weeks later in defiance of Bell's expectations, he discovered a phosphorous doping recipe that produced a suitably high frequency.

三周后，他不顾贝尔的期望，发现了一种磷掺杂配方，可以产生适当的高频。

Initial yields were at 5%.

初始收益率为 5%。

And to Western Electric's horror, Ibuka skipped a pilot plant and went straight to mass production.

令西方电气公司感到恐惧的是，井深大跳过了试点工厂，直接进入了大规模生产。

The 1954 news of Texas Instruments producing the first miniaturized transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, spurred the team at Tokyo Telecommunications to work even harder.

1954 年，德州仪器 (TI) 生产出第一台小型晶体管收音机 Regency TR-1 的消息促使东京电信团队更加努力地工作。

Now, they knew that a radio was possible.

现在，他们知道收音机是可能的。

In early 1955, they completed their radio, the TR-55.

1955 年初，他们完成了收音机 TR-55。

It used five transistors, three were grown junction and two were alloy junction types.

它使用五个晶体管，三个是生长结，两个是合金结类型。

The grown transistors for the oscillators were still so unstable that factory workers had to pick the right one for each individual radio set.

用于振荡器的晶体管仍然很不稳定，工厂工人必须为每台收音机选择合适的晶体管。

In August that year, the TR-55 went on market in Japan only, selling for the equivalent of about $980.

同年 8 月，TR-55 仅在日本上市，售价约为 980 美元。

It did not sell that well at first.

一开始卖得不太好。

People docked the relatively weak sound compared to vacuum tube based radio receivers.

与基于真空管的无线电接收器相比，人们对接的声音相对较弱。

But in the summer of 1956, young people started warming up to the little device when they realized that the cost of its tiny battery was only a twentieth that of tube-based receivers.

但在 1956 年夏天，当年轻人意识到这种小型设备的成本仅为电子管接收器的二十分之一时，他们开始对这种小型设备产生兴趣。

Improving transistorization resulted in smaller and more successful radios.

改进晶体管化带来了更小、更成功的收音机。

Later, they realized that Tokyo Tsushin or Tokyo Telecommunications did not make much sense as a name, especially in the United States.

后来，他们意识到东京通信或东京电信作为一个名字没有多大意义，特别是在美国。

So they coined a new name for the product - and later the company - Sony.

因此，他们为该产品以及后来的公司创造了一个新名称：索尼。

In producing a proper transistor for a commercial transistor radio, Sony had to master both the theory and engineering.

在为商用晶体管收音机生产合适的晶体管时，索尼必须掌握理论和工程。

Even the Bell Labs' famous "cookbook" was not detailed enough for Sony to reproduce a semiconductor line.

即使贝尔实验室著名的“食谱”也不够详细，索尼无法复制半导体产品线。

They had to send one of their own to the United States to review and document everything.

他们必须派遣自己的一名人员前往美国审查并记录一切。

Yes, in some ways you can say they copied the Americans.

是的，在某些方面你可以说他们抄袭了美国人。

But mere copying wasn’t enough.

但仅仅复制是不够的。

They still had to dissemble what they thought they knew and go back to basic first principles.

他们仍然必须掩饰他们认为自己知道的东西，并回到基本的首要原则。

Iwama's decision to scale grown junction rather than alloy junction.

Iwama 决定缩放生长结而不是合金结。

The realization to switch to NPN rather than trying to make PNP work.

实现转向 NPN 而不是试图让 PNP 发挥作用。

These are not possible without thoroughly understanding semiconductor physics.

如果没有彻底理解半导体物理学，这些都是不可能的。

When you are breaking new ground in electronics at commercial scale, this mix of theory and practicality is necessary to succeed.

当您在商业规模的电子领域开辟新天地时，理论与实践的结合对于成功是必要的。

And a lot of sweat, blood and tears of course.

当然还有大量的汗水、血和泪水。

Thanks for reading The Asianometry Newsletter!

感谢您阅读《亚洲测量学通讯》！

This post is public so feel free to share it.

这篇文章是公开的，所以请随意分享。