亲历者详解AMD与英特尔之战内幕
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鲁毅智出生于一个名叫皮德拉斯内格拉斯的墨西哥小镇。这个小镇与美国德克萨斯州的鹰渡市只隔着一道格兰德河，以产煤出名。鲁毅智在书中写道，小镇的名字取自一句老话：“能让少数幸运的人富起来的黑色石头”。不过鲁毅智的家庭并不在那幸运的少数人之列。所以他从一个寒门子弟成长成硅谷最负盛名的CEO之一的故事非常励志。鲁毅智这本书的书名“弹弓之战”象征着AMD的“弹弓项目”——也就是AMD给那次以弱胜强的诉讼战所起的内部代号（因为《圣经》里的大卫就是用弹弓打死了巨人歌利亚）。同时它也象征着鲁毅智清贫的童年，也就是那时候，鲁毅智学会了使用“由一根皮筋穿过一块皮革制成的‘圣经式’弹弓。” 和硅谷的许多创业英雄不同，鲁毅智不是那种性急浮躁、头戴光环、大学还没念完就辍学办公司的天才小子。相反，他凭借努力奋斗、坚强意志和耐心坚持，才获得了莱斯大学（Rice University）的电子工程学博士学位，成为了美国公民。然后，他在德州仪器（Texas Instruments）和摩托罗拉（Motorola）一路事业上升。直到2000年，鲁毅智已经55岁的时候，AMD才将他聘为首席运营官，同时也将他作为AMD创始人杰瑞•桑德斯的接班人来培养。 从这本书的风格和内容来看，鲁毅智是个工程师和经理人，而不是一名企业家。无论是他本人还是他的作品，都既不幽默谐趣，也谈不上文采飞扬。他表现出了一些热情，但是又严格地收敛住了。（这本书是与居住在墨西哥城的一名《基督教科学葴言报》（Christian Science Monitor）记者劳伦•维拉格兰合著的。） |
Ruiz was born poor in Piedras Negras, a Mexican village across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. A coal-mining town, it drew its name from the "black rocks ... that had made a few lucky people rich," Ruiz writes. Ruiz's family was not among those lucky few, so his rise to become CEO of one of Silicon Valley's most significant companies is inspirational. The title of Ruiz's book, Slingshot, references Project Slingshot, AMD's in-house term for its David and Goliath battle against Intel. It's also a reference to Ruiz's humble childhood, during which he learned to use slingshots made "in the biblical style: with a pocket of leather looped with a string." Unlike many Silicon Valley heros, Ruiz is no brash, flashy, wunderkind who dropped out of college to found his own company. He is, rather, someone who through hard work, formidable will, and patient perseverance, earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Rice University, became a U.S. citizen, and worked his way up the ladders at Texas Instruments and Motorola until, in 2000, at age 55, AMD hired him as chief operating officer and heir apparent to its more charismatic founder, Jerry Sanders. In style as well as substance, then, Ruiz is an engineer and manager, not an entrepreneur. Neither he nor his writing are witty or incandescent; they are straightforward, clear, understated, and a bit plodding. He evinces passion, but it is tightly reined in. (The book is written with Lauren Villagran, a Mexico City-based journalist who writes for the Christian Science Monitor.) |
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鲁毅智的《弹弓之战》用一名CEO的视野回顾了AMD与英特尔的诉讼战，当然它的视角与法律从业者的视角很不同。如果你想了解关于AMD诉讼战的新鲜细节，这本书或许并不适合你。事实上，在美国地方法官约瑟夫•法尔南对本案律师下达了广泛的“封口令”后，鲁毅智也和媒体一样，在诉讼的前四年里对证据采取了很大程度的保密。直到2009年，欧盟委员会决定对英特尔征收罚款，并于四个月后起草了一份长达542页的意见书。但是，这本意见书也经过了大量修改，没有透露太多证据。最终在2009年11月时，时任纽约州检察长的安德鲁•科莫在对英特尔提起诉讼时披露了大量电子邮件证据，才终结了法尔南法官的封口令，使相关细节大白于天下。（虽然鲁毅智在书中没有谈及“封口令”的事，不过以我的愚见，法尔南法官的封口令也是导致英特尔在诉讼战中长期不向AMD低头的重要原因，它差点把这场十年来最重要的反垄断诉讼变成一场实质上的私人仲裁——只不过买单的人莫名其妙地变成纳税人。） |
Slingshot provides a CEO's-eye view of AMD's war with Intel, which is, of course, very different from a litigator's. If you are hoping to learn fresh details of AMD's legal battle, this is not the book for you. In fact, under the terms of a very broad gag order imposed upon the litigators by U.S. District Judge Joseph Farnan, Jr., who presided over AMD's civil suit against Intel in Delaware, Ruiz was, just like the press, kept largely in the dark about the evidence as it emerged during the first four years of litigation. Cracks did not appear in this judicially imposed cone of silence until May 2009, when the European Commission leveled its fine against Intel and then, four months later, issued a (still heavily redacted) 542-page opinion. The cone was at last more seriously compromised in November 2009, when then-New York State attorney general Andrew Cuomofiled his own tell-all, email-laden complaint against Intel, doing an end-run around Judge Farnan's strictures. (Though Ruiz doesn't discuss it, in my humble opinion Judge Farnan's gag order was both severely overbroad and crucial to Intel's long holdout against AMD. It very nearly converted the most important competition litigation of the decade into de facto private arbitration -- inexplicably funded by taxpayers.) |
