Exercises

• Master the active vocabulary. Consult the dictionary if necessary.

To use a word processor, editing and revising, hypermedia software, to be rigidly structured, a set of electronic cards, an electronic spreadsheet, research tools, to design spreadsheet software, to generate graphs and charts, to summarize data, to organize research.

• Translate the following adjectives into Russian.

Especially, rigid, wide, numerical, empiric, large, statistical, graphical, traditional, electronic, easy, equal, extensive, close, electronically.

• Give the initial forms of the following words.

Undoubtedly, a processor, universal, application, useful, rigidly, writers, presentation, argument, addition, invaluable, researchers, psychological, designers, numeric, calculation, to summarize, a collection, organization, traditional, electronically, generation.

• Read the text and answer the questions.

• Are typewriters popular things today?

• Why do students use word processors?

• What is the difference between hypermedia programs and database programs?

• Why do students find spreadsheets invaluable tools?

• How do students use database software?

• Where can graphic software be used?

• Open the brackets. Use English equivalents.

• Most students find that (использование текстового процессора) is much faster and far more convenient.

• In writing papers (другой полезный инструмент) is hypermedia software.

• (Наибольшее применение) after the word processor is the electronic spreadsheet.

• Most programs have (встроенные статистические функции) and with a few commands you can also generate graphs and charts to summarize your data or your analyses.

• (В то время как электронная таблица) is good for organizing numeric data, database software is excellent for collecting many kinds of data.

• (Компьютерное графическое программное обеспечение) is even used in the arts in school.

• Write out one sentence for each of the following applications.

A word processor, an electronic spreadsheet, database.

Speak a bit about the ways in which computers are used on campus.

• Render the text in Russian.

Development of electronics On the History of Computer Development

The oldest form of mechanical calculating devices was the abacus. It remained the only aid to calculation until the 17th century. After the invention of logarithms in 1614, W.Oughtred constructed the first slide-rule in 1630. B. Pascal built an adding machine in 1642 at the age of 19. Later he produced some others, one of them could add six-figure numbers. In 1671 Leibnitz invented the first machine, which performed multiplication by repeated addition.

Ch. Babbage, the English mathematician of the 19th century, was the first who conceived the idea of the automatic machine for complex calculations. He designed his Analytical Engine to perform four arithmetic operations. It was to have three parts: a store, a mill and sequence mechanisms. The store was to hold 1000 numbers, as well as intermediate results and instructions. The mill called up numbers from the store and performed arithmetic calculations with them. It corresponded to the modern processor. The sequence mechanisms, which we would call' a program, decided which numbers to call up from the store and how to operate on them. A system of punched cards controlled the sequence of operations. Ch. Babbage couldn't translate his ideas into reality because there were no reliable and accurate electrical equipment, but his Analytical Engine was a true prototype of the modern digital computer. Ch. Babbage and Lady Lovelace, Lord Byron's daughter, worked out a coded program. Lady Lovelace was a brilliant mathematician. She believed and fully understood the potentialities of the Analytical Engine. She took an active part in Babbage's experiments. So it is fair to say that she was the world's first computer programmer.

About seventy years passed before the production of the first digital computer, which was similar to Babbage's Analytical Engine. In 1937 Dr. H. Aiken of Harvard University began to work at the first completely automatic digital computer which he called the Mark 1. He completed it in 1944. The Mark 1 was mainly mechanical with some electro-magnetic devices. It was a very large computer, 51 feet long and 8 feet tall. The store had 72 counters. Each counter could hold 23 digits.

The first electronic computer, the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator (ENIAC), was constructed in 1946 at the University of Pennsylvania. The machine used 18,000 vacuum tubes' for storage and basic functions in arithmetic and logic. Though it was not as large as the Mark 1, it weighed 30 tons and measured 20 by 40 feet. Whereas the Mark 1 could add 2 numbers in one-third of a second, ENIAC could add 5000 numbers in one second.

In 1945 John von Neuman worked out the concept of the stored program. He recommended to store operational instructions and numbers in the same unit in the binary system. EDVAC, EDSAC, UNIVAC were the first computers which put these new ideas into practice.

The first generation computers (from 1940s till 1959) were very large in size and used thousands of vacuum tubes. Though their operations were very rapid in comparison with manual calculations they were slow by today's standards.

The second generation computers began in 1959. The use of transistors instead of vacuum tubes, made these computers smaller, more powerful, and more reliable. The second generation also saw the development of programming languages.

The third generation computers started in 1964. There were silicon chips instead of transistors. This advance made possible the invention of the microcomputer in the 1970s, which, because of its low cost, small size, ease of use, large capabilities, is the computer most characteristic of the fourth generation.

All computers of the present time, from the microcomputer to the supercomputer, belong to the fourth generation. This fourth generation is the first in which there are a lot of computers for the application in business, science, medicine, education, or for general use.

The computer revolution is very dynamic. We are on the threshold of the fifth generation of computers. Today researchers in the USA, Western Europe, Japan work at the problems of artificial intelligence, the application of natural languages, very large-scale integration (VLSI) technologies, etc.

NOTES

an abacus – абак, счеты

a mill – (зд.) решающее устройство

a sequence mechanism – устройство, определяющее порядок работы

would call – назвали бы

a vacuum tube – электронная лампа

artificial intelligence – искусственный интеллект

VLSI – сверхбольшая интегральная схема