focus_on_informatics

Exercises:

1.Find word andphrases in the text which mean:

1)to have something as the main or the most important interest or subject (paragraph 1)

2)someone involved in a skilled job or activity (paragraph 1)

3)famous for something (paragraph 2)

4)the use of something in an effective way (paragraph2)

5)exchange of information betweendifferent people (paragraph 3)

6)subjectwhich is causing or likely tocause disagreement (paragraph 4)

7)useful or attractive together (paragraph4)

2.Answer the following questions:

1)How did the term “datalogy” appear?

2)What other disciplines is computer science crossed into?

3)Why is computerscience closely linked to maths?

4)How can computer science and software engineering be differentiated?

5)What allies two types of computer science departments?

Text 3. History of Computing

Part 1

A computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions. Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century (1940–1945). These were the size of a large room, consuming as much power as several hundred modern personal computers (PCs). Modern computers based on integrated circuits are millions to billions of times more capable than the early machines, and occupy a fraction

of the space. Simple computers are small enough to fit into a wristwatch, and can be powered by a watch battery. Personal computers in their various forms are icons of the Information Age and are what most people think of as "computers".The embedded computers found in many devices fromMP3 players to fighter aircraft and from toys to industrial robots are however the most numerous.

The ability to store and execute lists of instructions called programs makes computers extremely versatile, distinguishing them from calculators. The Church–Turing thesis is a mathematical statement of this versatility: any computer with a certain minimum capability is, in principle, capable of performing the same tasks that any other computer can perform. Therefore computers ranging from a mobile phone to a supercomputer are all able to perform the same computational tasks, given enough time and storagecapacity.

The first use of the word "computer" was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word continued to be used in that sense until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century onwards though, the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, describing a machinethat carries out computations.

The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technolo- gies–automated calculation and programmability–but no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that term. Examples of early mechanical calculating devices include the abacus, the slide rule and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism (which dates from about 150–100 BC). Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–70 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when. This is the essence of programmability.

The "castle clock", an astronomical clock invented by Al-Jazari in 1206, is considered to be the earliest programmable analog computer. It displayed the zodiac, the solar and lunar orbits, a crescent moon-shaped pointer travelling across a gateway causing automatic doors to open every hour,and five robotic

musicians who played music when struck by levers operated by a camshaft attached to a water wheel. The length of day and night could be re-programmed to compensate for the changing lengths of day and night throughout theyear.

The Renaissance saw a re-invigoration of European mathematics and engineering. Wilhelm Schickard's 1623 device was the first of a number of mechanical calculators constructed by European engineers, but none fit the modern definition of a computer, because they could not be programmed.

In 1801, Joseph Marie Jacquard made an improvement to the textile loom by introducing a series of punched paper cards as a template which allowed his loom to weave intricate patterns automatically. The resulting Jacquard loom was an important step in the development of computers because the use of punched cards to define woven patterns can be viewed as an early, albeit limited, form of programmability.

It was the fusion of automatic calculation with programmability that produced the first recognizable computers. In 1837, Charles Babbage was the first to conceptualize and design a fully programmable mechanical computer, his analytical engine. Limited finances and Babbage's inability to resist tinkering with the design meant that the device was nevercompleted.

Glossary

astrolabe – астролябия

camshaft – распределительный вал

crescent-moon-shaped pointer – стрелка (указатель) в форме серпа

embedded computer – встраиваемый (встроенный) компьютер

fraction – доля

inconsistent – противоречивый, непоследовательный

integrated circuit – интегральная микросхема

intricate pattern– сложнаямодель

lever – рычаг

lunar orbit – лунная орбита

mathematical statement – математическое предложение punched paper card– перфокарта

re-invigoration– возрождение, восстановление slide rule – логарифмическая линейка

storage capacity – емкостьзапоминающего устройства template – лекало, образец, трафарет, шаблон

textile loom – ткацкий станок

tinker – халтурить, пытаться починить кое-как to execute lists of instructions – выполнять ряд команд

versatility – универсальность, многофункциональность weave (wove, woven) – ткать, плести

wristwatch – наручныечасы

Exercises:

1.Without referring back to the article, can you remember in what context thefollowing names were mentioned?

a.Al-Jazari

b.Joseph Marie Jacquard

c.Charles Babbage

2. What do you think the following terms from the article mean?

Check in thearticle if youneed to:

1)computation (paragraph 3)

2)programmability (paragraph 4)

3)calculation (paragraph8)

3. Look back at the article. Find the words which mean:

1)able to be used for many different purposes (paragraph 2)

2)a square or rectangular frame holding an arrangement of small balls on metal rods or wires, which is used for counting, adding and subtracting (paragraph 4)

3)something that is used as a pattern for producing other similar things (paragraph 7)

4)when two or more things join or arecombined(paragraph 8)

4. Inthe text, find:

three words you want to use more often

three partnerships you need with theirequivalents in your own language three longer expressions with their equivalents in your own language

5. The following computer words appeared in the article in the order in which they are listed.How many of their word partners can you find in just 1 minute?

computer word	wordpartners
1. integrated	…
2. embedded	…
3. computational	…

Choose the most useful word partnership and find an equivalent for it in your own language.

6.Answer the followingquestions:

1)When were the first electronic computers developed? What were they like?

2)What makes computers extremely versatile?

3)When was the first use of the word “computer” recorded? What meaning did it have?

4)What are the examples of early mechanical calculating devices?

5)How did the earliest programmable analog computerwork?

6)Why was the invention of Jacquard loom an important step in development of computers?

7)Why was the first fully programmable mechanical computer never completed?

Text 4. History of Computing

Part 2

In the late 1880s, Herman Hollerith invented the recording of data on a machine readable medium. Prior uses of machine readable media, above, had been for control, not data. After some initial trials with paper tape, he settled on punched cards. To process these punched cards he invented the tabulator, and the keypunch machines. These three inventions were the foundation of the modern information processing industry. Large-scale automated data processing of punched cards was performed for the 1890 United States Census by Hollerith's company, which later became the core of IBM. By the end of the 19th century a number of technologies that would later prove useful in the realization of practical computers had begun to appear: the punched card, Boolean algebra, the vacuum tube (thermionic valve) and the teleprinter.

During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not programmable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers.

Alan Turing is widely regarded to be the father of modern computer science. In 1936 Turing provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and computation with the Turing machine. Of his role in the

modern computer, Time Magazine in naming Turing one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, states: "The fact remains that everyone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine."

The inventor of the program-controlled computer was Konrad Zuse, who built the first working computer in 1941 and later in 1955 the first computer based on magnetic storage. George Stibitz is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. While working at Bell Labs in November 1937, Stibitz invented and built a relay-based calculator he dubbed the "Model K" (for "kitchen table", on which he had assembled it), which was the first to use binary circuits to perform an arithmetic operation. Later models added greater sophistication including complex arithmetic and programmability.

A succession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability were vitally important steps.

Nearly all modern computers implement some form of the storedprogram architecture, making it the single trait by which the word "computer" is now defined. While the technologies used in computers have changed dramatically since the first electronic, general-purpose computers of the 1940s, most still use the von Neumann architecture.

Computers using vacuum tubes as their electronic elements were in use throughout the 1950s, but by the 1960s had been largely replaced by transis- tor-based machines, which were smaller, faster, cheaper to produce, required less power, and were more reliable. The first transistorised computer was demonstrated at the University of Manchester in 1953. In the 1970s, integrated circuit technology and the subsequent creation of microprocessors, such as the Intel 4004, further decreased size and cost and further increased speed and reliability of computers. By the late 1970s, many products such as video recorders contained dedicated computers called microcontrollers, and they started to appear as a replacement to mechanical controls in domestic appliances such as washing machines. The 1980s witnessed home computers

and the now ubiquitous personal computer. With the evolution of the Internet, personal computers are becoming as common as the television and the telephone in the household.

Modern smartphones are fully-programmable computers in their own right, and as of 2009 may well be the most common form of such computers in existence.

Glossary

accuracy – зд. надежность

binary circuit – бинарная схема

Boolean algebra – булева алгебра, алгебра логики

census – перепись, сбор сведений

dedicated computer – специализированная вычислительная машина

general-purpose computer – универсальная вычислительная машина

incarnation – воплощение, олицетворение

increasingly sophisticated – чрезвычайно сложный

initial trials – предварительные испытания

keypunch machine – клавишный перфоратор

magnetic storage – магнитноезапоминающее устройство

microcontroller –микроконтроллер

spreadsheet – крупноформатная (электронная) таблица

stored-program architecture – архитектура, структура, основанная на концепции хранимой программы (доминирующая в настоящее время организация ЭВМ, основанная на концепции хранимой программы, для которой используется линейно адресуемая память (main memory), способная выполнять операции чтения и записи.

Эта единая память хранит и команды программы, и данные. Команды выбираются процессором из памяти последовательно одна за другой, кроме случаев применения управляющих команд (переходы, программные прерывания, вызовыподпрограмм))

subsequent – дальнейший

succession – последовательность

teleprinter – телепринтер, стартстопный телеграфный аппарат

to settle on – зд. фокусироваться

transistor-basedmachine – транзисторная вычислительная машина

Turing machine – машина Тьюринга

ubiquitous – вездесущий, повсеместный

vacuum tube (thermionic valve)– электронная лампа

von Neuman architecture– см. ‘stored-program architecture’

Exercises:

1.Without referring back to the article, can you remember in what context thefollowing names were mentioned?

a)Herman Hollerith

b)Alan Turing

c)KonradZuse

d)George Stibitz

2. What do you think the following terms from the article mean?

Check in thearticle if youneed to:

1)magnetic storage (paragraph 4)

2)appliance (paragraph 7)

3.Look back atthe article. Findthe words which mean:

1)a set of mathematical instructions that must be followed in a fixed order (paragraph 3)

2)to bring parts together in a single group(paragraph 4)

3)to put a system into operation (paragraph 6)

4)seeming to be in all places (paragraph 7)

4.In the text, find:

three words you want touse moreoften

three partnerships you need withtheir equivalents in your own language three longer expressions with their equivalents in your own language

5.The following computer words appeared in the article in the order in which they are listed. How many of their word partners can you find in just 2 minutes?

computer word

wordpartners

1.readable

2.automated

3.word-processing

4.arithmetic

5.digital

Choose the most useful word partnership and find an equivalent for it in your own language.

6. Answer the following questions: