IV. Continue the following sentences using words and expressions given below.

 

1. In addition all tubes had to be working …, they were subject to … ….

2. Programming with numbers alone made using the computer … ….

3. For primary storage, magnetic core was the… … of technology used.

4. In 1957 magnetic tape was introduced as a faster, … … … of storing data.

5. After the development of the symbolic languages came … ….

6. An integrated circuit is a complete electronic on a … … ….

7. A cylinder of silicon is sliced into wafers, each about … … …, and wafer is “etched” repeatedly with a pattern of electrical circuitry.

8. The fourth generation was, in fact, an … of third-generation technology.

 

extension

higher-level languages

difficult and time-consuming

3 inches in diameter

principal form

small chip of silicon

more compact method

simultaneously

frequent burnout

 

V. Fill in the prepositions if necessary:

 

An integrated circuit (IC) is a collection of electronic components fabricated … a semiconductor device or chip. Integrated circuits are widely used … consumer, commercial and industrial applications. With high developments … technology, integrated circuits have become the most important unit in electric products. Integrated circuits are used in a wide area … commercial and consumer technology, including, for example, calculators, computers, video games, digital watches, and the like. Integrated circuit technology has made significant progress over the last forty years. Integrated circuits are now manufactured … much lower costs, with lower power consumption, higher speeds, and smaller sizes. An integrated circuit is a complete electronic circuit, containing transistors, diodes, resistors, and capacitors, along with their interconnecting electrical conductors, contained entirely … a single chip of silicon. An integrated circuit includes multiple layers of wiring that interconnect its electronic and circuit components. These layers made … metal, semiconductor and insulator material, each configured so that it cooperates … other layers to define circuit elements, such as buffers, memory devices, gates and routing wires. Each layer is stacked or overlaid on a prior layer and patterned to form the shapes that define devices and connect the devices into circuits. The metal layers define routing wires for connecting together various elements, including memory matrices. Generally, integrated circuits are mainly divided … two categories: logic device and memory, wherein the logic device, such as a microprocessor of a computer, is used to execute logic operations, and the memory is a semiconductor device used … storing data.

 

VI. Answer the following questions:

 

1. What is the characteristic feature of the 1-st generation computers?

2. What are the advantages of the 1-st generation?

3. What are the disadvantages of this generation?

4. What was the principal form of primary storage technology?

5. What important development came with the second generation computing?

6. When did higher-level languages appear?

7. What higher-level languages do you know?

8. What are the advantages of higher-level languages?

9. When did the electronics industry begin to make silicon chips?

10. Why did the integrated circuit begin to replace the transistor?

11. Why is silicon so widely used?

12. What are the most important characteristics of the chips?

13. What is an important form of multiprogramming?

14. What is the most important development of the 4th generation computers?

15. What did two innovations in LSI technology lead to?

16. When was VLSI achieved?

17. When did the development of the 5-th generation begin?

18. Enumerate all the desired features of the 5-th computer generation.

 

Read and translate the text. Write the summary.

 

Charles Babbage and His Inventions

 

An eccentric mathematician and a genius, Charles Babbage was a prolific inventor, whose inventions included the ophthalmoscope (for examining the retina of the eye), the skeleton key, the locomotive “cow catcher”, and the speedometer. He also pioneered operations research, the science of carrying out business and industrial operations as efficiently as possible. Babbage was a fellow of the Royal Society, and at Cambridge University he held the same chair that was once held by Isaac Newton, the most famous of British scientists.

The mathematical tables of the 19^th century were full of mistakes. Even when the tables were calculated correctly, the printed versions often contained typographical errors. Because people who published new tables often copied old ones, the same errors cropped up in table after table.

Babbage set out to build a machine that would not only calculate, but would also automatically print. He called the machine the Difference Engine because it worked by solving what mathematicians call “difference equations”. The name is somewhat misleading in that the machine constructs tables using repeated additions, not subtractions.

However, struck by a much better idea Babbage abandoned the Difference Engine. He wanted to build a punched-card-controlled calculator. He called his proposed automatic calculator the Analytical Engine.

The Difference Engine could compute only tables. But the Analytical Engine could carry out any calculation. All a person had to do was punch the cards with instructions for the desired calculations.

The Analytical Engine had many of the major components found in modern computers. Babbage referred to the machine’s main memory as “the store”; the terms “store” and “storage” are still sometimes used to refer to main memory. The Analytical Engine’s central processing unit consisted of “the mill”, which carried out arithmetical calculations, and “the barrel”, which actuated the parts of the machine needed to carry out each instruction. Today we would call the mill the arithmetic/logic unit and the barrel the control unit. Input data for the Analytical Engine was on punched cards, and its output was printed on paper.

Had the Analytical Engine been completed, it would have been a 19yh-century computer. But alas, that was not to be. The British Government had already sunk thousands of pounds into the Difference Engine and had received nothing in return. It had no intention of making the same mistake with the Analytical Engine. No working Analytical Engine was ever built, and Babbage’s work was forgotten until after the same discoveries had been made independently by the computer pioneers of the 20^th century.

 

Topic for Discussion.

 

If Charles Babbage succeeded in building a mechanical computer around the middle of the 19^th century, how might our present use of computers and our attitudes to them be different?

 

 

 

Topic 3.

 

The Current and Future Design of Computers.

Components (Hardware)

Computer Input

 

Data input devices have been used since the sixties as a graphic user interface (GUI) to allow a user to input certain information into computer systems and to modify or operate on images or information displayed on an output screen attached to the computer system.

Input examples are keyboard; CD ROM's; DVD ROMs; microphone (including speech analysis/recognition); graphic cards; digital video cards; scanners; cameras; camcorders; video devices such as TV and VCR's; sensors.

There has been trend toward the increased uses input technologies that provide a more natural user interface for computer users. You can now enter data and commands directly and easily into a computer system through pointing devices like electronic mice and touch pads, and technologies like optical scanning handwriting recognition, and voice recognition. These developments have made it unnecessary to always record data on paper source documents and then keyboard the data into a computer in an additional data entry step. Further improvement in voice recognition and other technologies should enable an even more natural user interface in the future.

Keyboards are still the most widely used devices for entering data and text into computer system, but they have some serious limitations. For example, persons who are not trained typists find using a keyboard tedious and error producing. That is why researches in such areas as pointing devices, optical character recognition, and speech recognition are seeking ways to eliminate or minimize the use of keyboards.

A computer keyboard has keys for all the characters as well as mathematical and foreign-language symbols. The enter key causes the cursor on the display to move to the beginning of a new line. The escape key, which is usually marked Esc, is often used to cancel data entries and to terminate the execution of commands and programs. The number keys along the top row of the keyboard are inconvenient for entering large amounts of numeric data. For that reason a numeric keypad, in which the number keys are arranged in a square array, as on a calculator is provided.

Holding down the shift key causes the letter keys to type uppercase rather than lowercase letters.

Holding down the control key (Ctrl) causes certain other keys, mainly letter keys, to generate control keys.

The Alt key, when pressed, establishes an alternate meaning for each key.

The Ctrl and Alt keys are often used to indicate that a keystroke represents a command to the program rather than a part of the input data.

Cursor control keys move the cursor on the display up, down, left, and right, allowing the user to position the cursor at the point on the display where data is to be entered or changes are to be made.

Pointing devicesare a better alternative for issuing commands, making choices, and responding to prompts displayed on your video screen. They work with your operating system’s graphical user interface (GUI), which presents you with icons, menus, windows, buttons, bars, and so on, for your selection. For example, pointing devices such as electronic mice and touch pads allow you to easily choose from menu selections and icon displays using point-and-click or point-and-drag methods.

The electronic mouse is the most popular pointing device used to move the cursor on the screen, as well as to issue commands and make icon and menu selections. By moving the mouse on a desktop or pad, you can move the cursor into an icon displayed on the screen. Pressing buttons on the mouse activates various activities represented by the icon selected.

The trackball, pointing stick, and touch pad are other pointing devices most often used in place of the mouse. A trackball is a stationary device related to the mouse. You turn a roller ball with only its top exposed outside its case to move the cursor on the screen. A pointing stick(also called a trackpoint) is a small buttonlike device, and sometimes likened to the eraserhead of a pencil. It is usually centered one row above the space bar of a keyboard. The cursor moves in the direction of the pressure you place on the stick. The touch padis a small rectangular touch-sensitive surface usually placed bellow the keyboard. The cursor moves in the direction your finger moves on the pad. Trackballs, pointing sticks, and touch pads are easier to use than a mouse for portable computer users and are thus built into most notebook computer keyboards.

Touch screens are devices that allow you to use a computer by touching the surface of its video display screen. Some touch screens emit a grid of infrared beams, sound waves, or a slight electric current that is broken when the screen is touched. The computer senses the point in the grid where the break occurs and responds with an appropriate action. For example, you can indicate your selection on a menu display by just touching the screen next to that menu item.

 

Comments:

 

pointing device координатно-вказівний пристрій, позиціювальний

пристрій, вказівний пристрій, маніпулятор

 

prompt запрошення, підказка (на екрані)

 

point-and-click “вказати і клацнути” – загальний метод роботи

з мишею в ОС

 

point-and-drag “вказати і перетягнути” – технологія роботи з

екранними об’єктами у Windows

за допомогою миші

 

to emit випромінювати

 

to occur траплятися, відбуватися

 

tedious нудний, стомливий

 

seek пошук; шукати, розшукувати, намагатись знайти

 

touchpad сенсорная панель тактильное устройство ввода,

применяется для управления

курсором в ноутбуках,

в сенсорном управлении

мобильными телефонами

Exercises