Е. С. Закирова, П. А. Красавин Английский язык для технических вузов
Exercise 30. Write an e-mail to your friend about the main components of your
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- WHAT IS A COMPUTER
| Exercise 30. Write an e-mail to your friend about the main components of your
computer you need to change, providing a detailed description of the func- tions these units perform. PROJECT WORK Exercise 31. Compile information about computers. Present the project to your group. You may use the following websites: www.computer.ru, www.pc- world.ru, www.upweek.ru, www.hardnsoft.ru. ADDITIONAL READING Exercise 32. Make a summary of the text using the following phrases: 1. The title of the text is… 2. The text is about… The text deals with… 3. The text covers such points as … first … second … third … 4. It should be underlined that … 5. In conclusion, I may say that … 6. To my mind … In my opinion … WHAT IS A COMPUTER? Electronic computers are a comparatively modern invention, although their manual predecessors go back several centuries. Let us consider briefly the history of computers that nowadays we are familiar with. Long ago J. Napier, a Scotsman, devised a mechanical way to multiply and divide that is known as the slide rule. Later Henry Briggs applied Napier’s ideas and developed loga- rithm tables commonly used today. The mathematicians Pascal and Leibnitz developed some of the first primitive calculating machines. As for the first real calculating machines concerned, they appeared in 18th century. In 1830, Charles Babbage suggested to create a problem-solving device that he called “analytical engine”. It is a mechanical device incorporating a punched card input memory, calculating section, automatic output and a series of instruc- tions that could control its operation. His ideas were the basis for building modern computers. 120 In 1930, the first analog computer was built by an American, Vannevar Bush. Many technical developments and progress in electronics made it pos- sible to build the first electronic computer in the early 1940s. It was called ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator). It was used for military and scientific purposes. By the end of the 1960s, commercial models of these computers were mainly used for both scientific computation and busi- ness data processing. Initially those devices got input data supplied by punched cards. At the turn of the 1970s punched cards were replaced by keyboard ter- minals. Since that time scientific advances have resulted in the proliferation of computers that spotted the entire landscape of the Universe! It is considered that computers have many remarkable powers. However, most computers, whether large or small, have three basic capabilities. First, computers have circuits for performing arithmetic op erations such as: addi- tion, subtraction, division, multiplication, and exponentiation. Second, com- puters have means of communicating with the user. Third, computers have circuits which can make decisions. They can solve a series of problems and make thou sands of logical decisions without becoming tired. A computer can replace people in dull, routine tasks, but it works according to the instructions given to it. жүктеу/скачать 4,38 Mb. Достарыңызбен бөлісу:
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