Words and expressions to remember

vacuum tube storage capacity card reader magnetic drum cylinder

read / write head rotating surface spot binary-coded machine language number integrator

resistor capacitor foot (feet) decimal digit computational power

Words you may need:

a coding scheme – система / схема кодирования

hand-solded connections – паяные соединения в виде рук

stored program – введенная в память программа

tabulating machine – счетная машина

electronic multiplier – электронный множитель

blank card – пустая карта

to relieve - облегчать

to suspend - подвешивать

Verbs to remember

to control	to translate into	to occupy
to generate	to magnetize	to weigh
to require	to interpret	to represent
to compare	to manipulate	to consist of
to be used	to dominate	to deliver
to enter into	to formulate	to incorporate
to coat with	to be applied	to propose
to be formed

Auxiliary words:

according to either…or as well as

without hence instead of

Task 1 Form the adverbs according to the example:

Example: extreme – extremely, exclusive – exclusively

manual -	approximate -	main -
internal -	cold -	easy -
quick -	significant -	extensive -
frequent -	potential -	logical -
Exclusive -

Task 2 Complete the сhart forming the comparatives or superlatives of the following adjectives.

	Comparative Degree	Superlative Degree
1. fast		(the) fastest
2. generous	more generous
3. new		(the) newest
4. good	better
5. little	less
6. early		(the) earliest
7.quick	quicker
8. bad	worse
9. slow	slower
10. developed		(the) most developed
11. close		(the) closest

Task 3 Read the text and answer the following questions.

1 What kind of characteristics could you specify speaking about first-generation computers?

2 What were punched cards used for?

3 When was the first electronic computer designed? What kind of computer was it?

4 What ideas were incorporated into the computer built in 1949?

5 What kind of machine did IBM build in 1950s?

Task 4 Indicate whether the following ideas are stated or not stated in the text.

1 First-generation computers were much faster and required less space than earlier mechanical or electromechanical devices.

2 In 1940-1950s one of the most frequently used services for providing input data to a computer was the punched card, a major storage medium for computer programs or data.

3 The use of punched cards actually required a card reader.

4 ENIAC was the first general-purpose computer and represented a major advance in computational power.

5 ENIAC was the first computer using the binary number system, and its instructions or program stored internally.

6 In 1952 IBM built a machine known as the IBM 603 electronic multiplier.

TEXT 2 FIRST GENERATION COMPUTERS HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT (PART II)

1948-1956

1948. The IBM 604 Electronic Calculating Punch Card machine became available. It could read punched cards, perform arithmetic operations, and punch the results on cards. The machine was programmed with a plugboard and was not a stored-program machine. It had over 1400 vacuum tubes to perform arithmetic op­erations using electronic registers.

1950. The SEAC (Standards Eastern Automatic Computer) was the first stored-program computer to be put into operation in the United States. Built by the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D. C., it used mercury delay lines for memory and was operational for more than a decade.

The ERA 1101, built by Engineering Research Associates of St. Paul, Min­nesota, was the first computer to use a magnetic drum for main memory instead of mercury delay lines. It had 16,384 words of storage. Many different computers using magnetic drums for main memory were constructed during the period 1950-1955.

1951. The first UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer) was delivered. This machine was contracted by the National Bureau of Standards and delivered to the Census Bureau for use with the data of the 1950 census. It was designed by the Mauchly-Eckert team, used mercury delay lines for memory, and was the first com­mercially available stored-program electronic digital computer. A total of 48 of the UNIVAC-1 were built. Before UNIVAC-1 appeared, 60 other electronic computers had been built. No two were alike, and none of the programs developed for one were compatible with any of the others without major modification, or even redesign, of the computer.

Up to this point, computers were used almost exclusively for scientific purposes.

1953. The IBM 701 computer, a large-scale scientific computer using a Wil­liams electrostatic memory tube backed up by a magnetic drum, was delivered. This machine had parallel binary arithmetic capability and was much faster than the UNIVAC for scientific computations.

1955. IBM introduced the IBM 702, the first large-scale computer designed for business purposes. The 702 weighed 24,600 pounds, contained approximately 5000 vacuum tubes, and required powerful air conditioning to cool the room where it operated. Actually, only a few of these computers were ever installed. As soon as IBM announced its newer, more powerful machine, the IBM 704, the 702 was withdrawn from the market—obsolete before it was even delivered.

1956. The IBM 704, first offered in 1956, achieved a near-monopoly for IBM in the large-scale scientific computer field. It could handle 91 instructions, add in 24 microseconds, and perform either multiplication or division in 240 microseconds.

Task 1 Find English equivalents for the following Russian phrases from the text.

Читать перфо-карты; выполнять арифметические операции; программируемый разъем; с использованием электронных регистров; машина с введенной в память программой; ввести в эксплуатацию; ртутные линии задержки; магнитный барабан; перепись; электронный цифровой компьютер; не было двух одинаковых; сравнимый с; ни одна из программ; без существенного изменения; реконструирование; исключительно для научных целей; электростатическая трубка памяти Вильямса; параллельный двоичный арифметический счет; содержать; приблизительно; мощный кондиционер; были внедрены; объявленный (заявленный); мощная машина; устаревший; достичь фактической монополии; обрабатывать инструкцию; снятый с продажи.

Task 2 Pronounce the following words correctly:

arithmetic - [E`riSmFtik] mercury - [`mRkjuri] delay - [di`lei] decade - [`dekeid] construct - [kEn`strVkt] weigh - [wei] microsecond - [`maikrF‚sekFnd] contract - [kEn`trQkt] data - [`deitF]

digital - [`didJitEl] compatible - [kEm`pMtEbl] exclusively - [iks`klUsiv] instruction - [in`strVkXEn] capability - [keipE`biliti] purpose - [`pNpFs] require - [rikwaiE] announce - [F`nauns] obsolete - [`CbsFlGt] field - [fIld]

Task 3 Say a few sentences about the computers constructed and delivered during the period 1950-1955. While referring to the text in your report use the following phrases:

The text is about…

According to the text…

We shouldn’t forget that…

It further says that…

In this connection I would like to say that…

Unit 3

Дата добавления: 2015-10-30