Exercise 5

According to the text explain the difference between:

1. the mainframe and the supercomputer

2. the minicomputer and PC

3. the notebook and palmtop.

Exercise 6

According to the key-phrases given below find in the text the sentences telling us about IT. Read the sentences and translate them

1. geographical location irrelevant

2. telecoms and computer industries

3. destroying millions of jobs

4. the research group

5. can’t afford to buy

6. to be badly paid

7. keyboard operations

Exercise 7

Give your own opinion on the text read

Think of some extra information known for you about computers and computing as well as about IT

Exercise 8

Read this short article from The Economist and answer the questions

Revenge of the mainframe

...Mr Cray's vision, from the Univac 1604, which he designed in the 1950s, to the Cray 1 supercomputer (1976), was one of centralised computing power and control: a liquid-nitrogen cooled black shrine in the middle of a sealed white room to which supplicants came carrying programs.

Until the 1980s computers were all mainframes, and Mr Cray's were the biggest of the lot. Then came the ubiquitous, ever-cheaper and ever-more-powerful personal computer.

Mr Cray's response was tо opt for ever-more exotic technology. He spent $200 million on development without a single sale. Most other mainframe and supercomputer companies have redesigned their machines to find a niche in an increasingly PC-dominated world.

Their approach recognises that the old model of users with dumb terminals submitting programs to be run overnight by data-processing beasts in the basement has gone the way of the punchcard. But the idea of a powerful, reliable machine that can run the payroll, handle sales and churn out bills - all the boring-but-essential work of running a company - still makes sense. ...

1. Are shrines and supplicants usually associated with a) science,

b) religion, or c) com­puting?

2. If something is ubiquitous, is it rare?

3. If you opt for something, do you a) choose it, or b) reject it?

4. If you have a niche in the market, do you have a very large part of the market?

5. Are punchcards still used in computing?

6. Is it possible to churn out something in small numbers?

7. Does the article suggest that mainframes are no longer necessary?

Exercise 9

Complete the following sentences with a word from the box. Write your answers in the puzzle and read the vertical word, defining a kind of a link

a

b

c

d

e

f

g

h mainframe; supercomputer; processing; computer; memory; notebook; minicomputer; kilobyte

1. When a person needs to store or manipulate numbers, letters or characters he uses a ______.

2. The program which tells the computers what to do is kept inside the computer in a place called ________.

3. One thousand bytes of information is _______.

4. Very large and power computers used for complex mathematical tasks are called ______.

5. To run a single program people often use mid-sized computers called ______, which also provide system access to either a single user or to a limited number of users at a time.

6. There is a computer named a ______ computer which cane take all your programs and files with you whereas you go.

7. Users can’t still manage without very large computers or _______ executing jobs very rapidly and easily and providing the access for many users simultaneously.

8. The capability of a computer to manipulate numbers, letters or characters or to perform different kind of operations is defined as _________.