- •Computer World
- •Read and Talk
- •Vocabulary work
- •L isten and Speak
- •Write an Essay
- •A closer look Warm up
- •Read and Talk
- •Extend your knowledge
- •Read and Speak
- •Listen and Speak
- •Vocabulary work
- •Practice Translation
- •Applications Warm up
- •Watch and Write
- •Read and Talk
- •If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their infamous
- •E xtend your Knowledge
- •Activity: Study Applications
- •Vocabulary work
- •Have fun
- •Practice Translation
- •Watch and Write
- •Write and Present
- •Operating Systems (os)
- •Warm up
- •Activity: Windows in Windows
- •Extend your knowledge
- •Watch and Write
- •Vocabulary work
- •Watch and Translate
- •Activity: How-to
- •Extend your Knowledge
- •Watch and Speak
- •Research and Present a n os to Choose
- •Points to consider before and while decision making :
- •Hardware Warm up
- •Watch and Speak
- •Read and Speak
- •A ctivity: How to read a computer ad
- •Vocabulary work
- •Practice Translation
- •Have fun /* Help stories from Tech Support */
- •Write a Story
- •Activity: Join a forum
- •Listen and Talk
- •Have fun
- •Extend your knowledge Explore a motherboard. Find Russian equivalents to the terms.
- •Computer History Warm up
- •Read and Speak
- •Vocabulary work
- •The Development Stages
- •Practice Translation
- •Activity: Explore History
- •Watch and Talk
- •Practice Translation
- •Intro to the Internet Warm up
- •Read and Talk
- •Vocabulary work
- •Watch and Research
- •Firefox, Google, Chrome, Explorer, Yahoo
- •Read and Talk
- •Activity: Compare isPs
- •Practice Translation
- •Going online with an isp
- •Activity: Exploring your local isp market
- •Read and Talk
- •Internet Software
- •Have fun Test yourself - How much of a "techie" are you?
- •Warm up
- •Watch and Listen
- •Extend your Knowledge the web from the inside
- •Practice Translation
- •Read and Talk
- •Activity: Customizing Web Browser
- •ClearYour Browser's Cache
- •Customize the Toolbar Buttons
- •Set a home page for the browser
- •Glossary
Read and Speak
1 . Read the text.
The modern electronic digital computer is the result of a long series of developments, which started some 5000 years ago with the abacus. The first mechanical adding device was developed in 1642 by the French scientist-philosopher, Pascal. His 'arithmetic machine', was followed by the 'stepped reckoner' invented by Leibnitz in 1671, which was capable of also doing multiplication, division, and the evaluation of square roots by a series of stepped additions, not unlike the methods used in modern digital computers.
In 1835, Charles Babbage formulated his concept of an 'analytical machine' which combined arithmetic processes with decisions based on the results of the computations. This was really the forerunner of the modern digital computer, in that it combined the principles of sequential control, branching, looping, and storage units.
In the later 19th-c, George Boole developed the symbolic binary logic which led to Boolean algebra and the binary switching methodology used in modern computers. Herman Hollerith, a US statistician, developed punched card techniques, mainly to aid with the US census at the turn of the century; this advanced the concept of automatic processing, but major developments awaited the availability of suitable electronic devices. J Presper Eckert and John W Manchly produced the first all-electronic digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator), at the University of Pennsylvania in 1946, which was 1000 times faster than the mechanical computers.
Their development of ENIAC led to one of the first commercial computers, UNIVAC I, in the early 1950s, which was able to handle both numerical and alphabetical information. Very significant contributions were made around this time by Johann von Neumann, who converted the ENIAC principles to give the EDVAC computer (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) which could modify its own programs in much the same way as suggested by Babbage.
The first stored program digital computer to run an actual program was built at Manchester University, UK and first performed successfully in 1948. This computer was later developed into the Ferranti Mark I computer, widely sold. The first digital computer (EDSAC) to be able to be offered as a service to users was developed at Cambridge University, UK, and ran in the spring of 1949. The EDSAC design was used as the basis of the first business computer system, the Lyons Electronic Office.
Advances followed rapidly from the 1950s, and were further accelerated from the mid-1960s by the successful development of miniaturization techniques in the electronics industry. The first microprocessor, which might be regarded as a computer on a chip, appeared in 1971, and nowadays the power of even the most modest personal computer can equal or outstrip the early electronic computers of the 1940s.
information provided by Cambridge Dictionary of Scientists
2. Go google and explain the meaning of the following:
What is “stepped addition?”
What is “sequential control”? “Branching”? “Looping”?
What is “binary logic”?
3. Fill in the table below:
dates |
Names of developers |
country/university |
events |
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Invention of the abacus |
1642 |
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Leibnitz |
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concept of an 'analytical machine' which combined arithmetic processes with decisions based on the results of the computations |
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George Boole |
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Herman Hollerith |
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1946 |
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Development of UNIVAC I |
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Johann von Neumann |
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Manchester University, UK |
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The first digital computer (EDSAC) |
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development of miniaturization techniques in the electronics industry |
1971 |
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4. Give a short summary of the text