Text 9 Engineering as a profession Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Electrical and electronics engineering is the largest and most diverse field of engineering. It deals with the development and design, application, and manufacture of systems and devices that use electric power and signals. Among the most important subjects in the field of are electric power and machinery, electronic circuits, control systems, computer design, superconductors, solid-state electronics and fibre optics.

Electronics

Electronic engineering deals with research, design, integration, and application if circuits and devices used in the transmission and processing of information.

Electronic engineers design circuits to perform specific tasks, such as amplifying electronic signals, adding binary numbers, and demodulating radio signals to recover the information they carry. Circuits are also used to generate waveforms useful for synchronization and timing, as in television, and for correcting errors in digital information, as in telecommunications.

Prior to the 1960s, circuits consisted of separate electronic devices – resistors, capacitors, inductors, and vacuum tubes – assembled on chassis and connected by wires to form a bulky package. The electronics revolution of the 1970s and 1980s set the trend towards integrating electronic devices on a single tiny chip of silicon or some other semiconductive material. The complex task of manufacturing these chips uses the most advanced technology, including computers, electron-beam lithography, micro-manipulators, ion-beam implantation, and ultra-clean environments. Much of the research in electronics is directed towards creating even smaller chips, faster switching of components, and three-dimensional integrated circuits.

Computers

Computer engineering is now the most rapidly growing field. The electronics of computers involve engineers in design and manufacture of memory systems, of central processing units, and of peripheral devices. The field of computer science is closely connected with computer engineering; however, the task of making computers more “intelligent” (artificial intelligence), through creation of sophisticated programs or development of higher level machine languages or other means, is generally regarded as the aim of computer science.

One current trend in computer engineering is microminiaturization. Engineers try to place greater and greater numbers of circuit elements onto smaller and smaller chips. Another trend is towards increasing the speed of computer operations through the use of parallel processors and superconductive materials.

machinery – машинное оборудование, машины

superconductor (ive) – сверхпроводник (овый)

fibre optics – оптиковолокно

binary – двоичный, бинарный

timing – хронометраж

capacitor – конденсатор

inductor [ɪn'dʌktə] – индуктор

amplify – усиливать, ускорять

assemble – собирать, монтировать

chassis [′∫æs] – шасси (автомобиля, самолёта)

wire – провод, шнур

bulky – огромный, громоздкий

trend – тенденция

advanced – усовершенствованный

electron-beam lithography [lɪ'θɒɡrəfɪ] – электронно-лучевая литография

ion-beam implantation [̗ɪmplɑ:n'teɪʃn] – ионно-лучевая имплантация

tiny – мелкий, крошечный

sophisticated – сложный, усложнённый

microminiaturization – [maɪkrəυmɪnətʃəraɪ'zeɪʃn] – микроминиатюризация

Answer the questions.

1) What do electrical and electronics engineering deal with?

2) What do electronic engineers design circuits for?

3) How did the circuits prior to the 1960s look like?

4) What change did the electronic revolution of the 1970s and 1980s bring into designing of circuits?

5) What technology is used in manufacturing silicon chips?

6) What do computer engineers design?

7) What is the aim of computer science?

8) Is microminiaturization a current trend in computer engineering?

9) Do you know any other trends in computer engineering?

Appendix 2