Text VI

Read the text and supply it with a suitable title.

Any U.S. school child knows that the first country to develop a computer was the U.S. But few people know that the second country was the Soviet Union in 1950.

And still fewer people know that the first step was actually made in the Soviet Russia in 1918 (a year after the socialist revolution) when M. Bonch-Bruevich developed an electronic relay circuit with two stable states later known in the West as a trigger.

Academician Nikita Moiseyev visited western computer centres in the late 50s and found that the Soviets were at a similar level of development in both methods and computers themselves. Soviet advances slowed down, however, due to mistakes in approaches towards developing the computer industry and shortage of funds which were needed for the iron steel construction and transport industries. A vast housing program was in progress, and the Eastern regions were being developed on a large scale.

Consequently, while the USSR was well-equipped to deal with the world energy crises of the 1970s, computer technology lagged.

At the turn of the 80s, however, the U.S.S.R. scored new successes in this field. The Soviet electronics industry became one of the world's biggest producers of electronic components. 30000 kinds of .components were exported to more than 30 countries, electronic components marked «made in the U.S.S.R.» were used in France, Britain, Italy and Spain. General Motors used to buy 150–180 million resistors.

Exercise 1. Answer the question.

How did the electronic industry develop in the post-Soviet period?

Look for extra information of your own.

Text VII

Reading and extracting information

EVOLUTION IN SIZE

Computers come in all sizes. Large ones are called mainframes. The mainframes have been around the longest, and there are a lot of them, especially in larger organizations.

The most powerful computers, however, are called supercomputers. The supercomputers are so powerful that they are found in only a few of the larger business organizations. Supercomputers most often are used for scientific calculations.

The recent trend has not been to larger computers, but to smaller ones. In the 1970s, this trend got its start with minicomputers, or minis. These computers were smaller than the mainframes but, in many cases, outperformed the larger units.

The minis were received so well that computer manufacturers produced even smaller units – called microcomputers or micros. Most of the microcomputer's main circuitry is in the form of a small silicon chip, smaller than your fingernail. The chip is called a microprocessor.

You also hear terms like small business computer and personal computer. A small business computer is a mini or micro that is usually found in smaller firms, and provides the computational support.

Exercise 1. Answer the questions.

1. What were the four basic sizes of computers?

2. Where were they applied?

3. What do you know about mainframes?

Exercise 2. Give definitions to the terms:

mainframe, supercomputer, minicomputer, microcomputer, microprocessor, small business computer.

Almost all of them are now obsolete. Why does computer-related terminology get out-of-date so quickly?

Exercise 3. Topics for discussion.

What do you think about necessity of using computers? Can you do without your personal computer today?