Text 4. Computers on Wheels

The mountain road was violently zig-zagging, but the driver did not slow down. He seemed to be more concerned with two timetables — that of the bus and school lessons. The bus had to arrive at a country school in time for the next lesson.

Personal computers are mounted in the bus’s interior where basic instruction is given under the school curriculum in information sci­ence and computer technology. Children from village and town schools are thus learning to operate computers. It is one of the forms of implementing the countrywide programme for computer knowledge among students.

At present, the fundamentals of information science and compu­ter technology are studied in nearly 60,000 secondary schools through­out the country. The subject has been included in the curricula of the tenth and eleventh forms. As an experiment, computer lessons some­times start at an earlier age, even at the elementary school.

The authors of the experiments have developed teaching methods that allow computer operation to be combined with strengthening the oral count habits, developing the so-called sense of numbers, improv­ing the standards of logic and mathematical thinking. For example, a mathematical dictation for solving textual problems. Teachers know that with the conventional methods the better part of a maths lesson is spent on putting down the solutions of problems (as a rule, chil­dren write slowly) and calculations. The logic part of the solution takes very little time. With computer equipment, this can be done efficiently and with the entire class participating. The teacher slowly dictates the problem, while the children are not writing but listening attentively and thinking about the development. After a repeat, they immediately work out the problem on a computer or a calculator. The computer enables them to check the solution. In the second part of the lesson, a pupil comments on the line of reasoning. Using this method, the pupils of experimental classes can solve eight to ten problems in 15 to 20 minutes.

Notes

violently ['vaialantli]		- сильно
zigzag ['zig'zsg]		- зигзаг
school curriculum [ka'rikjulm]		- шкільна програма
implementing [^mph'mentig]		- запровадження
at present		- тепер
fundamentals [^Anda'mentlz]		- основи
curricular [ka'rikjula]		- курс навчання
conventional [kan'ven/snl]		- звичайний
calculation ^kselkju'lei/n]		- обчислення
to participate [pa:'tisipeit]		- брати участь
reason ['ri:zn]	- причина
to solve [sdIv]	- вирішувати

Text 5. Programming a Computer

Each family of processors has its own instruction set which is likely to differ from that of other processors. This means that a particular processor is only capable of understanding its own set of instructions in binary code.

The computer’s memory can be considered as consisting of a number of cells capable of storing binary patterns representing program in­structions or data. Each of these cells is uniquely numbered so that reference can be made to particular memory cells, either to select a program instruction or data, or to write data into a certain memory cell.

As an example of how programs are written in a computer’s own code (machine code), it will be assumed that two numbers are held in memory cells 5 and 6, that these are to be added together, and the result stored in memory cell 8. The addition will be performed in a storage location called the accumulator, so the first instruction needs to load one of the numbers into the accumulator. The second instruc­tion adds the other number to the number in the accumulator, which will then contain the sum of the two numbers. The third instruction stores the contents of the accumulator in the required memory cell. The binary codes for these instructions for a typical processor are shown in Table.

Table. Machine Code Instructions

Instruction	Machine Code
1. Load number held in memory cell 5 into accumulator	00111010 00000101 00000000
2. Add number held in memory cell 6 to number in accumulator	00100001 00000110 00000000 10000110
3. Store number held in accumu­lator in memory cell 8	00110010 00001000 00000000

Notes

TEXTS (13) 1

(Радіотехніка і комп’ютерна 1

техніка) 1

АРІЙ 1

Radio Engineering 4

Text 1. Electronics 4

Text 2. Electron Emission 4

Text 5. Reception of Radio Signals 7

Text 6. Radio Receivers (I) 8

Text 8. Oscillators 8

Text 11. Detection 9

Text 13. Functions of Vacuum Tubes 10

Text 14. Basic Tube Types 11

Text 22. Bearing 13

Text 23. Transistors, the Basic Mechanism 13

Text 25. Transistor Radio Frequency Amplifiers 15

Text 1. The Computer 15

Text 2. Using the Computer 16

Text 3. Peripheral Equipment 16

Text 4. Computers on Wheels 17

Text 5. Programming a Computer 18

Text 6. The Robot’s Nervous System 19

Text 7. Menu System 19

Text 8. Input, Process, Store, Output 20

Text 10. Memory 22

Text 11. Automatic Translator 23

Text 12. Universal Electronic Computer 23

Text 13. What Is a Digital Computer? 24

Text 14. Digital Computers 24

Text 15. Analog Versus Digital Computers 25

Text 16. Age of Thinking Machines 27

Text 17. General- and Special-Purpose Computers 27

Text 18. Programming 28

Text 19. Types of Instructions 29

Text 20. Simple Hardware, Complicated Logic 30

Text 21. Machine Language and Language Structure 30

Text 23. Mechanical and Electronic Calculating Machines 32

транслятор

частіше відрізняється від

бінарний

код

камера, відсік

унікальний

припустимо, що

accumulator [a^juimju'leita] —

аккумулятор