"Computer Companies".

There are many computer companies in the world now: foreign and domestic. In this text we shall dwell upon two of them.

Oracle Corporation, one of the world's largest software companies and a leading supplier of database-management systems. Oracle database

programs allow large corporations and government agencies to manage, access, and store huge amounts of information on various computer systems - from sales reports to customer lists to airline reservations. Oracle also makes tools for software developers and software to manage information on servers. The company is based In Redwood Shores, California.

Lawrence J. Ellison, Robert N. Miner, end Edward Oates founded in 1977 to develop database programs for computers. Ellison had worked at a company that developed the first mainframe computer compatible with International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) computers. In Oracle's early days he noticed that IBM was developing database programs called relational databases. Oracle beat IBM to the market in 1979 with the Oracle RDBMS (relational database management system), the first commercial product to use Structured Query Language (SQL). SQL is now a standard in database products.

Oracle soon became the industry leader in database management, winning contracts with some of the largest companies in the United States and the world. During the 1980s Oracle's sales doubled every year, growing from $2.5 million in 1982 to $916 million in 1990. In 1991 the company lost money for the first time, and it laid off hundreds of workers and reorganised its management system. By 1992 the company had returned to profitability .

Oracle subsequently began moving toward developing hardware and software to handle enormous data of video, audio, and text and to deliver the data through global networks . Oracle bought Corporation of Foster City, California, a pioneer in supercomputers that use a computing technique called massively parallel processing. This acquisition enabled Oracle to combine its software with hardware capable of moving the huge amounts of data required to

manage multimedia databases.

In 1996 Oracle began promoting and developing a software platform for the "network computer", a low-cost computer designed to provide access to the Internet and work independently of the Windows operating system made by Microsoft Corporation. This initiative, which represented Oracle's first venture into the consumer market, faced competition form Sun Microsystems, Inc., IBM, and

57

56

other computer manufacturers.

Intel Company has celebrated its 30 anniversary recently. It is quite evident for computer literary people what "Intel" corporation is. But tospeak briefly, there are nearly 260 mln. of PCs in the world now and heart of 85% of them is the Intel processor.

Intel company was created by Robert Noys and Sordon Moor on the 18-th of July 1968 in the town of Mauntein Viev in California. At first the company was called after the names of their creators: MN Electronics, then it was renamed into Integrated Electronics.

The first word processor was produced in 1971. The first personal computer appeared 10 years later. It was IBM computer with processor Intel 8088.

In the middle of 60-s Jordon Moor invented this law: the number of transistors which may be included in the integrated scheme is doubled every 2 years. 30 years has passed but this Moor's Law is still working. If this law worked in the other fields of science Rolls-Roys would cost $2,75 and would be able to cover 1,5 thousand kilometres using only 1 litre of patrol.

The motto of Intel corporation is "Sincerity, parity of possibilities and discipline" .

The Chairman of the Director's Board is Andy Jrove. He was the fourth man who has come to the corporation. In 1997 "The Times" magazine awarded him the title "The Man of the Year". He earns $3 mln. a year.

Intel's high level employee becomes the owner of billiards of dollars in 8 years working with the corporation.