In 1930 the first analog computer was built by American named Vannevar Bush. This device was used in World War II to help aim guns. Many technical developments of electronic digital computers took place in the 1940s and 1950s. Mark I, the name given to the first digital computer, was completed in 1944. The man responsible for this invention was Professor Howard Aiken. This was the first machine that could figure out long lists of mathematical problems at a very fast
rate.
In 1946 two engineers at the University of Pennsylvania, J.Eckert and J.Maushly, built their digital computer with vacuum tubes. They named their new invention ENIAC (the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator).
Another important achievement in developing computers came in 1947, when John von Neumann developed the idea of keeping instructions for the computer inside the computer's memory. The contribution of John von Neumann was particularly significant. As contrasted with Babbage's analytical engine, which was designed to store only data, von Neumann's machine, called the Electronic Discrete Variable Computer, or EDVAC, was able to store both data and instructions. He also contributed to the idea of storing data and instructions in a binary code that uses only ones and zeros. This simplified computer design. Thus computers use two conditions, high voltage, and low voltage, to translate the symbols by which we communicate into unique combinations of electrical pulses. We refer to these
combinations as codes.
Neumann's stored program computer as well as other machines of that time were made possible by the invention of the vacuum tube that could control and amplify electronic signals. Early computers, using vacuum tubes, could perform computations in thousandths of seconds, called milliseconds, instead of seconds.
Unit 2
Modern computers
I. Vocabulary
Exercise 1. Study the vocabulary:
personal computer (PC) -
workstation
minicomputer
mainframe
supercomputer
laptop
PDA(personal digital assistant)
LCD (liquid crystal display)
hand-held computer ,
hardware-
software -
CPU(central processing unit) -
keyboard -
paste
icon ,
cut
spreadshit
bug=virus -
paste
literate -
user-friendly
cellular phone ,
Mouse
mechanical mouse
optical mouse
Memory
main memory
auxiliary storage
RAM (Random Access Memory) ()
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ROM (Read Only Memory)
CD-ROM
diskette/floppy disk
hard disk
output devices
printer -
display screen ,
input devices -
pointing devices -
mouse -
trackball ,
joystick (gamepad) ,
network -
back-up copy
notepad -
Ex. 2. Add another word, abbreviation, or part of a word, to complete common computer words and phrases and translate them.
| 1. soft . | 6. . ROM |
| 2. floppy | 7. laser .. |
| 3. - friendly | 8. lap |
| 4. - literate | 9. spread |
| 5. key . | 10. -mail |
