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Part 2 The first computers
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Word list:
| an analogue computer – аналоговий комп’ютер a digital computer – цифровий комп’ютер to aim a gun – наводити гармату на ціль to figure out – обчислювати, підраховувати at a fast rate – з високою швидкістю memory/storage - запам’ятовуючий пристрій to store data and instructions - запам’ятовувати інформацію та команди | a stored program computer - комп’ютер із занесеною в пам’ять програмою binary code – двійковий код condition – режим, стан, положення a vacuum tube – електронна (вакуумна) трубка (лампа) to amplify – підсилювати to perform computations – виконувати обчислення |
Read the text and say what you know about the first digital and analogue computers.
In 1930 the first analogue 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, was 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 required by mechanical devices.
Exercises to the subject:
I. Look through the text for one more time and answer the following questions:
1. When was the first analogue computer built?
2. Where and how was that computer used?
3. When did the first digital computers appear?
4. Who was the inventor of the first digital computer?
5. What could that device do?
6. What is ENIAC? Decode the word.
7. What was J. Neumann’s contribution into the development of computers?
8. What were the advantages of EDVAC in comparison with ENIAC?
9. What does a binary code mean?
10. Due to what invention could the first digital computers be built?
II. Find the following words and word-combinations in English in the text: цифрові комп’ютери; технічні вдосконалення; вдосконалення комп’ютерів; відповідальний за винахід; математичні задачі; електронні трубки; важливе досягнення; запам’ятовуючий пристрій; вагомий внесок; двійковий код; висока напруга; низька напруга; електричні імпульси; тисячна доля секунди; відбуватися; завершувати; обчислювати; зберігати команди всередині комп’ютера; запам’ятовувати інформацію; запам’ятовувати команди; сприяти; використовувати одиницю та нуль; спрощувати дизайн; посилювати сигнали; виконувати обчислення.
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