The floppy disks

Floppy disks are a magnetic storage medium which can be recorded, erased and used over and over again. Floppy disks are flexible plastic disks which have several standard sizes. Full size floppy disks are 8 inches in diameter; minifloppy disks are 5 inches in diameter. Both full size floppy disks and minifloppy disks are housed in a paper-like plastic envelope, usually black, and remain in the envelope at all times.

Microfloppy disks are in sizes from 3 to 4 inches. They are housed in a rigid plastic shell of different design. The numbers of bytes that can be recorded on a floppy disk are about 80, 000 to 1, 000, 000 and more. Floppy disks are used extensively in personal computers, small business computers, word processing, etc.

13. Read Text B’ and translate it without a dictionary.

TEXT B'

BUBBLE MEMORY

Bubble memory is storage for programs and information. It is a storage technology which combines both semiconductor and magnetic recording techniques to create a solid state storage device. Bubble memory is unique, because it is a disk that doesn't spin. The bits on the surface spin around the disk instead. Bubble memory units are only two square inches in size, and contain a thin film recording layer. The bits called bubbles because of their globular shape are electromagnetically generated in circular strings inside this layer. In order to read or write the bubbles the strings of bubbles are made to rotate past the equivalent (the string of bubbles) of a read/write head in a disk.

Bubble memory holds its contents without power, like a disk or a tape. It is considerably faster than floppy disks and many hard disks. It is often used in portable terminals and computers instead of disks.

Notes:

bubble memory – пузырьковая память

techniques – технические приемы

solid state – полупроводниковый

to spin– вращаться

globular shape – округлая форма

string – цепочка; последовательность

portable terminals – портативные терминалы

Read Text C. Render it in Russian.

TEXT С

CHIPS

Chips are miniaturized electronic circuits. A chip contains several hundred thousand electronic components (transistors, resistors, etc.). The terms synonymous to chip are integrated circuits and microelectronics. There are some types of chips. Logic chip is a single chip that can perform some or all the functions of a processor. A microprocessor is an entire processor on a single chip. One or more microprocessors are used in a portable or desk computer. Larger computers may use several types of microprocessors. Memory chips contain from several hundred to hundreds of thousands of bits (storage cells).RAM chips are the computer's primary internal working storage and require constant power to keep their bits. Chips such as ROMs, PROMs, EPROMs and EEPROMs are permanent memory chips and hold their contents without power.