Part 4 Charles Babbage, Howard Aiken and other masters of invention

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3. the essence of the words: ‘the Information Age has jumped on the Information Superhighway’;

3. In addition to designing the forerunner of today’s digital computer, Babbage invented…

5. ‘Mark I’ used thousands of electrical switches that clicked on and off to…

6. For 16 years ‘Mark I’ was used to … needed to aim the U.S. Navy’s big guns.

IV. You are going to read the text about Bill Gates, a chairman of Microsoft Corporation. What words do you think you might find in the text? How many of the words have you found?

William Harry Gates III was born in Seattle, Washington, on October 28th, 1955. Bill’s father Bill Gates Jr. worked for a Seattle law firm and Bill’s mother Mary taught at school until they started their family. Bill’s parents were married in 1951 and two years later gave birth to their first child, Bill’s older sister, Kristanne. Two years after Bill was born and in 1964 the third and final Gates was born, her name is Libby. As a child Bill enjoyed rocking back and forth, today he still has a habit of rocking when he is thinking about something. Bill was very bored at school and his parents knew it, so they were always trying to supply him with more information to keep him busy. Bill’s parents finally decided to put him in a Private School where he would be challenged more. The Lakeside private school had just bought a new computer when Bill arrived and he was immediately hooked. In a week he knew more about the computer than his teacher at Lakeside. Learning the BASIC programming language was easy for Bill, and he was soon writing his own programmes. Bill’s love for computers and math led him to a new place around his neighbourhood that was renting computer time. He made an arrangement with the owners that he would get free computer time if he found things that made the computer crash.

During this time Bill met Paul Allen, his business partner for the rest of his life. Together they started a small company called Traf-O-Data, they sold a small computer with their own programme that could count traffic for the city. The company was not a big success, but it earned the two boys some money as well as good business skills. Bill also wrote a schedule programme for his school, which he changed a bit to put little Bill Gates in a class full of the prettiest girls. Bill was considered by his classmates and his teachers as the smartest kid in school.

After graduating from Lakeside Bill entered Harvard University in 1973, one of the best universities in the country. Bill was also bored here so he spent most of his time programming, playing poker and seeing how little work he could do and still get excellent marks. He told his teachers that he would be a millionaire by the time he was thirty. This was one of the few times he underestimated himself, Bill was a billionaire when he was 31.

One of Bill’s teachers said, “He is a great programmer, but he is a very unpleasant human being”. The intense life-style Bill had during his first year in Harvard made him ill for most of the summer of 1974. Bill soon left Harvard for business opportunities in programming which turned him into a multi-billionaire.

It’s very interesting that even with all his money Bill drives himself to work in an average family car. Bill is a keen reader, and enjoys playing golf and bridge.

V. Read the text about Bill Gates again and put these events in the order they happened:

8. Bill made a programme which put him in the same class with the prettiest girls at school.

VII. Read the text about Seymour Cray quickly. Make 3 sentences summarizing the text:

Seymour Cray is the inventor of CRAY-1, which is considered to be the first supercomputer.

He was born in 1925 in Chippena Falls, Wisconsin, USA. As a child Cray was interested in chemistry, radio and electronics. In high school he spent much of his time in the electrical engineering laboratories working with electrical equipment of all types. Computers were not available for Cray at that time. He graduated from high school in 1943 and joined the army.

It was the war period, and Cray battled through Germany to reach the Russians. Next, Cray finished up in the Philippine Islands and returned home to continue his education. In 1950 Cray received his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. A year later he received his Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics.

In 1952 he joined “Engineering Research Associates” which was developing computers for the Navy. The company was new, so Cray spent a lot of time researching what computing should be and how it works. He listened to lectures from famous scientists, but soon found out that there was not much material on the subject of computers. So he had to rely on his own invention.

Seymour Cray had a theory on creating new computers. He studied the complaints and desires of the customers who were using the previous models and considered them in making his next computer. The first computer Cray designed by himself was the 1103 Computer. He based his 1103 on simplicity. He did not include anything that was not necessary.

Later Seymour Cray co-founded Control Data Corporation to achieve the goal he had had in mind: he wanted to create fast scientific computers. His first project was the 1604 Computer, which was very successful in the market because it was the only large computer using transistors. Next came the 6600 and 7600, which were the most revolutionary projects of that time.

In 1972 Cray decided to open up a small business to take over the market for large scientific computers. It was the beginning of Cray Research Inc. Cray used the newest technology to build the Cray 1. In designing the Cray 1, Cray was able to express himself artistically by giving the Cray 1 an attractive appearance: it was conical in shape. Cray went on to design the next extremely successful Cray Research computer, the Cray 2. The Cray 3 computer could reach speeds up to 500 MHz but none were ever sold. The Cray 4 was twice as fast as the previous one, but was never completed.

On September 22, 1996 Seymour Cray had a car accident and died in hospital two weeks later after suffering serious injuries. He was 71.

By his thirties, Cray had been established as a genius in designing fast scientific computers. Seymour Cray’s name will forever be synonymous with high performance computing.

VIII. Read the text about Seymour Cray again and say whether the following sentences are true or false:

1. At school Seymour Cray was interested in radio, chemistry, electronics and computers.

3. He received his Bachelor’s degree before he joined the army. After returning from the war, he received his Master’s degree.

4. Seymour Cray studied computing a lot before he started making his own models.

5. The customers’ desires and complaints were very important in Cray’s work.

XI. Read the text about Steve Wozniak quickly and answer the following questions:

Steve Wozniak along with Steve Jobs founded Apple Computers Inc. and started a computer revolution. They introduced the Apple II which was one of the first personal computers for medium and large size business. It started the era of small powerful computers that can be found in almost every part of our daily life.

Steve Wozniak was born in 1950. All his life he has loved projects that made him think. As a child, Steve was greatly interested in mathematics and computers. He often was so occupied with mathematics that his mother had to physically shake him back to reality. In the sixth form, he built his own radio station. At age of 13, he built his first computer, and in high school he was the president of the electronics club.

After graduating from Homestead High School (California) in 1962, Wozniak attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he was studying engineering. In the mid-1970s Wozniak decided to drop out of the University and start working for “Hewlett-Packard”. There he designed calculator chips and cooperated with John Draper, who was working on the “blue box”, an illegal pocket-size telephone attachment that would allow the user to make free long-distance calls. Draper recalls that “Wozniak’s first call was to the Pope. He wanted to make a confession”.

In 1976 Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded Apple Computer Inc. with the Apple I computer. Wozniak and Jobs designed the Apple I in Job’s bedroom, and built the first computer in Job’s garage. In six years Apple Computer Inc. grew to a $500-million-a-year company.

The origin of Apple’s name is not clear. Some say that it refers to the Beatles’ record company and others to a summer that Jobs spent picking apples in Oregon.

Later Wozniak improved Apple I and brought out Apple II or what is now known as the Volkswagen of computers.

Wozniak left Apple in 1981, got married, went back to Berkeley and finished his degree in electrical engineering and computer science. Since then, he has been involved in different business and charitable projects, focusing on introducing computers in schools and producing educational computer materials to make computers easier for students to use. It was his initiative in 1990 to place computers in schools in the former Soviet Union.

Steve Wozniak has donated computers and even computer laboratories to schools, servers and Internet access to students; laptops for students and computer training for teachers and students.

Wozniak’s time is now devoted mostly to his own interests. His strong belief in learning and in encouraging free-thinking and creativity in young people continues to be his driving force.

XII. Read the text about Steve Wozniak again and say what in the text is about the following things/people:

6. What projects has Steve Wozniak been focusing on since he left Apple Computer Inc.?