Unit 9 Computers

扩展资料

　　The trend during the 1970's was, to some extent, moving away from very powerful, single - purpose computers and toward a larger range of applications for cheaper computer systems. Most continuous-process manufacturing, such as petroleum refining and electrical-power distribution systems, now used computers of smaller capability for controlling and regulating their jobs.
　　In the 1960’s, the problems in programming applications were an obstacle to the independence of medium sized on-site computers, but gains in applications programming language technologies removed these obstacles. Applications languages were now available for controlling a great range of manufacturing processes, for using machine tools with computers, and for many other things. Moreover, a new revolution in computer hardware was under way, involving shrinking of computer-logic circuitry and of components by what are called large-scale integration (LSI) techniques. In the 1950s it was realized that "scaling down" the size of electronic digital computer circuits and parts would increase speed and efficiency and by that, improve performance, if they could only find a way to do this. About 1960 photo printing of conductive circuit boards to eliminate wiring became more developed. Then it became possible to build resistors and capacitors into the circuitry by the same process. In the 1970’s, vacuum deposition of transistors became the norm, and entire assemblies, with adders, shifting registers, and counters, became available on tiny "chips."
　　In the 1980’s, very large scale integration (VLSI), in which hundreds of thousands of transistors were placed on a single chip, became more and more common. Many companies, some new to the computer field, introduced in the 1970s programmable minicomputers supplied with software packages. The "shrinking" trend continued with the introduction of personal computers (PC’s), which are programmable machines small enough and inexpensive enough to be purchased and used by individuals.
　　Many companies, such as Apple Computer and Radio Shack, introduced very successful PC’s in the 1970s, encouraged in part by a fad in computer (video) games. In the 1980s some friction occurred in the crowded PC field, with Apple and IBM keeping strong. In the manufacturing of semiconductor chips, the Intel and Motorola Corporations were very competitive into the 1980s, although Japanese firms were making strong economic advances, especially in the area of memory chips. By the late 1980s, some personal computers were run by microprocessors that, handling 32 bits of data at a time, could process about 4,000,000 instructions per second.
　　Microprocessors equipped with read-only memory (ROM), which stores constantly used, unchanging programs, now performed an increased number of process-control, testing, monitoring, and diagnosing functions, like automobile ignition systems, automobile-engine diagnosis, and production-line inspection duties.
　　Cray Research and Control Data Inc. dominated the field of supercomputers, or the most powerful computer systems, through the 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1980s, however, the Japanese government announced a gigantic plan to design and build a new generation of supercomputers. This new generation, the so-called "fifth" generation, is using new technologies in very large integration, along with new programming languages, and will be capable of amazing feats in the area of artificial intelligence, such as voice recognition.
　　Progress in the area of software has not matched the great advances in hardware. Software has become the major cost of many systems because programming productivity has not increased very quickly. New programming techniques, such as object-oriented programming, have been developed to help relieve this problem. Despite difficulties with software, however, the cost per calculation of computers is rapidly lessening, and their convenience and efficiency are expected to increase in the early future.
　　The computer field continues to experience huge growth. Computer networking, computer mail, and electronic publishing are just a few of the applications that have grown in recent years. Advances in technologies continue to produce cheaper and more powerful computers offering the promise that in the near future, computers or terminals will reside in most, if not all homes, offices, and schools.

The Story Of IBM

　　IBM was incorporated in the state of New York on June 15, 1911 as a Computing – Tabulating–Recording Company. The war years (World War II) mailed IBM’s first steps toward computing. The Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, also called the Mark I, was completed in 1944 after six years of development with Harvard University. It was the first machine that could execute long computations automatically.
　　IBM led data processing in a new direction with the 1957 delivery of the IBM 305 Random Access Method of Accounting and Control (RAMAC), the first computer disk storage system. On April 7,1964, IBM introduced the System 360, the first large “family” of computers using interchangeable software and peripheral equipment. Rather than purchase a new system when the need and budget grew, the customers now could simply upgrade parts of their hardware.
　　John R. Opel’s appointment as the CEO in 1981 coincided with the beginning of a new era of communications. Thanks to the birth of the IBM Personal Computer, or PC, the IBM brand began to enter homes, small businesses and schools. During Akers’ tenure, IBM’s significant investment in research produced four Nobel Prize winners in physics, achieved breakthroughs in mathematics, memory storage and telecommunications, and made great strides in expanding computing capabilities.
　　In May 1997, IBM dramatically demonstrated computing’s potential with Deep Blue, a 32-node IBM RS/6000 SP computer programmed to play chess on a world - class level. In a six -game match in New York, Deep Blue defeated the World Chess Champion Carry Kasparov it was the first time a computer had beaten a top-ranked chess player in the world’s tournament play, and it ignited a public debate on how close computers could come to approximating the human intelligence.

A GUIDE FOR COMPUTER PHOBICS

　　Network several computers connected to share information. Many businesses use companywide networks to send electronic mails and to share files.
　　E-mail The technological development that revolutionized the dating game. You get a personal E-mail address when you subscribe to an on-line service, so you can receive and send messages to people you know and those you want to know.
　　Internet A worldwide network of more than 20 million computers at educational institutions, government agencies, and corporations that offers E-mail, free computer files, and on-line chats about anything. However, unlike the commercial services, nobody s really in charge, there s no central organizing structure, and the commands can be complex.
　　Log on \ Connecting for a session on-line via the modem－you call the service’s computer and enter your personal password to gain access.
　　Download/upload Transferring information to and from your computer over a network or via the modem. If your office computers are connected, you might upload a report from your computer to a colleague’s. Or if you are connected to an on-line service, you can download a copy of an article to your computer.
　　Desktop Publishing An office system made up of a personal computer, software, and a laser printer, used to produce printed text and graphics.
　　Laptop (or laptop computer) A portable personal computer that can be operated on the user’s lap, rather than on a desk.
　　WYSIWYG What you see is what you get. The exact reproduction on a printer of graphics is displayed on the screen of a visual display unit.

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