Home Random Page


CATEGORIES:

BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism






THE FIRST COMPUTER

 

For a machine as important as the computer, it is strange to think that the question of who built the first computer was settled in court. A 1973 lawsuit invalidated early patents on the computer, because the judge decided the wrong persons had received credit for developing the first computer.

The early history of the computer involves three individuals, or groups of individuals, and the machines they built. One pair of individuals were John V. Atanasoff of Iowa State University and his graduate assistant, Clifford Berry, who began work on an electronic computer before World War II and finished a working prototype in 1942. Although there was a great deal of interest in computers that could compute artillery tables during the war, the Atanasoff-Berry Computer, or ABC, did not receive much attention. Iowa State did not even attempt to patent the device, and neither man followed up on this early work. The ABC was eventually forgotten and only a few parts of the original machine remain.

Another important individual in the development of the computer is Howard Aiken. In 1944, Aiken completed the MARK I computer for IBM in cooperation with Harvard University. Even though the MARK I had 760,000 electrical parts connected by 500 miles of wiring, it was not completely electronic, because it used 3,000 electromechanical relays as switches. It was so big that an entire building on Harvard's campus was set aside for it.

The pair of individuals who usually receive the credit for developing a purely electronic computer are J. Presper Eckert, Jr., and John Mauchly. Eckert was working on a government project to build a fast computing device when he visited Atanasoff at Iowa State to learn about the ABC. After his meeting, Eckert and Mauchly built the ENIAC (Electrical Numerical Integrator And Calculator) for the war effort. Unfortunately, it was not finished until 1946, after the war. The ENIAC contained 18,000 vacuum tubes and 80,000 resistors and capacitors, weighed 30 tons, and occupied over 15.000 square feet. It was much faster than the MARK I, because it could multiply two numbers in 0.0003 second, compared with over 0.05 second for the MARK I. However, ENIAC used so much electricity that the lights in the section of Philadelphia in which it was located supposedly dimmed each time the computer ran. The ENIAC, which ran for nine years, is now on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution.

An important advance over the ENIAC was the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer) developed by John von Neumann. The EDVAC utilized the concept of the stored program, which meant the computer did not have to be rewired for each job as the ENIAC did.

The 1973 court decision named the Atanasoff-Berry team as the builders of the first computer, rather than Eckert and Mauchly. Aiken is best known for getting IBM interested in computers, but the MARK I contributed little to later developments of the computer. Von Neumann is remembered for adding the stored program concept to the computer



 

Text C

CREATING 3-D MODELS WITH A DIGITIZER

 

In the popular movie Terminator 2: Judgment Day, the cyborg performs many amazing body feats that, obviously, are impossible or too dangerous for a human actor. Many of the cyborg's actions were programmed using three-dimensional digitizing— the scan and capture of a three-dimensional object in digital form.

As dramatically demonstrated in Terminator 2, human movement can be digitized, and the resulting digital image can be manipulated in many different ways. The same technology is being used to help doctors save burn victims, police find lost children, and engineers develop artificial limbs.

Digitization of three-dimensional objects is accomplished with laser scanning technology. A laser circularly scans an object, such as a subject's head, in about 15 seconds. The image is transferred to a computer, where it is manipulated. This technology has been applied in dozens of areas, ranging from medicine to fantasy - as in the example of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Applications of 3-D digitizing include the following:

Planning plastic and reconstructive surgery using 3-D images:

- "Aging" missing children using 3-D images;

- Redesigning toys using computer-aided design (CAD) to work with a scanned image of a 3-D prototype to avoid costly reworking of the physical model;

- Designing better fitting helmets, masks, earphones, and optical systems for U.S. Air Force fighter pilots using a digitized image of each pilot's head and face.

- Looking ahead, it seems as if uses for 3-D digitization will be limited only by the imagination of potential users.

Source: Clinton Wilder, "Digitizing Enters Third Dimension," Computerworld

 

 

LESSON 7

 

Exercise 7.1

Match the synonyms

1. to begin a. familiar
2. to display b. to buy
3. to purchase c. extensive
4. to unravel d. common
5. to desire e. at last
6. to integrate f. to explain
7. day-to-day g. together
8. finally h. to commence
9. known i. to unite
10. much j. to manifest
11. wide k. a lot
12. jointly l. to want

 

Exercise 7.2

Translate the following word combinations paying attention to gerunds.

1. Squeezing desktop Web content into smart phones is…

2. m-Links supports this dual-mode browsing, offering mobile users a range…

3. Interaction involves downloading and viewing documents…

4. Users view content and links together, rapidly alternating between reading content and following links…

5. Chapter describes fitting techniques for transducing…

6. Transforming has the most potential because it closely resembles professional content tailoring to a particular device…

7. Transforming system modifies the structure of interacting with the content, as well as transducing to…

8. Although scaling can reduce scrolling, it also…

9. Exploring alternatives to duplicating the Web experience, we realized that browsing involves navigating to information and then using it…

10. …two separate modes: navigating to and acting on content…

11. Having separated links from page content removed contextual…

12. A service analogous to right clicking on a document and using the context menu…

13. In addition to making Web content compatible, transforming modifies content…

14. Sending includes moving the link to a user via WAP – messaging capability that…

15. Mapping includes getting directions and printing out maps to…

16. Casual browsing – following links to see if there is anything…

 

 

Exercise 7.3

Translate the following sentences paying attention to gerunds.

1. While the resulting system was only an academic prototype and was never used commercially, Hennessy says that some ideas that emerged in both specifying and checking real-time constraints were later incorporated in real systems.

2. Meanwhile, back at Stanford, often called the Farm, he had begun looking for a new area of computing to explore.

3. Hennessy wrote papers and began giving talks about this new computer architecture, thinking that existing computer companies would be quick to embrace such an obvious technical improvement.

4. We will continue being denied innovations that only real and rigorous competition can bring.

5. From 1995 until the end of the browser war, they were particularly worried about losing user and development attention to Netscape Communications’ Navigator browser, to Sun Microsystems’ Java architecture, and to other new Internet-related technologies.

6. In response to Microsoft’s demands the government resolved the problem by simply taking Microsoft operating systems and applications off students’ computers and replacing them with domestic ones.

7. Whatever Microsoft’s other faults its support for developers in providing powerful and low-cost tools is considerable.

8. Developing for Windows CE or, more narrowly, for the Pocket PC devices, is faster and easier than for competing platforms among PDAs.

9. Most developers perceive testing component-based systems because of the modular nature of the software, but the rise in web-based services complicates the issue.

10. There is a question of having multiple windows pop up on your screen, which happens when several people IM you at the same time.

11. If your computer hasn’t registered a keystroke in 10 minutes, and you’ve just used your cell-phone, then IM should go to the cell-phone, not the computer, without your having changed any settings on either device.

12. She found e-mail being used for exchanging documents, information management (to-do lists, contact lists), scheduling and any number of other things for which it wasn’t designed.

13. Using well defined interfaces, you can upgrade and enhance server objects without having to change any of your ASP codes.

14. IBM, H-P, Microsoft, Sun, and other IT firms and universities are laying down the ground rules for sharing applications and computing resources over the Internet.

15. Using an efficient library that wraps up low-level or common facilities is a different prospect from writing one, each requiring the different type or level of knowledge.

16. Text manipulation and good old-fashioned I/O have come back into fashion, so it’s worth seeing the difference between introducing C++ with and without the standard library in this context.

17. The informed and more up-to-date thinking on this topic reflects a quite different perspective.

18. Learning C++ is not a holiday, but it takes longer this way than by treating it as a new language.

 

Text A


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 1073


<== previous page | next page ==>
ELEMENTS OF HARDWARE | TYPES OF SOFTWARE
doclecture.net - lectures - 2014-2024 year. Copyright infringement or personal data (0.008 sec.)