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Unit 1 - A Brief History of Computers
Unit 1 - A Brief History of Computers
Unit 1
A Brief History of Computers
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
5 The development of the modern day computer was the result of advances in
technologies and man’s need to quantify. Papyrus helped early man record language and
numbers. The abacus, a wooden rack holding two horizontal wires with beads strung on
them, was one of the first counting machines.
Webster’s Dictionary defines “computer” as any programmable electronic device
10that can store, retrieve and process data. The basic idea of computing develops in the
1200 when a Muslim priest proposes solving problems with a series of written
procedures. As early as 1640, mechanical calculators are manufactured for sale. Records
exist of earlier machines but Blaise Pascal invents the first commercial calculator, a hand-
powered adding machine. It added numbers entered with dials and was made to help his
15father, a tax collector.
In 1801 a Frenchman, Joseph–Marie Jacquard, builds a loom that weaves by
reading punched holes stored on small sheets of hardwood. These plates are then inserted
into the loom which reads the pattern and creates the weave. Powered by water, this
machine came 140 years before the development of the modern computer.
20 Shortly after the first mass-produced calculator (1820), Charles Babbage begins
his lifelong quest for a programmable machine based on the principles of punched cards,
storing data in a memory and a sequence of instructions clearly set out in a programme.
This machine will be released in 1830. By 1842, Ada Lovelace, his assistant, uses
Babbage’s analytical engine to mechanically translate a short written work. She is
25generally regarded as the first programmer.
In 1925, unaware of the work of Charles Babbage, Vannevar Bush of MIT builds
a machine he calls the differential analyzer, which is in fact the first analogue computer.
Using a set of gears and shafts, much like Babbage, the machine can handle simple
calculations but accuracy is a problem.
30 In 1945, Von Neumann performed an abstract study of computation that showed
that a computer should have a very simple, fixed physical structure, and yet be able to
execute any kind of computation by means of a proper programmed control without the
need for any change in the unit itself.
J. Eckert and J. Mauchly heralded the computer era in 1946 by building the first
35digital computer using parts called vacuum tubes. They named their invention ENIAC but
these types of machines were too bulky and unreliable to be used in any but largest firms.
In 1947 and 1956 two further technological breakthroughs materialized the
tendency towards miniaturization: the transistor, invented in Bell laboratories, and the
integrated circuit, invented by Jack Kilby. The secret of the new technology was to etch
40transistors and other components onto a thin silicon wafer, called a chip, in order to create
an integrated circuit.
In 1956 FORTRAN is introduced. Two additional languages, LISP and COBOL
are added in 1957 and 1958. Other early languages include ALGOL and BASIC.
Although never widely used, ALGOL is the basis for many of today’s languages.
45 Over the last decades computers have undergone more transformations: MOS
technology has been supplanted by C-MOS and RISC and laptops and powerful
computers no larger or thicker than an A4 notepad have become commonplace. Despite
these transformations, however, the same basic pattern emerges: data is inputted using an
input device, usually a keyboard, a mouse, a pen or a scanner. This information is then
50stored in the computer’s memory until the user needs to retrieve it. Once the retrieval of
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5Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
data is complete, the relevant information is either displayed on a screen (soft copy) or
can be printed out by a printer (hard copy).
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
55has 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
60electronic 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.
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
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INFO
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
I.
90a) Give synonyms for the following words from the text:
Brief; machine (l. 4); dial (l.10); quest (l. 17); to handle (l. 24); computation (l. 28); to
herald (l. 30); bulky (l. 32); to undergo (l. 42); however (l. 45); to relieve (l. 53); growth
(l. 57)
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b) What do the following abbreviations stand for?
MIT; ENIAC; FORTRAN; LISP; COBOL; ALGOL; BASIC; MOS; C-MOS; RISC
100II. Match the following words (1 – 10) with their appropriate definitions
(A – J):
115
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
III. The following names are related to the history of computers. Read the
above text once again and decide who’s who using the list below. Two
names are not in the text:
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1. Charles Babbage; 2. Blaise Pascal; 3. Bill Gates; 4. Vannevar Bush; 5. Grace
Hopper; 6. Ada Lovelace; 7. Von Neumann; 8. J. Eckert and J. Mauchly
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IV.
a) Fill in the table with the appropriate dates and inventions:
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
145
V. Fill in the blanks with the words in the list:
binary, built, calculation, can, could, development, first, mechanically, most, moving, on,
other, perforated, punched, world’s.
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Automatic (1) ……… has a long history. The (2) ……… calculators were (3)
……… in the early 17th century. The German mathematician Gottfried Leibnitz
speculated (4) ……… the possibility of building a calculator using (5) ……… balls to
represent numbers in (6) ……… code. Self-playing musical instruments and (7) ………
155automata incorporated the notion of storing a sequence of instructions (8) ……… .In
1725 Basile Bouchon invented a method of producing woven patterns on a draw loom
from instructions on a (9) ……… paper tape. Jacquard later refined this method into a
highly successful automatic loom controlled by (10) ……… cards. (11) ……… of the
elements of a truly general-purpose computer (12) ……… be found in the analytical
160engine conceived by Babbage in 1835. In 1941 Konrad Zuse in Germany built the (13)
……… first working stored-program computer. In the USA, the mathematician Howard
Aiken, in association with IBM (International Business Machines), worked independently
on a large electromechanical calculator that (14) ……… be programmed using paper
tape. Computers later based on the electronic thermionic valve were a major (15) ……….
165
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15Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
In the early fifties, computers were so 1) ………… and 2) ………… that only very few
big companies could 3) ………… them. They used 4) ………… ………… and were the
first generation of computers. In 1947, the use of 5) ………… instead of 6) …………
175………… gave birth to the second generation of computers which were able to 7)
………… calculations ten times 8) ………… than their 9) …………. Second – 10)
………… computers were less 11) …………, 12) ………… and more 13) …………
than first – generation computers. With the 13) ………… of 14) ………… circuits in the
mid-sixties computers became even 15) ………… and even more 16) …………. Yet
180they could not sit on a desk and were still expensive. In the seventies, 17) …………
………… microminiaturization, thousands of integrated 18) ………… could be 19)
………… on a chip, a tiny piece of silicon a few millimetres in 20) ………….
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
GRAMMAR SPOTLIGHT
185 The Articles in English
Uses:
190 Before the representative of a class
e.g.: The PC was a milestone in the development of computers.
When it has already been mentioned or it is known
e.g.: Yesterday I saw a film on my DVD player. The film was very interesting.
Shut down the computer if you don’t need it anymore.
195 Before nouns that are considered to be unique
e.g.: the Earth, the sun, the Web, the Internet
Before nouns that are used in their most general sense
e.g.: The computer is a machine.
Before names of countries that contain smaller entities or are plural in form
200 e.g.: the U.K., the U.S., the Netherlands
Before names of rivers, oceans, seas, mountains or islands
e.g.: the Thames, the Pacific, the Black Sea, the Isle of Man
Before names of nationalities: the English, the French
Before names of publications: the Guardian, the Times
205 Before names of points of the compass: the North
Before nouns preceded by prepositions: in the file, by the way, in the end
210Uses:
Before a countable noun
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
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Cocu Iulia Veronica Unit 1 – A Brief History of Computers
EXERCISES
245
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14. ………… distributors will probably boost the price of ……….. software when
……….. next version is released.
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