EDF2ANIA – Anglais pour informaticiens

Unit 1 – Moore’s Law [UPPER] 01.03.2014

Joël Meurée
N° étudiant : 12319105
Email : 12319105@foad.iedparis8.net
Email perso : meuree.joel@hotmail.com
Tel : +32.485.914.870

1. Document « Listening_Moore_1_questionnaire.pdf»
(based on Listening_Moore_1.mp3)

1. Introduction (0 - 1'12 ''):

i. What are the 4 things computers can do?

They can communicate, entertain, count, control.

ii. “The evolution of computer power has become the evolution of the working world.” Explain what is
meant here.
Computers are used everywhere and for many things, and their power regulates the amount of work
and the types of tasks that can be done by using them. Possibilities offered to companies evolves
along with computer power evolution.

iii. What is Moore's Law? (do not quote, just say what you think it is.) It “sets the pace for the modern
world”. Explain.
Moore’s Law helps predicting how fast computer power evolves over time.
“It sets the pace for the modern world” is a shortened form of the following three statements; “the
evolution of computer power has become the evolution of the working world”, the modern world is
ruled by the evolution of the working world and Moore’s Law helps predicting how fast (equal to pace)
computer power evolves over time.

2. A_ Mike Malone, a Silicon Valley historian (start 2'35'' to 3'15) repeated as above.

iv. “If Moore’s Law ever ends, we’re going to look back a hundred years from now ago…….” complete
the sentence. I know this is incorrect, I just wrote down what my ears got. I listened to this sequence at
least 50 times, and I really can’t get what Malone says.

v. Why is there an upper limit to Moore's law? (wires : fils ; 'laptop': ordinateur portable)
The tiny wires along with tiny electric current’s move inside a silicon chip are approaching the width of
a single atom and cannot really get smaller than that.

vi. Mike Malone says that extrapolating this law into the future is the best way of measuring
or understanding the future. Explain.
By using Moore’s, it was already possible in 1980 to predict that technology like connected mobile
phones would spread all over the world today. It seems that he thinks Moore’s law can still be used
that way today, and could help predicting what will come.

vii. Mike Malone sees present-day technological innovation as simply the result of Moore's
law. Explain briefly
Just like what I wrote here above, it was already possible in 1980 to predict that technology like
connected mobile phones would spread all over the world today

Global comprehension questions

viii. He sees this as a ‘technology roadblock’. Explain

He sees this as a problem that has to be solved, they have no alternative or their business is finished.

ix. What other roadblock or shadow is mentioned?

The exponential growth in the cost of making the chips.

x. According to Pouhaka, computer manufacturers are like poker players. Explain.

He sees the business like a poker table with a 3 billion dollars open bid, money spent for research,
what means quite risky.

xi. The increase in the cost factor is now 3x compared to the past. Explain.

xii. The cost of staying on Moore's law – 'keeping pace' - is the greatest difficulty the industry
faces. Explain, citing the cost to Intel, the chip maker. ('huger and huger')]

Comprehension questions

xiii. He extrapolates that the industry would go from 1 to 2 millions dollars in 1965 to a billion dollars in
1975; doubling time factor is ________________.

xiv. The exponential change applies to two factors: name them.

xv. The factor of a hundred million applies to what?

2. Document « Listening_2_Moore.pdf »
(based on Listening_Moore_2.mp3)

1.Part one. Listen and answer the questionnaire below.

1.Intel headquarters or HQ is located in :

a-San Francisco
b-Santa Bay
c-Santa Clara
d-Europe

2.Sean Malone is :
a-the CEO or Chief Executive Officer of AMD
b-the CEO of Intel
c-an executive VP at Sun
d-an executive VP at Intel

3.What is referred to as the « most sophisticated manufacturing process in the world »?

a-a computer chip
b-a potato chip
c-a CD
d-a DVD

4.The basic unit of manufacturing is a.wafer..

a-three millimeter plastic wafer
b-a three thousand millimeter plastic wafer
c-a three hundred millimeter silicon wafer
d-a three millimeter wafer

5.There are four thousand or so of these...

a-transistors
b-chips
c-cheaps
d-cheap wafers
6.(S. Malone) “You can use Moore's Law either way.” Explain what he means.
You can either make lots of small and expensive things or lots of big powerful things The small is the
transistors the

7.Gap filling procedure:

«The smaller the transistors, the more you can shrank things down»

8.Explain the 'underlying economic issue'; why does this impact on production cost?
The manufacturing process is

2.Part two. (1'55'' to end)

9.« The industry is one seemingly impossible technology roadblock after another. » says Malone.
Explain.

10. S. Malone does not agree with Peter Day. How does he see the future?

3. Part three. (3'35”)

(Peter Day) «Maybe there are completely new ways of computing... » and Bernard Meyerson of IBM.

11. The approach is two-fold: (outside & inside) Explain.

12. Moore's Law says what will happen, not how to do simplify, says P.Day, how they _________, how
they are
____________, how to ______________ things __________ .

13. There is a problem of heat dissipation. Explain the connection to this law.

14. Today’s insulators are based on ________ but tomorrow’s insulators will be made of
_____________.

15. « Because you can no longer ____________ from here to there; it used to be 'make it
_______________ and it _____________ ; nowadays what happens when you do this?

3. Document « Programming_basics_upper.pdf »
1. Part one describes four programme structures or types. Give any example of each.
1. Sequence of instructions
Pressing the power button on the TV remote launches a sequential program; TV screen turns
on, the default TV channel is selected, the corresponding video source displays on screen.

2. Branches
Answering machine; a phone call is received, a timer starts and ends, if someone answered
the call no action is performed, if no one answered the call a saved message plays and the
answering machine then starts recording.

3. Loops
When selecting a floor in a lift; the lift goes to the next floor, check if the current floor
corresponds to the selected one, goes to the next floor, check, next floor, check, until the
selected floor is reached.
 4. Modules:
Similar to Loops example, but by calling an external module with repeats the loop instructions
(go to next floor, check current floor).

2. Explain the following terms:

i. high level language
Programming language that can be understood by programmers. Programmers write programs by
using high level languages. The program is then compiled by an interpreter, which translates the high
level language into a machine language.

ii. Another name for object code: _________________________

iii. A compiler produces an _______________ _______________ , whereas an ___________

iv. _____________ translated a ______________________ into ______________ on the fly.

v. Every programming language defines data in its own way. Explain.

vi. The process of loading a programme into memory is done via a loader.

vii. Data is manipulated or operated on by means of ___________________________

viii. What is output?

ix. The acronym GUI stands for Graphical User Interface.

x. What is an 'event loop' ?

4. Document « Revision_present_simple_&_progressive.pdf »
Exercise 1. Using Simple vs. continuous
Fill in the missing verb from the base verb table below. Note that some verbs take the gerund,
others are preceded by ‘to’.
 advise  avert  calm down  cause  do  escape  gaze  know  lead  live  get
 lower  practice  prescribe  require  sit  spend  show  try  watch

Today we live in a hectic world, a go-go world where results, output 1 to get are all important. With
more people trying to get more and more things done in a day, few of us ever escape stress. This
can lead not only to physical, but is often causing psychological damage too. Stress of both kinds
generally causes high blood pressure. Doctors and counselors know this and usually prescribe
medicine to calm their patients down and to lower their blood pressure. But more and more
professional people advise their patients to try something physical, like practicing a sport
regularly. Another alternative, of course, is to practice relaxation exercises like Yoga or breathing
exercises. We spend far too much of our existence sitting at desks, gazing at computer screens,
and in the evenings or on weekends, sitting on sofas and watching television. Statistics show that
5 half-hour sessions per week of some physical activity are required to avert health problems.

Exercise 2. For further practice, complete or fill in the blanks.

a) Do you want to know why Martine never relax (never / relax)?
b) It’s because she can’t (can).
c) She works much too hard. (work)
d) She seldom go out (go out).
e) She‘s doing (do) a course in computer science this year.
f) She got nervous these days, because final exams are coming up (come up) next week.
g) She has (have) a boyfriend, but they seldom see (see) each other.
h) She spends (spend) long hours sitting (sit) in front of her computer screen.
i) Of course she has (have) high blood-pressure. Who wouldn’t (would) ?
j) I can only say to Martine: ‘Take it easy, go out, enjoy fun !’ (take it easy / go out /
enjoy)

Exercise 3. Complete the blog entry with the correct form of the verbs in brackets.
16 october
(have) I had a bad day. I feel (feel) uncertain about my courses. There are (be) too many and
each teacher is acting (act) as if his or her course is (be) the only one in the syllabus2!
Yesterday, I listened (listen) to a BBC programme on how what you smell (smell) can affect your
mood. They said (say) that smelling (smell) an orange can improve your mood, while eating (eat)
an apple works (work) to aid digestion. I think (think) that colours do (do) that too.
I remember (remember) that people who are depressed often like (like) chocolate. Well, I do (do).
(question form / mean) Does it mean that I’m depressed? I think (think) I’ll go to the vending
machine and get (get) myself a Mars bar right away!

Exercise 4. Now describe yourself, touching on the following points:

- present or future work: your medium and long-term goals
- yourself: your strong points;your weak points
- your favourite things ; things you dislike …
- Hobbies, passions
- Time spent doing English. .
I’m currently working as a QC Engineer in a video broadcast company located in Liège. I came back in
Belgium after 5 years spent in Germany, where I’ve been working in a similar position in a video game
company. In Germany, the company language was English - so I’ve been talking in English every day
for several years. I now miss that, but I try to keep contact with my ex-colleagues.
My medium goal is to get more testing experience and reach an expert level in the field of application
testing. I refuse to have any long-term goal - considering that long-term goals are kind of useless, I
can’t anticipate how things will be in 5 years.

I’m open-minded and always motivated. I like to learn new stuff. The negative side is that I tend to
work until I’m exhausted. When I need to rest, I usually watch TV series (most of the time, in English)
or spend some time playing video games.

5. Document « Moore_5_questions.pdf »
Task 1. Written comprehension. Answer the following in writing.
1. What does Moore’s law state?

2. What is the consumer’s main problem when choosing hi-tech products?

3. America faces a major economic challenge going into the future. Explain.

4. Moore sees the PC as a source of potential danger to the individual. Agree or disagree
(personal viewpoint here, min. 10 lines)
5. freestyle: Describe your PC or laptop configuration. What determined your choice? How
long have you had it? When will you feel that you must upgrade your equipment and why?
Describe the chip speed, memory, graphic and audio functions, including any add-on
external devices you may use (scanner, webcam, printer...).