UNIT 4 – Getting Together

When computers were first being used in business, government, and military, they
were stand-alone computers; that is, they were not connected with other computers.
If you needed to use one of them, you went to a special, cooled room, gave your
request to a person who had been trained to program the computer, then waited,
perhaps a day, for your result. As computers began to proliferate, there came a
need to connect them for better computing power and to share data.

The basis for these connections is telecommunications. Like

computers, it has a long history and is based on the
development of radio in the later 19th century by a number of
scientist, one of whom was A. S. Popov. Popov's work as a
teacher at a Russian naval school led him to explore high
frequency electrical phenomena. On May 7, 1895 he presented
a paper on a wireless lightning detector he had built that
worked via using a coherer, a primitive device to detect radio
noise from lightning strikes. In a March 24, 1896
demonstration, he used radio waves to transmit a message
between different campus buildings in St. Petersburg. His work
was based on that of another physicist – Oliver Lodge at the same tims with the
work of Marconi. Marconi registered a patent with the description of the device two
months after the first transmission of radio signals made by Popov.

In the beginning, the connections were simply

cables that physically connected two or three big
computers called mainframes. The connections
were known as a port. In addition, companies
quickly became aware that sending their
employees to the computer center and having them
wait for solutions to their problems was inefficient
and costly. So dumb terminals were developed to
allow workers to stay at their desks and still submit
work. This gave us the basic star topology.

This was highly centralized processing because the dumb terminals could not do
any themselves. Everything had to be handled by the main computer. Another
problem was that each dumb terminal had to be connected directly to the main
computer, which came with only a limited number of ports. To add more ports was
very expensive. In addition, many companies and universities could not afford
mainframes. This became critical with the creation of COBOL and need for
universities to produce computer specialists. So, in the late 1960s, DEC (Digital
Equipment Company) introduced the first mini-computer, the PDP-11, followed by
the very successful VAX-11. But the problem with having to connect each dumb
terminal to the minicomputer remained.

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UNIT 4 – Getting Together

This problem led to creation of the bus

topology. In this type of network, the
computers are connected to a single cable
which is used to communicate with the
central computer, or server. This solved
the problem of having to have each
terminal connected to the mainframe and
gave rise to the development of the LAN
(Local Area Network). When these
minicomputers were connected to a mainframe, then limited distributed processing
became possible. Each department of a company could use their mini-computer to
do the work of their department, downloading what they needed from the
mainframe in the morning, uploading what they had done in the evening. The most
common type of bus technologies used is Ethernet, developed in the early 1980s.

IBM developed their own topology for dealing

with this problem by developing a ring topology
using a token to control traffic on the network.
They used the SNA (Systems Network
Architecture), a protocol they developed in
1974. It is used primarily for systems using
IBM machines. In a ring, the server sends a
token around for each terminal to evaluate to
see if the data on the network belongs to that
terminal. If not, it sends the token on. If it does,
it takes the data and flips the token to show that it has been taken.

With the development of microcomputers in the mid-1970s, distributed computing

became possible. At this point, smart terminals, microcomputers, allowed each used
to work on their own project at their desk. This increased productivity and
efficiency.

As the same time, as companies became

more international and universities began to
share information, the WAN (Wide Area
Network) began to develop. As with the
early LANs, the early WANs used a point-
to-point or mesh topology, each
mainframe was connected directly with
every other mainframe. Once again, as
more and more computers were connected
to the network, the problem of cost and
number of ports placed a limit to the number of computers on the network. The
networks were basically used to transfer files between companies and between
universities. It was entirely text-based.

However, with more and more international communications and competing

protocols, the International Standards Organization (ISO) convened to develop
world-wide standards for telecommunications. These were to be known as the Open

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UNIT 4 – Getting Together

Systems Integration (OSI) (we will look at this model in later units). The first draft
was issued by the ISO in 1984.

With the development of the World Wide Web (WWW) by Tim Berners-Lee Web in
1989, using a web browser based on HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), the
old mesh topology was impossible to maintain. Not every site had a mainframe big
enough to handle all the traffic, especially when the WWW was released to the
public in August 1991.

This led to the development of the hub and spoke network topology. In this
topology, certain mainframes are designated as gateways (red in diagram). These
mainframes serve as the main computers on the network. They, in turn, are
connected to other mainframes or minicomputers that serve as routers and bridges
(blue in diagram) for the systems connected to them. In this way, traffic is sent to the
correct computer using the best route. Each computer on the network is known as a
node and has a unique URL (Universal Resource Locator).

FACTOID: Because it was taking so long for the ISO to come up with the OSI
protocol, the US military, in cooperation with a number of universities, developed a
temporary protocol – TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol).
The OSI model, which was designed to please everyone and pleased no one, was
considered too complicated and inefficient. Therefore, as more and more
universities became part of the network, including those outside of the US, TCP/IP
became the de facto standard for the Internet.

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UNIT 4 – Getting Together
VOCABULARY
TECHNICAL
bridge – міст; мост
bus topology – топологія «шина»;
топология типа «шина»
cable – канат, кабель
centralized – централізований;
централизованный
distributed – розподілене (середовище);
распределительная (система)
download – передача даних; загрузка,
скачивание данных
dumb terminal – термінал без мережевих
зв’язків; «немой» терминал
gateway – доступ, ворота, шлюз;
межсетевое устройство
HTTP (Hyper Text Transport Protocol) –
протокол HTTP; система, передающая
документ HTTP
hub-and-spoke topology – розгалужена
модель; разветвленная, веерная
структура
LAN (Local Area Network) – локальний
зв'язок; локальная связь
mainframe – базовий комп’ютер;
большая вычислительная система
mini-computer – міні-комп’ютер; мини-
компьютер
node – вузол (мережевий); узел
OSI (Open Systems Integration) –
прикладне середовище відкритих
систем; прикладная середа открытых
систем
point-to-point/mesh topology – від точки
до точки; топология «сетка»
port – порт
protocol – протокол зв’язку; протокол
ring topology – топологія «кільце»;
кольцевая топология
router – маршрутизатор
server – сервер
smart terminal – «розумний» термінал;
программируемый терминал
stand-alone – автономний комп’ютер;
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NON-TECHNICAL
complicated – складний; трудный
convene – засідати, збирати;
созывать
costly – дорогий, неекономічний;
затратный
critical – критичний; решающий
de facto – практично; в реальности,
на деле
designate – визначати; указывать
на, означать
draft – проект; законопроект
efficient/inefficient – продуктивний;
низкоэффективный
evaluate – оцінювати; давать
оценку
flip – переключати; менять
limited – обмежений; ограниченный
maintain – забезпечувати;
поддерживать в рабочем состоянии
physically – фізично; физически
primarily – головним чином;
преимущественно
productive/productivity –
продуктивний / продуктивність;
коэффициент полезного действия
proliferate – розповсюджувати;
распространяться
solution – рішення; решение
unique – унікальний; уникальный
UNIT 4 – Getting Together

компьютер не подключенный к сети

star topology – топологія «зірка»;
звёздообразная топологическая система
TCP/IP (Transmission Control
Protocol/Internet Protocol) – між
мережевий протокол; межсетевой
протокол
token – право доступу; опознавательная
система, базовый элемент, маркёр
upload – передача даних (до головного
комп’ютера); закачивание
URL (Universal Resource Locator) –
електронна адреса розташування;
ссылка на сайт
WAN (Wide Area Network) – глобальна
мережа; сеть WAN
web browser – Інтернет-браузер;
обозреватель страниц интернет
WWW (World Wide Web) – всесвітня
комп’ютерна мережа;

ACTIVITIES:
1. Pick two (2) topologies and compare them.

2. Which do you think is most secure – centralized or distributed

computing? Why?

3. Why did the US military develop TCP/IP?

4. What are the layers of the OSI model and what does each one basically
do?

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UNIT 4 – Getting Together

Vocabulary exercises

Exercise 1. Match the word/phrase with its definition

1) mainframe a) to increase a lot and suddenly in number
2) node b) working or operating in a way that gets the results you want without
any waste
3) token c) a piece of text, a formal suggestion, or a drawing in its original state,
often containing the main ideas and intentions but not the developed form
4) solution d) to choose someone officially to do a particular job; to say officially that
a place or thing has a particular character or purpose
5) proliferate e) expensive, especially too expensive; involving a lot of loss or damage
6) f) to bring together a group of people for a meeting, or to meet for
productivity a meeting; to meet formally as a group, or to arrange a meeting of
people or groups for a serious purpose
7) primarily g) access right; access grant
8) maintain h) the rate at which a person, company, or country does useful work
9) evaluate i) mainly
10) efficient j) to keep a road, machine, building, etc. in good condition
11) draft k) to judge or calculate the quality, importance, amount, or value of
something
12) designate l) a very large, powerful computer with a lot of memory that
many people can use at the same time
13) costly m) an answer to a problem; a way to solve a problem or deal with
a difficult situation
14) convene n) a place where things such as lines join

Exercise 2. Fill in the blanks with the words/phrases from the Unit.

inefficient bridge bus topology dumb terminal gateway unique

productivity

1) Distant work can provide a __________ between staying at home and

working.
2) ________________ is one of the main structures in
telecommunications.
3) A ___________ is used to enter or read information, but does not
have many of the functions of a normal terminal and
cannot work on its own.
4) Hard work is the _______________ to success.
5) There is a museum at the Academy that is considered pretty
_________.
6) A pleasant working environment increases _________________.
7) I'm hopelessly __________________ at fixing computers.

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UNIT 4 – Getting Together

Exercise 3. What does the abbreviation/acronym stand for?

1) DEC
2) HTTP
3) LAN
4) OSI
5) TCP/IP
6) URL
7) WAN
8) WWW

Exercise 4. Use these prompts while preparing to present your answer

to the class.

1. To start with …
2. In addition, …
3. Another point worth noting is …
4. When it comes to (noun)/(gerund), …
5. As a result, …
6. Although/Even though (subject + verb), …
7. As far as I’m concerned, …
8. In conclusion, …
9. … any questions?

Supplementary activities

Grammar

Exercise 5. Focus on the Passive Voice. Read the text of the lesson
one more time and underline the verbs in the Passive Voice
(Homework).

Exercise 6. Look at the table above and identify the underlined

sentences (in the text of the lesson) with the grammar tense/form
they are in. If you do not find a proper sentence, think of your own
one.

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UNIT 4 – Getting Together

The passive is formed with the verb to be (it can be in any of its forms) and the past
participle of the main verb (with regular verbs we add –ed, with irregular ones – the
III-ed form is added).

be + past participle
Active Voice Passive Voice
Present Simple Programmers develop software. Software is developed by
programmers.
Present They are developing software Software is being developed
Continuous now. now.
Past Simple They developed software. Software was developed.
Past They were developing software Software was being developed.
Continuous
Future Simple They will develop software. Software will be developed.
Present Perfect They have developed software. Software has been developed.
Past Perfect They had developed software. Software had been developed.
Future Perfect They will have developed software will have been
software. developed.
Present They should develop software. Software should be developed.
Infinitive
Perfect Infinitive They should have developed Software should have been
software. developed.
-ing form We need programmers We need software being
developing software. developed by programmers.
Perfect -ing Having developed software, … Software having been developed,
form …
Modals + be + They must develop software. Software must be developed.
p.p.

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