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Group B
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| semiconductor – напівпровідник switch – вимикач; перемикач to shrink – скорочувати(ся) warm-up – прогрівання to consume less energy – споживати менше енергії reliable – надійний conversion – зміна; перетворення machine language– машинна мова assembly language – асемблер higher-level language – мова високого рівня a compiler – компілятор to receive widespread acceptance – отримувати велику прихильність to cope – справитися, управитися, упоратися | removable – пересувний; рухомий; знімний to have fast access to desired data – мати швидкий доступ до бажаних даних rudiments – початки, зачатки; елементарні знання to emerge – виявлятися, виходити, випливати; з’ясовуватися an external media – зовнішній носій інформації to aid – допомагати; подавати допомогу; сприяти intricacy – заплутаність, складність; плутанина surge of growth – велика хвиля зростання |
Questions:
1. What is the role of the transistor for computer science?
2. How did it influence the development of computer science?
The Second Generation, 1959-1964: The Transistor
The invention of the transistor, or semiconductor, was one of the most important developments leading to the personal computer revolution. Bell Laboratories engineers John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley invented the transistor in 1948. The transistor, which essentially functions as a solid-state electronic switch, replaced the much less suitable vacuum tube. The transistor revolutionized electronics in general and computer in particular. Not only did transistors shrink the size of the vacuum tube — but they also had numerous other advantages: they needed no warm-up time, consumed less energy, and were faster and more reliable.
The conversion to transistors began the trend toward miniaturization that continues to this day. Today’s small laptop (or palmtop) PC systems, which run on batteries, have more computing power than many earlier systems that filled rooms.
During this generation, another important development was the move from machine language to assembly languages. Assembly languages use abbreviations for instructions (for example, “L” for “LOAD”) rather than numbers. This made programming less cumbersome.
After the development of the symbolic languages came higher-level languages.In 1951, mathematician and naval officer Grace Murray Hoper conceived the first compilerprogram for translating from a higher-level language to the computer’s machine language. The first language to receive widespread acceptance was FORTRAN (for FORmula TRANslator), developed in the mid-1950s as a scientific, mathematical and an engineering language. Higher-level languages allowed programmers to give more attention to solving problems. They no longer had to cope with all details of the machines themselves. Also in 1962 the first removable disc pack was marketed. Disc storage supplemented magnetic tape systems and enabled users to have fast access to desired data.
The rudiments of operating machines were also emerging. Loading programs loaded other programs into main memory from external media such as punched cards, paper tape, or magnetic tape. Monitor programs aided the programmer or computer operator to load other programs, monitor their execution, and examine the contents of memory locations. An input-output control system consisted of a set of subroutines for manipulating input, output, and storage devices. By calling these subroutines, a program could communicate with external devices without becoming involved in the intricacies of their internal operations.
All these new developments made the second generation of computers less costly to operate — and thus began a surge of growth in computer systems.