Текст 2. Development of Computers

Development of Computers

In the 19th century the need for rapid calculation expanded through­out the industrial world. Governments taxed and policed larger popula­tions than ever before. Commerce expanded so that there were more money transactions than ever before.

Armies of clerks were employed to calculate and record the mass of transactions conducted by business houses, banks and insurance compa­nies. Scientists and engineers required ever more extensive tables of figures.

To meet the demand, new designs of calculating machine were devised.

In the 20th century electricity was harnessed to drive a variety of calculating machines. But the first general-purpose computing machine that was fully electronic was ENIAC (Electronic Numeral Integrator and Calculator), completed at the University of Pennsylvania in 1945. It employed more than 18, 000 thermionic valves, weighed 30 tons and oc­cupied 1, 500 sq. ft of floor space.

In the post-war years more computers were built, generally in uni­versity research departments. The term 'electronic brain' was coined.

The first part of the economy in which computers became important was finance. In banks and finance houses information began to be re­corded directly in machine-readable form by operators at keyboard machines. At first numbers were recorded on punched paper tape or cards; later these were supplanted by magnetic tape and discs. The num­bers of clerical staff did not fall, but their productivity rose as the number of transactions they could process swelled. In the early 1980s, for in­stance, in Britain the National Westminster Bank processes some 2 mil­lion cheques and 650, 000 credits in each working day.

Large companies computerised their payrolls. Shops and stores kept track of goods with the aid of computers and cut their reserve stocks; hence they could reduce their warehouse costs and free space for a wider variety of goods.

Complex industrial processes such as oil refining and steel-rolling were handed over to the control of the computer. Industrial design de­pended more and more on the computer. It would be impossible to de­sign a new car or jet airliner with a reasonable expenditure of time and money without computers to carry out the enormous number of calcula-tions involved.

The mammoth American company IBM dominated these develop­ments. When delivery of Univac II, announced by IBM's rival Reming­ton Rand in 1955, was delayed until 1957 by production difficulties, IBM captured the market in large computers.

IBM maintained its lead when the 'second generation' of computers appeared around 1960. These employed transistors in place of valves and were more powerful than their predecessors, yet more compact, re­liable and economical of energy. They could be housed in a few cabinets, rather than filling a large air-conditioned room.

The trend towards smallness and cheapness was enormously accel­erated when the 'third generation' of computers, based on the silicon chip, appeared around 1965. Electronic components, such as transistors, could now be made in large numbers on a thin square of silicon, typically 1/4 in. square. By 1971 the first microprocessor had appeared in Ameri­ca: the microprocessor was the heart of a computer - the part that does l lie actual calculating - on a single chip. Other chips could provide mem­ory stores.

When input/output devices, such as a keyboard and printing ma­chine, were added, a complete computing system was obtained that could lit on to a desktop. Such a unit can store about 2 1/2 million characters -letters or numbers - of information. Calculations are completed in sec­onds and the print-out is between 80-120 characters a second.

A visual display unit - a TV screen that could display text punched in by means of a keyboard, together with the computer's replies - per­mitted an operator to put instructions and questions to the computer and receive responses.

The computer, now smaller, cheaper and more accessible to ordi­nary people than ever before, has appeared in the office, on the factory floor and in the home. Computer terminals are seen at airline and theatre reservations desks, in stockbrokers' offices, in factory stockrooms, in power-station control rooms and in banks.

Even the toy departments in large stores sell computers: some create video games on home TV sets; others play chess and draughts - some­times with the machine speaking its moves. But the increasing power of the computer and its 'software' - its programming - has transformed daily life in ways that can pass unnoticed. Computer-fed weather fore­casts are more accurate and range further ahead. Greater volumes of road traffic are handled with less delay, by computerized traffic-light systems responding to information about the flow of vehicles from automatic sensors.

Some cars are now equipped with a microcomputer that continuously controls the fuel mixture and ignition timing, which optimizes performance and economises on fuel. There are also trip computers which display details of average speed and fuel consumptions since the beginning of the journey.

Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. What century was electricity harnessed to drive a variety of calculating machine?

2. What was the first part of the economy in which computers became important?

3. When did appear the first microprocessor?

4. In what fields of industry are computers used?

5. What is role of microcomputer in modern cars?