Ex.17. Read and translate the text. Then decide on a suitable title for it.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 553.

Structure of the processor.

The processor consists of __1__, which is a circuit board on which are mounted __2__ chips, memory chips and other components linked together buy __3__ lines or channels in the form of control, address and data __4__ . In addition, a processor has__5__, which are electronic circuits providing specialized functions such as graphics, or which connect a system board to __6__ . The system board also consists of electronic devices such as an electronic __7__ for controlling the speed of operation; __8__ which store numeric data during the course of processing and various __9__, including sequence control register, address register and function register.

a) adaptor boards; b) clock; c) system board; d) registers; e) conductors; f) accumulators; g) microprocessor; h) buses; i) input or output devices

In 1952 a major computing company took a decision to get out of the business of making mainframe computers. They believed that there was only a market for four mainframes in the world. That company was IBM. The next year they reversed their decision. In 1980 the IBM decided that there was a market for 250,000 PCs, so they set a special team to develop the first IBM PC. It went on sale in 1981 and set a world-wide standard for IBM-compatibility which, over the next 10 years, was only seriously challenged by one other company, Apple Computers. Since then, over 70 million PCs made by IBM and other manufactures have been sold. Over this period computers have become commodity items. Since IBM made the design non-proprietary, anyone can make them.

The history of the multi-billion dollar PC industry has been one of the mistakes. Xerox Corporation funded the initial research on personal computers in their Paolo Alto Laboratory in California. However, the company failed to capitalize on this work and the ideas they had put together went into the operating system developed for Apple's computers. This was a graphical interface: using a mouse, the user clicks on icons which represent the function to be performed.

The first IBM PC was developed using existing available electrical components. With IBM's badge on the box it became the standard machine for large corporations to purchase. When IBM were looking for operating system, they went initially to Digital Research, who were the market's leaders in command-based operating systems (these are the operating systems in which the users type on the commands to perform a function).When the collaboration between IBM and Digital Research failed, IBM turned to Bill Gates who was only 25 years old to write their operating system.

Bill Gates founded Microsoft on the basis of the development of MS/DOS, the initial operating system for the IBM PC. Digital Research have continued to develop their operating system, DR/DOS, and it is considered by many people to be a better product than Microsoft's. But without an endorsement from IBM, it has become the minor player in the market. The company Novell, the leaders in PC networking, now own Digital Research, so things may change.

The original IBM PC had a minimum of 16K of memory, but this could be upgraded to 512K, if necessary, and ran with a processor speed of 4.77 MHz. Ten years later, in 1991, IBM were making PCs with 16Mb of memory, expendable to 64 Mb, running with a processor speed of 33 MHz,. The cost of buying the hardware has come down considerably as machines have become commodity items. Large companies are considering running major applications on PC, something which, not so many years ago, would have believed possible of a PC. In contrast, many computers in people's homes are just used to play computer games.

The wide-spread availability of computers has in all probability changed the world for ever. The microchip technology which made the PC possible has put chips not only into computers, but also into washing-machines and cars. Some books may never be published in paper for, but may only be available as part of public databases. Networks of computers are already being used to make information available on a world-wide scale.

Ex.18. Answer the following questions:

1. How many mainframes did IBM think it was possible to sell in 1952?

2. How many PCs have now been sold?

3. Who paid for the initial research into PC?

4. Which company later used the results of the research to develop their operating systems?

5. What are command-based operating systems?

6. What does the acronym DR/DOS stand for?

7. What for did IBM turn to Bill Gates?

8. On the basis of what did Bill Gates found Microsoft?

9. What memory did the original IBM PC have?

10. In 1986 IBM were making PCs with 16Mb of memory, weren't it?