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5
TEXT 2
Is there an End to the Computer Race?
Today the word «electronics» is in general usage. Millions of people
have electron watches. There are a lot of various radio and TV sets, video
cassette recorders and CD players in our houses. In factories and plants we
are surrounded with electronically controlled machines and instruments,
we are carried by airplanes, ships, trains and cars with built-in electronic
devices, and satellites circle the globe. In other words, we are living in an
electronic world.
And the center of this world is a tiny silicon plate
1
of a few square
millimetres, an integrated circuit
2
, or a chip
3
, as it is more commonly
known. The integrated circuit is undoubtedly one of the most sophisticated
inventions of man, science and technology. It is in the heart of every
electronic device and the more cassette recorders, TV sets and computers
we need, the more integrated circuits are required.
When we speak about a further development of computers we mean not
only quantity, but also high technology and high speed. As the operation of
an integrated circuit depends on microscopic «components», the purity of
all materials and the cleanness at the plant they are produced at must be of
the highest quality. A continuous search is going on in laboratories
throughout the world for more perfect, reliable and high speed electronic
circuits.
In the past it took scientists and researchers a whole lifetime to make a
few thousand calculations, whereas for a modern computer this task is a
matter of a few seconds. At present computers capable of performing
billions of operations a second are required. Supercomputers are different
from ordinary computers. The ordinary computer does the computations
operation by operation, while the supercomputer operates like a brain: all
operations are being done simultaneously.
In the next few years engineers will complete the work on computers of
above 2 billion operations a second. It will take a few more years to
produce a 10-billion operations computer. The fifth-generation computers
performing 100 billion operations a second will become available in the
near future. Is there an end to this race?
According to some researchers, we are close to what can be regarded as
a true physical limit. But other specialists think that photons will make the
operation a thousand times faster. This means that in the future it will be
6
possible to expect the appearance of photon computers and that
computations will be done by means of light. Light has several advantages
over electronics: light beams are faster, travel in parallel lines and can pass
through one another without interference. Already, the optical equivalent of
a transistor has been produced, and intensive research on optical-electronic
computers is being carried out in a number of countries around the world. In
a few decades a new age of light may replace the still youthful electronic
age. The race is going on.
Notes to the Text: 1. silicon plate - кремниевая пластина; 2.
integrated circuit - интегральная схема; 3. chip – кристалл.
ASSIGNMENT TO TEXT 2.
I. Read and translate the text.
II. Answer the questions to the above text
1. What is this text about? 2. What new things appeared in people's
everyday life after World War II? 3. What is at the center of all these things?
4. What applications of computers do you know? 5. Where else may
computers be used? 6. How does an ordinary computer (a supercomputer)
operate? 7. What is the speed of a new supercomputer? 8. What is the task of
engineers in the field of computer development? 9. What types of computers
do you know? 10. What are the prospects in the development of
computers?
III. Make all types of questions to the following sentence:
the integrated circuit is undoubtedly one of the most sophisticated
inventions of man, science and technology.
IV. Give English equivalents:
электронные часы, видеомагнитофон, встроенный, дальнейшее
развитие, чистота материала, высоко скоростной, одновременно,
становиться доступным, согласно, луч света.
V. Match up:
General……………………………..speed
electronically controlled…………….beams
integrated…………………………….computers
high…………………………………..search
continuous……………………………usage
photon………………………………..circuit
light…………………………………..machines
