2. Vocabulary

in the mid-20th century – в середині 20 сторіччя

modern personal computers – сучасні персональні комп’ютери

integrated circuit – мікросхема

embedded computers – вбудовані комп’ютери

MP3 player – MP3 програвач

industrial robots – промислові роботи

versatile – різносторонній, гнучкий

supercomputer – надпотужна ЕОМ, суперкомп’ютер

onwards – в подальшому, з цього часу

flexible computing devices – гнучкий обчислювальний пристрій

digital electronics – цифрова електроніка

to feature – бути характерною рисою, відрізнятися

programmability – програмованість

tube – трубка

capacitor memory – ємкісний запам’ятовуючий пристрій

peer – рівний собі

wartime codes – військові коди

transistor-based machine – машини, які працюють на транзисторах

microprocessor – мікропроцесор

dedicated computer – спеціалізована ЕОМ

microcontroller – мікроконтролер

ubiquitous – широко розповсюджений

3. Grammatical notes

Проста (синтетична) форма наказового способу дієслова-присудка може перекладатися кількома способами.

В інструкціях, вказівках і т.ін. вона перекладається неозначеною формою дієслова або формою наказового способу другої особи множини:

Do not apply brakes suddenly. Не гальмуйте різко.

Remove ice by application of hot water. Усуньте лід, застосовуючи теплу воду.

4.Excercises

Exercise 1

Прочитайте й перекладіть текст.

Exercise 2

Перескажіть текст.

Exercise 3

Перекладіть англійською

1. В 1613 році вперше був використаний термін «комп’ютер».

2. Під час Великої Вітчизняної війни комп’ютер також використовувався для зламування кодів.

3. В Манчестерському університеті вперше був продемонстрований комп’ютер що працював на транзисторах.

4. Неможливо представити сучасний світ без використання комп’ютерів.

5. Персональні комп’ютери використовуються майже у кожній родині і стали такими ж необхідними як телебачення та телефон.

Exercise 4

Складіть декілька прикладів використання правила, яке наводиться у розділі Grammatical notes.

Lesson 6.2

1. Text Computer architecture

In computer science, computer architecture is the conceptual design and fundamental operational structure of a computer system. It is a blueprint and functional description of requirements and design implementations for the various parts of a computer, focusing largely on the way by which the central processing unit (CPU) performs internally and accesses addresses in memory.

It may also be defined as the science and art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance and cost goals.

Computer architecture comprises at least three main subcategories:

– Instruction set architecture, or ISA, is the abstract image of a computing system that is seen by a machine language (or assembly language) programmer, including the instruction set, word size, memory address modes, processor registers, and address and data formats.

– Microarchitecture, also known as Computer organization is a lower level, more concrete and detailed, description of the system that involves how the constituent parts of the system are interconnected and how they interoperate in order to implement the ISA. The size of a computer's cache for instance, is an organizational issue that generally has nothing to do with the ISA.

– System Design which includes all of the other hardware components within a computing system such as:

1. System interconnects such as computer buses and switches

2. Memory controllers and hierarchies

3. CPU off-load mechanisms such as direct memory access (DMA)

4. Issues like multiprocessing.

The term “architecture” in computer literature can be traced to the work of Lyle R. Johnson and Frederick P. Brooks, Jr., members in 1959 of the Machine Organization department in IBM’s main research center. Johnson had the opportunity to write a proprietary research communication about Stretch, an IBM-developed supercomputer for Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory. In attempting to characterize his chosen level of detail for discussing the luxuriously embellished computer, he noted that his description of formats, instruction types, hardware parameters, and speed enhancements was at the level of “system architecture” – a term that seemed more useful than “machine organization”. Subsequently, Brooks, one of the Stretch designers, started Chapter 2 of a book (Planning a Computer System: Project Stretch, ed. W. Buchholz, 1962) by writing, “Computer architecture, like other architecture, is the art of determining the needs of the user of a structure and then designing to meet those needs as effectively as possible within economic and technological constraints”.

The exact form of a computer system depends on the constraints and goals for which it was optimized. Computer architectures usually trade off standards, cost, memory capacity, latency and throughput. Sometimes other considerations, such as features, size, weight, reliability, expandability and power consumption are factors as well.

The most common scheme carefully chooses the bottleneck that most reduces the computer's speed. Ideally, the cost is allocated proportionally to assure that the data rate is nearly the same for all parts of the computer, with the most costly part being the slowest. This is how skillful commercial integrators optimize personal computers.

Computer performance is often described in terms of clock speed (usually in MHz or GHz). This refers to the cycles per second of the main clock of the CPU. However, this metric is somewhat misleading, as a machine with a higher clock rate may not necessarily have higher performance.

Power consumption is another design criterion that factors in the design of modern computers. Power efficiency can often be traded for performance or cost benefits. With the increasing power density of modern circuits as the number of transistors per chip scales (Moore's law), power efficiency has increased in importance. Recent processor designs such as the Intel Core 2 put more emphasis on increasing power efficiency. Also, in the world of embedded computing, power efficiency has long been and remains the primary design goal next to performance.