Miniature Computer is size of Bread Loaf

A compact electronic computer about the size of a loaf of bread, yet capable of working as fast as a room size computer, has been demonstrated successfully. The baby computer is called Maddam, a name derived from Macro-Module and Digital Differential Analyzer Machine. The scientists indicate that the Maddam is a special purpose computer to be used only for military requirements as they develop. The working model was built to show that existing electronic components can be used in shrinking a commercial computer from a room size to size of a desk, and that military electronic equipment can be compressed to a convenient size for aircraft, spacecraft, and missiles. The computer has 5,500 components housed in a space measuring three inches by six inches by 11 inches, and a component density of 69,000 components per cubic foot. It weighs 12 pound and can perform 33,000 mathematical calculations per second.

Task  2. Answer the following questions:

Задание 2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. You are going to read four texts about pocket radios and miniature computers. Divide into groups and discuss the main idea of the texts.

2. What other types of miniature computers and radios do you know?

3. Do you know what the word “wireless” means?

Task  3. Find the answers to these questions in the following text.

1. What languages were derived from SGML?

2. What type of language is used to structure and format elements of a document?

3. Name two metalanguages.

4. What elements of data is XML (but not HTML) concerned with?

5. What is meant by the term ‘extensible’?

6. What makes XML a more intelligent language than HTML?

7. What does the HTML markup tag <p> indicate?

8. Why are search engines able to do a better job with XML documents?

9. What type of website is particularly likely to benefit from XML?

Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is f the language that spawned both HTML (HyperText I Markup Language) and XML (extensible Markup I Language). SGML is not a true language, it is a metalanguage, which is a language from which you can create other languages. In this case, it is the creation of a markup language (a system of encoded instructions for structuring and formatting electronic document elements).

 HTML is an application-specific derivation of  there for, say that HTML is a presentation language.

XML is a subset of SGML, but it is also, like SGML, a metalanguage. XML defines a specific method for го creating text formats for data so that files are program independent, platform independent, and support internationalisation (able to read different languages, etc.) In fact, because XML is an extensible language, you don’t even have to have a 25 browser to interpret the page. Applications can parse the XML document and read the information without any human intervention.

XML, unlike HTML, is concerned with the identity, meaning and structure of data. XML is extensible because it lets website developers create their own set of customised tags for documents. This ability to define your own tags is the main feature of XML, and it is what gives developers more flexibility.

By defining your own markup tags, you can explicitly define the content in the document. This makes XML a more intelligent markup language than HTML. For example, in HTML, you could have a paragraph tag <p> preceding a paragraph about baseball. Your Web browser sees this tag and knows to present the following text as a paragraph. All your browser knows about the text, however, is that it is text; it doesn’t know that it is specifically about baseball. In an XML document, you could define a <BASEBALL> tag to refer specifically to the text in the paragraph in your document. This way, when your XML browser examines the document, the document knows what data it contains, and that makes the content more intelligent. Search engines that make use of XML so data can do a better job of finding the pages you are looking for because of the intelligent nature of XML content.

XML, by design, does not deal with how the data is displayed to the end user. Because HTML is a presentation language, XML documents use HTML tags to help handle the visual formatting of the document. Also, you can use XML in your HTML documents to provide metadata, which is data about data in the document.

 XML will do to the Web and e-commerce what HTML originally did to the Internet. XML and its associated applications have the potential to blow the roof off the Internet and how we do business.

Task  4. Mark the following statements as True or False:

1. HTML is no longer useful for creating webpages.

2. SGML is more complex than XML.

3. XML files can only be used on Unix systems.

4. XML files can only be read by browser Programs.

5. HTML is a markup language.

6. Internet searches will be better with XML files.

LESSON 23

What is a Microprocessor?

Task 1. Read and translate the text:

Задание 1. Прочитайте и переведите текст

Part I

A microprocessor is a programmable logic device. That is, the function of logical operation that the device accomplishes may be altered by applying instructional "words" at its input. The above definition, although correct, is somewhat broad. Technically, the term microprocessor has come to mean the central processing unit (CPU) of a small computer system. By itself, the microprocessor cannot function; but when it is combined with a relatively small number of support circuits, it has most of the characteristics included in the classic definition of a computer. The microprocessor has traded the greater speed and word length of a computer for compact size and low cost.

A microcomputer is a fully operational system based upon a microprocessor chip which in itself contains a large percentage of the computer capability. The system possesses all of the minimum requirements of a computer:

— It can input and output data, usually in digital form. This data can be exchanged between the microcomputer and several common input/output devices such as teletype, CRT displays, paper tape reader, floppy disk memories, magnetic tapes, cassette tapes and laboratory instruments.

— It contains an ALU (arithmetic logic unit) which performs arithmetic and/or logical operations such as add, subtract, compare, rotate left or right, AND, OR, NEGATE, EXCLUSIVE, OR.

— It contains memory which is directly addressable and may contain both data and instructional words.

— It is programmable. That is, the data and programmed instructions may be arranged in any desired order, in contrast to a pocket calculator, which is usually fixed in its capabilities and requires a precise keyboard sequence that cannot be altered.

Task  2. Answer the following questions:

Задание 2. Ответьте на следующие вопросы:

1. Read the first part of the text ‘What is a Microprocessor”?

2. Study the definition of terms given below the text.

Task  3. Discuss the following questions in group: