The Five Elements of the Computing Process

Text 1 The Computer Defined

       The word 'computer' comes from a Latin word which means 'to count'. To many people, the word computer suggests "computation" and that word means "math" which scares some people. But this connection is misleading. Computers are not calculators,although you can turn a computer into a calculator. In the simplest definition,a computeris an electronic device - a flexible machine that can manipu­late data. Many of these manipulations have nothing to do with math. In addition to being used for such tasks as adding up your supermarket bill or getting $20 bills at an ATM, computers are used by writers, television producers, musicians, poets, graphics illustrators, and scholars of medieval history!

       Why are computers so flexible that physicists and poets feel equally at home using them? A computer is programmable;that is, what the computer does depends on the program the computer is using. (A programis a list of instructions telling the com­puter what to do.) A computer's hardware- the machine and its components - is de­signed to be as flexible as possible. By using computer programs, called software,you transform this flexible hardware into-a too! for a specific purpose. No matter which program a computer is using, the machine itself -performs only four basic operations. The most widely accepted definition of the computer includes the following operations:

       Input.A computer accepts data that is provided by means of an input devicesuch as a keyboard.

       Processing, A computer performs operations on the data to transform it in some way.

       Output.A computer produces output on a device, such as a printer or monitor that shows the results of processing operations.

       Storage. A computer stores the results of processing operations for future use.

This definition is often referred to as the IPOS cycle. The four steps of the IPOS cy­cle - input, processing, output, storage - don't have to occur in a rigid I-P-O-S se­quence. Under the direction of a program, a computer uses the steps of this process when needed and us often as needed.

Look through the text and find the passage where it is told about the flexibility of computers. Read this passage and translate in the written form.

Text 2 The Computer: Its Uses

       The use of a personal computer, a computer designed to meet an individual's com­puting needs, illustrates these four basic computer operations. You use the keyboard lo input data. The computer's internal circuitry processes the data. You see the results (output) on the computer's monitor (the TV-like display), and you can print these results on the printer. You can also store the results on the computer's internal disk or on a removable disk.

       The purpose of the computer is to transform data into information. In this context, data means some kind of unorganized material that can be entered into the computer—a tough sketch that needs work, a first draft of an essay that needs revision or polishing, figures from a company's books/a list of names and addresses. What results from processing operations is information, data that has been made meaningful and useful.

       For example, with the right software, you can use a computer to do your income taxes. You begin by inputting all the data concerning your wages, the amounts withheld from your paycheck, and the amounts of your exemptions and deductions. The computer processes this data and produces output that looks just like the forms used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And what's the Information? All the data that you have input has been processed to produce the form for the IRS and the key figure—the amount of your tax refund or the amount you owe. You can then print and store the results.

       This capability to process data can be used in a variety of ways. People have come up with some very interesting uses:

       • Today's dairy farmers are using computers to optimize feeding times, resulting in gains of up to 30 percent in milk output. Dairy farmers produce as much milk today as they did 30 years ago, but with fewer cows, lower costs, and less pollution.

       • The Federalist Papers are some of America's most important historical docu­ments, but some of the articles weren't signed. Who wrote them? Using com­puters lo analyze the writing styles of James Madison, Patrick Henry, and other known authors of the Papers, scholars have been able to identify the authors of the unsigned texts.

       • A psychologist keeps a computer in the counseling room. At the touch of a key, the psychologist can search through references on a computer disk for information relating to topics that come up during counseling sessions.

Look through the text and find the passage where it is told about the purpose of computers. Read this passage and translate in the written form.

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The Five Elements of the Computing Process

       The computing process, in short, includes everything and everyone necessary for the computer to perform a useful task. The following sections show how each of these elements works in the process.

       Hardware

       The term hardware refers to the physical parts of the computer. Computer hardware is versatile—what it does depends on the computer program you use. The key to the computer's versatility is memory. You can think of memory as a temporary workspace. The computer's processor uses this workspace as a scratch pad during processing.

       Many people confuse memory with storage. Memory is temporary. When you turn off the compute:, everything in memory is lost. Storage is usually permanent. On most computers, storage also has far greater capacity than memory.

       Understanding tie distinction between memory and storage is essential. Some programs keep their output in memory. You must transfer the information to a storage device, such as a disk drive, if you want lo keep the information permanently. If you switch oil' the computer without savingthis information (transferring it to storage), the information is lost. More than a few students have stayed up all night to finish a paper, only to lose all their work because they didn't understand this distinction.

       The key to the computer's precision is the fact that it represents data digitally. Computers use binary digits, which are numbers using a base 2 number system rather than a decimal (or base 10) number system. A binary digit, commonly called a bit,has a value of either 0 (zero) or 1 (one). Eight bits are grouped together lo represent a character—и letter, number, or special character. This group is called a byte.Many people use the terms character and byte to mean the same thing. People talk about bytes when they talk about the capacity of computer memories and storage devices. Because one byte equals only one character, these devices must he capable of storing thousands, millions, or even billions of bytes. To describe these large capacities, [he terms kilobyte(Kb), megabyte(Mb), and gigabyte(Gb) are used. A kilobyte equals approximately one thousand bytes, a megabyte equals approximately one million bytes, and a gigabyte equals approximately one billion bytes. (The actual number of bytes in a megabyte is slightly higher because computer storage amounts are actually measured in base 2 numbers.)

Look through the text and find the passage where it is told about the difference between memory and storage. Read this passage and translate in the written form.

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