Пересказ текста "Computers' kinds"

Пересказ текста на тему "Computers' kinds" / "Виды компьютеров" + перевод пересказа.
Текст для пересказа:
Generally, any device that can perform numerical calculations, even an adding machine, may be called a computer but nowadays this term isused especially for digital computers. Computers that once weighed 30 tons now may weigh as little as 1.8 kilograms. Microchips and microprocessors have considerably reduced the cost of the electronic components required in a computer. Computers come in many sizes and shapes such as special- purpose, laptop (переносной), desktop (настольный), minicomputers, su¬percomputers. Special-purpose computers can perform specific tasks and their operations are limited to the programmes built into their microchips. These computers are the basis for electronic calculators and can be found in thousands of electronic products, including digital watches and automo¬biles. Basically, these computers do the ordinary arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. General-purpose com¬puters are much more powerful because they can accept new sets of in¬structions. The smallest fully functional computers are called laptop com¬puters. Most of the general-purpose computers known as personal or desk¬top computers can perform almost 5 million operations per second. Today's personal computers are known to be used for different purposes: for testing new theories or models that cannot be examined with experiments, as valu-able educational tools due to various encyclopedias, dictionaries, educa¬tional programmes, in bookkeeping, accounting and management. Proper application of computing equipment in different industries is likely to result in proper management, effective distribution of materials and resources, more efficient production and trade. Minicomputers are high-speed com¬puters that have greater data manipulating capabilities than personal com¬puters do and that can be used simultaneously by many users. These ma¬chines are primarily used by larger businesses or by large research and uni¬versity centers. (The speed and power of supercomputers, the highest class of computers, are almost beyond comprehension, and their capabilities are continually being improved. The most complex of these machines can per¬form nearly 32 billion calculations per second and store 1 billion characters in memory at one time, and can do in one hour what a desktop computer would take 40 years to do. They are used commonly by government agen¬cies and large research centers. Linking together networks of several small computer centers and programming them to use a common language has enabled engineers to create the supercomputer. The aim of this technology is to elaborate a machine that could perform a trillion calculations per sec¬ond.