VOA慢速英语20060815b

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Rethinking the Personal Computer in a World That Centers on the InternetBy Caty Weaver¹ and produced by Mario Ritter

Broadcast: Tuesday, August 15, 2006

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Bob Doughty².

VOICE TWO:


A visitor, right, at the Taipei Computer Applications Show earlier this month

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Today we talk about the past, present and future of personal computers.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

You could say the first personal computers were the simple counting devices of ancient times. But maybe we are going back too far.

Some people would say the first real counting machines were the inventions of Blaise Pascal in the middle of the sixteen hundreds. Pascal was a French scientist and inventor who designed a machine with wheels and cuts. These worked together to add or take away numbers.

A few years later, a German scientist improved on Pascal's work and created a system that permitted multiplication³ and division.

VOICE TWO:

In the same period, an Englishman named George Boole developed a math system based on zero and one. Boolean logic⁴ was important to the development of the computers of today.

But we still have some more historical ground to cover.

In eighteen ninety, census⁵ workers counted the United States population with help from a system designed by Herman Hollerith. That system, designed two years earlier, used two machines. One machine put holes into paper to mark information. The other machine quickly read the holes and produced a final count.

VOICE ONE:

Herman Hollerith went on to establish a company called Tabulating⁶ Business Machines. In nineteen eleven he sold the company -- and thirteen years later it became International Business Machines. The company had already been operating under the IBM name in Canada.

So now we jump from nineteen twenty-four to nineteen eighty-one -- August twelfth, nineteen eighty-one, to be exact. That was the day the company announced a new product called the IBM Personal Computer. It was not the first personal computer ever invented, but its success helped build a new market.

So now we are up to the age of the modern P.C. But we have left out some steps along the way.

VOICE TWO:

In nineteen thirty, the analog⁷ computer used gears and shafts⁸ to solve differential equations. Complex mathematics became easier.

Later, IBM's Mark One computer performed operations using a system of electromechanical switches.

Then in nineteen forty-six came the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer -- ENIAC. It used a system of vacuum tubes.

ENIAC was huge. It took up almost one hundred seventy square meters in a building at the University of Pennsylvania. ENIAC was unlike anything before. Its digital processing was lightning fast, at least compared to older computers.

Analog computers used moving parts. Digital devices process information electronically in the form of numbers. The difference was like night and day.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

Until the nineteen seventies, computers were far too big and costly⁹ for the average person. There were mostly mainframe computers in government agencies, research centers and big companies.

But people found ways to shrink computers, and to increase the power and speed. Transistors¹⁰ replaced vacuum tubes. Later, integrated circuits combined many transistors on a single small chip.

The Apple Computer Company in California started selling personal computers in the late seventies. But the IBM Personal Computer is credited with producing widespread interest in home computers.

VOICE TWO:

An IBM official called it the computer for just about anyone who has ever wanted a personal system at the office, on the university campus or at home. Many Americans found the price reasonable: about one thousand five hundred dollars.

The success of the IBM Personal Computer helped not only IBM. It also helped two young companies develop into the industry leaders they are today.

IBM bought the processor, the brain, for its personal computer from Intel. Intel was then a ten-year-old company. And IBM brought in Microsoft to provide the programming. Microsoft was then a small, little-known company. Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in nineteen seventy-five.

The IBM Personal Computer came with the first version of Microsoft DOS, or disk operating system. Today Microsoft operating systems are found on most of the personal computers in the world.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The development of laptop computers meant that people could take them anywhere. And computers kept getting smaller.

In the nineteen nineties people started talking about PalmPilots and BlackBerries and other P.D.A.'s -- personal digital assistants. A person could hold a small computer and, in some cases, a phone and the Internet all in one hand.

Microprocessors¹¹ and improved wireless¹² communications led to the age of cell phones, then cell phones with cameras and more.

Today people can hold in their hand more computing¹³ power and speed than the room-sized mainframes of the past.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

The IBM Personal Computer started to face growing competition before long. One was the Apple Macintosh, launched in nineteen eighty-four. What people really liked was its ease of use. DOS users had to enter written commands. But Mac users could simply click on icons¹⁴, little pictures on the screen. Apple had borrowed the idea from designers at Xerox¹⁵. Then Microsoft borrowed the idea for its Windows operating system.

Today Apple still has a loyal following, but those users represent a small share of the market for personal computers. IBM does not even make personal computers anymore. It sold that part of its business last year to the Chinese company Lenovo.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

So where will the future take the personal computer? Before we discuss that, we should talk a little about the Internet. It began in the nineteen sixties as a Defense¹⁶ Department project. It was designed to link researchers around the United States with a secure way to communicate even in the event of a nuclear war.

The designers linked together a network of networks, with no point of central control over the system. That way, messages could get through even if one or more links were lost. It was built sort of like a spider's web.

The Internet came into popular use in the nineteen nineties. People learned that www meant World Wide Web. Tim Berners-Lee invented this system at the CERN physics laboratory in Switzerland. Now the public had a new way to send e-mail, find information and buy goods. Today many people could not live without it.

As a result, many see the future of the Internet as the future of the personal computer.

VOICE TWO:

Ray Ozzie is one of those people. He designed Lotus Notes, IBM's widely used e-mail system and database for linking groups. He was recently named chief software architect at Microsoft.

VOICE ONE:

Since joining Microsoft last year, Ray Ozzie has tried to make its software work better with the Internet. Across the industry, programs are increasingly being designed for use on the Web, instead of being housed on personal computers. Microsoft is offering more Web-based services.

Last month, at a meeting of financial analysts¹⁷, Ray Ozzie discussed the changing times. He described what he called the P.C. era as in the past. He said this is a new period in which the Internet is at the center.

VOICE TWO:

But where is the Internet itself going? There is a lot of talk about improvements that people say will represent the next version of the Internet. Internet 2.0, they call it. There are hopes, but at the same time there are reports of security weaknesses that will need to be fixed¹⁸.

Also, in recent months there has been a lot of debate about the issue of Net neutrality. Internet neutrality basically means that Internet service producers should not speed up or slow down or block any traffic on the Web. In other words, all Web content providers should be treated the same.

Telecommunications companies say they spend a lot of money to build systems that carry Internet traffic. They say they should be able to charge more for those who use these systems more often, or are willing to pay more for special services.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Mario Ritter. Internet users can find transcripts¹⁹ and download archives of our shows at www.unsv.com. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Our e-mail address is [email protected]. And we hope you can join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 multiplication   

n.增加，增多，倍增；增殖，繁殖；乘法

参考例句：

• Our teacher used to drum our multiplication tables into us.我们老师过去老是让我们反覆背诵乘法表。
• The multiplication of numbers has made our club building too small.会员的增加使得我们的俱乐部拥挤不堪。

4 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

5 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。

6 tabulating   

把（数字、事实）列成表( tabulate的现在分词 )； 制表

参考例句：

• The Census Office did not finish tabulating the results until 1888. 直到1888年，人口普查办公室才完成统计数字表格。
• By 1890 a revolutionary electrical tabulating system was available. 到了1890年，一种具有革命意义的电动制表装置投入使用。

7 analog   

n.类似物，模拟

参考例句：

• The analog signal contains high-frequency video information,which helps make up the picture.模拟信号包括有助于构成图像的高频视频信息。
• The analog computer measures continuously,without proceeding step by step.模拟计算机不是一步一步地进行，而是连续地进行量度。

8 shafts   

n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等）

参考例句：

• He deliberately jerked the shafts to rock him a bit. 他故意的上下颠动车把，摇这个老猴子几下。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Shafts were sunk, with tunnels dug laterally. 竖井已经打下，并且挖有横向矿道。 来自辞典例句

9 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

10 transistors   

晶体管( transistor的名词复数 )； 晶体管收音机，半导体收音机

参考例句：

• In semiconductor receivers transistors take the place of vacuum tubes. 在半导体收音机中晶体管代替了真空管。
• We often turn to this handbook for information on transistors. 我们常从这本手册查阅有关晶体管的资料。

11 microprocessors   

微（信息）处理机( microprocessor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This sort of work would have been inconceivable before the advent of microprocessors. 在微处理机问世之前这种工作是难以想象的。
• In microprocessors, the name used for the IEEE interface bus standard. 微处理机中，IEEE接口总线标准的名字。

12 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

13 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

14 icons   

n.偶像( icon的名词复数 )；（计算机屏幕上表示命令、程序的）符号，图像

参考例句：

• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons. 用图标来区分重要的文本项。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• Daemonic icons should only be employed persistently if they provide continuous, useful status information. 只有会连续地提供有用状态信息的情况下，后台应用程序才应该一直使用图标。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

15 xerox   

n./v.施乐复印机，静电复印

参考例句：

• Xerox and Lucent are two more high-tech companies run by women.施乐和朗讯是另外两家由女性经营的大科技公司。
• You cannot take it home,but you can xerox it.你不能把它带回家，但可以复印。

16 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

17 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

18 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

19 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句