Give the summary of the text using the key terms. Read the following words and word combinations and use them for understanding and translation of the text:

SUPERCOMPUTERS

 

Read the following words and word combinations and use them for understanding and translation of the text:

 

successive- последующий, преемственный

at a clock speed- с тактовой частотой

to take advantage of- воспользоваться

entire- целый, полный

the ultimate- в конечном итоге

formerly- раньше

to soak up- впитывать, поглощать

protein- белок

cost-effective- рентабельный

distributed- распределенный

to feature- показывать, изображать

synergistic processing element- ядро специального назначения

ad hoc- специальный, на данный случай

to parcel out- выделять, делить на части

extraterrestrial- внеземной

proximity- близость

mesh- сетка, ячейка

to rank- классифицировать

high-performance computing- высокопроизводительные вычисления

benchmark- отметка, стандарт, эталонный тест

to retain- сохранять. удерживать

 

The term supercomputer is not really an absolute term describing a unique type of computer. Rather it has been used through successive generations of computer design to describe the fastest, most powerful computers available at a given time. However, what makes these machines the fastest is usually their adoption of a new technology or computer architecture that later finds its way into standard computers.

The first supercomputer is generally considered to be the Control Data CDC 6600, designed by Seymour Cray in 1964. The speed of this machine came from its use of the new faster silicon (rather than germanium) transistors and its ability to run at a clock speed of 10 MHz (a speed that would be achieved by personal computers by the middle 1980s).

Cray then left CDC to form Cray Research. He designed the Cray I in 1976, the first of a highly successful series of supercomputers. The Cray I took advantage of a new technology: integrated circuits, and new architecture: vector processing, in which a single instruction can be applied to an entire series of numbers simultaneously. This innovation marked the use of parallel processing as one of the distinguishing features of supercomputers.

The next generation, the Cray X-MP carried parallelism further by incorporating multiple processors ( the successor, Cray Y-MP, had 8 processors which together could perform a billion floating point operations per second (1 gigaflop).

Soon other companies (particularly the Japanese manufactures NEC and Fujitsu) entered the market. The number of processors in supercomputers increased to as many as 1,024, which can exceed 1 trillion floating-point operations per second (1 teraflop)

The ultimate in multiprocessing is the series of Connection Machines built by Thinking Machines Inc. (TMI) and designed by Daniel Hillis. These machines have up to 65,000 very simple processors that run simultaneously and can form connections dynamically, somewhat like the process in the human brain. These “massively parallel” machines are thus attractive for artificial intelligence research.

As the power of standard computers continuous to grow, applications that formerly required a multimillion-dollar supercomputer can now run on a desktop workstation.

On the other hand there are always applications that will soak up whatever computing power can be brought to bear on them. These include: analysis of new aircraft designs, weather and climate models, the study of nuclear reactions, and the creation of models for the synthesis of proteins.

For many applications it may be more cost-effective to build systems with numerous coordinated processors (a sort of successor to the 1980s Connection Machine). For example, the Beowolf architecture involves “clusters” of ordinary PCs coordinated by software running on UNIX or Linux. The use of free software and commodity PCs can make this approach attractive, though application software still has to be rewritten to run on the distributed processors.

A new resource for parallel supercomputing came from an unlikely place: the new generation of cell processors found in game consoles such as the Sony Playstation 3. This architecture features tight integration of a central “power processor element” with multiple “synergistic processing elements”.

Finally, an ad hoc “supercomputer” can be created almost for free, using software that parcels out calculation tasks to thousands of computers participating via the Internet, as with SETI@Home (searching for extraterrestrial radio signals) and Folding@Home (for protein-folding analysis). In another approach, a large number of dedicated processors are placed in close proximity to each other (e.g. in a computer cluster); this saves considerable time moving data around and makes it possible for the processors to work together (rather than on separate tasks), for example in mesh and hypercube architecture.

The Top500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful (non-distributed) computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The project aims to provide a reliable basis for tracking and detecting trends in high-performance computing and bases rankings on HPL, a portable implementation of the high-performance LINPACK benchmark written in FORTRAN for distributed memory computers.

According to the 42nd edition (November, 2013) of the Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers, Teanhe-2, a supercomputer developed by China’s National University of Defense Technology, retained its position as the world’s No.1 system with a performance of 33.86 petaflops/s (quadrillions of calculations per second).

Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory, remains the No.2 system. It achieved 17.59 Pflops/s on the Linpack benchmark. Titan is one of the most energy-efficient systems on the list.

 

 

Notes:

NEC (Nippon Electric Corporation) - японская компания, производитель электронной, компьютерной техники

Fujitsu - крупная японская корпорация, производитель электроники

SETI@Home (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence at Home – поиск внеземного разума на дому) – научный некоммер­ческий проект добровольных вычислений на платформе BOINC, использующий свободные вычислительные ре­сурсы на компьютерах добровольцев для поиска радиосиг­налов внеземных цивилизаций

LINPACK benchmark - тест производительности вычисли­тельных систем, по результатам которого составляется спи­сок 500 наиболее высокопроизводительных систем мира

 

Assignments

 

1. Translate the sentences from the text into Russian in writing paying attention to the underlined words and phrases:

1. Rather it has been used through successive generations of computer design to describe the fastest, most powerful computers available at a given time.

2. The Cray I took advantage of a new technology: integrated circuits, and new architecture: vector processing, in which a single instruction can be applied to an entire series of numbers simultaneously.

3. The next generation, the Cray X-MP carried parallelism further by incorporating multiple processors.

4. On the other hand there are always applications that will soak up whatever computing power can be brought to bear on them.

5. Finally, an ad hoc “supercomputer” can be created almost for free, using software that parcels out calculation tasks to thousands of computers participating via the Internet.

 

2. Answer the following questions:

1. What does the term supercomputer describe?

2. What is considered to be the first supercomputer?

3. Which innovation marked the use of parallel processing as one of the distinguishing features of supercomputers?

4. Describe resources for parallel “supercomputing”.

5. What is Top500 project?

3. Translate into English:

«Элита компьютерного мира»

Суперкомпьютеры находятся на вершине своеобразной пирамиды мира вычислительной техники. Современные машины могут иметь до 100 тысяч процессоров и выпол­нять 60 000 млрд. операций в секунду. История суперком­пьютеров в СССР началась именно в МГУ. Первая машина «Стрела» была построена в 1956 году легендарным конст­руктором и основателем советской школы конструкторов вычислительной техники С.А. Лебедевым. «Стрела» вы­полняла 2000 операций в секунду и занимала 300 кв. м.

Следующая машина «БЭСМ-6», построенная в 1968 году, уже выполняла 1 млн. операций в секунду и являлась на тот момент одной из самых быстродействующих машин в мире.

В 2008 г. На базе НИВЦ МГУ был построен современ­ный суперкомпьютер «Чебышев», названный в честь вели­кого русского математика. Он занимает всего 100 кв. м., ве­сит 30 тонн и способен выполнять уже тысячи миллиардов операций в секунду.

Суперкомпьютер «Ломоносов», построенный компа­нией «Т-Платформы» для МГУ им. М.В. Ломоносова,- пер­вый гибридный суперкомпьютер такого масштаба в России и Восточной Европе. В нем используется три вида вычисли­тельных узлов и процессоры с различной архитектурой. Предполагается использовать суперкомпьютер для реше­ния ресурсоемких вычислительных задач в рамках фунда­ментальных научных исследований, а также для проведе­ния научной работы в области разработки алгоритмов и программного обеспечения для мощных вычислительных систем.

Суперкомпьютеры решают огромное количество важ­ных прикладных и фундаментальных задач. Одни из наи­более часто встречающихся - моделирование нефтяных ре­зервуаров, проектирование жилищных застроек и новых материалов, проведение виртуальных краш-тестов в про­цессе конструирования автомобилей. В МГУ «Чебышев» занимается фундаментальной наукой. На нем, в частности, решается задача исследования магнитного поля Земли. Не­заменимы суперкомпьютеры и в криптографии- науке о защите информации. Суперкомпьютер эффективно вы­полняет параллельные вычисления благодаря большому количеству самостоятельных микропроцессоров.

Не каждую задачу можно решить на суперкомпьютере: сложность задачи должна соответствовать сложности сис­темы. Самым большим суперкомпьютером, как это ни странно, является сеть Интернет, которая соединяет огром­ное количество вычислительных мощностей по всему миру. В будущем, возможно, удастся скоординировать усилия и использовать невостребованные мощности такой суперсис­темы.

 

Topics for essays (you might need additional information):

 

· Quantum computers versus traditional computers.

· Nanotechnology in our lives.

· The Internet of things may bring problems.

· Tiny biocomputers move closer to reality.

· Application of supercomputers.

 


 

LITERATURE

 

1. “3D Computer Graphics” by Alan H. Watt, Addison-Wesley, 2000

2. “A Brief History of Programming Languages.” http://www.byte.com/art/9509/se7/artl9.htm. Cited, March 25, 2000.

  1. “Artificial Intelligence - What You Really Need to Know” by Michele Goetz. Jan 30, 2014 http://www.forbes.com/sites/forrester/2014/01/29/artificial-intelligence-what-you-really-need-to-know/
  2. “Artificial Life. Encyclopedia of Science and Religion” by Claus Emmeche, New York University Press, 2003. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Artificial_life.aspx

5. “Best-Kept Secrets: Quantum Cryptography Has Marched from Theory to Laboratory to Real Products” by Stix, Gary. Scientific American, 2005. http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID= 000479CD-F58C-11BE-AD0683414B7F0000

6. “Biometric Security Technology” by P Kumbargoudar, PeterIndia , 2008 www.peterindia.net/BiometricsView.html

  1. “Cognitive Computing Ushers In New Era of IT” by Eric W. Brown, IBM Smarter Planet. 2/03/2014. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ibm/2014/02/03/cognitive-computing-ushers-in-new-era-of-it/

8. “Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice” by James D. Foley, Andries van Dam, Steven K. Feiner and John F. Hughes. Addison-Wesley Professional, 1996.

9. “Computer Graphics: Theory into Practice” by Jeffrey J. McConnell. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2006.

  1. “Computer Science Illuminated” by Nell Dale, John Lewis. Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 2002

11. “Concepts and Terminology for Computer Security” by Donald L. Brinkley and Roger R. Schell, 1995

12. “Concepts in Programming Languages” by John C. Mitchell. Cambridge University Press, 2003

  1. “Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology” (Revised edition) by Harry Henderson. Infobase Publishing, 2009
  2. “Flight of the Robobee: the Rise of Swarm Robotics” by Tim Smedley. http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/swarm-robotics-conservation-coral-reefs-pollination

15. “From ENIAC to Everyone: Talking with J. Presper Eckert” by Alexander Randall. http://www.kurzweilai.net/articles/art0645.html

  1. ‘Fuzzy Logic: Четкие решения нечеткой логики.” http://www.bacnet.ru/knowledge-base/articles/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=653

17. “History of Programming Languages-II” by Thomas J. Bergin and Richard G. Gibson. New York: ACM Press, 1996.

18. “How Quantum Cryptology Works” by Josh Clark. science.howstuffworks.com/.../quantum-cryptology.htm

  1. http://albatron.ru/27-kompyuter-na-parovoj-tyage-ili-o-tvorenii-britanskix-uchenyx.html
  2. http://gimn6.ru/article.asp?id_text=60
  3. http://globalfuturist.com/about-igf/top-ten-trends/top-ten-computer-trends-for-the-21st-century.html
  4. http://shkolazhizni.ru/archive/0/n-37499/
  5. http://software-security.sans.org/resources/paper/cissp/overview-tutorial-artificial-intelligence-systems
  6. http://thinkinnovative.ru/experts/blogs/id/78
  7. http://www.dataved.ru/2013/01/slang-is-difficult-for-ibm.html

26. “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” by Wolfgang Ertel. Springer-Verlag London Limited, 2011

27. “Introduction to Information Security” by Linda Pesante. Carnegie Mellon University, 2008

28. “The Art of Computer Programming: Semi-numerical Algorithms” by Donald E. Knuth. Addison-Wesley; 1981

29. Landofcode.com Webhostinggeeks.com Institut fur Theoretische Physik http://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/?lang=en

30. Megaspring.ucoz.ru http://www.ozon.ru/context/detail/id/1421843/

  1. “Operating System Concepts” (8th edition) by Silberschats, Galvin, Gagne. John Wiley & Sons Inc., 2008
  2. “Organization and Architecture. Designing for Performance” by William Stallings. Pearson Prentice Hall, 2010

33. “Past, Present, and Future Methods of Cryptography and Data Encryption” A Research Review by Nicholas G. McDonald. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Utah

34. “Programming Languages”. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.

35. “Quantum Cryptography” by Alves, Carolina Moura and Kent Adrian. National University of Singapore. http://www.quantumlah.org/?q=tutorial/quantumcrypto

36. “Quantum Cryptography Tutorial” Dartmouth College. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~jford/crypto.html

37. “Quantum Cryptography: Privacy through Uncertainty” by Salvatore Vittorio. Proquest - CSA - October 2002. http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/crypt/overview.php

38. “Quantum Programming Languages: Survey and Bibliography” by Simon J. Gay. Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK , 2006

39. “Security of the Internet” by James Ellis, Howard F. Lipson, Thomas A. Longstaff, Linda Pesante, Derek Simmel. NEWS AT SEI, 1998.

40. “Tales of the Encrypted” by Brodney A, Asher J. http://library.thinkquest.org/28005/flashed/index2.shtml.

41. “The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing” by D. Kahn. Scribner, 1996.

  1. “The ENIAC Story” by Martin H. Weik. Ordnance Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD ftp.arl.mil/mike/comphist/eniac-story.html
  2. to.prabc.ru
  3. transhumanism-russia.ru

45. “Understanding Programming Languages” by M. Ben-Ari Weizmann. Institute of Science. Originally published by John Wiley & Sons, Chichester, 1996.

46. “Web Graphics for Dummies” by Linda Richards. Wiley/Dummies, 1997.

  1. “What is Artificial Life?” http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-artificial-life.htm
  2. “What is Swarm Robotics? “ http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-swarm-robotics.htm
  3. www.book.kbsu.ru
  4. www.ccas.ru
  5. www.inf1.info/machineneumann
  6. www.osp.ru
  7. “Ионы для квантовых компьютеров.” Кристофер Монро, Дэвид Уайнленд, «В мире Науки», ноябрь, 2008

54. “Квантовая криптография.” Курсовая работа по дисциплине: Криптография. Кафедра Информационной безопасности, Студент группы Зи91 Лазарев Ю.А. МОСКОВСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ИНСТИТУТ ЭЛЕКТРОНИКИ И МАТЕМАТИКИ (технический университет), МОСКВА 2003.

  1. “Легенда о Сетуни” http://habrahabr.ru/post/46688/
  2. “Московский университет”, №31, октябрь, 2008

57. “Основные понятия - Криптография” kriptografea.narod.ru/osnponiatia.html

  1. “Первая ЭВМ” http://info61.blogspot.ru/p/20-1902-3-1974-1953-12.html

59. “Современные биометрические методы идентификации.” habrahabr.ru/post/126144/11 авг. 2011

 

 


 

CONTENTS

HISTORY OF COMPUTING... 5

PRE-COMPUTER ERA.. 5

EARLY COMPUTERS.. 11

1950s - PRESENT DAY: DECADE BY DECADE GUIDE.. 18

COMPUTING COMPONENTS. THE VON NEUMANN ARCHITECTURE. 31

ARCHITECTURE AND ORGANIZATION... 31

STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONS.. 36

SECONDARY STORAGE DEVICES.. 43

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AND PROGRAM LANGUAGE CONCEPTS 51

BRIEF HISTORY OF COMPUTER PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES 51

GENERATIONS OF LANGUAGES.. 63

PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE APPLICATIONS.. 69

BASIC TYPES OF PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES.. 74

LANGUAGE EVALUATION CRITERIA. IMPLEMENTATION METHODS 85

OPERATING SYSTEMS.. 91

DEVELOPMENT.. 93

FUNCTIONS.. 97

EXAMPLES OF OPERATING SYSTEMS.. 108

INTERNET.. 117

E-MAIL.. 124

WORLD WIDE WEB.. 128

WEB BROWSER.. 134

WEB PAGE DESIGN... 142

INTERNET PROTOCOLS.. 148

COMPUTER SECURITY AND RISKS.. 154

BASIC COMPUTER SECURITY CONCEPTS.. 154

TYPES OF INCIDENTS.. 159

IMPROVING SECURITY.. 166

BIOMETRIC SECURITY TECHNOLOGY.. 172

CRYPTOGRAPHY AND DATA ENCRYPTION... 181

TERMINOLOGY.. 181

HISTORICAL CRYPTOGRAPHY.. 185

MODERN ENCRYPTION... 193

FUTURE METHODS OF ENCRYPTION... 200

COMPUTER GRAPHICS.. 207

HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT.. 207

CONCEPTS AND PRINCIPLES.. 212

IMAGE TYPES.. 218

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: OVERVIEW... 225

DEFINITIONS.. 225

APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES.. 231

CURRENT TRENDS.. 239

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: ROBOTICS AND A-LIFE. 246

ROBOTICS.. 246

ARTIFICIAL LIFE.. 256

FUTURE COMPUTING... 267

QUANTUM COMPUTING... 267

BIOINFORMATICS.. 271

NANOTECHNOLOGY.. 277

UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING... 281

SUPERCOMPUTERS.. 285

LITERATURE.. 292