1、 毕业设计 (论文 )外文资料翻译 系 别 计算机信息与技术系 专 业 计算机科学与技术 班 级 姓 名 学 号 外文出处 附 件 1. 原文； 2. 译文 2012 年 3 月 1 History of computing Main article: History of computing hardware The first use of the word computer was recorded in 1613, referring to a person who carried out calculations, or computations, and the word cont
2、inued with the same meaning until the middle of the 20th century. From the end of the 19th century the word began to take on its more familiar meaning, a machine that carries out computations. Limited-function early computers The Jacquard loom, on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in Man
3、chester, England, was one of the first programmable devices. The history of the modern computer begins with two separate technologies, automated calculation and programmability, but no single device can be identified as the earliest computer, partly because of the inconsistent application of that te
4、rm. A few devices are worth mentioning though, like some mechanical aids to computing, which were very successful and survived for centuries until the advent of the electronic calculator, like the Sumerian abacus, designed around 2500 BC of which a descendant won a speed competition against a modern
5、 desk calculating machine in Japan in 1946, the slide rules, invented in the 1620s, which were carried on five Apollo space missions, including to the moon and arguably the astrolabe and the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient astronomical computer built by the Greeks around 80 BC. The Greek mathemati
6、cian Hero of Alexandria (c. 1070 AD) built a mechanical theater which performed a play lasting 10 minutes and was operated by a complex system of ropes and drums that might be considered to be a means of deciding which parts of the mechanism performed which actions and when. This is the essence of p
7、rogrammability. First general-purpose computers During the first half of the 20th century, many scientific computing needs were met by increasingly sophisticated analog computers, which used a direct mechanical or electrical model of the problem as a basis for computation. However, these were not pr
8、ogrammable and generally lacked the versatility and accuracy of modern digital computers. Alan Turing is widely regarded as the father of modern computer science. In 1936 Turing provided an influential formalisation of the concept of the algorithm and 2 computation with the Turing machine, providing
9、 a blueprint for the electronic digital computer. Of his role in the creation of the modern computer, Time magazine in naming Turing one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century, states: The fact remains that everyone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing p
10、rogram, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine. EDSAC was one of the first computers to implement the stored-program (von Neumann) architecture. Die of an Intel 80486DX2 microprocessor (actual size: 126.75 mm) in its packaging. The first program-controlled computer was invented by Konrad Z
11、use, who built the Z3, an electromechanical computing machine, in 1941. The first programmable electronic computer was the Colossus, built in 1943 by Tommy Flowers. George Stibitz is internationally recognized as a father of the modern digital computer. While working at Bell Labs in November 1937, S
12、tibitz invented and built a relay-based calculator he dubbed the Model K (for kitchen table, on which he had assembled it), which was the first to use binary circuits to perform an arithmetic operation. Later models added greater sophistication including complex arithmetic and programmability. A suc
13、cession of steadily more powerful and flexible computing devices were constructed in the 1930s and 1940s, gradually adding the key features that are seen in modern computers. The use of digital electronics (largely invented by Claude Shannon in 1937) and more flexible programmability were vitally im
14、portant steps, but defining one point along this road as the first digital electronic computer is difficult. Notable achievements include. Konrad Zuses electromechanical Z machines. The Z3 (1941) was the first working machine featuring binary arithmetic, including floating point arithmetic and a mea
15、sure of programmability. In 1998 the Z3 was proved to be Turing complete, therefore being the worlds first operational computer. The non-programmable AtanasoffBerry Computer (commenced in 1937, completed in 1941) which used vacuum tube based computation, binary numbers, and regenerative capacitor me
16、mory. The use of regenerative memory allowed it to be much more compact than its peers (being approximately the size of a large desk or workbench), since intermediate results could be stored and then fed back into the same set of computation elements. The secret British Colossus computers (1943), which had limited
