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PART 2

Task1. Learn the following words and word combinations:
By turning switches and plugging and unplugging cables, be
credited, inconveniences of ‘external’ programming, obvious,
‘remaining’ data, however, a strict distinction, a bus, functional
specification.

Task 2. Create your own sentences using the above mentioned
words and phrases.

TEXT 2
GENERAL STRUCTURE OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM
The Von Neumann architecture describes the structure on
which most of today’s computers are built. Although the ENIAC
computer could be programmed, entering programs or changing them
was a difficult procedure as it needed to be programmed manually by
turning switches and plugging and unplugging cables. The
mathematician John von Neumann (1903–1957) is generally credited
with the idea of storing the program code together with the stored
data to overcome the inconveniences of ‘external’ programming.
In 1945 the concept of the ‘stored program’ was first suggested
as the basis for the design of the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete
Variable Computer), and in 1946 the IAS computer was developed at
the Princeton Institute for Advanced Studies. This machine was only
completed in 1952, but its structure is still considered to be the
original basis for today’s computers’ architecture. You might think
this is obvious: of course programs are stored with the ‘remaining’
data. However, try to understand that in the early days of computing
a strict distinction was made between the data that was stored and the
‘processing methods’ (programs) that were applied to manipulate the

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