Английский ( Топики/Сочинения ): Microsoft Company — Компания «Майкрософт»
Microsoft Company
Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded the Company in 1975.
Microsoft is best-known American company involved in software production. Microsoft’s wealth and power is growing up for years. It is a giant company. Microsoft’s $25 billion market value tops that of Ford, General Motors.
Some time ago, Microsoft dominated the PC market with its-MS-DOS operating system, the basic software that let the computer understand your commands and carry them out, appeared in the beginning of 80s. MS-DOS ran on 90 percent of the worlds IBM and IBM-clone computers. Then, Microsoft has extended that presence with releasing of Windows, which is probably the most important and popular operating system in the World. And now it dominates the market.
Firstly, Microsoft released Windows ’95 in 1995. It was a graphics interface environment that ran on top of MS-DOS and replaced DOS in future versions. Then, Microsoft released Windows ’98, Windows NT, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Microsoft also supplies about 50 percent of the world’s software applications. Among them, there are three well-known Office Packs; they are also called Microsoft Office programs such as Excel (spreadsheets), Microsoft Word (word processing), Access (databases) and Outlook Express (e-mail)- There were releases in 1997, 2000, and 2002, when appeared Microsoft Office XP. Microsoft is also in the market of networking, multimedia and even books. And as an early supporter of the Macintosh computer, Microsoft virtually owns the Mac application market.
It has been calculated that Microsoft controls 80-85 % of the entire PC software industry. The company has hundreds of products and thousands of employees, making it one of the largest companies. Many of the company’s shareholders are now millionaires and a few including Bill Gates and Paul Allen are billionaires. Microsoft is no doubt the fastest growing company in the PC software industry.
Компания «Майкрософт»
Пол Аллен и Билл Гейтс основали компанию в 1975 году.
«Майкрософт» — хорошо известная американская компания по производству программного обеспечения. Богатство и мощь «Майкрософт» растет в течение многих лет. Это гигантская компания. 25-миллиардный рынок «Майкрософт» превосходит рынки таких компаний как «Форд», «Дженерал Моторс».
Некоторое время назад «Майкрософт» доминировала на рынке со своей платформой МС-ДОС — операционная система, появившаяся в начале 80-х, которая позволяет компьютеру понимать команды и выполнять их. Было три версии МС-ДОС. МС-ДОС работала на 90 % всех компьютеров IBM и IBM-совместимых компьютеров. Затем свое присутствие на рынке «Майкрософт» увеличила за счет выпуска Виндоуз, которая, вероятно, на данный момент является самой важной и самой популярной операционной системой в мире. Сейчас она доминирует на рынке.
Сначала «Майкрософт» выпустила Виндоуз’95 в 1995 году. Это была графическая интерфейс-оболочка, которая запускалась поверх МС-ДОС и в будущем заменила ДОС* Затем «Майкрософт» выпустила Виндоуз’98, Виндоуз NT, Виндоуз 2000, Виндоуз Миллениум и Виндоуз ХР.
«Майкрософт» также поставляет около 50 процентов всего программного обеспечения в мире. Среди них три хорошо известных офисных пакета, их еще называют программы Офис Майкрософт, такие как Иксел (электронные таблицы), Майкрософт Уорд (текстовый редактор), Эксесс (базы данных) и Аутлук Икспресс (электронная почта). Были выпуски в 1997, 2000 и 2002 годах, когда появился Майкрософт Офис ХР. «Майкрософт» также присутствует на рынке сетей, мультимедиа, даже книг. Из-за того что «Майкрософт» сначала поддерживала компанию «Макинтош», «Майкрософт» виртуально владеет прикладным рынком компьютеров «Макинтош».
Было подсчитано, что «Майкрософт» контролирует 80— 85 % всего рынка программного обеспечения персональных компьютеров. В ассортименте компании сотни видов продукции, тысячи работников, что делает ее самой крупной компанией. Многие из акционеров компании — миллионеры, а некоторые, включая Билла Гейтса и Пола Ал лена — миллиардеры. Без сомнения «Майкрософт» на рынке программного обеспечения для персональных компьютеров является самой быстрорастущей компанией.
1. Who founded the Company?
2. When was Microsoft founded?
3. What does the company produce?
4. What was the first Microsoft operating system that dominated the PC market?
5. How many Windows operating systems did Microsoft release?
6. Is it a rich company?
7. Does the Company dominate the PC market?
to found — основать
to involve — касаться, затрагивать
software — программное обеспечение, программы
wealth — стоимость
PC market — рынок ПК персональных компьютерой
MS-DOS operating system — операционная система МС-ДОС
to carry out — выполнять
to extend — расширяться, увеличиваться
to release — выпускать
graphics interface — графический интерфейс
to supply — поставлять, снабжать
application — приложение
spreadsheets — программа табличных вычислений
word processing — текстовый редактор
networking — организация/создание сетей; объединение в сеть; подключение к сети
multimedia — мультимедиа (использующий различные средства информации)
virtually — виртуально
entire — целый, весь
employee — служащий
shareholder — акционер, пайщик, владелец/держатель акций
doubt — сомнение
Англійська мова 1500 тем
СУЧАСНІ ТЕХНОЛОГІЇ
MICROSOFT COMPANY
Paul Allen and Bill Gates founded the Company in 1975.
Microsoft is best-known American company involved in software production. Microsoft’s wealth and power is growing up for years. It is a giant company. Microsoft’s $25 billion market value tops that of Ford, General Motors.
Some time ago, Microsoft dominated the PC market with its MS-DOS operating system, the basic software that let the computer understand your commands and carry them out, appeared in the beginning of 80s. MS-DOS ran on 90 percent of the worlds IBM and IBM-clone computers. Then, Microsoft has extended that presence with releasing of Windows, which is probably the most important and popular operating system in the World. And now it dominates the market.
Firstly, Microsoft released Windows ’95 in 1995. It was a graphics interface environment that ran on top of MS- DOS and replaced DOS in future versions. Then, Microsoft released Windows ’98, Windows NT, Windows Millennium, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Microsoft also supplies about 50 percent of the world’s software applications. Among them, there are three well- known Office Packs; they are also called Microsoft Office programs such as Excel (spreadsheets), Microsoft Word (word processing), Access (data bases) and Outlook Express (e-mail). There were releases in 1997, 2000, and 2002, when appeared Microsoft Office XP. Microsoft is also in the market of networking, multimedia and even books. And as an early supporter of the Macintosh computer, Microsoft virtually owns the Mac application market.
It has been calculated that Microsoft controls 80-85 % of the entire PC software industry. The company has hundreds of products and thousands of employees, making it one of the largest companies. Many of the company’s shareholders are now millionaires and a few including Bill Gates and Paul Allen are billionaires. Microsoft is no doubt the fastest growing company in the PC software industry.
1. Who founded the Company?
2. When was Microsoft founded?
3. What does the company produce?
4. What was the first Microsoft operating system that dominated the PC market?
5. How many Windows operating systems did Microsoft release?
6. Is it a rich company?
7. Does the Company dominate the PC market?
to found — заснувати
to involve — стосуватися, торкатися
software — програмне забезпечення, програми
PC market — ринок ПК (персональних комп’ютерів)
MS-DOS operating system — операційна система MS-DOS
to carry out — виконувати
to extend — розширюватися, збільшуватися
to release — випускати
graphics interface — графічний інтерфейс
to supply — поставляти, постачати
spreadsheets — програма табличних обчислень
word processing — текстовий редактор
networking — організація/створення мереж; об’єднання в мережу; підключення до мережі
multimedia — мультимедіа (використовує різні засоби інформації)
entire — цілий, весь
shareholder — акціонер; пайовик, власник акцій
Пол Аллен і Вілл Гейтс заснували компанію в 1975 р.
«Майкрософт» — добре відома американська компанія з виробництва програмного забезпечення. Багатство і потужність «Майкрософт» зростає протягом багатьох років. Це гігантська компанія. 25-мільярдний ринок «Майкрософт» перевершує ринки таких компаній, як «Форд», «Дженерал Моторе».
Якийсь час тому «Майкрософт» домінувала на ринку зі своєю платформою MS-DOS — операційною системою, яка з’явилася на початку 80-х pp. і дозволяє комп’ютеру розуміти команди і виконувати їх. Було три версії MS-DOS. MS-DOS працювала на 90 % усіх комп’ютерів IBM і IBM-сумісних комп’ютерів. Потім свою присутність на ринку «Майкрософт» закріпила за рахунок випуску Windows, що, ймовірно, наданий момент є найважливішою і найбільш популярною операційною системою у світі. Зараз вона домінує на ринку.
Спочатку «Майкрософт» випустила Windows 95 у 1995 р. Це була графічна інтерфейс-оболонка, яка запускалася поверх MS-DOS і в майбутньому замінила DOS. Потім «Майкрософт» випустила Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows Millennium і Windows XP.
«Майкрософт» також постачає близько 50 відсотків усього програмного забезпечення у світі. Серед них три добре відомих офісних пакети, їх ще називають програми Microsoft Office, такі як Excel (електронні таблиці), Microsoft Word (текстовий редактор), Access (бази даних) і Outlook Express (електронна пошта). Були випуски в 1997, 2000 і 2002 pp., коли з’явився Microsoft Office XP. «Майкрософт» також представлений на ринку мереж, мультимедіа, навіть книг. Через те що «Майкрософт» спочатку підтримувала компанію «Макінтош», «Майкрософт» віртуально володіє прикладним ринком комп’ютерів «Макінтош».
Було підраховано, що «Майкрософт» контролює 80-85 % усього ринку програмного забезпечення персональних комп’ютерів. В асортименті компанії сотні видів продукції, тисячі працівників, що робить її найбільшою. Багато хто з акціонерів компанії — мільйонери, а деякі, включаючи Білла Гейтса і Пола Аллена, — мільярдери. Без сумніву, «Майкрософт» на ринку програмного забезпечення для персональних комп’ютерів є найбільшою компанією, яка швидко зростає.
Microsoft founded
On April 4, 1975, at a time when most Americans used typewriters, childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft, a company that makes computer software. Originally based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Microsoft relocated to Washington State in 1979 and eventually grew into a major multinational technology corporation. In 1987, the year after Microsoft went public, 31-year-old Gates became the world’s youngest billionaire.
Gates and Allen started Microsoft—originally called Micro-Soft, for microprocessors and software—in order to produce software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer. Allen quit his job as a programmer in Boston and Gates left Harvard University, where he was a student, to focus on their new company, which was based in Albuquerque because the city was home to electronics firm MITS, maker of the Altair 8800. By the end of 1978, Microsoft’s sales topped more than $1 million and in 1979 the business moved its headquarters to Bellevue, Washington, a suburb of Seattle, where Gates and Allen grew up. The company went on to license its MS-DOS operating system to IBM for its first personal computer, which debuted in 1981. Afterward, other computer companies started licensing MS-DOS, which had no graphical interface and required users to type in commands in order to open a program. In 1983, Allen departed Microsoft after being diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma; he was successfully treated for the disease and went on to pursue a variety of other business ventures.
In 1985, Microsoft released a new operating system, Windows, with a graphical user interface that included drop-down menus, scroll bars and other features. The following year, the company moved its headquarters to Redmond, Washington, and went public at $21 a share, raising $61 million. By the late 1980s, Microsoft had become the world’s biggest personal-computer software company, based on sales. In 1995, amidst skyrocketing purchases of personal computers for home and office use, Windows 95 made its debut. It included such innovations as the Start menu (TV commercials for Windows 95 featured the Rolling Stones singing “Start Me Up”) and 7 million copies of the new product were sold in the first five weeks. During the second half of the 1990s, Internet usage took off, and Microsoft introduced its web browser, Internet Explorer, in 1995.
Microsoft’s Windows operating system
In 1985 Microsoft came out with its Windows operating system, which gave PC compatibles some of the same capabilities as the Macintosh. Year after year, Microsoft refined and improved Windows so that Apple, which failed to come up with a significant new advantage, lost its edge. IBM tried to establish yet another operating system, OS/2, but lost the battle to Gates’s company. In fact, Microsoft also had established itself as the leading provider of application software for the Macintosh. Thus Microsoft dominated not only the operating system and application software business for PC-compatibles but also the application software business for the only nonstandard system with any sizable share of the desktop computer market. In 1998, amid a growing chorus of complaints about Microsoft’s business tactics, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit charging Microsoft with using its monopoly position to stifle competition.
Workstation computers
While the personal computer market grew and matured, a variation on its theme grew out of university labs and began to threaten the minicomputers for their market. The new machines were called workstations. They looked like personal computers, and they sat on a single desktop and were used by a single individual just like personal computers, but they were distinguished by being more powerful and expensive, by having more complex architectures that spread the computational load over more than one CPU chip, by usually running the UNIX operating system, and by being targeted to scientists and engineers, software and chip designers, graphic artists, moviemakers, and others needing high performance. Workstations existed in a narrow niche between the cheapest minicomputers and the most powerful personal computers, and each year they had to become more powerful, pushing at the minicomputers even as they were pushed at by the high-end personal computers.
The most successful of the workstation manufacturers were Sun Microsystems, Inc., started by people involved in enhancing the UNIX operating system, and, for a time, Silicon Graphics, Inc., which marketed machines for video and audio editing.
The microcomputer market now included personal computers, software, peripheral devices, and workstations. Within two decades this market had surpassed the market for mainframes and minicomputers in sales and every other measure. As if to underscore such growth, in 1996 Silicon Graphics, a workstation manufacturer, bought the star of the supercomputer manufacturers, Cray Research, and began to develop supercomputers as a sideline. Moreover, Compaq Computer Corporation—which had parlayed its success with portable PCs into a perennial position during the 1990s as the leading seller of microcomputers—bought the reigning king of the minicomputer manufacturers, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Compaq announced that it intended to fold DEC technology into its own expanding product line and that the DEC brand name would be gradually phased out. Microcomputers were not only outselling mainframes and minis, they were blotting them out.
Living in cyberspace
Ever smaller computers
Embedded systems
One can look at the development of the electronic computer as occurring in waves. The first large wave was the mainframe era, when many people had to share single machines. (The mainframe era is covered in the section The age of Big Iron.) In this view, the minicomputer era can be seen as a mere eddy in the larger wave, a development that allowed a favoured few to have greater contact with the big machines. Overall, the age of mainframes could be characterized by the expression “Many persons, one computer.”
The second wave of computing history was brought on by the personal computer, which in turn was made possible by the invention of the microprocessor. (This era is described in the section The personal computer revolution.) The impact of personal computers has been far greater than that of mainframes and minicomputers: their processing power has overtaken that of the minicomputers, and networks of personal computers working together to solve problems can be the equal of the fastest supercomputers. The era of the personal computer can be described as the age of “One person, one computer.”
Since the introduction of the first personal computer, the semiconductor business has grown to more than a quarter-trillion-dollar worldwide industry. However, this phenomenon is only partly ascribable to the general-purpose microprocessor, which accounts for about one-sixth of annual sales. The greatest growth in the semiconductor industry has occurred in the manufacture of special-purpose processors, controllers, and digital signal processors. These computer chips are increasingly being included, or embedded, in a vast array of consumer devices, including pagers, mobile telephones, music players, automobiles, televisions, digital cameras, kitchen appliances, video games, and toys. While the Intel Corporation may be safely said to dominate the worldwide microprocessor business, it has been outpaced in this rapidly growing multibillion-dollar industry by companies such as Motorola, Inc.; Hitachi, Ltd.; Texas Instruments Incorporated; NEC Corporation; and Lucent Technologies Inc. This ongoing third wave may be characterized as “One person, many computers.”
Handheld digital devices
The origins of handheld digital devices go back to the 1960s, when Alan Kay, a researcher at Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), promoted the vision of a small, powerful notebook-style computer that he called the Dynabook. Kay never actually built a Dynabook (the technology had yet to be invented), but his vision helped to catalyze the research that would eventually make his dream feasible.
It happened by small steps. The popularity of the personal computer and the ongoing miniaturization of the semiconductor circuitry and other devices first led to the development of somewhat smaller, portable—or, as they were sometimes called, luggable—computer systems. The first of these, the Osborne 1, designed by Lee Felsenstein, an electronics engineer active in the Homebrew Computer Club in San Francisco, was sold in 1981. Soon most PC manufacturers had portable models. At first these portables looked like sewing machines and weighed in excess of 20 pounds (9 kg). Gradually they became smaller (laptop-, notebook-, and then sub-notebook-size) and came with more powerful processors. These devices allowed people to use computers not only in the office or at home but also while traveling—on airplanes, in waiting rooms, or even at the beach.
As the size of computers continued to shrink and microprocessors became more and more powerful, researchers and entrepreneurs explored new possibilities in mobile computing. In the late 1980s and early ’90s, several companies came out with handheld computers, called personal digital assistants (PDAs). PDAs typically replaced the cathode-ray-tube screen with a more compact liquid crystal display, and they either had a miniature keyboard or replaced the keyboard with a stylus and handwriting-recognition software that allowed the user to write directly on the screen. Like the first personal computers, PDAs were built without a clear idea of what people would do with them. In fact, people did not do much at all with the early models. To some extent, the early PDAs, made by Go Corporation and Apple, were technologically premature; with their unreliable handwriting recognition, they offered little advantage over paper-and-pencil planning books.
The potential of this new kind of device was realized in 1996 when Palm Computing, Inc., released the Palm Pilot, which was about the size of a deck of playing cards and sold for about $400—approximately the same price as the MITS Altair, the first personal computer sold as a kit in 1974. The Pilot did not try to replace the computer but made it possible to organize and carry information with an electronic calendar, telephone number and address list, memo pad, and expense-tracking software and to synchronize that data with a PC. The device included an electronic cradle to connect to a PC and pass information back and forth. It also featured a data-entry system called “graffiti,” which involved writing with a stylus using a slightly altered alphabet that the device recognized. Its success encouraged numerous software companies to develop applications for it.
In 1998 this market heated up further with the entry of several established consumer electronics firms using Microsoft’s Windows CE operating system (a stripped-down version of the Windows system) to sell handheld computer devices and wireless telephones that could connect to PCs. These small devices also often possessed a communications component and benefited from the sudden popularization of the Internet and the World Wide Web. In particular, the BlackBerry PDA, introduced by the Canadian company Research in Motion in 2002, established itself as a favourite in the corporate world because of features that allowed employees to make secure connections with their company’s databases.
In 2001 Apple introduced the iPod, a handheld device capable of storing 1,000 songs for playback. Apple quickly came to dominate a booming market for music players. The iPod could also store notes and appointments. In 2003 Apple opened an online music store, iTunes Store, and in the following software releases added photographs and movies to the media the iPod could handle. The market for iPods and iPod-like devices was second only to cellular telephones among handheld electronic devices.
While Apple and competitors grew the market for handheld devices with these media players, mobile telephones were increasingly becoming “smartphones,” acquiring more of the functions of computers, including the ability to send and receive e-mail and text messages and to access the Internet. In 2007 Apple once again shook up a market for handheld devices, this time redefining the smartphone market with its iPhone. The touch-screen interface of the iPhone was in its way more advanced than the graphical user interface used on personal computers, its storage rivaled that of computers from just a few years before, and its operating system was a modified version of the operating system on the Apple Macintosh. This, along with synchronizing and distribution technology, embodied a vision of ubiquitous computing in which personal documents and other media could be moved easily from one device to another. Handheld devices and computers found their link through the Internet.
