神奇的芯片Language+Points.pptVIP

The Age of Miracle Chips From Time (Language Points) a railroad switching yard Like the grains of sand on a beach … on the surface of the earth: ---Sand on a beach is made mostly of silicon. So is the miracle chip. Silicon is available in nature in huge quantities. The only thing there is more of is oxygen. Here the word grain means a tiny solid particle, as of salt or sand. element:元素 inert fleck: --- a bit of a thing having few or no active properties. For the so-called miracle chips … 25 years ago: ---This tiny fleck can store as much information as the huge computers of the past. These chips have such an extraordinary capability that they almost seem to perform miracles. Calculating capability is its ability to process (many and complex) mathematical data. Unlike the hulking Calibans … infinitely versatile and convenient: --- Chips have evolved from computers which were made clumsy like Caliban. Since they are made of silicon, chips can be produced easily and inexpensively on a large scale (cheap and easy to mass produce). They can do a limitless number of operations (infinitely versatile) and do them rapidly (fast). They are easy to handle and operate (convenient). Therefore the chips are a major advance over the earlier models of computer. the hulking Calibans of vacuum tubes and tangled wires: --- vacuum tubes and tangled wires like the hulking Calibans. More examples: She is a fine figure of a woman. They went into a cave of a room. He is an idiot of a man. Just as the Industrial Revolution took over an immense range of tasks … and thereby expanding the mind’s capacities in ways that man has only begun to grasp: --- Just as the Industrial Revolution freed the human body of many strenuous, unpleasant physical tasks, so the microcomputer will free the human mind of many strenuous, unpleasant mental task. With the chip, amazing feats of memory and execution become possible … to a baby’s nursery: --- By means of the chip, we are now able to perform