Раздел 2 Третье занятие

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more scientific. The junction transistor of 1948 was further modernized in 1951, with the development of the “grown” transistor. The technolo­gy for manufacturing transistors steadily improved until, in 1959, the first integrated circuit was produced — the first circuit-on-a-chip.

The integrated circuit constituted another major step in the growth of computer technology. Until 1959, the fundamental logical compo­nents of digital computers were the individual electrical switches, first in the form of relays, then vacuum tubes, then transistors.

In the vacuum tubes and relay stages, additional discrete compo­nents such as resistors, inductors and capacitors were required in or­der to make the whole system work. These components were about the same size as packaged transistors. Integrated circuit technology per­mitted the elimination of some of these components and “integration” of most of the others on the same chip of semiconductor that contains the transistor. Thus the Ьаыс logic element — the switch, or “flip-flop”, which required two separate transistors and some resistors and capaci­tors in the early 1950s, could be packaged into a single small unit in 1960. That unit was half the size of a pea.

The chip was a crucial (важный) development in the accelerating pace of computer technology With integrated circuit technology, it be­came possible to jam (зд. размещать) more and more elements into a single chip. Entire assemblies of parts could be manufactured in the same time that it previously took to make a single part. Clearly, the cost of pro­viding a particular computing function decreased proportionally. As the number of components on an integrated circuit grew from a few to hun­dreds, then thousands, the term for the chip changed to microcircuit.

6. Контроль умения аннотировать и реферировать.

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Made in Space

Numerous experiments carried out at the Soviet orbital stations have paved the way to the development of methods and means of *ndustrial production in space.

Микроэлектроника настоящее и будущее

In recent years active research has been going on in one of the fields of space industrialization — space material study and production of new materials of better quality on board the spacecraft, ranging from semiconductors for microelectronics to unique and more efficient med­icines for the treatment of quite a number of diseases (болезнь).

Conditions on board a space vehicle orbiting the earth drasti­cally differ from those on its surface. However, all of these condi­tions can be simulated on Earth, except for one — prolonged weight­lessness.

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What can weightlessness be used for? Many well-known phys­ical processes proceed differently due to absence of weight. In case of melts of metals, glasses, or semiconductors, they can be cooled down to the solidification point even in space and then brought back to Earth. Such materials will possess quite unusual properties.

There is no gravitation convection, i.e. movements of gases or liquids caused by difference of temperature in space. Manufactur­ers of semiconductors know only too well that convection is to blame for the various faults in semiconductors. The technical specialists started their experiments aimed at proving the advantages of the zero-g state for the production of certain materials. In the Soviet Union all orbital stations from Salyut 5 onwards were used for that purpose, as well as automatic space probes and high-altitude rock­ets. Since 1976, over 600 technological experiments have been staged in the Soviet Union on board its manned and unmanned space ve­hicles. An impressive number of similar experiments have also been carried out by scientists in other countries.

The experiments proved that scientists were right. Many of the properties of the materials obtained in the zero-g conditions were much better pronounced as compared with those of the specimens produced on Earth.

At the same time, test runs of the installations of the next gen­eration developed for the small-scale industrial production in spacc have started. One such installation, Korund, was successfully test­ed on board the Salyut station. It had been designed to grow mono- crystalline semiconductors possessing unique properties.

In order to launch full-scale industrial production of mono- crystalline semiconductors, bioactive preparations and other sub-