Questões de Inglês - Artigos | Articles para Concurso

O texto a seguir deve ser utilizado para responder às questões de números 46 a 50.

When the market received the IBM PC bang in the mid-1980, Microsoft, thanks to IBM came up with MS-DOS. The runner up was Digital Research. So, in August 12, 1981 Microsoft starts working at MS-DOS. They started from a clone of QDOS for which they paid $50000, clone renamed as PC-DOS.

But MS-DOS got alive only thanks to COMPAQ who managed to clone the IBM BIOS and so the world got a new player on the computer manufacturers. Thanks to this, Microsoft began licensing its operating system for use on non-IBM PC clones and so MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) entered the scene.

In 1985, Microsoft moves to Ireland and there they founded the first international production facility. And there, on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows, originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. In August, Microsoft and IBM partnered in the development of a different operating system called 0S/2. OS/2 was marketed in connection with a new hardware design proprietary to IBM, the PS/2. Shortly afterwards on February 16, 1986, Microsoft relocated to Redmond, Washington. Around one month later, on March 13, the company went public with an IPO, raising US$61 million at US$21.00 per share. By the end of the trading day, the price had risen to US$28.00. In 1987, Microsoft eventually released their first version of OS/2 to OEMS.

The early versions of Windows were often thought of as just graphical user interfaces or desktops, mostly because they were started from MS-DOS and used it for file system services. However even the carliest 16-bit Windows versions already assumed many typical operating system functions, notably having their own executable file format and providing their own device drivers (timer, graphics, printer, mouse, keyboard and sound) for applications. Unlike DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time, through co-operative multitasking, something which competitors (like GEM) did not offer. Finally, Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, software virtual memory scheme which allowed it to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources were swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce, and data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control, typically waiting for user input. Examples include Windows 1.0 (1985) and Windows 2.0 (1987) and its close relative Windows/286.

[Extraído de: http://news.soft32.com/windows-evolution 1629.html]

REPORT: BIOFUELS POISED TO DISPLACE OIL

Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel can

significantly reduce global dependence on oil, according

to a new report by the Worldwatch Institute.

Last year, world biofuel production surpassed 670,000

5 barrels per day, the equivalent of about 1 percent of the

global transport fuel market. Although oil still accounts for

more than 96 percent of transport fuel use, biofuel

production has doubled since 2001 and is poised for even

stronger growth as the industry responds to higher fuel

10 prices and supportive government policies. “Coordinated

action to expand biofuel markets and advance new

technologies could relieve pressure on oil prices while

strengthening agricultural economies and reducing climatealtering

emissions,” says Worldwatch Institute President

15 Christopher Flavin.

Brazil is the world’s biofuel leader, with half of its

sugar cane crop providing more than 40 percent of its nondiesel

transport fuel. In the United States, where 15 percent

of the corn crop provides about 2 percent of the non-diesel

20 transport fuel, ethanol production is growing even more

rapidly. This surging growth may allow the U.S. to overtake

Brazil as the world’s biofuel leader this year. Both countries

are now estimated to be producing ethanol at less than

the current cost of gasoline.

25 Figures cited in the report reveal that biofuels could

provide 37 percent of U.S. transport fuel within the next 25

years, and up to 75 percent if automobile fuel economy

doubles. Biofuels could replace 20–30 percent of the oil

used in European Union countries during the same time

30 frame.

As the first-ever global assessment of the potential

social and environmental impacts of biofuels, Biofuels for

Transportation warns that the large-scale use of biofuels

carries significant agricultural and ecological risks. “It is

35 essential that government incentives be used to minimize

competition between food and fuel crops and to discourage

expansion onto ecologically valuable lands,” says

Worldwatch Biofuels Project Manager Suzanne Hunt.

However, the report also finds that biofuels have the potential

40 to increase energy security, create new economic

opportunities in rural areas, and reduce local pollution and

emissions of greenhouse gases.

The long-term potential of biofuels is in the use of

non-food feedstock that include agricultural, municipal, and

45 forestry wastes as well as fast-growing, cellulose-rich

energy crops such as switchgrass. It is expected that the

combination of cellulosic biomass resources and “nextgeneration”

biofuel conversion technologies will compete

with conventional gasoline and diesel fuel without subsidies

50 in the medium term.

The report recommends policies to accelerate the

development of biofuels, while maximizing the benefits and

minimizing the risks. Recommendations include:

strengthening the market (i.e. focusing on market

55 development, infrastructure development, and the building

of transportation fleets that are able to use the new fuels),

speeding the transition to next-generation

technologies allowing for dramatically increased

production at lower cost, and facilitating sustainable

60 international biofuel trade, developing a true

international market unimpeded by the trade restrictions

in place today.

Worldwatch Institute - June 7, 2006.

Adapted from: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/4079