http://www.dodstudios.net/uploads/uploads/CPU.jpg
Can someone please tell me WTF did they called the computer BOX a CPU?
Can someone please tell me WTF did they called the computer BOX a CPU?
Microsoft is smoking something pretty hard
- Thread starter K.I.L.E.R
- Start date
Freak'n Big Panda
Regular
I have no clue but I've noticed lately that all my moms computer iliterate friends call the case either the hard drive or the CPU... I guess MS has suceeded in tricking the clueless 
Actually that's not all that bad.
The term "CPU" is older than microprocessors, and in the good old ages it included a lot more than what's equivalent to a microprocessor. It included the whole "box". It was the Central Processing Unit as opposed to all the dumb terminals connected to it. So if someone call it "CPU", it doesn't have to be a sign that they are computer illiterates, it could actually mean the opposite (that they've been in the business for a loong time).
And it still is a name that fits what is done in the "box", but at a larger scale than when you refer to a microprocessor as a CPU.
But I agree that it would be better to have a different name for it. I just haven't heard any that I realy like. I usually use "box" or "system unit", but I actually think CPU is more descriptive (I just don't use it for the obvious risk of confusion).
So what do you all call the computer system unit?
The term "CPU" is older than microprocessors, and in the good old ages it included a lot more than what's equivalent to a microprocessor. It included the whole "box". It was the Central Processing Unit as opposed to all the dumb terminals connected to it. So if someone call it "CPU", it doesn't have to be a sign that they are computer illiterates, it could actually mean the opposite (that they've been in the business for a loong time).
And it still is a name that fits what is done in the "box", but at a larger scale than when you refer to a microprocessor as a CPU.
But I agree that it would be better to have a different name for it. I just haven't heard any that I realy like. I usually use "box" or "system unit", but I actually think CPU is more descriptive (I just don't use it for the obvious risk of confusion).
So what do you all call the computer system unit?
Basic said:Oh, and "illiterate" isn't a good word to misspell.
Double posting isn't a good thing either when you have an 'edit' button available.
My system unit is called my something toy. Want to know why?
These days Basic, we are taught that the proper name for a microchip that acts like mother brain (in the Phantasy Star series) is a CPU. I bet no one laughed at the bad joke inside that sentence?
I'm not as old as you Basic. I bet you are at least 56 years old?
Am I right?
Deepak said:
American dictionary: (so you don't say that it's only the Aussies who get told that a CPU is a microchip)
central processing unit
n. Abbr. CPU
The part of a computer that interprets and executes instructions.
C.P.U. n : ( computer science) the part of a computer (a microprocessor chip) that does most of the data processing; the CPU and the memory form the central part of a computer to which the peripherals are attached [syn: central processing unit, CPU, C.P.U., central processor, processor, mainframe]
<architecture> 1. central processing unit.
2. Occasionally used (although less and less) to refer to the
system unit.
system unit:
<hardware> The main body of a computer, consisting of a
plastic or metal enclosure, the motherboard, and (typically)
internal disk drives, a power supply, cooling fans, and
whatever circuit boards plugged into the mother board, such as
a video card.
The system unit is occasionally referred to as the CPU,
though this really means central processing unit.
www.dictionary.com
CPU is the processor and vice-versa. A microprocessor is just a single chip processor.
PC users/owners call the computer case as CPU but it is wrong because it has more things inside (memory, HD, etc..).
Mainframe people call the main case the CPU which is wrong too, because it has the memory, I/O processors, etc...
The difference is that most PC users dont know what they are talking about. Mainframe users know a bit more.
About Basic, dont trust him because he has more than 30
PC users/owners call the computer case as CPU but it is wrong because it has more things inside (memory, HD, etc..).
Mainframe people call the main case the CPU which is wrong too, because it has the memory, I/O processors, etc...
The difference is that most PC users dont know what they are talking about. Mainframe users know a bit more.
About Basic, dont trust him because he has more than 30
pascal said:CPU is the processor and vice-versa. A microprocessor is just a single chip processor.
PC users/owners call the computer case as CPU but it is wrong because it has more things inside (memory, HD, etc..).
Mainframe people call the main case the CPU which is wrong too, because it has the memory, I/O processors, etc...
The difference is that most PC users dont know what they are talking about. Mainframe users know a bit more.
About Basic, dont trust him because he has more than 30
I was refering to the CPU being a microchip, not a microprocessor.
microchip
n : a small crystal of a silicon semiconductor fabricated to carry out a number of electronic functions in an integrated circuit [syn: chip, micro chip, silicon chip]
Freak'n Big Panda said:I have no clue but I've noticed lately that all my moms computer iliterate friends call the case either the hard drive or the CPU... I guess MS has suceeded in tricking the clueless
Hey it worked for the democrats why not MS as well?
Honestly, I wonder why they would do this. Are they merely trying to indicate the area which the CPU is oriented? Perhaps they expect the vast majority of reasonably educated people to realize this.
OR to a Linux hippy this is apart of Microsoft's agenda of progressing "double speak" to discourage thoughts amongst their brainwashed constituents!
Well, unless those "reasonably educated people" are calirvoyant or mindreaders then they have little chance of realising what that M$ employee means.
To me that image looks like they are pointing at the box.
A picture tells 1000 words, why not make it tell 1 story rather than 2 stories?
Legion said:
I would hope just about everyone who uses a computer knows that.
The people who don't know are the ones who are going to think that the CPU is the entire system box[unit]. Meaning, HD, CD-ROM, etc...
That is the problem with that diagram as it shows something completely different than what might actually be meant by the person who drew the diagram.
I'm trying to say that it conveys the wrong message and others will interpret that message as being correct because it comes from a large corporation.
