I think this is more an issue created by large OEM's.

I've worked for Compaq/HP for many years & it wasnt a common term here but plenty of IBM folk started here over the years and they called System Unit a CPU & they also called hard disks 'Hard Files' & motherboards 'Planar Boards'.

[ROTT] IanPaulFreeley wrote:

So, was this ever a real accepted use of "CPU"? Maybe it was an 80's thing?

It's from times, where there were no microprocessors. If you look at computers from the 60s and 70s you will often see a whole rack described as a CPU.

OED wrote:

central processing unit, the part of a computer that performs processing and controls and co-ordinates the activity of other parts, itself comprising the arithmetic and logic unit, the control unit, and usu. the main memory; abbrev. CPU

OED wrote:

1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing v. 77 Control unit, arithmetic unit, and primary storage together form the Central Processing Unit (CPU). Some manufacturers, however, do not consider primary storage as belonging to the CPU.

leileilol wrote:

You weren't censored for that. Your posts of "get out" were, however...

...however what?

I personally know a guy who sincerely thought that black computers are better then white (probably because most old PCs are beige/white while most modern PCs are black). When I asked him what computer does he have, he said "I have a computer Windows XP" 😀 . He knows quite a bit about PCs now through.

I too have heard people refer to their computer as a modem, dumbest shit I've ever heard of.

Tiremaster400 wrote:

I too have heard people refer to their computer as a modem, dumbest shit I've ever heard of.

I heard much dumb stuff about computers, but never that one.

In 1988, when I learned 'puter fer th' first time, th' entire box be called CPU. They said 'puter had three main components: monitor, keyboard, 'n CPU. On th' other hand, wha' we call 'CPU' today be called 'processor' back then.

Arr! I wonder why.

I've only heard it called CPU once or twice years ago. But the term "tower" a bit more often.

It's a problem here in Russia too, though in Russian a CPU can't be an abbreviated 'computer' word.

This disease is probably most common among middle-aged accountant women. Like that:

A common dialogue between an accountant and an IT support:

- My CPU won't turn on today!
- What CPU?
- That humming box, you know, sitting under my table...
- x_x

Fortunately, all the people I have come across so far have simply called it... "Computer".

I do remember from my primary school days - almost 3 decades now -, the computer class teacher first taught us the "computer" system that we see externally is made up of
1. The "CPU" - 'Central Processing Unit', - which is usually drawn as the desktop-box (and in later years they started drawing the tower shape) to label it as the "CPU" on the white board marker.
2. The Monitor, and
3. The Keyboard

Speaking of computer class, I can still remember the smell emanating from the heat of running monitors and the "CPUs" in the AC room...

Was using LOGO those days on Hercules monitors.

What kind of computer do you have? "An XP."

I heard that a lot when WinXP was just released.

Malik wrote:

Fortunately, all the people I have come across so far have simply called it... "Computer". […]
Show full quote

Fortunately, all the people I have come across so far have simply called it... "Computer".

I do remember from my primary school days - almost 3 decades now -, the computer class teacher first taught us the "computer" system that we see externally is made up of
1. The "CPU" - 'Central Processing Unit', - which is usually drawn as the desktop-box (and in later years they started drawing the tower shape) to label it as the "CPU" on the white board marker.
2. The Monitor, and
3. The Keyboard

Speaking of computer class, I can still remember the smell emanating from the heat of running monitors and the "CPUs" in the AC room...

Was using LOGO those days on Hercules monitors.

They taught exactly the same in Indonesia too. A computer is made up of three components: the CPU (ie the box), the monitor, and the keyboard. Then what is this small thing inside the box called 8088 or 286? Oh, that's the processor! 😁

Growing up in South America I was taught that the box which everything plugs into houses the Central Processing Unit and the chip that runs the whole show is known as the microprocessor. Nowadays people just call them "the tower" and "the processor".

As long as the message is ultimately communicated, does it matter if people use the wrong terminology? Sure, it's inefficient and it might take a follow up question or two, but you can usually figure out what people mean.

Think about this -- the world is a big place, and not everyone chooses to focus their attention on computers. Think about all the different specializations in life, and how these "computer illiterate" people might be experts in some other area that you might know nothing about. I have a vague idea about the "engine" in my car, but I couldn't name every component of it, whereas my technologically-challenged mechanic could. I'm amazed my doctor can even use a computer, but he knows vastly more about the human body than I do. It's been a long time since I dissected the English language and diagrammed sentences to see how they work, but my old luddite 10th-grade English teacher could do it without a second thought. Et cetera.

A person who has some knowledge regarding computers may understand from a layman if something different than what was intended is mentioned, but from one layman to another layman, the wrong information will pass on unnoticed.

I think the OP started this topic to see if anyone else has come across people who have thought differently or wrongly when it comes to computing. Of course, he didn't do it to ridicule the laymen.

I've used all sorts of terms to refer to my computers; towers, boxes, rigs, machines, etc. 🤣 I remember back when I was a kid a lot of people referred to their machines as "hard drives".

PATA drives being described as IDE drives - as in "Is it a SATA drive? No, it's an IDE drive".

SATA drives are also IDE drives. You're talking about the interface, not the drive, and the interface is PATA.

That one is so pervasive even 4-pin Molex power connectors are now being called "IDE" to differentiate them from the SATA power connector.

One of my pet peeves is how everyone calls any D-Sub connector as DB-xx regardless of its size. Even big & serious electronics retailers have given me blank stares when asking for a DE-9 connector, but they don't seem to have 'real' DB-9 connectors either! 🙄

PATA drives being described as IDE drives - as in "Is it a SATA drive? No, it's an IDE drive".

You're fighting a losing battle on that one. "PATA" is a neologism. Anyone who was around before SATA existed calls "parallel ATA" IDE, because that's what it was always called... IDE was synonymous with ATA, and there was no need to specify that it was a parallel interface, because that was the only kind. While SATA technically is still a type of IDE interface, it differs from the classic style IDE interface, so it is necessary to differentiate... you have 'regular' IDE, and you have SATA. Simple as that.

I still call Parallel ATA drives IDE. That's just the terminology that's most commonly used, and yes, it was a term that was actually invented after SATA was invented. The funny thing is, I didn't start messing around with computer hardware too much until after SATA started gaining popularity, but most of my early experience was with boxes that used IDE. Fun fact, I didn't even OWN a computer with SATA (unless you count my parents' Pentium D boxes that they acquired around 2006) until I built my current box in 2009.