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cpu

Computers.

central processing unit: the key component of a computer system, which contains the circuitry necessary to interpret and execute program instructions.

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Also called central processor, microprocessor.

Origin:
1965–70

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Cpu is always a great word to know.

So is upload. Does it mean:

to transfer software, data or character sets from a smaller to a larger computer

a computer program that translates a program written in a high-level language into another, usually machine, language

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Example Sentences

Running emulated code on any platform consumes cpu cycles voraciously.

The department secretary called our equipment guy to come install some software on my cpu.

Computer chips including the cpu expand and contract with temperature changes.

EXPAND

Collins

World English Dictionary

CPU

—*abbreviation for*
	central processing unit

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline

Word Origin & History

cpu

by 1970, abbreviation of central processing unit.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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American Heritage

Science Dictionary

CPU
Abbreviation of central processing unit

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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American Heritage

Cultural Dictionary

CPU definition

An abbreviation for central processing unit. The “brain” of a computer, the CPU is where data manipulation actually takes place. The results of these manipulations are then stored in the computer memory. Microprocessors perform this function in personal computers.

FOLDOC

Computing Dictionary

CPU definition

central processing unit

American Heritage

Abbreviations & Acronyms

CPU
central processing unit

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"Your brain receives, stores, and processes information, dispenses results, and controls your biological equipment. When properly programmed, computers can do likewise, except that they control electromechanical rather than biological equipment. Beyond these functional similarities, computers and brains have virtually nothing in common. To begin with, the electronic circuits in a computer are not analogous to brain cells. The two differ in appearance, in structure, and in principles of operation. The key functions of information storage and information processing are served in computers by physically different components. In a typical computer, one finds separate CPU and memory units; but even in computer designs where processing circuits are intermixed, the two functions remain distinct. In the brain they are not distinct; they're distributed throughout the brain and intermixed in ways that we don't understand."

-John Shore

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