Processors

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: [ˈpɹəʉ.ses.əz]

Definitions

1. Devices that are responsible for carrying out computations and processing data within various electronic systems
2. Components in computers and electronic devices that execute instructions and manage data operations
3. Hardware elements that perform calculations and control data flow in digital systems

Etymology: "Processors" is the plural of "processor," a word first recorded in 1909, formed from "process" plus the agent suffix "-or," meaning one that carries out an action. The base word "process" came into English from Latin "processus," meaning a going forward or progress, and so a processor is literally something that does the processing. For most of the word's early life it described people or machines that handled material, such as a person or device that prepared goods or documents. Only much later did the term narrow to the electronic sense of a chip that performs calculations and directs data, which is the meaning that dominates today.

Synonyms: computers, microprocessors, chips, units, elements