/kom' pyoo-tron"/ 1. A notional unit of computing power combining instruction speed and storage capacity, dimensioned roughly in instructions-per-second times megabytes-of-main-store times megabytes-of-mass-storage. "Th
AT machine can' t run GNU Emacs, it doesn' t have enough computrons!" This usage is usually found in metaphors th
AT tre
AT computing power as a fungible commodity good, like a crop yield or diesel horsepower. See
bitty box, {Get a real computer!}, {toy}, {crank}. 2. A mythical sub
ATomic particle th
AT bears the unit quantity of comput
ATion or inform
ATion, in much the same way th
AT an electron bears one unit of electric charge (see also
bogon). An elabor
ATe pseudo-scientific theory of computrons has been developed based on the physical fact th
AT the molecules in a solid object move more rapidly as it is he
ATed. It is argued th
AT an object melts because the molecules have lost their inform
ATion about where they are supposed to be (th
AT is, they have emitted computrons). This explains why computers get so hot and require air conditioning they use up computrons. Conversely, it should be possible to cool down an object by placing it in the p
ATh of a computron beam. It is believed th
AT this may also explain why machines th
AT work
AT the factory fail in the computer room: the computrons there have been all used up by the other hardware. (This theory probably owes something to the "Warlock" stories by Larry Niven, the best known being "Wh
AT Good is a Glass Dagger?", in which magic is fuelled by an exhaustible n
ATural resource called "mana".) [
Jargon File]
In addition suitable contents:
[ 2 ] [ = ] [ actor ] [ ag ] [ ai ] [ al ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ AT ] [ ATomic ] [ au ] [ av ] [ b ] [ ba ] [ base ] [ be ] [ beam ] [ bi ] [ bit ] [ bitty box ] [ bj ] [ bo ] [ bogon ] [ box ] [ by ] [ byte ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ capacity ] [ ch ] [ char ] [ ci ] [ ck ] [ cl ] [ co ] [ com ] [ computer ] [ computing ] [ con ] [ cr ] [ crank ] [ cu ] [ D ] [ de ] [ die ] [ do ] [ down ] [ du ] [ E ] [ ec ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ eg ] [ electron ] [ er ] [ es ] [ et ] [ fact ] [ factor ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ G ] [ ga ] [ ge ] [ Get a real computer! ] [ gh ] [ gi ] [ GNU ] [ GNU E ] [ GNU Emacs ] [ Go ] [ gu ] [ h ] [ hardware ] [ hAT ] [ hing ] [ hr ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ il ] [ in ] [ io ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ kn ] [ la ] [ ld ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ ls ] [ lt ] [ ly ] [ ma ] [ machine ] [ magic ] [ man ] [ meg ] [ megabyte ] [ meta ] [ mm ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ module ] [ mp ] [ mu ] [ my ] [ N ] [ na ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ no ] [ ns ] [ object ] [ om ] [ op ] [ pa ] [ pATh ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ physical ] [ pl ] [ pr ] [ pseudo ] [ py ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ real ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ room ] [ ru ] [ run ] [ S ] [ sa ] [ sam ] [ sc ] [ se ] [ sh ] [ si ] [ sn ] [ so ] [ source ] [ st ] [ storage ] [ store ] [ struct ] [ su ] [ T ] [ tap ] [ th ] [ theory ] [ to ] [ toy ] [ tr ] [ tron ] [ tt ] [ tty ] [ ua ] [ ug ] [ up ] [ us ] [ ve ] [ yt ]