Is this right?

[UglyCasanova]

My computer teacher keeps saying the CPU is the whole system in general excluding the monitor, printer, scanner, ect.. I was thinking the CPU was the processor. Who is right?

 

[Killbat]

Central Processing Unit


uh, duh?

 

[Hyudra]

He sounds like a college drop out, like my computer teacher. My computer teacher doesn't know anything or very little about what he teaches.

 

[Viper GTS]

The same term can be used to represent the processor itself or the entire case.

Viper GTS

 

[UglyCasanova]

Processor, right? I'm only a junior in high school, but a teacher should know that, right? We have to do a paper where we find different systems and right the stuff down about them. She is teaching off a sheet that is almost 4 years old. I'm no computer whiz like a lot of you here, but I swear the things she is teaching in ancient. Anyway, It's not the whole system then.

 

[compuwiz1]

Bring him in a Duron "CPU" and ask him where to plug the monitor, keyboard and mouse in.

 

[UglyCasanova]

lol! I like her and everything, but I'm not sure if she should be teaching this. I take Comp. Sci., and like I said it is only a HS class, but we can do better than this! We learned Pascal, and while Basic would have been more up to date (Currently teaching myself Visual C++) it was fine and all for an introduction to programming, but the rest of the class was crap. She taught us HTML, and it took her about 2 1/2 weeks and we didn't learn but a little bit of it. I already knew it, and when I tried to put in new stuff she got mad and threatened to give me detention. All I'm saying is, lets get some good teachers in here, I mean we might actually need to know a little about comps in the future don't you think?

 

[Killbat]

"I mean we might actually need to know a little about comps in the future don't you think?"

Maybe. Maybe not. Ubiquitous computing anyone?

 

[BFG10K]

The same term can be used to represent the processor itself or the entire case

That's right.

Most regular computer shops that sell OEM computers use the term to describe the everything minus the monitor.
More advanced people such as ourselves and shops that sell BTO machines use the term for just the processor.

 

[thegreatjeff]

It can be either, processor or entire comp.

 

[JackMDS]

I remember last year we ran a big thread about the reason for this issue.

While CPU is the processor, there is no name to the Unit that is in the case (i.e. Mobo, Cards, and Drives). A lot of people call the ?Box? CPU.

It is like saying Xerox the page for me, and using a Canon copier.

 

[compuwiz1]

<< A lot of people call the ?Box? CPU. >>



How about &quot;tower&quot;, and all that implies.

 

[Rankor]

Traditionally, cpu: central processing unit (ie. proc.). Usually, I term the entire system rig as a pc: personal computer.

Don't correct her in during class in front of the entire class. You might get on her bad side and get bad grades from then on in.

Do explain it to her after class or during office hours.

 

[billyjak]

Read here Go here

 

[Jeff7]

<< I'm only a junior in high school, but a teacher should know that, right? >>



My tech ed teachers in high school didn't know squat about computers.
--&quot;How often do you clear out the Internet Cookies folder?&quot;
--&quot;What's an internet cookie?&quot;

In college last semester, I educated my computer servicing teacher about a few things.
&quot;DDR? AMR slot? 400MHz (equivalent) bus on a P4 computer?&quot;
So many things he didn't know anything about...heck, in the class we even did a portscan of his webserver. He had about 10 backdoors hanging wide open. This was a certified computer teacher???

But as for CPU, the processor is the CPU. It's the central processor of the rest of the computer; what more can be said?

 

[Dennis Travis]

I had a friend a long time ago (A Total Mac/apple person) that when I got my first Commodore 64 asked me, &quot;Where is the CPU?&quot;. I told him inside the case on the motherboard under the keyboard and he was shocked. He meant the whole system besides the keyboard and monitor. I tried to explain that really the CPU was the one chip (in the case of the C64 a 6502) but he gave me a blank stare!

 

[ISAslot]

<< ...I mean we might actually need to know a little about comps in the future don't you think? >>



Ooh, conspiracy. You know it's not in the best interest of AOL for people to learn a lot about computers. These people may be able to use ISPs that are not so &quot;easy&quot;. I think if you look into the school board's affairs closely enough, you may find some AOL &quot;incentives&quot; were used when hiring that teacher.

 

[kamiam]

as the saying goes, those who can do, those who can't teach