Why do some people call the computer case part of a computer a CPU?
by niyam bhushan
Question by David: Why do some people call the college to learn how to repair a notebook, what course [specific major] should be taken?” href=”http://collegeitcourses.info/qa-if-i-wanted-to-go-to-college-to-learn-how-to-repair-a-computer-what-course-specific-major-should-be-taken”>notebook case part of a notebook a CPU?
I’ve always referred to it as the notebook, system, or system unit. I thought that my college education fiancee was just incorrect; she learned to call it that from her college notebook course, but I recently heard a couple of coworkers calling it a CPU. In my opinion this is akin to calling a car an engine or calling a human a brain. A system unit isn’t a CPU anymore than it is a motherboard or a video card. So, why are people being trained to call it a CPU?
Best answer:
Answer by Ben
My guess (as a further person who gets really irritated at this) is that many people thing CPU is small for ComPUter. So they reckon their CPU is made up of several components including the processor.
*** For those people looking at this answer who make this mistake:***
CPU stands for Inner Processing Unit. It’s a further name for the processor, not for the whole system. The whole system consists of the CPU, Motherboard, Graphics Card, Sound Card, RAM, Hard Drive, Power Supply, and Case hooked up to Input/Output devices like the keyboard, mouse, printer, and monitor.
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David,
You are right. You cannot call it a CPU. It is just the cabinet.
But since all the components of a CPU are present inside the cabinet, people are used to calling it a CPU. And this is not akin to calling a human a brain. As this cabinet is not the entire system by itself. The system consists of the Cabinet (holding the CPU), I/O devices (keyboard,mouse), Show (monitor).
Hope this helped.
CPU is the Inner Processing Unit.
And you’re right: a notebook is more than a CPU.
I can’t give you an answer, how they train them in the notebook courses.
I got in an arguement in 8th grade with a instructor that told me the box was the CPU. I believe my palm striking my forehead was too loud, and called attention to my disgust.
She said she knew it was called a inner processing unit (I doubt it though), and attempted to clarify that compared to the monitor, mouse, and keyboard, it was the part that did all the processing. Ah, the ignorance…
I’ve also had a instructor (in HS this time) tell me that it’s impossible to add a video card to a desktop with integrated graphics. With discussing the issue, I found that she had the Geek Squad install one for her, and when she plugged in her onitor, there was no difference.
Turns out she hadn’t noticed the new outputs from the PCI card and had plugged the monitor into the motherboard’s output again. *facepalm*
Regards,
Lucien Briscoe
They aren’t being trained… I reckon it’s just the term used by people with small to no training in computers. Their keyboard and mouse plug into a magic box which they;ve been told is the brain, the other parts can’t operate without it.
Just like people call their Internet gateway devices “the modem” because that’s what their buzz line or cable plugs into.
I suppose we should be lucky they aren’t calling the case a mainframe
The CPU is not part of the case. The case is just the exterior aluminum/plastic box which holds the notebook. The CPU is a chip, in this area 2×2 inches, placed ON the motherboard, with a heatsink+fan on top. It has nothing to do with the case.
In essence though, the notebook is not just the CPU, the same way that a car is not just the engine, like you said. There are a lot of other parts and components that are vital and affect the overall performance of the machine. The CPU is vital, but if you have a small amount of reminiscence installed (RAM) its going to bottleneck the performance.
People probably call a notebook a CPU because they have been trained into thinking its the “brains” of the notebook. Hence the notebook is a cpu. The CPU does do most of the “thinking” but again, it cant do it without the other components.
Because there are uncommon groups of hardware:
The external hardware:monitor,mouse,keyboard,speakers,PC(also called CPU which stands for Inner Processing Unit-because in this group…it is the one that does all the mathematical operations)
There is a second group formed by the INTERNAL hardware which includes:
power supply,motherboard,CPU(Inner PROCESSING unit=processor in this case),ram ,video card(s), optical drives, hard disk drives, sound cards..and so on….