microprocessingn.adj.
/ˌmʌɪkrə(ʊ)ˈprəʊsɛsɪŋ/, U.S. /ˌmaɪkroʊˈprɑsəsɪŋ/ A. n.
1. Engineering. Processing of a material on a very small scale, esp. on a molecular or atomic level.
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1946 Electr. Manuf. Feb. 129/2 The special advantages of stress-relief hardening or micro-processing are more apparent in producing shapes where springback ordinarily would be large and hand correction necessary: bending to a large radius, making parts from thin stock, or forming to an intricate design.
1967 B. Harris in L. F. Schnore & H. Fagin Urban Res. & Policy Planning xiii. 365 For want of a generally accepted term, I shall call this second main area ‘microprocessing’... Frequently this processing requires the manipulation of material at the atomic and molecular level, or to very fine measurements.
1988 Science 20 Oct. 938/1 Focused photon beam microprocessing can be thought of as a laser-driven process that results in the modification of a surface in a micrometer–size area.
1997 Glass Sci. & Technol. 70 113 (heading) Excimer lasers—a novel tool for..microprocessing of glasses.
2. Computing. The processing of data by a microprocessor.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > hardware > [noun] > central processing unit > ways of processing
interleaving1956
multiprocessing1961
parallelism1961
multitasking1966
interleave1967
microprocessing1974
1974 N.Y. Times 3 Feb. iii. 36 (advt.) New product lines are being developed with emphasis on stand-alone hardware maximizing the use of microprocessing.
1986 Nursing Homes (Nexis) Jan. 34 Microprocessing is available for census, billing and accounts.., payroll, personnel, purchasing and inventory.
1999 Sci., Technol., & Human Values 24 162 Whereas most forms of technological determinism support the planning impulse, innovations in microprocessing have tended to subvert it.
B. adj. (attributive).
Designating or involving a microprocessor; relating to the microprocessing of data.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > hardware > [adjective] > way of processing
parallel1948
time-shared1954
interleaved1956
multiprogramme1959
multiprogrammed1959
uniprocessor1963
multitask1965
multitasking1966
microprocessing1974
1974 IBM Techn. Disclosure Bull. 16 3362 Current technology in microprocessing systems uses read-only storage (ROS) hardware as the storage for the microcode programs used in the machine.
1979 R. W. Larkin Suburban Youth in Cultural Crisis vii. 220 With the onset of..computer communication via telephone lines, citizens' band radio, micro-processing chips, etc., the nation can be hooked up into a vast computerized system allowing for instantaneous communication between any number of individuals and groups.
1996 U.S. News & World Rep. 16 Sept. 70/3 The good news for computer makers is that both VRML and PC-based 3-D programs run best on machines with lots of microprocessing horsepower.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, December 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.adj.1946