| Inside of the mysterious box that perches ominously | | | | 193). In plain English this simply means that a |
| on your desk is one of the marvels of the modern | | | | microprocessor is the brain of a computer and it is only |
| world. This marvel is also a total enigma to most of the | | | | on one chip. Winn L. Rosch compares them to being |
| population. This enigma is, of course, the | | | | an electronic equivalent of a knee-joint that when |
| microprocessor. To an average observer a | | | | struck with the proper digital stimulus will react in the |
| microprocessor is simply a small piece of black plastic | | | | exact same way each time (Rosch,37). More |
| that is found inside of almost everything. | | | | practically a microprocessor is multitudinous transistors |
| In How Microprocessors Work they are defined as a | | | | squeezed onto as small a piece of silicon as possible |
| computer's central processing unit, usually contained on | | | | to do math problems as fast as possible. |
| a single integrated circuit (Wyant and Hammerstrom, | | | | |