3 Outdated Tech Terms we all Keep Saying 

The fun part with the IBM PC is that since a bunch of machines had already been referred to as "Personal Computers" before the PC was made, it was basically impossible to defend a trademark on "Personal Computer." As a result IBMs followup platform was the "Personal System 2" or PS/2, which is where those old "PS/2" keyboard and mouse ports come from. So yeah, the old joke "if PCs are so good, why isn't there a PC2?" Well there was, but they had to change a letter to make a more awkward name they could actually trademark.

Because i RAM the Stick in the Socket

My favorite naming conventions: * BIOS. It's not a BIOS anymore, it's a UEFI, but everybody still calls it the BIOS * We still call storage drives "disks", despite SSDs being commonplace and many PCs having zero spinning parts OKAY ASIDE FROM FANS

Before the IBM PC, personal computers were often referred to as microcomputers. "Micro" compared with the older machines that filled up an entire room and "mini" computers the size of a washing machine.

I like how companies still talk about "SSL certificates", while the underlying tech is using the TLS protocols (having deprecated the SSL protocols).

I don't care why it's called RAM I just want to know how I can download more of it?

CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor). In the 1980s it used to describe low power chips that could work with batteries and the memory could keep its contents with minimal battery power so the term is still used to refer for the clock that keeps the time on a PC. CMOS used to be slower than the NMOS used in computers. However, nowadays CMOS is the standard technology for chips so the term is somewhat strange.

The most infuriating to me is when storage space on phones are called ROM. As in 4GB RAM/128GB ROM. That is totally not how ROM works.

I may randomly access this memory

The role of RAM is still memory, not storage as the SSD is. Memory and storage are still two separate systems. RAM is still a useful term.

DYK, Natural gas is "natural" because before we figured out how to transport natural gas long distances, it used to be "manufactured" in a factory from coal.

When writing, SSDs or flash memory in general is only _kinda_ random access. You have to re-write the entire block, which makes random operations slow. Contrast this with Intel's now-dead Optane technology, which did not suffer from this restriction.

I'll call my computer wtf I want, Apple can't stop me.

1:11 Old, mechanical spinning hard drives were also technically random access since the drive heads could move directly to the specified platter/track/sector. Yes, it's a lot slower than SSD... but it's not sequential like a tape drive.

I remember as a kid my dad shopping for a computer and making sure that it was "IBM Compatible" now I feel old.

Fun fact: In Russian and English the meaning of "RAM" abbreviation is completely different. In russian it's "operational memoriing device" ([operativnoe zapominajushee ustrojstvo], [OZU]), it also have term "memory with arbitrary access", but it's barely used and doesn't even have acronym.

Learned what RAM wad from Daft Punk album

Competitors did not reverse engineer the original PC's BIOS. IBM released the IBM 5150 Technical Reference manual in August, 1981. It included the fully commented source code listing for the BIOS.

The "I'm a freak in the sheets" line was hilarious 🤣

BIOS...everyone still calling it BIOS instead of UEFI.

nerd pickup line "we should excel sometime, spread some sheets"? 😂

Also in Win 95/98 there was the "It's now safe to turn off your computer." screen displayed even though you had Shut Down the computer. Being a young kid, I was like "Are you sure cuz you are still displaying some text"

They also called x86 computers "IBM Compatible".

Calling RAM an antiquated term is like saying a modern car isn't a car because it isn't a Model T

Could you make a video about how neither Intel nor AMD have made a true x86 CPU since 1995 and 1996 respectively? With the introduction of the Pentium Pro and AMD K5, they both switched to RISC cores, with x86 serving more as an intermediary for compatibility. The x86 instructions are broken into smaller operations to be executed by the RISC cores. I think it would be a very interesting topic, especially with the current popularity of ARM and RISC-V in new devices.

Although the development of computers in the Soviet Union followed the path of copying western technology, they transferred that technology to their own theoretical base. Therefore, in russian, most computer terms differ from english ones. So, RAM in russian is called 'operational memory', and that is what it is still called today. In everyday life 'operational memory' often shortens to just 'operational', because essentially everyone knows what it means, but occasionally it creates little confusions when it comes to VRAM. So to avoid this, VRAM can be called 'video memory' or just 'memory' when in put into context, but never called 'operational'. Interestingly, in russian PC is also called PC (but it sounds differently, like PK) and have very same meaning - personal computer.

I was there 3000 years ago, when you had to manually assign IRQ and DMA values to your hardware

I like how we still often use a pictogram of a floppy disk for a "Save" button. We ditched floppy disks about 15 years ago, so there is a generation of computer users who never saw a floppy disk.

I actually hate how many people refer to windows as PC (Personal Computer), but mac as mac. For example, I have seen people say something like "here's how to switch from pc to mac". The annoyance I have, is that a mac _is_ a Personal Computer, not specifically windows. I prefer to refer to PC as just a desktop (or laptop) computer that a physical mouse and keyboard, and is meant to be _personal_ to the user, which does not restrict what operating system you use, whether it's windows, mac, or linux, it;s still a PC. Oh, and cell phones and tablets are different, because they're mobile devices that are made to be used with just a touchscreen, and are usually not used for stuff that a PC is used for (by the way, a laptop that can fold into a tablet is still a PC).

I guess a PC is a PC, regardless of chip architecture, just like with the term laptop. Maybe I am wrong here but when I use the term PC I generally refer to the concept of a DIY machine for the home, not a specific architecture, brand or OS

"I'm a PC" "And I'm a Mac" "And I'm a Linux user"

Mechanical HDDs were always "random access", that's kind of the entire point of the moving head!

Why didn't they just call it Direct Access Memory? Random isn't really accurate as it isn't random information getting fetched. It's specific to the information requested by the cpu. Is it because RAM would be called DAM?

Today is CrowdStrike day!

We would love a video on the origin of CrowdStrike

Honorable mention: "debugging" originally referred to the process of going in and removing actual bugs/insects from the computer (back when computers were the size of rooms)

In some countries, you can't put a trademark on words that are too basic or too close from natural language. It would have been difficult for IBM to keep the term « personal computer » for itself, while the thing was actually nothing else than... a personal computer. Would be the same if some random car company tried to get an IP on a car called « small car ».

I had a low tech friend years ago who asked me what he should get on a new computer. So I told him the specs he should ask for including how many Meg's of RAM he should need. He later forgot the number and asked me again how many Mega-Rams he needed. I couldn't stop laughing. Baaaa!

0:08 Does "To the pit with him" mean the same as "drag and drop"?

I think the technical term for a non-IBM "personal computer" in 1981 was "microcomputer," contrasting with "minicomputers" that were the size of refrigerators, and regular old computers a.k.a. mainframes, that were the size of entire rooms or office suites. If IBM hadn't enjoyed such a meteoric rise in business space, and later, the consumer space, we might still be calling them "microcomputers" to this day. Instead, we got "PC".

Imagine how chaotic your computing experience would be if the processor did indeed just access memory randomly 😂

"I'm a freak in the sheets" -thing I'm going to say at work next time someone compliments my Excel skills.

Daft Punk Album RAM!?

"RAM" is still useful because if you say "memory" to a user that doesn't know much about computers, they'll think you're talking about hard drive storage. They may not know what RAM is exactly that they know it's not storage for your files etc.

As an older UK PC builder, we used the term RAM (Random Access Memory) to differentiate from ROM (Read only Memory). ROM was where the bios and its precursors were stored and could not be accessed or adjusted by the end users in those earlier days. While there are still some uses of SAM today (magnetic tape being one) much faster memory types have since come into play.

The Personal Computer naming is wrong. The term Personal Computer predates the IBM PC's release in August of 1981 and it took a long time for the term to only mean what we would call the "IBM", or "IBM PC". *** A quick check of old Compute! Magazines shows personal computer was common in 1979, although "Microcomputer" was still more popular, and it shows that "Personal Computer" was used for other systems for years later. I can quickly find references to "your Apple or Atari Personal Computer". We wouldn't use the term "DOS" to describe the machines. "It's an IBM" (even if it had no IBM parts) vs " It's an Apple II" vs "It's a Macintosh" (the full name was common for a long time) vs "It's a Commodore 64" ("C64" was only used when there was no space). What we now call PCs, box specs would call something like "IBM", "IBM PC and Compatibles" or just "IBM PC-Compatibles", with occasional references to PC models. In the late mid-late 1980's into the 1990's the "Tandy" (Tandy 1000) also appeared on the spec box. For example, the original 1991 Civilization box specs say: "IBM PC/XT/AT/Tandy and most Compatibles" The goal would be to emphasize compatibility with the PC "IBM PC and 100% compatibles". Realistically, the best home computers and the most powerful PCs were not IBM, and all those models were dated. For that reason, when referring to the IBM it actually made sense to not use the term IBM PC, since the original PC, the IBM 5150, would not run PC games, and you needed to refer to CPUs If you look at the specs on 1992's Ultima VII: The Black Gate, you see IBM 100% Compatible: 386, 386SX, 486 PC System. In theory, this should make clear that the "IBM PC" will not run this. As a side note, since this is Ultima VII, there's a good chance your 386, 386SX, and 486 will not run it until you have performed a sacrifice to the memory manager to fit all of your drivers and the game under 1MB. You usually needed a boot disk for U7. Mine had an ultra tiny mouse driver. It isn't until the old 8-bit machines go away that PC starts to mean just the IBM PC Compatibles. *** No sane person used Wintel in the 1990's. It was a way to embarrass yourself. Just because it was done didn't mean it was a thing. Please top trying to make Wintel happen.

I was fully expecting debug to be on this list too. Surprised it wasn't since that completely changed exact meaning but kept the same overall meaning since it became a term

In 1983, I had a colleague (we were MVS System Programmers on IBM mainframe computer) who still referred to main memory as "core" because in the 1960s, main memory consisted of magnetic rings with wires cris-crossing through them.

What color do you want that database? I think mauve has the most RAM.

One of the few acronyms I remember from college is: PCMCIA (People Can't Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms)

TIme to blow someone's mind with CD-ROM standing for Compact Disc - Read Only Memory. And DVD-RW being "Digital Video Disc - ReWritable"

RAM is random due to byte addressable capability while HDDs are sector addressable. In HDD, to read a byte first need to read sector and then in sequentially read byte which make it non random. Some SSD can do byte addressable but lot slower as they are not designed for that. In this context RAM is still relevant to randomly access memory location. 😊

I disagree with your interpretation of RAM and your thesis that the term is outdated. It's random access memory from the processor's point of view. That is, the processor directly addresses and can manipulate RAM, even individual bytes, by direction of the program code it's executing. An SSD storage device might have grids for randomly accessing cells by its built-in controller, but the processor can't see the cells; it must request data in 4 KB blocks (or larger) through mass storage protocols, which is then transferred into RAM.

I refer to all endpoint machines as PCs, compared to servers, NAS or other more specialized tech. Yes, that includes Mac and Linux, so long as it's designed for an individual to use it as a daily driver.

Another outdated term may be BIOS - today, every new computer doesn't have a BIOS, but an UEFI, however branding inside UEFI settings' screens still often refers to itself as "BIOS", because the term is just so commonly understood (whereas UEFI isn't).

Yep. And _floppy discs_ stopped being *floppy* after the 5.25" format was succeeded by 3.5" discs in _rigid_ casings. But that didn't stop us from calling them "floppies". Heck, we even called the disc *_drives_* "floppies".

I remember when video games and software used to say "IBM PC or compatible" in the system requirements.

"Ram is outdated term." "Ram is correct and accurate term still today. I just don't like the term." Never seen someone prove themself wrong so fast in their own video.

Why do they call it RAM when you RAM in the cold data of out hot read the data?

We just continue to use these terms simply because people would know what we're referring to. Like how we continue to say "Q-tips" when the actual name is "cotton swabs". Just up and saying something different the next day will start to confuse people. Though, we STILL have people today still calling storage space "memory". Conversation goes like...: "Dang.. I'm low on memory..." "Then delete some stuff!" "I said MEMORY, as in RAM! Not storage space! I have plenty of free storage space!" "Oh...then.. what's the difference..?"

As a kid in the 80s I always thought “floppy disks” were those larger flexible discs and “hard disks” were the smaller discs with the hard plastic cases. I can’t be alone in having thought that lol

I was fed up with acronyms, especially "PC's". as far back as a job interview in Aug of 1983. As an electrician/electronics tech, the owner/interviewer asked me if I was familiar with PC's. and I had to ask which type of PC's he meant, and he did not know what it stood for. I said, to me it could be, 'Printed Circuits", "Programmable controllers", or "personal computers". He still didn't know which, so I let him off the hook, and said ...I can do all 3. 🤭

3:53 lets just be happy that acronym didn't take off...

The thing about an SSD (Solid State Disk) is that you have 'random BLOCK access' whereas RAM gives you 'random BYTE/WORD access'. So they work a little bit differently in practice.

it’s named after a Daft Punk album

RAM still works because it's a generic description of functionality, not a specific technology. Long ago, I predicted that we would use "core memory" long after the origins were lost, retronymically considering it to be the (random access) memory closest to the CPU, ie: at the core of the computer. Of course, the actual origin referred to very tiny ferromagnetic donut shaped "cores", which had been used for some while, but were being replaced with other technology (which today we would generically call RAM) at the time of my prediction. My prediction turned out wrong, although the term "core dump" lasted for some while (as a dump of memory contents).

PC is iust a generic term. It doesn't matter about the specifics very much. Apple makes P. C.'s. They just don't like to call them that.

All great info, except for you mistakenly referring to terms are acronyms when they aren't. RAM and BIOS are indeed acronyms. Acronyms are strictly pronounceable words. CPU, PSU and AMD are not acronyms, they are initialisms. You have to say the letters individually. I mean, if we are a bunch of geeks getting pedantic about the names of things at least get it right! 🤪Thanks for attending my TED talk.

because thats how you install it

SSD's are not that random. Reads are still done a page at a time, writes are usually 3 pages for TLC, and erase is done a block at a time. This is why random benchmarks are slower than sequential.

Q: Why is it called RAM? A: To keep ewe happy?

I had no idea about most of this. While we're pointing out odd things a lot of us get wrong without realizing it: at around 2:37 "What we all need is more acronyms." and while I agree, we have too many, none of the "acronyms" swirling around were, in fact, acronyms outside of "R.A.M." or 'ram'. An acronym is an abbreviation that is pronounced as a word. PSU, GPU, CPU, HDD, SSD, are all abbreviations. R.A.M., N.A.S., R.A.I.D. are acronyms. Now we both learned something :3

Because of Daft Punk.

0:58. No. It's still storage, not memory. Car radio technology has changed in the last 20 years but it's still a radio, not a wheel. 1:45. Yes, the name was because it was physical chips but the name remains because what it refers to still serves the same function, even though the technology has changed.

3:17 skip ad

Getting low on video ideas? So basically the 'old' terms are still valid. WinTel was never popular (source: I was there) and the ARM Laptops are Personal Computers so yes they are PCs.

If we keep using the terms, they are, by definition, not outdated. The "random" in random access memory meant that you really could access any random spot in memory directly, not that the accesses would really be random. This is just being silly. As far as "chipset," he says that modern computers have only one chip, the CPU. That is incorrect. I just looked at a motherboard on Amazon and counted over 20 integrated circuits or chips. It sure looks like a set of chips to me. "PC" was short for personal computer before IBM built one. I had a PC that was by Timex-Sinclair, and several by RadioShack Color Computer. Then in 1989, I bought an "IBM PC compatible," meaning a computer that would run the same software as the computers IBM was making. Mine was a Tandy 3000NL from Radio Shack. I have never in my life owned a computer from IBM. I built my current computer from scratch, so it has no brand name at all. Listening to this "child" talk about things that happened before he was born is amusing. I started my computer journey over 50 years ago by accessing the mainframe at the Research Triangle via acoustic modem from UNC at Chapel Hill as part of my astronomy homework.

Exactly. I just refer to my car as a "fast thing with wheels," but there are other fast things with wheels, like skateboards. Thus, my car is actually a skateboard.

And how does this help me with cloudstrike… lol

So none of these terms is really outdated. Any mathematician would tell you: a set containing one item is still a set, so chipsets are still relevant, computers are still personal and RAM is still accessed randomly (as opposed to sequentially).

we should indeed call apple devices PC.... pricey crap.

Ram is random access, meaning you can address a cell randomly. In contrast with serial memory which can only be read in sequence. (I2C, SWP, SPI)

I remember looking at old game boxes and seeing that "IBM AT/XT Compatible"

Personal Computer have been around since the 60. IBM just reused the term. There was even Personal computing Magazine as far back as 1977. Covering Apple, Atari, commodore, Tandy and others. The trade mark is "The IBM Personal Computer"

RAM is still RAm in it's pure form, there is nothing "targeted", it still uses an entirely random access algorithm to find the data. It just "seems" targeted because it can randomly access the data so fast, it seems to us that it has to know exactly where it is, but no, the computer can not instantly know exactly where any complete data code is.

I remember the days when any computer that could fit on top of a desk was designated a 'microcomputer' or 'micro', as they were smaller than 'minicomputers' which were small enough that they didn't fill an entire room.

The key is the significance of the identifier. RAM has always been RAM because the speed at which it access information is what’s most important, just as the most important identifier in SSD is that it’s Solid State rather than Hard Disk. Chip Set is a slightly different as it also became used to refer to a series of chips from a given brand such as intel’s i5, i7, and i9 or AMD’s Ryzen series. Since they are typically 3-4 processors released at the same time

The only set of chip I know is from a chippy which I went last night. It was well cooked, and the fish was great.

Could you do one on the two wires that are usually laid across roads and runs to a sealed metal box. I'm assuming it tracks the speed and number of vehicles that use that given road way.

"Random" is correct, random just means that each value is unrelated to the value that came before, ie, not a pattern, not predictable... contrast this with a spinning disc, where you can move the head to a random track, but then the sectors on that track have to be read sequentially, as they spin past the head. Of course, one of the oldest terms in computing is "computer", which used to be the profession title of a person whose job was to perform calculations. A room full of computers was a roof full of people (usually women) with pens 'n paper, doing maths for stuff

Hobby? After 20+ years in corporate IT it's hardly a hobby. I see no issue with the old terms. Most everybody understands what they mean and the key to effective communication is to be understood.

Growing up my dad always had the latest tech. He helped me build my first few PCs which he always referred to as "IBM compatible"

I hate far more when people confuse non-volatile storage with ram. Here in Mordor they more and more often call any data storage "memory"...

I must be old, I was unable to figure out what was outdated or even confusing about any of these.

The OS locates programs and files after the data location algorythms and is still ramdom like, computers nowadays are more efficiently locating thins in memory but RAM is still a valid term.

How about thumb drives? Some of them are more like thumbnail drives these days. I know, they are more correctly referred to as flash drives.

When programming FGPA, you have BRAM and DRAM with the BRAM requiring you to read blocks of data a bit more like sequential memory

Its interesting that "chipset" is actually called "south bridge" in other languages, e.g. Chinese. I only came to know the term chipset later on as the original English version of south bridge.

The first thing that comes to my mind is tech but not directly PC related (there, I said it). It's to tape something and rolling the tape when there is clearly no tape involved when recording a video, either film or flash storage. RAM: If comparing working memory to nvme drives, maybe something like volatile and persistent memory could be used to differentiate them as one loses the info when the power is cut and the other doesn't. Or we could call it cache as that describes what it does. It caches information that does not fit in the CPU cache. PC: That took a weird evolution. I still remember the term "IBM compatible PC" when IBM didn't even do that thing anymore. They meant a PC that was able to run MS-DOS and later Windows. Nowadays I still like the term PC to differentiate them from computers that are not personal such as servers or virtual machines in the cloud. Chipset is still a correct term for what is going on on the mainboard, but yes and X670E is not a chipset, it's a single chip. I sometimes wonder how a completely alien race would develop technology. How would their cars look when they didn't evolve from horse carriages? What aspect ratio would their screens have and why? How would their input devices look like, would they have a keyboard and if so by what reason would the keys be sorted? Would the num block be different depending on whether it's a phone or a calculator?

Reminds me of "Segmentation fault (core dumped)" on Linux. "Core" refers to memory, and is also a reference to an ancient storage technology called magnetic core memory.