Computron

For The Transformers character Computron, see Technobots.

For electron tube computing device Computron, see Computron Tube.

Computron is computer hacker jargon and can refer to several ideas.

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Elementary particle

Computron can refer to a fictional subatomic elementary particle (as in electron, neutron, etc.) that defines the construction of the universe, or is the quantum of computing power.

A proposed test to determine the validity of this concept would be to have two or more computers operating in proximity to each other to determine if they could "draw down" the Computron level for an area. If the computers in question ran slower when in proximity to each other than when separated this would demonstrate such an effect.

An elaborate pseudoscientific "theory of computrons" has been created to describe heat. It is argued that objects melt (or release magic smoke) because individual molecules have emitted computrons and lost the information about their proper location.

Additionally, the need for computrons in order that computers work is often used as an explanation for how a computer suddenly starts working normally as soon as a member of Tech Support arrives at a beleaguered computer user's desk. The local area of the machine has been sucked clean of its natural levels of computrons, causing the problem, but in travelling towards the location of the machine in question the support person passes through, and soaks up like a sponge, an amount of computrons relative to the distance travelled. Upon stopping at the desk, these soaked-up computrons continue onwards and into the equipment, often allowing it to function once more without any intervention by any support personnel who have attended. Particularly intransitive depletions of computron potential may force the calling in of external support staff who, having driven to the site from many miles away and accumulated a proportionally larger load, will find that their mere arrival will have doped the equipment with sufficient computrons to work, again without any apparent work on their part.

Units of computing power

A notional unit of computing power that is an unspecified informal composite of processing power, RAM, and disk drive space.

References

• Jargon File 4.2.0. (2000). http://www.science.uva.nl/~mes/jarg311/c/computron.html
• Sandberg, A. Quantum Compudynamics Today. http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/madsci/qcd.html