• RubberElectrons@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Without more details, it’s hard to know.

    But I’d guess his dad would’ve simply said “ram” or “memory”, something everyone is at least mildly familiar with, vs the more specific phrasing, “similar to a data switch but on a way smaller scale”.

    • baines@lemmy.cafe
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      4 days ago

      It’s on the chips. It’s similar to a data switch, but on a waaaaaaay smaller scale.

      We’ve argued about this a lot. He doesn’t like to call them that. The term “electronic switch” is so old.

      this makes it pretty clear

      he’s explaining the function to someone that he thinks is hardware illiterate

      also if he’s really specialized it may literally be the ‘switch’ part