chawmp n.
[University of Florida] 16 or 18 bits (half of a machine
word). This term was used by FORTH hackers during the late
1970s/early 1980s; it is said to have been archaic then, and may
now be obsolete. It was coined in revolt against the promiscuous
use of `word' for anything between 16 and 32 bits; `word' has an
additional special meaning for FORTH hacks that made the
overloading intolerable. For similar reasons, /gaw'bl/ (spelled
`gawble' or possibly `gawbul') was in use as a term for 32 or 48
bits (presumably a full machine word, but our sources are unclear
on this). These terms are more easily understood if one thinks of
them as faithful phonetic spellings of `chomp' and `gobble'
pronounced in a Florida or other Southern U.S. dialect. For
general discussion of similar terms, see nybble.
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check n.
A hardware-detected error condition, most commonly used to
refer to actual hardware failures rather than software-induced
traps. E.g., a `parity check' is the result of a
hardware-detected parity error. Recorded here because the word
often humorously extended to non-technical problems. For example,
the term `child check' has been used to refer to the problems
caused by a small child who is curious to know what happens when
s/he presses all the cute buttons on a computer's console (of
course, this particular problem could have been prevented with
molly-guards).
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cheerfully adv.
See happily.