What is "slot"

Slot \Slot\, n. [LG. & D. slot a lock, from a verb meaning to close., to shut, D. sluiten; akin to G. schliessen, OHG. sliozan, OFries. sl?ta, and probably to L. claudere. Cf. Close, Sluice.]

1. A broad, flat, wooden bar; a slat or sloat.

2. A bolt or bar for fastening a door. [Prov. Eng.]

3. A narrow depression, perforation, or aperture; esp., one for the reception of a piece fitting or sliding in it.

Slot \Slot\, v. t. [See Slot a bar.] To shut with violence; to slam; as, to slot a door. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.]

Slot \Slot\, n. [Cf. Icel. sl??, and E. sleuth.] The track of a deer; hence, a track of any kind.
--Milton.

As a bloodhound follows the slot of a hurt deer.
--Sir W. Scott.

late 14c., "hollow at the base of the throat above the breastbone," from Old French esclot "hoofprint of a deer or horse," of uncertain origin, probably from Old Norse sloð "trail" (see sleuth). Original sense is rare or obsolete in Modern English; sense of "narrow opening into which something else can be fitted" is first recorded 1520s. Meaning "middle of the (semi-circular) copy desk at a newspaper," the spot occupied by the chief sub-editor, is recorded from 1917. The sense of "opening in a machine for a coin to be inserted" is from 1888 (slot machine first attested 1891). The sense of "position in a list" is first recorded 1942; verb sense of "designate, appoint" is from 1960s. Slot car first attested 1966.

"bar or bolt used to fasten a door, window, etc.," c.1300, from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German slot (compare Old Norse slot, Old High German sloz, German Schloss "bolt, bar, lock, castle;" Old Saxon slutil "key," Dutch slot "a bolt, lock, castle"), from Proto-Germanic stem *slut- "to close" (cognates: Old Frisian sluta, Dutch sluiten, Old High German sliozan, German schliessen "to shut, close, bolt, lock"), from PIE root *klau- "hook, peg" (cognates: Greek kleis "key;" Latin claudere "to shut, close," clavis "key," clavus "nail;" see close (v.)). Wooden pegs seem to have been the original keys.

1560s, "to bolt a door," from slot (n.2). Related: Slotted; slotting.

1747, "provide with a slot, cut slots in," from slot (n.1). Meaning "drop a coin in a slot" is from 1888. Sense of "take a position in a slot" is from 1940; that of "fit (something) into a slot" is from 1966. Oldest sense is obsolete: "stab in the base of the throat" (c.1400). Related: Slotted; slotting.

Etymology 1 n. 1 A broad, flat, wooden bar, a slat, especially as used to secure a door, window, etc. 2 A metal bolt or wooden bar, especially as a crosspiece. 3 (context electrical English) A channel opening in the stator or rotor of a rotating machine for ventilation and insertion of windings. 4 (context slang surfing English) The barrel or tube of a wave. vb. 1 (context obsolete English) To bolt or lock a door or window. 2 (context obsolete transitive UK dialect English) To shut with violence; to slam. Etymology 2

n. 1 A narrow depression, perforation, or aperture; especially, one for the reception of a piece fitting or slide in it. 2 A gap in a schedule or sequence. 3 (context aviation English) The allocated time for an aircraft's departure or arrival at an airport's runway. 4 (context aviation English) In a flying display, the fourth position; after the leader and two wingmen. 5 (context computing English) A space in memory or on disk etc. in which a particular type of object can be stored. 6 (context informal English) A slot machine designed for gambling. 7 (context slang English) The vagin

1. v

2. 1 To put something (such as a coin) into a slot (narrow aperture) 2 To assign something or someone into a slot (gap in a schedule or sequence) 3 To put something where it belongs. Etymology 3

   n. The track of an animal, especially a deer.

1. n. a position in a grammatical linguistic construction in which a variety of alternative units are interchangeable; "he developed a version of slot grammar"

2. a small slit (as for inserting a coin or depositing mail); "he put a quarter in the slot"

3. a time assigned on a schedule or agenda; "the TV program has a new time slot"; "an aircraft landing slot" [syn: time slot]

4. a position in a hierarchy or organization; "Bob Dylan occupied the top slot for several weeks"; "she beat some tough competition for the number one slot"

5. the trail of an animal (especially a deer); "he followed the deer's slot over the soft turf to the edge of the trees"

6. (computer) a socket in a microcomputer that will accept a plug-in circuit board; "the PC had three slots for additional memory" [syn: expansion slot]

7. a slot machine that is used for gambling; "they spend hours and hours just playing the slots" [syn: one-armed bandit]

8. v. assign a time slot; "slot a television programs"

9. [also: slotting, slotted]

In hockey, the slot is the area on the hockey rink directly ahead of the goaltender between the faceoff circles on each side. It is sometimes referred to as the "scoring area".

The "deep" or "high" slot refers to the area from the top of the circles, farthest from the goaltender, to the end of the slot at the hash marks. The distinction of where the deep slot begins is contentious. In general, it is the defenceman's responsibility to guard offensive players in the slot, while the offside winger covers offensive players in the deep slot. Because the deep slot is protected by an offensively minded winger and not a defenceman, forwards will often hover in the deep slot waiting for an opportunity to move towards the net for a scoring opportunity.

Category:Ice hockey terminology

Slot may refer to:

• A narrow opening through which an object can pass, for example in a:
  • Mail slot
  • Slot machine, a type of casino game
  • Vending machine slot, a machine that dispenses items such as snacks, beverages, alcohol, cigarettes, lottery tickets to customers automatically, after the customer inserts currency or credit into the machine
  • Special passive mechanical devices used for returning rental videos
• Slot, a space for a container on a ship, usually expressed as a or slot
• Slot (car racing), a slot in the track on which slot cars race in and are guided by
• Slot (ice hockey), the area on the hockey rink directly ahead of the goaltender between the faceoff circles on each side
• Orbital slot, allotted position for a satellite in a "crowded" orbit
• Slot, slang term for the chief copy editor on a newspaper

A slot comprises the operation issue and data paths machinery surrounding a collection of one or more functional units (FUs) which share these resources. The term slot is common for this purpose in the VLIW world where the relationship between operation in an instruction and pipeline to execute it is explicit. In dynamically scheduled machines the concept is more commonly called an execute pipeline.

Modern conventional CPUs have several compute pipelines (say two ALU, one FPU, one SSE/ MMX, one branch) each of which can issue one instruction per basic cycle but can have several in flight. These are what correspond to slots. The pipelines may have several FUs - an adder and a multiplier, say - but only one FU in a pipeline can be issued to in a particular cycle. The FU population of a pipeline/slot is a design option in a CPU.

Category:Computer architecture