Today we’ll talk about what “slots” are. This term, alien to the sound of a Russian person, has many homonyms, that is, words with the same pronunciation, but different meanings. Let's figure out what slots are in different industries.
Old values
Despite the fact that this term is widely used due to computer technology and the Internet, it existed before. One of the first values appeared for the designation of places in running competitions and means a place free to participate in the race. That is, if 10 people should participate in the race, then there are only ten slots for this.
Another answer to the question of what are slots, appeared with the beginning of the era of aeronautics and is used in airports. A slot is a period of time during which an airplane can take off or land on a runway.
Entertainment
In this category, which reveals the answers to the question of what slots are, we included everything that somehow can enhance a person’s mood. Humanity in this regard is striding leaps and bounds and much faster than in any other area. However, what are slots? This is one of the oldest concepts in the entertainment industry.
Have you ever heard of the "one-armed bandit"? Yes, the very machine in which people drop tokens and then pull the lever in an attempt to hit the jackpot. Its second name is a slot machine, or in short - a slot. There are three types of slots:
- Mechanical - the oldest and most familiar to all the "bandits."
- Video slots are a new word in gaming technology. Instead of reels, they have a video screen on which familiar combinations are played.
- Online casinos with matching machines.
Speaking of online. Finally we got to a time interval closer to us. What are slots in online games and computer technology?
PC
Creating computers and games on them gave new life to the concept of slots. As before, let's start with what came first. In computer technology, slots are cells in which expansion cards are inserted on the motherboard - ISA, PCI, AGP, PCI Express and other, more modern types of cards with new interfaces.
We separately mention what memory slots are. These are the cells on the motherboard in which the RAM slots are installed - DDR. In addition, there is an official designation slot 1 (slot A) - socket for installing the processor.
Another meaning of the word under consideration is the place in the queue for downloading a file on the Internet. Now, with modern capacities and speeds, it’s hard to imagine, but earlier, with the existing restrictions, it was quite difficult to get and download information from the Internet, so in many peer-to-peer networks the order for downloading files was introduced.
Now consider what slots are in computer games. The value itself does not change and remains a “cell”. They just use it differently in different situations.
- Inventory slot. A commonplace cell for storing an item in the game. In different games they are used in different ways. In some, 1 slot - 1 item, in others - depending on the size of the item, it can occupy several slots.
- The slot for the player. It looks like the situation with sports competitions. For example, many people know the game Counter Strike, or simply COP. What is a slot in the COP? These are the free places that players can take. For example, if there is a 10 by 10 match, then there are only 20 slots for players.
Other values
At the end of our note, it is necessary to mention other meanings of the word “slot”.
- "Slot" is the name of a Russian rock band created in 2002.
- This is also the name of a geographical feature. A slot is a strait in the Solomon Islands.
As you can see, there are many different meanings of the word under consideration. We hope this article helped you find the answer to your question.