processing

processing pro‧ces‧sing [ˈprəʊsesɪŋ ǁ ˈprɑː-] noun [uncountable]

1. MANUFACTURING when a substance is changed as part of the manufacture of a product:

• Fire broke out at a food processing plant in Hamlet, N.C.

2. COMPUTING the use of information, figures etc to produce a particular result

ˌbatch ˈprocessing COMPUTING

when a computer system processes different Batches (= groups) of data (= information) or different jobs one after the other

ˌdata ˈprocessing also ˌelectronic ˈdata ˌprocessing abbreviation EDP COMPUTING

the use of computers to store and organize data:

• computers designed for commercial and business data processing

• Invoicing is precisely the kind of function that can be taken over by electronic data processing.

disˌtributed ˈprocessing COMPUTING

when a computer system processes data (= information) at various places, instead of using one central computer

ˌparallel ˈprocessing COMPUTING

a system in some types of computer that can work on several problems, calculations etc at the same time, making it much faster:

• NCR systems range from notepad computers to systems with parallel processing.

• parallel-processing research and development projects

tranˈsaction ˌprocessing

COMPUTING when a computer system processes transaction S (= single actions that make a few related changes to the data in a database )

ˈword ˌprocessing abbreviation WP

COMPUTING when you write, store and process documents using a computer:

• software for word processing and database storage

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processing UK US /ˈprəʊsesɪŋ/ US  /ˈprɑːsesɪŋ/ noun [U]

► PRODUCTION the series of actions that are taken to change raw materials during the production of goods: the processing of sth »

Uruguay's manufacturing production and exports are largely based on the processing of natural resources.

processing equipment/facility/plant »

The refinery is among the largest and most advanced crude oil processing plants in the world.

► IT the use of a computer to collect, store, organize, and use information

→ See also BATCH PROCESSING(Cf. ↑batch processing), CPU(Cf. ↑CPU), DATA PROCESSING(Cf. ↑data processing), DISTRIBUTED PROCESSING(Cf. ↑distributed processing), PARALLEL PROCESSING(Cf. ↑parallel processing), WORD PROCESSING(Cf. ↑word processing)