programmable, a. and n.
(ˈprəʊgræməb(ə)l, -ˈgræm-)
Also (rare) programable.
[f. program, programme v. + -able.]
A. adj. Of an apparatus or an operation: capable of being programmed. Also fig.
| 1959 Times Rev. Industry May 36/2 The investigating team..designed a ‘push-button office’... Such an arrangement would..be a data processing system..not based on a..programmable computer. 1965 M. Frayn Tin Men ix. 51 Filling up a football coupon is another job which a computer could easily be programmed to do... We have a range of variables which can be identified in advance and manipulated according to predetermined rules. It's programmable. 1967 Cox & Grose Organization & Handling Bibliogr. Rec. by Computer ii. 46 With a system such as I have described all the elaborate mechanical and studio devices used to compose pages and flats are now replaced by programmable operations generated by algorithm from simple input instructions. 1971 Sci. Amer. Aug. 100/1 (Advt.), Others know us as a computer company: more than 10,000 own our programmable calculators and computers. 1972 Carr & Mize MOS/LSI Design & Application viii. 232 (caption) Programable logic array (PLA) contains multiple ROMs and flip-flop feedback elements for sequential logic elements. 1979 Nature 13 Sept. 131/2 The laser frequency..and data recording were controlled by a programable calculator. 1979 B. Peterson Peripheral Spy vi. 157 Predictable, hell! I'm programmable, that's what. Just like a godamned computer. |
B. n. A programmable calculator.
| 1975 New Scientist 27 Feb. 506 New handheld programmables will appear in 1975–76 not unlike the HP-65 at as little as {pstlg}85. 1977 Sci. Amer. Apr. 94/2 (Advt.), All our hand-held and portable programmables incorporate HP's special RPN logic system. |
Hence ˌprogrammaˈbility, the property of being programmable.
| 1966 Jrnl. Assoc. Computing Machinery XIII. 369 (heading) Use of multiwrite for general programmability of search memories. 1975 Daily Tel. 17 July 7 (Advt.), Programmability overcomes both limitations—and makes a calculator vastly more powerful. 1977 Sci. Amer. June 79/1 Programmability transformed the slick slide-rule calculator into an advanced scientific machine. |