micro-operationn.
/ˌmʌɪkrəʊˌɒpəˈreɪʃn/, U.S. /ˈˌmaɪkroʊˌɑpəˈreɪʃ(ə)n/ 1. Biology and Surgery. An operation performed under or with the aid of a microscope.
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1913 Jrnl. Royal Microsc. Soc. 207 (heading) Apparatus for micro-operations.
1926 Science p. vii (advt.) Experimental Protozoology—[micro-manipulator] for micro-operations on various Protozoa.
1968 Sci. Jrnl. Nov. 54/1 Micro-operations such as removing parts of the embryo or grafting tissues from one embryo to another.
1986 Neurosurg. Rev. 9 110/1 Micro-operation: the micro-approach avoids major damage to muscles and ligaments and may reduce but cannot completely avoid intraspiral scar-formation.
2. Computing. A simple operation carried out in response to a microinstruction.
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society > computing and information technology > programming language > program or code > [noun] > instruction > micro > resulting operation
micro-operation1951
1951 M. V. Wilkes in Manchester Univ. Computer Inaugural Conf. 17/1 Each of these steps is achieved by pulsing certain of the wires associated with the control and arithmetical registers, and I will refer to it as a ‘micro-operation’.
1953 M. V. Wilkes & J. B. Stringer in Proc. Cambr. Philos. Soc. 49 230 The operation called for by a single machine order can be broken down into a sequence of more elementary operations... These elementary operations will be referred to as micro-operations.
1970 O. Dopping Computers & Data Processing xii. 197 A program step, i.e. the execution of an instruction in a computer, consists of a number of micro program steps, or micro operations.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1913