A mythical accessory to a terminal. A crank on the side of a monitor,
which when operated makes a zizzing noise and causes the computer to
run faster. Usually one does not refer to a grind crank out loud, but
merely makes the appropriate gesture and noise. See {grind}.
Historical note: At least one real machine actually had a grind crank
-- the R1, a research machine built toward the end of the days of the
great vacuum tube computers, in 1959. R1 (also known as `The Rice
Institute Computer' (TRIC) and later as `The Rice University
Computer' (TRUC)) had a single-step/free-run switch for use when
debugging programs. Since single-stepping through a large program was
rather tedious, there was also a crank with a cam and gear
arrangement that repeatedly pushed the single-step button. This
allowed one to `crank' through a lot of code, then slow down to
single-step for a bit when you got near the code of interest, poke at
some registers using the console typewriter, and then keep on
cranking. See http://www.cs.rice.edu/History/R1/.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {software rot}]