What Does Chips and Salsa Mean?
In IT, the colloquial phrase “chips and salsa” refers to the difference between hardware and software technologies. The hardware is the “chips,” and the software is the “salsa.” IT pros might talk about hardware and software displayed for the purposes of troubleshooting or for other types of descriptions or explanations.
Techopedia Explains Chips and Salsa
In one sense, the phrase chips and salsa is a play on the word “chip.” While a chip, in American English, is a tasty snack, it is also used to describe microprocessors. So it makes sense to call hardware “chips.” There is also the difference between the density and texture of chips and salsa – the chips are hard and crunchy, the salsa is more of a liquid – and the differences in application: the chip is dipped into salsa. All of this supports the idea that this food metaphor can be used to talk about hardware and software.
