A narrow opening or groove in something, especially a door or wall. Also: A position in a series or sequence, such as a time slot on a broadcasting schedule.
In computer technology, a slot is an empty space reserved for installing hardware devices such as expansion cards, optical drives, and memory. The term may also refer to an interconnecting hole on a motherboard, used for connecting components such as RAM and video cards. A slot can also be found in a CPU, where it is used to store BIOS firmware and other system files.
The history of slot machines starts in the 19th century, when a New York company called Sittman and Pitt created what is considered to be the first ever casino machine. This particular contraption had five drums with a total of 50 poker symbols. Winning was accomplished by aligning three or more of these symbols on a pay line. Charles Fey then improved upon this invention, creating his own version in 1887 – 1895. His machine had three reels and featured diamonds, spades, horseshoes, hearts, and liberty bells as the highest winning symbols.
Modern slots are powered by microprocessors, which give them a number of different probability distributions. The machine’s program assigns a specific probability to each symbol on each of the spinning wheels. The player can then earn credits based on the pay table, which is usually displayed above or below the reels. Some slots also have special symbols, known as Wilds, which can substitute for other icons to create a winning combination.
When playing a slot machine, players insert cash or, in the case of “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, a paper ticket with a barcode into a designated slot on the machine. The machine then activates the reels, which spin and stop to rearrange the symbols. If the symbols match a pay table win, the player receives credits according to the payout percentage specified on the machine’s face. The symbols vary by machine, but classics include stylized fruit, bells, and stylized lucky sevens.
A slot is also a term in aviation, where it refers to an air traffic management position assigned to a particular airline at certain times of the day. Airlines can be given or lose slots depending on how much they fly, how often they fly, and their ability to meet airport capacity targets. A slot can also refer to a place in the airport’s runway capacity, as well as an assignment of space in on-airport facilities. For example, an airline might be granted a slot at Heathrow because of its large passenger numbers and extensive route network. However, the airline might not be able to use this slot at other airports due to capacity constraints. Air traffic control might then assign the aircraft to another airport, which can use its own slots. This is known as slot trading.