So it’s a non-count or mass noun, like “water”?
“Compute, compute everywhere, and not a byte to eat.”
I was irritated by it seven years ago: Strange usage of 'compute' in IT context
But the years and habituation have dulled this somewhat. But that thread has the distinction of being apparently the first introduction of the term to a couple of the present posters!
Oh nice! So that’s where I first heard it!
I’ve generally heard it in reference to GPUs, differentiating the more general CPU-like (compute) performance/capabilities from typical GPU (graphics) performance.
Historically GPUs transferred data mainly in one direction, from the CPU to the GPU then out to the display. As GPUs got more powerful, it became evident that they could perform certain computational tasks better than general-purpose CPUs, especially highly parallelized tasks such as video encoding and machine learning. However, they weren’t necessarily designed for the type of two-way communication necessary to send their data back to the main CPU and system RAM. That capability has since been added to many (most?) GPUs, so there’s now a distinction between doing “compute tasks” and the more traditional graphics acceleration.
It’s historically been used both ways (i.e., as a count or a non-count noun). The current usage we’re discussing seems to be non-count.
“Compute” is standard in the world of HPC. You don’t login to compute nodes, you login to login nodes. You don’t submit jobs on login nodes, you submit them on compute nodes. They also differentiate between standard compute nodes (no GPU, jobs run on CPU) and GPU nodes even though GPU nodes have CPUs and do lots of “compute”.
If compute annoys you, don’t become a computational scientist. 
“Dr. Smith, do not put plastics in with the organic leavings, that does not compost.”
I’ll be leaving now.
No, it’s not a compote. I think they mean comp time.
The example sentences, like the Wiktionary one, seem to use it as a close or exact synonym for “computational power” or “processing power”.
That makes perfect sense. On the other hand, asking “how much compute does this board provide?” sounds to some extent like a sentence composed by someone using it as a buzzword, whereas “This computer can sustain 1014 FLOPS on that workload” sounds like the person knows what they are talking about.
Having re-read my OED under better lighting conditions, I have to correct myself on this point. The 15th-century use of “compute” was synonymous not with “computer” but with “computus”, the latter being a set of tables for calculating astronomical events. The word “computer” isn’t attested until 1646.
I don’t think I’ve ever encountered the word outside of the Robby the Robot context.
I’ve spent my career doing video games and other low level stuff when profiling is really important and I’ve found it a useful, precise term.
As in if a program is “compute bound” its actually spending its time crunching numbers not waiting for IO or some other data to come over a bus.
It’s a bit more ambiguous nowadays since graphics chips have started being used as generic… well… compute devices. So it can refer to number crunching on a CPU or a GPU
Could this be similar to people using the word 'install?" I have seen this for many years. “Check out my new 200hp Evinrude Install”. Do they mean installation? Compute - To Compute. Install - To Install
The “install” people irk me.
I cannot tell you how many days I hear a sentence like “Management’s ask is to rightsize our compute spend.”
Seriously though, there’s a good reason for “compute” becoming what it is, and it’s because cloud computing has led us to see computing power not as machines but as a collective noun like water and air. So in the IT world, it’s becoming more rare to “buy a computer”, it’s becoming more common to “lease compute”.
Sounds like you’ve been hanging out with people who’ve learned English as a second language and are still struggling with it.
I just ran across a very similar (mis)use with a different word:
“The company noted that both seasons are in development, meaning that a two-season renewal depends on how the creative comes in.”
From:
It’s way, way older than that, though.
CUDA, for example, is a programming environment for NVIDIA products, and stands for “Compute Unified Device Architecture”. That dates to 2006 at least. And even then, “compute” as a mass noun or adjective was in widespread enough use that no one (in the industry) batted an eye. I strongly suspect it was already in use in the 90s, and I wouldn’t be shocked if one could find usage in the 80s.