What is an inverter?

[Terry]

This raises an interesting point about terminology ... All this reminds me of a similar thing. What do you call "the box that does your broad-band"? Chances are, you call it a router, right? Certainly, most people do in my experience.

But that box contains many things ...

You left out the option of a DOCSIS modem for CATV, Mark!

Don't forget that originally the modem only had one output. If you wanted more than one feed you would connect that to a separate router/switch which might or might not also contain a wireless access point, etc.

Then manufacturers started bundling everything into a single box. To the average non-technical user, the only thing that had multiple outputs on the back was a router, so the name stuck for the entire unit.