Crossword Genius

Cheese pieces with temperature maintained in space by onboard computer (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

emmenthal

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'cheese' is the definition.
(Emmenthal is an example)

'pieces with temperature maintained in space by onboard computer' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'pieces' could be 'men' (man can mean a chess piece) and 'men' is found within the answer.
'temperature' could be 't' (abbreviation) and 't' is found within the answer.
'space' could be 'em' (in typography, a space as wide as a letter 'm') and 'em' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'hal' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for emmenthal that I've seen before include "Type of cheese" , "Something cheesy" , "Swiss cheese with holes" , "Swiss valley giving its name to a cheese" , "Hard Swiss cheese" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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