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100BaseT => This is an extension of 10BaseT that runs at 10 times the speed. It's theoretically capable of 100 Mbpstransmission speed. The drawback for some installations is that it requires more expensive Category 5 cable to run at highspeeds, where...
10Base2 => Refers to a type of Ethernet cable that has been largely phased out. It's also known as "thin net." Cable speedsare typically up to 10 Mbps. 
10BaseT  => This is a type of Ethernet cable topology that uses RJ-45 connectors and a star topology. It's also known as"twisted pair." Transmission speed is 10 Mbps. 
128-bit Operating Systems => Operating systems may eventually be 128-bit. The ability to address 128 bits of memory spaceis something that may be necessary for huge databases, and will speed up operations. Of course, this will not happen untilafter t...
128-bit Video Cards => At one time they claimed to be the fastest out there. 128-bit cards natively address 4 MB of memory,but most have been kludged so that they can run with 2 MB of memory. The makers of these cards are going on theprinciple that a...
1394 IEEE standard => See Firewire. 
16-bit Operating Systems => DOS and Windows 3.x are 16-bit operating systems. They are limited in complexity and sufferinstability and slow speed (compared to 32-bit OSs) when run on 32- and 64-bit processors like the 386DX compatible chipsand above....
2-tier architecture => This term refers to applications that have a code base (1-tier) separate from the database managementsystem (1-tier), such as using Delphi to interact with Microsoft SQL Server (1+1 = 2 tier), for example. The application coder...
3-tier architecture => This architecture splits the user interface from the application logic. The server handles the databasemanagement and application logic. This works out to less complexity at the client and a more scalable application.Additional...
32-bit Chips => (32-bit processor) see 32-bit processor 
32-bit color depth => Anything that supports 32-bit color supports over 4 billion different colors. Generally, graphics cardssupport up to only 24-bit color because the human eye cannot discern between colors at that level, and you need a lot ofmemor...
32-bit Memory Chips => 72-pin SIMMs are 32-bit memory chips. 
32-bit Operating Systems => Windows NT, OS/2, and some flavors of UNIX are 32-bit operating systems. Windows 95 is a32-bit operating system running on top of a 16-bit operating system (DOS). 
32-bit processor => This type of processor can run a 32-bit OS, such as Windows NT or some versions of UNIX. You can alsorun a 16-bit or lesser OS, but performance is not optimal. Intel's 386DX, 486, Pentium, and Pentium II are all 32-bitprocessors. ...
32-bit Video Cards => These are generally older cards that were only capable of addressing 1 MB of RAM. 
56Kflex => This is one of the two competing 56 Kbps modem standards. It was developed by Rockwell and Lucent and hasmore market share than USR's X2 technology due to the fact that it is licensed to over 700 modem manufacturers. 
64-bit Chips => (see 64-bit processor) see 64-bit processor 
64-bit Memory Chips => DIMMs are 64-bit memory chips. 
64-bit Operating Systems => Some flavors of UNIX are 64-bit operating systems designed to run on 64-bit chips. There areplans to port Windows NT to 64 bits so that it can run on the P7. 
64-bit processor => This describes a processor that can run a 64-bit OS. The DEC Alpha is 64-bit, and Intel's Merced will be a64-bit processor. The 386, 486 and Pentium and Pentium II are all 32-bit processors, even though the Pentium has a 64-bitmem...
64-bit Video Cards => Most current video cards have a 64-bit bus with their memory on them. 64-bit cards must have at least 2MB (or multiples of 2) of memory. 
8 bits => Make up 1 byte. 
8-bit Memory Chips => 30-pin SIMMs are 8-bit memory chips. If you want to use them with a 32-bit chip such as a 386 or a486 you need to put four of them in at a time.
Access Speed => This refers to the average amount of time it takes for a floppy  drive, hard drive, CD drive or other drive to find any particular piece of data on a disk.
Accuracy => Accuracy is how close to the actual value you are. For example, if the number you are representing is 4 and you say it's 3, you are inaccurate by 1.
Accuracy/Precision => If the actual value is 4.321 and you say that it is 4.30, then you are precise to 3 places but inaccurate by .021. If a value is represented as a bullseye on a target, a group of guesses or measurements represented by closely gr...
ACPI => (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) This power management interface takes the power management out of the BIOS and gives control to the OS. Typically, a system's BIOS is only able to turn a device off after a certain period of inacti...
Active Matrix => LCD panels that are active matrix have a sharper, brighter image than those with passive matrix screens. They can also continue to be seen at much greater angles off of central viewing.
Active Movie => This is a Microsoft technology used for streaming video and audio over the Internet. It is an ActiveX control.
Active Server Pages => (ASP) Microsoft created this technology and bundled it with their IIS Web server. It is designed to allow easy combination of HTML, scripts (such as Javascript and Microsoft's VBScript), and ActiveX. Active Server Pages promise...
ActiveX => Microsoft technology designed to enable easier multimedia on the Web. ActiveX controls can be used in Java to create multimedia effects. For now, that means that when you go to Web sites, buttons can light up and sound effects can play whe...
ADSL => (Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line) This is a new technology just starting to come out that is the phone company's answer to cable modems. It supports data speeds over 2 Mbps downstream (to the user) and slower speeds upstream (to the Inte...
AGP => (Accelerated Graphics Port) This is a special port that will begin to show up on motherboards in the second half of 1997. The port will bypass the PCI bus and allow much higher throughput from the graphics card to the processor for speedier 3D...
Alpha Blending => This allows two objects to be blended together. This is primarily used for atmospheric and environmental effects. It allows such things as "fogging," where an image is rendered behind a "translucent" image, which creates the effect ...
Analog => Analog refers to a representation of a quantity that varies over any continuous range of values. Analog signals can be thought of as pure in nature and not processed. Thus, the debate over whether record albums (analog representation of sou...
Analog Control => An analog control changes value in non-discrete steps. You can tune an analog control to non-distinct values. In some cases, like for volume, analog controls are better. Have you ever used a digital volume control on a new TV, and o...
ANSI => (American National Standards Institution) This organization represents the United States in the ISO (International Organization for Standardization). They work to develop coding and signaling standards.
Anti-Aliasing => This is a method used to better define higher resolution objects in lower resolution. For example, you would use anti-aliasing if you have two lines that are so close together that at 320 x 200 they look as if they are one double-wid...
Aperture Grill => See Slot Mask.
API => (Application Programming Interface) APIs allow you to program to a pre-constructed interface (the API) instead of programming a device or piece of software directly. This allows for faster development, since programming to a device's API is de...
Argument => This is what you have with your girlfriend when she wants you to stop using your computer so much. Actually, argument refers to the value you call a procedure with. For example, if you wrote a line of code that said "goto 140," telling yo...
ASIC => (Application-specific Integrated Circuit) An ASIC is a circuit designed for a very specific purpose, such as the processors in PDAs or the chips on a motherboard chipset. ASICs contrast with more general-purpose devices such as memory chips o...
Aspect Ratio => This is the ratio of the width by the height on a monitor or television screen. Most TVs and monitors have a 4 x 3 aspect ratio. The screens are 4 units wide and 3 units high. A movie screen has an aspect ratio of 16 x 9 (about 5 x 3)...
Asynchronous Communication => This method of transferring data does so without a specific timing mechanism between the two communicating parties. The party receiving data isn't expecting more data at any set interval.
ATA => (AT Attachment) More commonly known as IDE, the "AT" refers to the IBM-AT computer where this interface was first used.
ATA-33 => An extension to the ATA interface (IDE) that will effectively double the top data transfer speed up to 33 Mbps. Also known as Ultra-IDE.
ATM => (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) A networking protocol designed to move multimedia data around with high reliability and speed. Some ISPs use ATM as the protocol for their backbones.
ATX Form Factor => The ATX form factor specification takes the original baby AT-sized motherboard, rotates it 90 degrees, and calls for a power supply with a side-mounted fan that cools not only the power supply, but also the processor and add-in boa...
AUI => This is a synonym for the 10Base-5 Thicknet Ethernet standard.
Availability => This is a measure of how much time a network or a connection is running. Generally, the equation is: Time Running / Time Measured (time running divided by time measured). Thus, if you measured something for 20 minutes, and it was only...
Backbone => A segment of a network that's often a higher speed than therest of the network and connects all the other segments. If you don'thave a fast backbone, your network will lag. That's why a lot of ISPs areconstantly restructuring their backbo...
Bandwidth => This is a measure, in some amount of bits per second, of theamount of data that can be sent over a particular cable, interface, orbus.
BASIC => (Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) Thisprogramming language was developed in the mid '60s. The language wasconstructed of simple English-like commands that were run through aninterpreter, line by line, each time the program w...
Batch => A group of commands that are executed one at a time. Same asscript.
Baud => The measure of how frequently sound changes on a phone line. Thisused to be the measure of speed of modems because they worked by bruteforce and actually made a sound for each bit of information. Now, modemswork on a more sophisticated level....
Bilinear and Trilinear Filtering => This is used to smooth flat surfacesby averaging the colors of adjacent pixels, which blurs them and removesblockiness when viewed up close.
Binary code => Binary consists of a string of bits, i.e. 01010111000000001
BIOS => (Basic Input Output System) This makes your computer speak thesame language as every other computer, making accessing video and thekeyboard standard.
Bit => This is the smallest unit of measure in a computer. It isrepresented by a 0 (off) or 1 (on). You can think of a bit as a switch.If it's in the on position, it's a 1, and if the switch is off, it's a 0.All parts of your computer communicate in ...
Bit depth => How many bits it takes to represent the color in one pixel.The larger the bit depth, the more colors you can display and the morepower it takes to display.
Black box => Anything that you put input into and get output from, butdon't know what's inside or how it works.BLOB (Binary Large OBject) => A BLOB is a data type used in a relationaldatabase that can contain any type of binary data, including sound,...
Boolean logic => This is the form of logic where every answer is eithertrue or false. Alternately, you can think of it as either 0 or 1, where 0= false and 1 = true.
Boot => This is a verb meaning to load. You can say thatyou are booting your machine, or that your operating system is bootingup.
BPS => (bits per second) This is generally a measure of how fast somedevice communicates, usually in thousands of bits per second (Kbps) ormillions of bits per second (Mbps).
Bridge => Bridges link two or more network segments that use the samenetwork technology. The network topologies do not have to be the same,i.e. you can bridge Ethernet and Token Ring. If the protocols are not thesame on segments, then you've got a ro...
Browser => Most commonly used to refer to a software program used to lookat World Wide Web pages.
Bug => This is commonly an error in design or programming in a hardwaredevice or piece of software. The effects of a bug may be as harmless asan extra graphic on the screen, or as harmful as a system crash or lossof data. See also Feature.
Bus => A bus is simply a data path between devices. The computer's systembus is what peripherals use to send and receive data from the processorand main memory.
Bus mouse => A mouse that uses the smaller 6-pin connector instead of yourcomputer's serial port. Also referred to as a PS/2 mouse because of itsearly adoption by the IBM PS/2 series of computers.
Bus speed => This is a measurement, usually in MHz, of how many times datacan be transferred over the bus per second.
Bus Topology => This network topology has computers connected to a strandof network cabling that is connected to network repeaters at one end andterminated at the other. If you break part of the cable or remove theterminator, all machines on that seg...
Byte => Simply put, it's 8 bits. Think of it as a string of 1s and 0s thatrepresents a number from 0 to 255. For example '01100101' is one byte ofinformation.
C => This is a programming language developed in the late '70s. It became hugely popular due to the development of UNIX, which was written almost entirely in C. C was written by programmers for programmers and it lets you write code in sloppy ways th...
C++ => This is an extension of the C programming language that adds object-oriented concepts.
Cable Modem => Cable companies are working to provide Internet access over coaxial cable. That's right, the cable that you plug into your VCR or TV. A cable modem accepts this coaxial cable and can get data from the Internet at up to and above 1.5 Mb...
Cache memory => Generally a small chunk of fast memory that sits between either 1) a smaller, faster chunk of memory and a bigger, slower chunk of memory, or 2) a processor and a bigger, slower chunk of memory. This is to provide a bridge from someth...
Cat 3, 4, 5 => See Category 3, 4, or 5 cable standards.
Category 3 cable standard => Cat 3 cable is certified to run at up to 16 MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 10 Mbps on Cat 3 cable. This cable maxes out with standard 10 Mbps Ethernet.
Category 4 cable standard => Cat 4 cable is certified to run at up to 20 MHz. You can achieve speeds of up to 16 Mbps, such as with the 16 Mbps token-ring standard.
Category 5 cable standard => This is the latest and greatest copper wire standard. It uses an RJ-45 plug like Cat 3, and 4, and 4-pair wire, but it is certified to run up to 100 MHz and is suitable for 100 Mbps wiring standards. The guys that wired u...
CAV => (Constant Angular Velocity) This refers to a spinning disk. As data is read from the disk, the drive motor spins at the same speed. For example, CD-drives that work at CAV will read data at 12x towards the center and 20x towards the edge, wher...
CD-R => (Compact Disk Recordable) CD-R drives will record up to 650 MB of data onto specialized CD-R media. The media is expensive compared to the mass-produced CDs that software is generally distributed on, but cheap for the amount of data you can s...
CD-ROM => (Compact Disk Read Only Media) CD-ROM media is read-only media that holds 650 MB of data. It's generally accepted as the easiest way to distribute software. CD-ROM drives can also read music CDs even though they are in a different format th...
CGI => (Common Gateway Interface) This interface allows scripts or programs to run on a Web server. All Web servers support CGI scripting. You can make a CGI script do pretty much anything a computer program can. Most commonly, they are implemented t...
Channel => This refers to the group of resellers that supply most companies with software, hardware, and support. The channel is a force to be reckoned with, and it competes directly against companies like Gateway 2000 and Dell. A channel can also be...
CIR => (Committed Information Rate) This term is used by ISPs to represent an amount of data that you should, on the average, be able to draw through your connection to them. This is measured in kilobits or megabits per second.
CISC => (Complex Instruction Set Computer) Intel x86 chips are CISC chips because of the complexity of the instruction set. On the other side of the coin, you have RISC chips that use a reduced instruction set. RISC chips split big operations into lo...
Client/Server => Client server technology came about when computers began to cost less. Mainframes are very expensive, and didn't give users much personal freedom. The client/server model promised to change that scenario and it's much more popular to...
Clock chipping => Synonym for over-clocking.
Clock Cycle => Think of a clock cycle as one tick of the second hand (but generally at a much higher speed). Computer clocks run voltage through a tiny crystal that oscillates at a predictable speed to give a meaningful timing method to the computer....
Clustering => Clustering is an up-and-coming technology using two or more computers that function together as a single entity for fault tolerance and load balancing. This increases reliability and up-time in a client/server environment. One computer ...
CLV => (Constant Linear Velocity) In terms of disk drives, it means that the rate of data being read off of the disk stays the same from center to outer edge. To accomplish this, the drive motor speeds up and slows down as data is read from different...
CMOS => (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) This is the common reference for the BIOS preferences in your computer. Actually, it is a low power version of a chip. The low power comes into play because it is what commonly holds your BIOS prefere...
Coaxial cable => This is the original Ethernet cable. It consists of a single, insulated copper wire, surrounded by a copper braid or foil. The wire is then coated with plastic. Coaxial cable is used in bus topology.
COBOL => (COmmon Business-Oriented Language) This is a programming language developed in the '60s by several computer companies and the US Department of Defense. COBOL is still used today for programming business applications and COBOL programmers ar...
Code => A series of instructions that make up a program.
Code generator => A code generator is part of a compiler. It takes intermediate code and translates it into the final workable code in the target language.
Coily => Enemy of Q-Bert.
COM => (Component Object Model) This is a Microsoft specification that describes methods of communication between components. For example, if you were to drag an item over a window, the item and window would have some rules of communication that they...
Compiler => A compiler translates a computer program from one language into another, catching any errors in syntax along the way. Most commonly, you translate some high level language, such as C++ or COBOL, into optimized machine language. This form ...
Compression => Takes something large and makes it smaller. Compression generally comes in two forms, lossy and lossless. Lossy compression is best used on graphics files and sound files. It crunches down the data at a much higher ratio, at the expens...
Computer => Technically, this is anything that inputs data, processes it in some way, and outputs it.
Control Program for Microprocessors (CP/M) => CP/M was THE operating system before IBM created the PC. IBM was shopping for an OS for the PC, ended up going with Microsoft, and Bill Gates created DOS. CP/M is not really used on anything but fossils a...
Convergence => The ability of the three electron beams (red, green and blue) in a CRT monitor to meet at a single point and produce one dot. If a monitor is mis-converging, you will notice shadows of blue or red around any white images. Often, this w...
Cookie => Web sites send these to your browser so that the site is customized based on your previous actions on that site. For example, someday UGeek may send a cookie to your browser to let us know whether you are a new visitor or if you've been her...
Core => In UNIX systems this term is commonly used in reference to core dumps.
Core Dump => In UNIX systems, when a program crashes, it "dumps" out an image of the memory and registers so that you may go through and see what caused the problem. This is almost as useful as the Netware and Windows NT memory dumps (which is not ve...

factpacks/techdict.fact  view on Meta::CPAN

Socket 7 => This is a PGA socket designed to accept an Intel P54c or P55c (Pentium class) chip, an AMD K5 chip, or a Cyrix 6x86 chip.
Socket 8 => This PGA socket is designed to accept an Intel Pentium Pro chip.
SOCKS => A protocol for communication through a firewall or proxy server. The SOCKS protocol uses TCP/IP sockets for communication. SOCKS is supported by Navigator and IE and allows them to communicate through proxy servers and firewalls, assuming th...
Sonictron => Viewsonic's answer to Sony's Trinitron. Like Trinitron, it uses an aperture grill instead of a shadow mask.
Sound Card => A peripheral device in the form of a card used for producing sound and music. Although PCs come with a speaker, it does not do a good job of playing music. As for reproducing sound, it takes most of the processor's power to produce only...
Spatial Database => This is simply a database that contains geographical or "spatial" information. For example, you could have a database of population by county in the United States, or amount of sales by state, or amount of employees per site.
Speaker Shielding => The ferro-magnetic shielding around the magnets of speakers that prevents interference with the monitor and stops damage to magnetic media such as floppies, Zip disks, and Jaz disks. Speaker shielding CAN damage MOs or CDs, howev...
Specular Highlights => This allows for the appearance of light reflecting off an object. White or light-colored pixels are blended into darker areas to provide this function.
Spider => Also known as a Web crawler, a robot, Web spider, or sometimes a worm. A program that runs on the Internet, goes out to an URL (Web page), and requests all links that are referred to on that page. Robots learn as they go, building a databas...
SQL => (Structured Query Language) This is a type of relational database that features data in rows and columns. Each row represents a record. Each column is a field. Most serious database solutions today use some form of SQL to store and access larg...
SRAM => (Static Random Access Memory) Much more expensive and physically larger than DRAM, but much faster. The fastest SRAM has a latency of about 5 nanoseconds.
SSD => (Solid State Disk) The D in SSD is really a misnomer. SSD storage is basically a huge block of RAM chips that functions like a hard drive. SSD drives (obviously) are extremely expensive, but offer very high data speeds that are necessary in so...
SSL => see Secure Socket Layer
SSMP => (Simple Screen Management Protocol) This is a communications protocol for text-based terminals.
Star topology => This is a network topology that has network hubs at the center, with all connected computers linked back to the hub by a single cable. Thus, if one cable goes down, the rest of the computers can still communicate.
Stepping => This refers to the version of a chip. Microprocessors typically have many different steppings where performance is increased or minor bugs are fixed. The steppings are generally not touted as a new release of the chip, because chips are n...
Streaming => This term is often used to describe technology that is capable of playing audio or video while it is still downloading. This saves you some waiting.
Superscalar Processor => This term describes a processor that is capable of executing more than one instruction during a processor cycle. Processors can do this by fetching multiple instructions in one cycle, deciding which instructions are independe...
Surge Protector => A specialized outlet that uses capacitors to keep spikes in the power supply from damaging electronic devices.
Swap file => An area of your hard drive that the computer uses for RAM. Although slower, it is usually much more abundant.
Switch => This refers to a hub that directs network packets to the port they are intended for, without broadcasting them to all connections. Switching is an alternative to moving to faster architectures. Switched 10Base-T can move data faster in some...
Sybase => This company makes a SQL database product that competes with Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server. It's also the type of SQL that Microsoft based Microsoft SQL Server on.
Synchronous => Meaning that things happen at the same time. More commonly, used in electronics to signify something occurring at the set pace of a clock, much like a metronome.
System Software => This term can refer to all of the software that comes with a computer system, or more specifically, the operating system. 
T1 => Two pairs of copper wire that carry data at a rate of 1.544 Mbps. T1 lines are used to carry 24 DS-0 signals. They can be used to carry 24 phone lines or an Internet connection capable of 1.544 Mbps data transfer. See also fractional T1.
T3 => 28 T1 lines together make up a T3, which can carry 672 separate voice channels or up to 44.736 Mbps data throughput. Many large Internet providers brag of about having T3 backbones.
T4 => Six T3 lines make up a T4 which carries data at 274 Mbps.
Tag RAM => This is a bank of SRAM that only holds addresses. Tag RAM is used to store addresses so that when the processor makes a call for memory, it first checks to see if the data is in the cache by looking for the memory address in the tag RAM. I...
Tape Drive => A device that can store data on a tape. The advantage of storing data on a tape is that a tape can hold enormous amounts of data in a small and inexpensive package. On the down side, a tape cannot store the data indefinitely, and it is ...
TAPI => (see Telephony API) see Telephony API
TCO => (Total Cost of Ownership) This phrase was coined by the creaters of the Network Computer (NC) to describe the benefits of using a system that is more Mainframe and less Client/Server. Their logic states that NCs, although they may cost the sam...
TCP/IP => (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol) The TCP/IP suite first saw usage on the original Department of Defense Internet in 1983. Its first implementation was amazingly successful, and it is still THE protocol of the Internet. In...
Technographer => This person types into a computer exactly what a person speaking at a meeting requests of them. The output is displayed on a screen for all to see. The important thing here is that anyone can speak and ask the technographer to type i...
Telephony => This is the science of audio communication through electric devices. It commonly refers to the many pieces of software that will make your $2,000 computer act like a $20 telephone. Of course, you can make this work for you with CTI. With...
Telephony API => (TAPI) This is an API for using telephony functions in Windows. For example, you can include TAPI instructions in your program that can dial numbers, receive calls, and interpret touch-tones.
Telnet => An old protocol for remotely logging in to another computer. It is one of the basic utilities for TCP/IP.
Terabyte => One trillion bytes, or one thousand gigabytes.
Texture Mapping => Pastes saved images, to be used as textures, onto triangle surfaces to improve realism. (Take a picture of a grassy field and code the program to use this picture to fill in your triangles on the floor--you get what looks like gras...
TFT => (Thin Film Transistor) This is a synonym for the Active Matrix display. You'll often see screens referred to as "TFT-Active Matrix," or just "TFT" if they're low on space.
ThickNet => See AUI.
Thin Client => A thin client is similar to a dumb terminal in that it gets all of its information from the network. Some thin clients have their own memory, but lack a hard drive. They're basically stripped down computers that are supposed to lower t...
ThinNet => See 10Base2
Thrash => - To move wildly or violently, without accomplishing anything useful. Also: => Paging or swapping systems that are overloaded waste most of their time moving data into and out of core (rather than performing useful computation) and are ther...
Throughput => Any measure of speed for data transmission.
Toner => Basically, it's ink in dust form. It is specially formulated to be sticky and to melt at a couple hundred degrees.
Toner Cartridge => When referring to laser printers, this is a cartridge that contains toner and the electrostatic drum.
Topology => This refers to the general structure of a network.
Tower Case => An improvement to the standard desktop case, it is flipped 90 degrees to accommodate more inside and to make it more convenient by allowing the case to be placed on the floor instead of the desk.
Trackball => Basically a mouse turned upside down. Instead of moving the whole pointing device, you simply move the ball on top. First seen in arcade games such as Centipede, but now used to replace mice where space is limited.
Transceiver => A device that translates between different network cables but maintains the same network topology. Thus, a transceiver could allow an AUI (Thick => Ethernet) NIC to work with a 10Base-T Ethernet network cable.
Transfer rate => This is the rate at which data is transferred in some amount of bits per second.
Transistor => An electronic device that acts like an electrically activated switch but has no moving parts so it can switch millions of times per second.
Trapezoidal Control => Control on better monitors that allows you to adjust the angles of the borders of the screen.
Trinitron => A technology developed by Sony to enhance the clarity of graphics on their monitors. The way this is done is by making the pixels more square.
True Color => The name given to 16.7 million color representation.
True Parity => This term has come about with the advent of logical parity. It simply means the original parity memory.
Truth table => This is a Boolean table that describes the way that a circuit reacts to input values by showing a complete set of possible input values with corresponding outputs.
Tuple => See n-tuple.
Turbo-Pascal => This is Borland's version of the Pascal programming language.
TWAIN => (Toolkit Without An Interesting Name) This is a standard set for scanners to allow them to have a standard interface to software. This allows the use of your favorite graphics package with your favorite scanner without worrying if one will s...
UART => (Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter) This is a chip that standardized serial communications. Its function is to change a byte into a standard sequence of electrical impulses.
Ultra SCSI => SCSI that communicates twice as fast as standard SCSI-2. Normal Ultra-SCSI transfers data at 20 Mbps, and Wide Ultra-SCSI transfers data at 40 Mbps. Similar to Ultra-IDE, Ultra-SCSI works its magic by transferring data on the up AND the...
UNC => (Universal Naming Convention) This is the name given for the naming used when one specifies: \\the sever\the volume\the path\then the file name of a file. So, a UNC will look like this: \\Myserver\Docdrive\Magazine\glossary.doc
UNIX => A lot like DOS, but a MUCH more powerful operating system. It was developed at Bell Labs and is now being developed by many other corporations. It is mainly used as a multi-user server for mainframes, although companies like Novell offer it f...
UPS => (Uninterruptible Power Supply) This is a device that contains a battery and some circuitry to supply your computer with power for a limited time (depending on the battery) if there is any sort of interruption in the outlet power.
URL => (Universal Resource Locator) This is what is used to give Web addresses for HTML, VRML, WAV and other files. It simply contains the Internet name of the machine containing the data and the path to the file. Much like the UNC, except specifical...
USB => (Universal Serial Bus) A technology in the works that will replace the current way that some peripheral devices connect to your computer. It is much faster than serial and parallel communications. It is also much more flexible: it will be able...
Usenet Newsgroups => Also referred to just as "newsgroups," Usenet newsgroups are a huge bunch of Internet discussion groups that replicate across the Internet every so often. If you get a bunch of people together and request a group for yourself, yo...
V.32 => A standard naming convention used in determining modem communications, all starting with "V." This one is for specifying the Hayes standard of bi-directional 9600 baud transmission.
V.32bis => This is the standard that came after V.32 which increased the speed from 9600 baud to 14.4 KB baud.
V.34 => This is the most recent dramatic improvement of modem communications. It has doubled the speed of the V.32bis standard to 28.8 KB.
V.34+ => This standard was made by US Robotics to indicate that their modems are superior to a standard V.34 modem in that they run at 33.6 KB baud instead of the slower 28.8 KB baud.
V.42 => This is the name given to the standard for transmitting at 2400 baud.
V.42Bis => This is not a speed standard like V.32 and V.34. It is an error correction and compression method that is hardware-based. Its major improvement comes from knowing when compression will be beneficial and when it will not be.
V.Everything => This is US Robotics' designation for their Courier Dual standard modems, which support all types of analog modem communications.
V.Fast => This standard was made between the time of V.32bis and V.34. It is also a 28.8 KB baud speed, but is not as reliable as the approved V.34 standard.
VB => (Visual Basic) This is a software product developed by Microsoft. Its purpose is to bring programming down to a drag-and-drop level to speed up development cycles. In many ways, that goal has been achieved. VB's main competitor is Borland's Del...
Vector => A vector is a set of scalar numbers that refers to a point in space. Say, for example, you are in a two-dimensional space. A vector may be (5,6), which is 5 units across the X axis, and 6 units up the Y axis. See also scalar.
Vector Graphics => As opposed to raster graphics, vector graphics are composed of groups of colored lines. If you've ever seen those old Atari arcade games like Tempest, Battlezone, or Asteroids, that's vector graphics. At one point a company even ma...
Vertical market => This refers to an industry or group of companies that can be marketed to in a similar manner because they have similar needs. Common examples of vertical markets include the government, health care, and insurance.
Vertical Market Application => This is an application written specifically for a particular vertical market, as opposed to more generic multi-purpose applications such as office suites. One example is a program written for the insurance industry that...
Video Card => A device in computers that deals specifically with displaying to a monitor. Without one, you cannot see what's going on in your computer and may have to resort to the ancient method of using a printer as a monitor.
Virtual Memory => A part of your hard drive used to temporarily store what is in RAM. Usually used for little-used items, or when the required RAM is insufficient (since most every computer has more hard drive space than RAM).
Virtual Private Network => (VPN) This is a "virtual" network constructed by connecting computers together over the Internet and encrypting their communications so that other people cannot understand the communications. The benefit is that people can ...
Virus => A program that makes unbidden copies of itself in order to proliferate. Usually plays a role either as graffiti or for malicious intent.
Visitor => When a user arrives on a website, he or she is considered one visitor regardless of how many pages he or she looks at.
Visual C++ => This is a Microsoft product that is basically VB on steroids. It features a similar visual interface with drag-and-drop functionality, but the code is C++, which is more robust than BASIC. It's also much faster when compiled.
VL-bus => (VESA Local bus) This is a 32-bit extension of a 16-bit ISA slot. This architecture predated PCI and allowed users to break the bottleneck that occurred when the ISA bus slowed down graphics speed. It allowed speeds of up to 40 MHz, compare...
VLAN => (virtual LAN) A VLAN is created when a bunch of physically connected ports are grouped together by network hardware that supports VLANs. These VLANs are each treated as completely separate entities and can only be joined together by a router....
VPN => see Virtual Private Network.
VRAM => (Video Random Access Memory) Memory made specifically for video applications (such as a video card). Much faster and more expensive than DRAM.
VRML => (Virtual Reality Markup Language) Virtual Reality Markup Language An enhancement to the HTML format used to make virtual worlds out of Web pages. 
WAN => (Wide Area Network) Any network that spans more than one office, although some say it must span more than one building.
WaveTable => A bit of ROM on newer sound cards that stores standard sounds (as wave files) for instruments instead of generating them from FM sounds. This gives a much more realistic sound to music in games and MIDI files.
WFM => (Wired For Management Baseline) This is an Intel hardware specification that is designed to allow for compliance with easier management of desktop PCs in a networked environment. The specification calls for computers to be compatible with a pr...
White Paper => This is a complete description of a particular technology, from overview to the nitty-gritty details. It is produced by the company that created that technology, as opposed to a FAQ, which can be created by anyone.
Wide SCSI => An improvement to normal SCSI that allows for faster throughput by increasing the number of pins used to connect the drive to the controller from 50 to 68. Wide SCSI doubles the throughput of normal versions of SCSI, but is generally mor...
Windows Sockets => This is an API designed to help inconsistent TCP/IP stacks talk together and be accessed properly by Windows programs.
Wireless-Infrared/Radio Control => Meaning that the device you are using is not connected by cables to the main computer. If you have a radio mouse you don't have a wire connecting the mouse to the computer. Usually , you have a device that connects ...
Wizard => An enhancement to programs that makes them easier to operate by guiding you through, step by step, what is required to achieve your purpose.
WMI => (Windows Management Instrumentation) This is Microsoft's answer to DMI. Apparently, they felt that DMI didn't fully exploit Windows and was therefore incomplete.
WORM => (Write Once Read Many) This is a type of drive/media that allows you to write to it permanently. However, you cannot erase what you've written. CD-R is a form of WORM drive. 
X2 => This is US Robotics 56 Kbps modem standard. It uses the fact that most ISPs are digitally terminated, and this eliminates one analog loop. Due to this fact, digital transmissions can remain more intact than previously, theoretically allowing fo...
X86 => This is the last two digits of the PC CPU type. It originated with the Intel spec of the 8088, which then went to the 8086. Since then, increments have come by changing the first number to 80286 and 80386. The reason that the newer chips are a...
XGA => This started out as IBM's term for a computer monitor resolution standard of 1024 x 768 pixels and 16-bit color. IBM released XGA monitors and graphics cards for their PS/2 computers, but unfortunately, the standard was interlaced and ran on 1...
Xmodem => This is a protocol for transferring files during direct dial-up communications. Developed by Ward Christensen in 1977, Xmodem has basic error checking to ensure that information isn't lost or corrupted during transfer. It sends data in 128-...
Ymodem => This is also a protocol for transferring files during direct dial-up communications. So named because it builds on the earlier Xmodem protocol, Ymodem sends data in 1,024-byte blocks and is consequently faster than Xmodem. However, it doesn...
Z-Buffering => (or Hidden Surface Removal) Tracks the depth of each triangle from the perspective of the viewer to ensure that objects behind others in a scene don't appear until the viewer has them in his/her line of sight. This is why you can't see...
ZAK => (Zero Administration Kit) This is a software kit from Microsoft for Windows NT that can prevent various user actions such as installing software or changing desktop configurations.
ZAW => (Zero Administration Windows) This version of the Windows operating system from Microsoft allows for various easy administration and management options such as storing user software and settings on the network so that people can log into any m...
ZIF socket => (Zero Insertion Force socket) This is a socket designed to accept a PGA chip, such as most common CPUs produced today (e.g., Intel's Pentium, AMD's K6, etc.). The ZIF socket allows you to plug in a PGA chip with no pressure required. Th...
Zmodem => This protocol has many error-correcting properties. It can detect if a bad block (of 1,024 bytes) has come through and ask to have it re-sent. If the transfer gets interrupted for any reason, it can resume from where it left off. It is slig...