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Computer Terms

Adapter. - Normally a Circuit Board that can be plugged into an expansion slot that will enhance the PC Systems capabilities. Adding a Sound card is an example.

ADC. A/D - short for Analog to Digital Converter.

AI. - Artificial Intelligence.

   ALGOL. Algorithmic Language.

   ALT. Alternate Key.

   ALU. Arithmetic and Logic Unit.

   ANSI. American National Standards Institute.

   APL. A Programming Language. Developed by Kenneth Iverson.

   APT. Automatically Programmed Tools.

   ASCII. American National Standard Code for Information Interchange.

   ASCII Characters. These are characters used on your PC that come from the ASCII Character set, which is a binary code that is used to represent text characters; alphabetic, numeric and punctuation.

   ASR. Automatic Send-Receive Keyboard.

   ATA. A relatively low cost hard disk drive interface to provide high performance.

   ATM. Automatic Teller Machine.

   Average Seek Time. The average time taken for the heads of a disk drive to move from a track to another track.

   BASIC. Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.

   Batch File. Normally a text file with the extension .bat that holds an amount of Dos commands that would normally be 'run' when the PC System boots (Starts, runs-up).

   BBD. Bucket Brigade Device.

   BCD. Binary Coded Decimal.

   BIOS. Basic Input Output System.

   Bit. Binary digit.

   BNF. Backus-Naur Form.

   Boot Disk. The disk which is used to Boot up a PC System, this disk holds information which is loaded into the system memory at start-up.

   BPI. Bits Per Inch.

   BPS. Bits per Second.

   Buffer. Memory that is used for the temporary storage of data.

   Bug. A software fault that can cause the program or Operating System to do strange things or malfunction.

   Bus. A group of signal lines (wires, copper tracks etc) that are used for the transfer of data in a PC System.

   Byte. Eight bits make up a byte.

   C. A programming language.

   CAD. Computer Aided Design.

   CAE. Computer Aided Engineering.

   CAI. Computer Aided (or Assisted) Instruction.

   CAL. Computer Assisted Learning.

   CAM. Computer Aided Manufacturing.

   CAM. Content Addressable Memory.

   CBL. Computer Based Learning.

   CCD. Charged Coupled Device.

   CCITT. International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee.

   CD-ROM. Compact Disk Read Only Memory.

   CGA. Colour Graphics Adapter capable of displaying 16 colours in low resolution graphics and 4 colours in medium resolution graphics mode.

   CIM. Computer Input Microfilm.

   CIR. Current Instruction Register.

   CIS. Computer Information System.

   CMI. Computer Managed Instruction.

   CMOS Ram. Holds system configuration and clock data.

   CMOS. Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.

   COBOL. COmmon Business Oriented Language.

   COM. Computer Output Microfilm.

   CP/M. An operating system produced by Digital Research.

   CPI. Characters Per Inch.

   CPU. Central processing Unit, the Microprocessor that is responsible for the Arithmetic, logical and control functions of the PC System.

   CPS. Characters Per Second.

   CRC. Cyclic Redundancy Check. An error checking scheme.

   CROM. Control Read Only Memory.

   CRT. Cathode Ray Tube.

   CTRL. Control Key.

   CVSD. Continuous Variable Slope Delta-modulation.

   CWP. Communicating Word Processors.

   DAC. D/A. Digital to Analog Converter.

   DAR. Data Access Register.

   DBMS. Database Management System.

   DCB. Data Control Block.

   DDE. Direct Data Entry.

   DDL. Data Description Language.

   DEL. Delete Key.

   DIL. Dual In Line.

   DIP. Dual In Line Package.

   DIR. Directory.

   DISP. (Cobol) Disposition.

   DMA. Direct Memory Access.

   DML. Data Manipulation Language.

   DOS. Disk Operating System.

   DP. Data processing.

   DRAM. Dynamic RAM.

   DSN. Data Set Name.

   DTL. Diode Transistor Logic.

   EAROM. Electrically Alterable ROM.

   EBCDIC. Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code.

   ECL. Emitter Coupled Logic.

   EDP. Electronic Data Processing.

   EDSAC. Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator.

   EPROM. Electrically Programmable ROM.

   EEPROM. Electronically Erasable Programmable ROM.

   EGA. Enhanced Graphics Adapter.

   EMS. Expanded Memory Specification.

   ENIAC. Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator.

   EOF. End Of File.

   EPROM. Erasable programmable Read Only Memory.

   EQ Gate. Equivalence gate.

   EXE. An executable file, a program file like Delphi32.exe

   EXP. EXPonental.

   FAT. File Allocation Table.

   FDM. Frequency Division Multiplexing.

   FDX. Full Duplex Transmission.

   FET. Field Effect Transistor.

   FIFO. First In First Out.

   G. This is the symbol used for 'giga', gigabyte.

   GIGO. Garbage In Garbage Out.

   GPIB. General Purpose Interface Bus.

   GUI. Graphical User Interface.

   Hardware. The physical parts of a PC System.

   HDX. Half Duplex Transmission.

   HEX. Hexadecimal. 0123456789ABCDEF.

   IAS. Immediate Access Store. Main Store.

   IBG. Interblock Gap.

   IC. Integrated Circuit.

   IDE. Intelligent Drive Electronics.

   IEEE. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

   I/O. Input Output.

   K. Kilo.

   IBM. International Business Machines.

   IC. Intergrated Circuit.

   INC. Increment.

   INS. Insert key.

   INT. INTeger.

   IPL. Initial Program Loader.

   IPO. Input Process Output-chart.

   IPS. Inches Per Second.

   IR. Instruction Register.

   IRQ. Interrupt Request.

   ISA. Industry Standard Architecture.

   ISAM. Indexed Sequental Access Method.

   ISO. International Organization for Standardization.

   IT. Information Technology.

   JCL. Job Control Language.

   K. Kilobyte.

   Kilobyte. One thousand and twenty four bytes.

   KSAM. Keyed Sequential Access Method.

   KWIC. KeyWord In Context.

   LAN. Local Area Network.

   LCD. Liquid Crystal Display.

   LED. Light Emitting Diode.

   LEO. Lyons Electronic Office.

   LIFO. Last In First Out.

   LISP. List Processor.

   LSD. Least Significant Digit.

   LSI. Large Scale Integration.

   M. Megabyte.

   MAR. Memory Address Register.

   MB. Megabyte. 1048, 576.

   MBR. Memory Buffer Register.

   MCI. Media Control Interface.

   MDR. Memory Data Register.

   MHz. Megahertz.

   MICR. Magnetic Ink Character Recognition.

   MIDI. Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

   MIPS. Millions of Instructions Per Second.

   MMI. Man Machine Interface.

   MOD. Modulo.

   MODEM. Modulator/Demodulator.

   MOS. Metal Oxide Semiconductor.

   MPU. Microprocessing Unit.

   MTBF. Mean Time Between Failures.

   MTTF. Mean Time To Failure.

   MTU. Magnetic Tape Unit.

   MUX. Multiplexer.

   NEQ. Nonequivalence gate.

   OCR. Optical Character Recognition.

   OEM. Original Equipment Manufacturer.

   OMR. Optical Mark Reading.

   OS/2. Operating System 2.

   PAD. Packet Switching Network

   PC. Personal Computer.

   PC. Printed Circuit.

   PC. Program Counter.

   PCB. Printed Circuit Board.

   PCI. Peripheral Component Interconnect.

   Pentium. 5th generation microprocessor in the 8086 family.

   Pentium Pro. 6th generation microprocessor in the 8086 family.

   PERT. Program Evaluation and Review Technique.

   PID. Personal Identification Device.

   PIN. Personal Identification Number.

   PLA. Programmed Logic Array.

   POS. Point Of Sale systems.

   POST. Power On Self Test.

   PPM. Pages Per Minute.

   PROM. Programmable ROM.

   PSS. Packet Switching Service. British Telecom. Packet Switch Team.

   PSW. Program Status Word.

   RAM. Random Access Memory.

   REM. REMark.

   RJE. Remote Job Entry.

   ROM. Read Only Memory.

   RP. Reverse Polish.

   RTI. Return from Interrupt.

   SCSI. Small Computer Systems Interface.

   SCR. Sequence Control Register.

   SIMM. Single Inline Memory Module.

   SNOBOL. String Orientated Symbolic Language.

   SOS. Silicon On Sapphire.

   SP. Stack Pointer.

   SRAM. Static RAM.

   STRUDL. Structural Design Language.

   TDM. Time Division Multiplexing.

   TLU. Table Look-up.

   TPI. Tracks Per Inch.

   TSR. Terminate and Stay Resident program.

   TTL. Transistor-Transistor Logic.

   ULA. Uncommitted Logic Array.

   UNIVAC. Universal Automatic Computer.

   USART. Universal Synchronous/Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter.

   UPC. Universal Product Code.

   VAB. Voice Answer Back.

   VDU. Visual Display Unit.

   VGA. Videa Graphics Array.

   VL Bus. Vesa Local Bus.

   VLSI. Very Large Scale Integration.

   VRAM. Video Ram.

   VSAM. Virtual Storage Access.

   WAN. Wide Area Network.

   WORM. Write Once Read Many.

   XMS. eXtended Memory Specification.

Home  Abrev. Advice. Camera. Character. Children. Computing. Crosswords. Electronics.  Fitness/Martial Arts. Garden. Health. Homeschooling. Idioms. Jokes. Kitchen/Cooking. Measure. Mechanics/Machines. Motivation. Movies. Music. People.

Poetry. Proverbs. Reviews. School Education. Skills. Stories. Tips. Tools. Words/Accronyms. Woodwork.