 |
Glossary of Computer and |
| Glossary 0 to 9 | |
| 286 | Intel 80286 processor |
| 2D | Two (bi) Dimensional: x and y axes |
| 2K | 2000 |
| 386 | Intel 80386 processor |
| 386MAX | Qualitas 386 Expanded Memory Manager (386MAX.SYS) |
| 3D | Three (tri, 3) Dimensional: x, y and z axes |
| 3dfx | 3d Graphics Interactive (Voodoo family 3D chipsets) |
| 3DNow! | AMD K6 / K7 / Athlon / Duron CPU multimedia extensions |
| 3DRAM | 3D Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| 3GIO | Third Generation Input / Output (PCI 3.0) bus architecturC: 64-bit, 133 / 266 MHz, 6.6 GB/sec Intel / IBM / Compaq / Microsoft / Dell) |
| 486 | Intel 80486 processor |
| 586 | Intel 80586 processor (Pentium / Pentium Pro) |
| 686 | Intel 80686 processor (Pentium II / III / IV) |
| 86 | Intel 80X86 central processing unit (CPU) |
| 87 | Intel 80X87 floating point unit (FPU, math co-processor) |
| Glossary A | |
| A3D | Aureal 3D surround sound technology |
| AA | Anti-Aliasing edge smoothing technology (3D video) |
| AAAS | American Association for the Advancement of Science |
| AAF | Advanced Authoring format (Microsoft video) |
| AC | Alternating Current |
| AC-3 | Dolby Digital 51 Surround Sound standard (5 + 1 = 6 channels) |
| ACPI | Advanced Configuration Power Interface |
| ADC | Analog to Digital Converter |
| ADPCM | Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation |
| ADSL | Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line modem |
| ADVD | Audio Digital Versatile Disc |
| AFM | Atomic Force Microscope |
| AFR | Alternate Frame Rendering (ATI Rage Fury MAXX) |
| AGP | Accelerated Graphics Port technology standard (Intel) |
| AGP-1x | Accelerated Graphics Port technology 1st generation standard: 66 MB/sec bandwidth (Intel) |
| AGP-2x | Accelerated Graphics Port technology 2nd generation standard using sidebands: 133 MB/sec bandwidth (Intel) |
| AGP-4x | Accelerated Graphics Port technology 3rd generation standard using fast writes: 266 MB/sec bandwidth (Intel) |
| AGP-8x | Accelerated Graphics Port technology 4th generation standard: 532 MB/sec bandwidth (Intel) |
| AGRAS | Anti-Glare Anti-Reflection Anti-Static screen treatment (CRT) |
| AI | Artificial Intelligence |
| AIFF | Audio Interchange File Format (Apple) |
| AIT | Advanced Intelligent Tape (Sony) |
| ALDC | Adaptive Lossless Data Compression (IBM) |
| AMD | Advanced Micro Devices Incorporated |
| AMI | American Megatrends Incorporated |
| AMR | Audio/Modem Riser slot (Intel Pentium III 8281x chipsets) |
| ANI | Microsoft Windows ANImated cursor graphic file |
| ANSI | American National Standards Institute |
| AOL | America Online Incorporated |
| API | Application Programming Interface |
| APIC | Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller |
| APM | Advanced Power Management |
| ARAG | Anti-Reflection Anti-Glare screen treatment (CRT) |
| ARAS | Anti-Reflection Anti-Static screen treatment (CRT) |
| ARP | Address Resolution Protocol |
| ASC | Active Signal Correction technology (Sony CRT) |
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
| ASF | Advanced Streaming Format (Microsoft NetShow) |
| ASIC | Application Specific Integrated Circuit |
| ASP | (1) Advanced Sound Processor (Creative Labs) (2) Application Service Provider |
| ASPI | Advanced SCSI Programming Interface |
| ASVD | Analog Simultaneous Voice and Data |
| Async SRAM | Asynchronous Static Random Access Memory (CPU L2 cache) |
| AT | Advanced Technology (Intel motherboard form factor) |
| ATA | Advanced Technology Attachment (ANSI standard for Integrated Drive Electronics) |
| ATA-4 | Ultra ATA/Ultra DMA 33. 33 MB/second transfer rate (EIDE/ATA hard disk controller/drive standard) |
| ATA-6 | Ultra ATA/Ultra DMA 66. 66 MB/second transfer rate (EIDE/ATA hard disk controller/drive standard) |
| ATA-8 | Ultra ATA/Ultra DMA 100. 100 MB/second transfer rate (EIDE/ATA hard disk controller/drive standard) |
| ATAPI | Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface |
| Athlon | AMD Athlon K7 CPU |
| ATM | (1) Adobe Type Manager (2) Asynchronous Transfer Mode (network) |
| ATSC | Advanced Television Systems Committee |
| ATV | Advanced TeleVision (i.e. HDTV) |
| ATX | Advanced Technology EXtended (Intel motherboard form factor) |
| AUTOEXEC.BAT | AUTOmatically EXECuted BATch file |
| AVI | Advanced Video Interleave (Microsoft video) |
| AWR | Active Wide Range playback system (Toshiba CD-ROM) |
| Glossary B | |
| b | bit (binary digit): unit of digital information: 1 bit = 0 or 1 |
| B | Byte (Binary octet): unit of digital data: 1 Byte =8 bits |
| BASIC | Beginners All purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
| BAT file | MS-DOS ASCII BATch program file (also the extension used for such files) |
| Baud (Baud rate) | Modem line (carrier) signaling high/low shifts/events per second (data transfer rate) |
| BBS | Bulletin Board System |
| BDA | BIOS Data Area |
| BEDO | Burst Extended Data Out (when referring to DRAM) |
| BGA | Ball Grid Array (242 pin Intel CPU) |
| BIF | Binary Image Format (file extension) |
| BIOS | Basic Input / Output System |
| BMP | RGB/RLE encoded Microsoft Windows BitMap Picture file (file extension) |
| Boot days | Each successive day you boot the machine. Not related to shutting down / rebooting or restarting in the same day nor is it related to the first few weeks enlisted in the armed forces. (as used by Brian A. on Feb.23, 2004) |
| bpp | bits per pixel |
| bps | bits per second |
| Bps | Bytes per second |
| BSB | Back Side Bus |
| BSOD | Blue Screen Of Death [Fatal error message, Microsoft Windows most dreaded "feature"] originally Black Screen Of Death in UNIX |
| bus | Binary data gateway between hardware modules: CPU, RAM, I/O etc |
| Glossary C | |
| CAB | CABinet compression format standard (Microsoft) |
| CAD | Computer Aided Design |
| CADD | Computer Aided Design and Drafting |
| CAS | Column Access Strobe |
| CAV | Constant Angular Velocity (Compact Disk) |
| CCITT | Commit?Consultatif International du T??raphe et T??honie (International Telegraph and Telephony Consultative Committee) |
| CD | Compact Disk |
| CD-DA | Compact Disk Digital Audio |
| CDFS | CD-ROM File System (data CD) |
| CD-I | Compact Disc Interactive |
| CDR | CorelDRAW! image file |
| CDRAM | Cache Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| CD-R | Compact Disk Recorder |
| CD-RAM | Compact Disk Rewritable Access Media |
| CD-ROM | Compact Disk Read Only Media |
| CD-ROM/XA | Compact Disk Read Only Media EXtended Architecture (Sony, Philips, Microsoft) |
| CD-RW | Compact Disk ReWritable |
| CDSL | Consumer Digital Subscriber Line modem (Rockwell) |
| Celeron | Intel Pentium II/III/IV Celeron CPU (80686) |
| CERT | Computer Emergency Response Team |
| CGA | Color Graphics Adapter |
| CGI | (1) Computer Generated Image |
| (2) Common Gateway Interface | |
| CGM | Computer Graphics Metafile |
| CHAP | Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol |
| CHS | Cylinder/Head/Sector (hard drive) |
| CIAC | Computer Incident Advisory Capability team |
| CIFS | Common Internet File System |
| CISC | Complex Instruction Set Computing (CPU) |
| CL | Creative Labs Limited |
| CLP | Microsoft Windows CLiPboard Bitmap file |
| CLV | Constant Linear Velocity (Compact Disk) |
| CMOS | Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor manufacturing process |
| CMOS 7S | CMOS 7S manufacturing process (IBM) |
| CMOS-SOS | CMOS Silicon On Sapphire manufacturing process |
| CMP | Chip MultiProcessing (more than 1 CPU per chip) |
| CMS | ColorSync Color Management System (Apple) |
| CNR | Communications/Network Riser slot (Intel Pentium III 8281x chipsets) |
| COBOL | COmmon Business Oriented Language |
| CODEC | Digital video COmpressor and DECompressor (Intel Indeo) |
| COM | (1) Serial COMmunication Port |
| (2) Component Object Model (Microsoft) | |
| CON |
CONsole (display) |
| CONFIG.SYS | CONFIGuration SYStem file |
| cps | characters per second |
| CPU | Central Processing Unit (processor) |
| CRC | Cyclical Redundancy Check |
| CRT | Cathode Ray Tube |
| CS | CompuServe |
| CSLIP | Compressed Serial Line Internet Protocol |
| CSS | Cascading Style Sheets HTML specifications (W3C) |
| CSS1 | Cascading Style Sheets mechanism level 1 (W3C) |
| CSS2 | Cascading Style Sheets mechanism level 2 (W3C) |
| CUR | Microsoft Windows static CURsor graphic file |
| CUT | Dr Halo picture file |
| Glossary D | |
| D3D | DirectX 3D APIs (Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/ME/XP) |
| DAC | Digital to Analog Converter |
| DAT | Digital Audio Tape |
| dB | deciBel (10 dB . 1 Bel) |
| DBS | Digital Broadcasting System |
| DC | Direct Current |
| DCE | Data Communications Equipment (modem to modem speed) |
| DDC | Display Data Channel |
| DD-CD | Double Density Compact Disk (Sony): 1.3 GB |
| DDE | Dynamic Data Exchange |
| DDMA | Distributed Direct Memory Access standard |
| DD-R | Double Density Compact Disk Recorder (Sony) |
| DD-ROM | Double Density Compact Disk Read Only Media (Sony) |
| DD-RW | Double Density Compact Disk Rewritable (Sony) |
| DDR-SDRAM | Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| DDSS | Dolby Digital AC-3 5.1 Surround Sound standard (5 + 1 = 6 channels) |
| DEK | Data Encryption Key |
| DES | Data Encryption Standard |
| DHCP | Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol |
| DHTML | Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (W3C) |
| DIB (1) | (1) RGB/RLE encoded Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap |
| (2) Dual Independent Bus architecture (Intel Pentium Pro and Pentium II/III/IV) | |
| DIG | Digital Imaging Group |
| DIMM | Dual In-line Memory Module |
| DIN | Deutsches Institut f? Normung (German Institute for Standards) |
| DIP | Dual In-line Package |
| DIVX | DIgital Video eXpress (discontinued DVD standard) |
| DLC | Data Link Control protocol |
| DLL | Dynamic Link Library |
| DLP | Digital Light Processing technology, also DMD (Texas Instruments) |
| DLS | DownLoadable Sounds standard (PCI MIDI) |
| DMA | Direct Memory Access |
| DMD | Digital Micromirror Device, also DLP (Texas Instruments) |
| DME | Direct Memory Execution (Intel I-740) |
| DMF | Distribution Media Format: high density floppy disk (Microsoft) |
| DMI | Desktop Management Interface |
| DMTF | Desktop Management Task Force |
| DNA | Distributed interNet Applications architecture (Windows 98) |
| DNS | Domain Naming System |
| DOCSIS | ITU J.112 Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification |
| DOF | Depth Of Field (3D video) |
| DOM | Document Object Model standard (W3C) |
| DOS | Disk Operating System |
| DPI | Dots Per Inch |
| DPLSS | Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound standard (4+1 channels) |
| DPMA | Dynamic Power Management Architecture (Intel PCI/AGP chipsets) |
| DPMI | DOS Protected Mode Interface |
| DPMS | VESA Display Power Management Signaling standard |
| DRAM | Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| DR-DOS | Lineo (Caldera Digital Research) Disk Operating System |
| Drive-TIP | Drive Temperature Indicator Processor (IBM hard drive) |
| DRP | Distribution and Replication Protocol |
| DRW | Micrografx DRaW image file |
| DS3D | DirectSound 3D APIs (Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/ME/XP) |
| DSC | Digital Servo Control (Toshiba CD-ROM) |
| DS/DD | Double-Sided Double-Density (floppy disk standard: 720 KB) |
| DS/HD | Double-Sided High-Density (floppy disk standard: 144 MB) |
| DSL | Digital Subscriber Line modem |
| DSP | (1) Digital Signal Processor |
| (2) Delivery Service Partner (OEM) | |
| DSS (1) | (1) Digital Satellite System |
| (2) Digital Signature Standard certificate | |
| DSVD | Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data |
| DTD | Document Type Definition |
| DTE | Data Terminal Equipment (modem to computer speed) |
| DTF | Distributed Terascale Facility aka high speed TeraGrid network (IBM/Qwest/Intel) |
| DTP | DeskTop Publishing |
| DTR | (1) Data Transfer Rate (throughput) |
| (2) Data Terminal Ready | |
| DTS | Digital Theatre Surround (3D audio) |
| DTV | (1) DeskTop Video |
| (2) Digital Television | |
| DUN | Dial-Up Networking (Microsoft Windows 95/98) |
| DVD | Digital Versatile (Video) Disc |
| DVD-2 | Second generation DVD drive |
| DVD-A | Digital Versatile Disk Audio |
| DVD-R | Digital Versatile Disk Recordable |
| DVD-RAM | Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable Access Media |
| DVD-ROM | Digital Versatile Disk Read Only Media |
| DVD+RW | Digital Versatile Disk ReWritable |
| DVI | Digital Video Interactive (Intel) |
| DX | X86 Intel CPU with FPU (386/DX, 486/DX) |
| DX3D | DirectX 3D APIs (Microsoft Windows 9x/2000/ME/XP) |
| DXF | AutoDesk picture File |
| DXR2 | Dynamic eXtended Resolution 2 technology (Creative Labs DVD) |
| DXTC | S3 Direct3D Texture Compression APIs (S3 Savage3D/2000) |
| Glossary E | |
| EAX | Environmental Audio EXtensions (Creative Labs DirectSound 3D Live! surround sound extensions) |
| EBDA | Extended BIOS Data Area |
| EBIOS | Extended Basic Input/Output System |
| ECC | Error Correction Code |
| ECHS | Enhanced Cylinder/Head/Sector (hard drive > 1024 cylinders) |
| ECP | Extended Capabilities Port |
| EDC | Error Detection Code |
| EDI | Electronic Data Interchange |
| EDO | Extended Data Out (DRAM) |
| EDRAM | Enhanced Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| EECS | Enhanced Elliptical Correction System (Sony CRT) |
| EEPROM | Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory |
| EGA | Extended Graphics Adapter |
| EIA | Electronics Industries Association |
| EICA | Enhanced Intellight Cooler Architecture |
| EIDE | Enhanced Integrated Device Electronics (hard disk) |
| EISA | Extended Industry Standard Architecture |
| EISCA | Enhanced Intelligent System Cooler Architecture (CPU heatsink) |
| Electronic mail | |
| EMB | Extended Memory Block |
| EMBM | Environment Mapped Bump Mapping (Matrox G400 3D Video) |
| EMI | ElectroMagnetical Interference |
| EMM | Expanded Memory Manager |
| EMM386 | Microsoft 386 Expanded Memory Manager (EMM386.EXE) |
| EMS | Expanded Memory Specifications |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Agency (US) |
| EPIC | Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (Intel/HP) |
| EPP | Enhanced Parallel Port |
| EPROM | Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory |
| EPS | Encapsulated PostScript File |
| ESCD | Extended System Configuration Data (ROM BIOS) |
| ESD | ElectroStatic Discharge |
| ESDI | Enhanced System Device Interface (hard disk) |
| ESDRAM | Enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| EULA | End User License Agreement |
| EUV | Extreme UltraViolet lithography (CPU) |
| Glossary F | |
| FAST-20 | Fast SCSI-3 Parallel Interface standard |
| FAT | File Allocation Table |
| FAT16 | File Allocation Table 16-bit (MS-DOS) |
| FAT32 | File Allocation Table 32-bit (Windows 95/98) |
| FC-AL | Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (Ultra Fast SCSI) |
| FCBs | File Control Blocks |
| FCC | Federal Communications Commission (USA) |
| FC-PGA | Flip Chip Pin Grid Array package (Intel Pentium III E CPU) |
| FC-PH | Fibre Channel PHysical and signaling interface (SCSI-3) |
| FD | Floppy Disk |
| FDC | Floppy Drive Controller |
| FDD | Floppy Disk Drive |
| FDDI | Fiber Distributed Data Interface |
| FED | Field Emission Display |
| FERAM | FerroElectric Dynamic Random Access Memory (Infineon / Toshiba) |
| FIFO | First In First Out |
| FMD-ROM | Fluorescent Multilayer Disc Read Only Media (Constellation 3D 140 GB CD-ROM technology) |
| FMV | Full Motion Video |
| FPD | Flat Panel Display |
| FPE | File Protection Error |
| FPM | Fast Page Mode (DRAM) |
| fps | frames per second |
| FPTV | Front Projection TeleVision |
| FPU | Floating Point Unit (coprocessor) |
| FRAM | Ferroelectric Random Access Memory |
| Frame-buffer | 1st + 2nd dimensions / height + width / x + y axes memory (2D video) |
| FSAA | Full Screen Anti-Aliasing edge smoothing (3D video) |
| FSB | Front Side Bus (motherboard CPU to I/O bus) |
| FTP | File Transfer Protocol |
| Full-Duplex | Two way modem communication protocol (echo-plex) |
| FXT1 | Advanced Texture Compression technology (3Dfx) |
| Glossary G | |
| GB | GigaByte (1 GB = 1,024 MegaBytes = 1,048,576 KiloBytes) |
| GBps | GigaBytes per second |
| gbps | gigabits per second |
| GDI | Graphics Device Interface (Microsoft Windows) |
| GEM | Ventura/GEM image file |
| GIF | Graphics Interchange Format (CompuServe) |
| Glide | 3Dfx Voodoo family proprietary 3D APIs |
| G.Lite | ITU G.992.2 1.4 Mbps Digital Subscriber Line modem standard (ADSL) |
| GM | General MIDI standard |
| GPF | General Protection Fault (Microsoft Windows) |
| GMR | Giant MagnetoResistive effect (IBM hard drive) |
| GPU | Graphics Processing Unit (NVidia GeForce / GeForce2 2D / 3D) |
| GTS | Giga Texel Shader (NVidia GeForce2 GTS 2D / 3D) |
| GUI | Graphical User Interface |
| GVIF | Gigabit Video InterFace (Sony LCD) |
| Glossary H | |
| HAL | Hardware Abstraction Layer (Microsoft Direct3D virtual 3D video accelerator interface APIs) |
| Half-Duplex | One way modem communication protocol (simplex or local-echo) |
| HAVi | Home Audio Video interoperability (entertainment APIs) |
| HD | Hard Disk |
| HDA | High reliability Hard Disk Assembly |
| HDC | Hard Drive Controller |
| HDD | Hard Disk Drive |
| HD-DVD | High Definition Digital Versatile Disk |
| HD-ROM | High Definition Read Only Media (Norsam Technology) |
| HDSL | High bit rate Digital Subscriber Line modem |
| HDSS | Holographic Data Storage System (IBM) |
| HDTV | High Definition Television (new digital TV standard: 1200 lines) |
| HDVD | High Definition Digital Video Disc (Sonic / Ravisent) |
| HDVP | High Definition Video Processor (NVidia GeForce2 GTS) |
| HEL | Hardware Emulation Layer (Microsoft Direct3D virtual 3D video rasterization device) |
| HFC | Hybrid Fiber Coaxial cable system |
| HFS | Hierarchical File System (CD-ROM, MacOS) |
| HGL | Hewlett Packard Graphics Language image file |
| HID | Human Interface Devices |
| HiFD | High density 2.8 MB Floppy Drive standard (Sony/Fuji) |
| Hi-Fi | High Fidelity (audio / video) |
| HIMEM | Microsoft HIgh / Extended MEMory Manager (HIMEM.SYS) |
| HIPPI | HIgh Performance Parallel Interface (ANSI X3T9.3 standard) |
| HMA | High Memory Area |
| HP | Hewlett Packard Corporation |
| HPC | Handheld Personal Computer |
| HPFS | High Performance File System (OS/2) |
| HSDRAM | High Speed Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| HSR | Hidden Surface Removal 3D polygon rendering (NVidia NV20 + 3dfx Voodoo5 / 6) |
| HTML | HyperText Markup Language (defined by W3C) |
| HTTP | HyperText Transfer Protocol |
| HVD | High Voltage Differential standard (SCSI-2) |
| HyperTransport | I/O bus architecturC: 64-bit, 133 / 266 MHz, 6.4 GB / sec (AMD) |
| Hz | Hertz (clock speed): 1 Hz = 1 clock cycle |
| Glossary I | |
| IA-32 | Intel Architecture 32-bit (32-bit CPU) |
| IA-64 | Intel Architecture 64-bit (high-end 64-bit CPU) |
| IBM | International Business Machines Corporation |
| IC | Interface Controller |
| ICD | Installable Client Driver (Microsoft 3D) |
| ICMP | Internet Control Message Protocol |
| ICMPv6 | Internet Control Message Protocol version 6 |
| ICO | ICOn graphic file (Microsoft Windows file type) |
| ICS | Internet Connection Sharing |
| IDCT | Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform (DVD decoding) |
| IDE | Integrated Device (Drive) Electronics (hard disk) |
| IE | Microsoft Internet Explorer |
| IEEE | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| IEEE 1394 | Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers FireWire peripheral devices high performance serial bus standard |
| IETF | Internet Engineering Task Force |
| IFF | Electronic Arts Image File |
| IFSHLP.SYS | Installable File System HeLPer device driver (Microsoft Windows) |
| IGMP | Internet Group Management Protocol |
| IMA | Interactive Music Architecture (Microsoft) |
| IMAP | Internet Mail Access Protocol |
| IMAP4 | Internet Mail Access Protocol level 4 |
| IMG | GEM Paint image file |
| InterNIC | Internet Network Information Center |
| I/O | Input/Output |
| ION | Integrated On-demand Network (Sprint FastBreak) |
| IP | Internet Protocol |
| IPF | Invalid Page Fault (Microsoft Windows) |
| IPv4 | Internet Protocol version 4 (32-bit) |
| IPv6 | Internet Protocol version 6 (128-bit) |
| IPX | Internetwork Packet EXchange (Novell Netware) |
| IRC | Internet Relay Chat |
| IrDA | Infrared Data Association |
| IRQ | Interrupt ReQuest line |
| ISA | Industry Standard Architecture |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization |
| ISO 9660 | International Standard LOgical CD-ROM format (High Sierra) |
| ISP | Internet Service Provider |
| ITU | International Telecommunications Union |
| Glossary J | |
| JAR | Java Archive file |
| Java | Sun Microsystems programming language |
| JavaScript | Programming language (not related to Java above) |
| JDK | Java Developers Kit |
| JEDEC | Joint Electronic Device Engineering Council |
| JFC | Java Foundation Classes |
| JIF | Joint Photographers Expert Group Image file |
| JPEG | Joint Photographers Expert Group Picture standard |
| JPG | Joint Photographers Expert Group Picture file |
| JVM | Java Virtual Machine |
| Glossary K | |
| K56flex | Lucent/Rockwell 56 kbps analog modem transfer standard |
| K5 | AMD Processor series |
| K6 | AMD Processor series |
| KB | KiloByte (1 KB = 1,024 Bytes) |
| KBps | KiloBytes per second |
| kbps | kilobits per second |
| KNI | Intel Katmai / Coppermine CPU New 70 MMX extensions |
| Glossary L | |
| L1 | Level 1 cache (on CPU) |
| L2 | Level 2 cache (off CPU) |
| L2TP | Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol |
| L3 | Level 3 cache (off CPU SMP) |
| LAN | Local Area Network |
| LAPM | Link Access Protocol for Modems |
| LBA | Logical Block Addressing (hard disk access) |
| LBM | DeLuxe Paint BitMap picture file |
| LCD | Liquid Crystal Display |
| LDAP | Lightweight Directory Access Protocol |
| LDIF | Lightweight Data Interchange Format (e-mail) |
| LED | Light Emitting Diode |
| LEP | Light Emitting Polymers technology (CDT monitor) |
| LFB | Linear Frame Buffer (2D video) |
| LFN | Long File Name (256.8 = Win32 32-bit) |
| LFO | Low Frequency Oscillator |
| LH | LoadHigh |
| LIM | Lotus/Intel/Microsoft expanded / extended memory specifications |
| LIMAD | LInear MAgnetic Drive speaker technology (Soundmatters) |
| LMDS | Local Multipoint Distribution Service |
| LPC | Low Pin Count interface specification (Intel) |
| LPT | Line Printer |
| LTO | Linear Tape-Open technology (IBM, HP, Seagate) |
| LVD | Low Voltage Differential (SCSI-2) |
| Glossary M | |
| MAC | (1) MAC Paint picture file (2) Apple MACintosh computer |
| MAPI | Messaging Application Program Interface |
| MB | MegaByte (1 MB = 1,024 KiloBytes = 1,048,576 bytes) |
| MBps | MegaBytes per second |
| mbps | megabits per second |
| MBR | Master Boot Record (partition table) |
| MCA | Multilink Channel Aggregation technology (introduced in Microsoft Windows 98) |
| MCD | Mini Client Driver (Microsoft 3D) |
| MCGA | MonoChrome Graphics Adapter |
| MCI | Media Control Interface |
| MDA | Modular Digital Architecture |
| MDI | Multiple Document Interface |
| MDRAM | Multibank Dynamic Random Access Memory (MoSys) |
| MFC | Microsoft Foundation Classes (C++ classes library) |
| MGA | Monochrome Graphics Adapter |
| MHz | MegaHertz (1 MHz = 1,000 KHz = 1,000,000 Hz) |
| MIDI | Musical Instrument Digital Interface |
| MIME | Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| MIP | Multum In Parvum texture mapping |
| MIPS | Millions of Instructions per Second |
| MLA | Modern Languages Association |
| MLPPP | MultiLink Point to Point Protocol |
| ML-R | MultiLevel Compact Disk Recorder 2 GB (TDK) |
| ML-RW | MultiLevel Compact Disk ReWritable 2 GB (TDK) |
| MMA | MIDI Manufacturer's Association |
| MMVF | MultiMedia Video Format (NEC DVD) |
| MMX | Intel Pentium/Pentium Pro CPU MultiMedia eXtensions |
| MMX2 | Intel Pentium II CPU MultiMedia eXtensions 2nd generation |
| MO | MagnetoOptical |
| Modem | Modulator / Demodulator (digital to analog converter/ transmitter/ receiver) |
| MOV | QuickTime MOVie file (Apple) |
| MP3 | MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 compression/format standard |
| MPC | Multimedia Personal Computer |
| MPEG | Motion Picture Expert Group |
| MPEG-1 | Motion Picture Expert Group 1 video compression standard |
| MPEG-2 | Motion Picture Expert Group 2 video compression standard |
| MPG | Motion Picture Expert Group compressed image file standard |
| MPGA | Micro Pin Grid Array (370 pin Intel CPU) |
| MR | Magneto-Resistive head technology (HDD) |
| MRAM | Magnetic Random Access Memory (IBM) |
| MRX | Magneto-Resistive Extended head technology (IBM HDD) |
| µs | Microsecond (1/1,000,000 = 1 millionth of a second) |
| MS | Microsoft Corporation |
| M$ | Microsoft Corporation (slang) |
| MS-DOS | Microsoft Disk Operating System |
| MSCDEX | Microsoft Compact Disc Extensions device driver (MSCDEX.EXE) |
| MSD | Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD.EXE) |
| MSKB | Microsoft Knowledge Base |
| MSP | Microsoft Paint picture file |
| MSRP | Manufacturer Suggested Retail Price |
| MSS | Maximum Segment Size (Internet protocol) |
| MTBF | Mean Time Between Failures |
| MTT | Multi-transaction Timer (PCI) |
| MTU | Maximum Transmission Unit (Internet protocol) |
| MUD | Multi-User Domain |
| MVA | Multi-domain Vertical Alignment technology (LCD screen) |
| Glossary N | |
| NC | Network Computer |
| NDIS | Network Driver Interface Specification layer |
| NetRoom | Helix Software 386 Expanded Memory Manager (RM386.EXE) |
| NFS | Network File System |
| NGI | Next Generation Internet foundation |
| NIC (1) | Network Interface Card |
| NIC (2) | Networked Information Center |
| NIST | National Institute of Standards and Technology |
| NLP | Natural Language Processing |
| NNTP | Network News Transfer Protocol |
| NOS | Network Operating System |
| ns | Nanosecond (1/1,000,000,000 = 1 billionth of a second) |
| NSR | NVidia Shading Rasterizer (GeForce2 GTS chipset) |
| NTFS | Windows NT File System standard (32-bit) |
| NTSC | National Television Systems Committee (USA TV standard: 525 lines) |
| NVRAM | Non Volatile Random Access Memory |
| Glossary O | |
| OAW | Optically Assisted Winchester technology (Seagate hard drive) |
| OCR | Optical Character Recognition |
| ODBC | Open DataBase Connectivity |
| OEM | Original Equipment Manufacturer |
| OGL | OpenGL (see below) |
| OLE | Object Linking and Embedding |
| OLED | Polymer Organic Light Emitting Display (Toshiba) |
| OLGA | Organic Land Grid Array (Intel Pentium III CPU) |
| OOB | Out Of Band |
| OpenGL | Silicon Graphics Open standard Graphical Language (32-bit 3D graphics architecture layout) |
| OpenGVS | Open Gemini Visual System 3D APIs standard |
| OPS | Open Profiling Standard |
| OS | Operating System |
| OS/2 | IBM Operating System/2 |
| OSD | Open Software Distribution |
| OSR1 | OEM Service Release 1 (Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.00.950 a: 1st release, upgraded with SP1. Retail and OEM |
| OSR2 | OEM Service Release 2 (Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.00.950 B/C: 2nd release). OEM only |
| Glossary P | |
| P I (P1) | Intel Pentium I CPU |
| P II (P2) | Intel Pentium II CPU (80686 Klamath / Deschutes / Xeon and Celeron) |
| P III (P3) | Intel Pentium III CPU (80686 Katmai / Coppermine / Tualatin / Xeon and Celeron) |
| P IV (P4) | Intel Pentium IV CPU (80686 Willamette / Northwood / Xeon and Celeron) |
| P3P | Platform for Privacy Preferences (W3C standard) |
| P5 | Intel Pentium/Pentium Pro CPU (80586) |
| P6 | Intel Pentium II/III/IV CPU (80686) |
| PAL | Phase Alternate Line (European TV standard: 625 lines) |
| PAP | Password Authentication Protocol |
| PBC | Pipeline Burst Cache |
| PBM | Portable BitMap UNIX picture file |
| PBSRAM | Pipeline Burst Static Random Access Memory (CPU L2 cache) |
| PC | Personal Computer |
| PC99 | Intel/Microsoft PC 1999 System Design Guide |
| PCB | Printed Circuit Board |
| PCD | Kodak Photo CD image file |
| PCI | Peripheral Component Interconnect bus architecturC: 32-bit, 33/66 MHz (Intel) |
| PCI 2.1 | Peripheral Component Interconnect 2.1 standard: 32-bit, 33/66 MHz (Intel) |
| PCI 2.2 | Peripheral Component Interconnect 2.2 standard: 32-bit, 33/66/133 MHz (Intel) |
| PCI-X | Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended bus architecturC: 64-bit,133 MHz (Intel/Compaq/HP/IBM) |
| PCI 3.0 | Peripheral Component Interconnect 3.0 standard (3GIO): 64-bit,133 / 266 MHz, 6.6 GB/sec (Intel / IBM / Compaq / Microsoft / Dell) |
| PCL | Printer Control Language |
| PCM | Pulse Code Modulation |
| PCMCIA | Personal Computer Memory Card International Association |
| PCS | Personal Communications Service |
| PCX | Zsoft PC Paintbrush Picture file |
| PDA | Personal Digital Assistant |
| Portable Document Format file (Adobe Acrobat) | |
| PDP | Parallel Data Processing (Intel I-740) |
| pel | Picture ELement: RGB 3 dot pattern (color TV). Also pixel |
| Pentium | Intel Pentium CPU (80586) |
| Pentium Pro | Intel Pentium Pro CPU (80586) |
| Pentium II (P2) | Intel Pentium II CPU (80686 Klamath / Deschutes / Xeon and Celeron) |
| Pentium III (P3) | Intel Pentium III CPU (80686 Katmai / Coppermine / Xeon and Celeron) |
| Pentium IV P(4) | Intel Pentium IV CPU (80686 Willamette / Northwood / Xeon and Celeron) |
| PERL | Practical Extraction and Report Language |
| PFPT | Pure Flat Picture Tube |
| PGM | Portable GrayMap UNIX picture file |
| PIC | (1) Programmable Interrupt Controller (2) Lotus PICtor/PC Paint picture file |
| PIF | Program Information File (Microsoft Windows) |
| PIM | Personal Information Manager |
| PING | Packet InterNet Groper |
| PIO | Programmed Input / Output |
| pixel | PIcture ELement: RGB 3 dot pattern (color CRT) Also pel |
| PLEDM | Phase-state Low Electron Drive Memory (Hitachi) |
| PLGA | Plastic Land Grid Array (Intel Pentium II CPU) |
| PLL | Phase Locked Loop (CPU clock multiplier chip) |
| PMTU | Path Maximum Transmission Unit (Internet protocol) |
| PNG | Portable Network Graphics file |
| PnP | Plug and Play standard |
| PoP | Point of Presence |
| POP | Post Office Protocol |
| POP3 | Post Office Protocol 3 standard |
| POST | Power On Self Test (BIOS) these are the beeps at system startup |
| POTS | Plain Old Telephone Service |
| PPGA | Plastic Pin Grid Array (370 pin Intel CPU) |
| PPI | Precise Pixel Interpolation (Intel I-740) |
| PPM | Portable Pixel Map UNIX picture file |
| PPP | Point to Point Protocol |
| PPTP | Point to Point Tunneling Protocol |
| PRI | Primary Rate Interface |
| PRML | Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (hard drive) |
| PRN | Printer port |
| PS/2 | IBM Personal System/2 |
| PSD | RGB/indexed PhotoShop image file (Aldus) |
| PSTN | Public Switched Telephone Network |
| PVR | Personal Video Recorder (TV to digital) |
| Glossary Q | |
| QBE | Query By Example |
| QDR-SDRAM | Quad Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| QEMM | Quarterdeck 386 Expanded Memory Manager (QEMM386.SYS) |
| QOS | Quality Of Service |
| Glossary R | |
| RAID | Redundant Array of Inexpensive (Independent) Disks |
| RAM | Random Access Memory |
| RAMDAC | Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter |
| RARP | Reverse Address Resolution Protocol |
| RAS | (1) Sun Microsystems Raster image file (2) Row Access Strobe (3) Remote Access Service (Microsoft Windows NT/ 2000/ XP) |
| RAVE | Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine (Apple) |
| RAW | Unencoded pixel data image file |
| RDF | Resource Description Framework (Netscape Aurora) |
| RDRAM | Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| REG | REGistry text/ASCII file (Microsoft Windows 9x/ NT/ 2000/ ME/ XP) |
| Registry | Microsoft Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP Registry database |
| RegEdit | Microsoft Windows 9x/NT/2000/ME/XP Registry Editor (REGEDITEXE) |
| RegEdt32 | Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP Registry Editor (REGEDT32EXE) |
| RFC | Request for Comments |
| RFI | Radio Frequency Interference |
| RGB | Red Green Blue picture encoding |
| RIMM | Rambus Inline Memory Module |
| RISC | Reduced Instruction Set Computing (CPU) |
| RIVA | Real Time Interactive Video and Animation (NVidia 3D) |
| RLE | CompuServe/Microsoft Windows Run Length Encoded graphic file |
| RM386 | Helix Software 386 Expanded Memory Manager (RM386EXE) |
| ROM | Read Only Memory |
| RPC | Remote Procedure Calls |
| rpm | Revolutions Per Minute |
| RPTV | Rear Projection TeleVision |
| RSA | Public Key Encryption algorithms (RSA Data Security) |
| RTC | Real Time Clock (BIOS) |
| RTF | Rich Text Format (Microsoft Word) |
| RWIN | Receive WINdow (Internet protocol) |
| Glossary S | |
| S3TC | S3 Texture Compression architecture (S3 Savage3D / 2000) |
| SACD | Super Audio Compact Disc (Sony / Philips) |
| SBK | EMU Sound Font BanK v1.0 (Creative Labs SB sound cards) |
| SCSI | Small Computers System Interface standard |
| SCSI-1 | Small Computers System Interface 1 specifications |
| SCSI-2 | Small Computers System Interface 2 specifications |
| SCSI-3 | Small Computers System Interface 3 specifications |
| SDDS | Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (8 channel theatre surround sound standard) |
| SDK | Software Developers Kit |
| SDRAM | Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| SDS | Satellite Data Service |
| SDSL | Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line modem |
| SDX | Storage Data Acceleration (Western Digital) |
| SECAM | Sequential Couleur Avec M?oire (French TV standard: 819 lines) |
| SECC | Single Edge Contact Cartridge (Intel Pentium II CPU) |
| SECC2 | Single Edge Contact Cartridge 2 (Intel Pentium III CPU) |
| SEL | Software Emulation Layer (Microsoft Direct3D) |
| SEPP | Single Edge Processor Package (Intel Celeron CPU) |
| Serial ATA | Ultra Serial ATA 1500 v1.0 Hard Disk Interface standard (15 Gb/sec) |
| SET | Secure Electronic Transaction standard |
| SF2 | EMU Sound Font Bank v2.0 (Creative Labs SB sound cards) |
| SFN | Short File Name (8.3 . MS-DOS 16-bit) |
| SFP | System File Protection (Windows ME / 2K / XP) |
| SGI | Silicon Graphics Incorporated |
| SGML | Standard Generalized Markup Language (W3C) |
| SGRAM | Synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory |
| SHDSL | Single pair High bit rate Digital Subscriber Line modem |
| SIMD | Single Instruction Multiple Data (Intel Pentium MMX) |
| SIMM | Single In-line Memory Module |
| SLC | Subscriber Line Charge |
| SLDRAM | Synchronous Link Dynamic Random Access Memory (Hyundai) |
| SL-DRAM | Synchronous Layout Dynamic Random Access Memory (Siemens/Micron) |
| SLI | Scan Line Interleave technology (3Dfx Voodoo2) |
| SLIP | Serial Line Internet Protocol |
| SLM | Spatial Light Modulator |
| SMART | Self Monitoring Analysis Reporting Technology standard |
| SMIL | Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (W3C) |
| SMP | Symmetrical MultiProcessing standard |
| SMPTE | Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers |
| SMTP | Simple Mail Transfer Protocol |
| S/NR | Signal to Noise Ratio |
| SO-DIMM | Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module connector |
| SPD | Serial Presence Detection (EEPROM) |
| S/PDIF | Sony/Philips Digital Interchange Format |
| SPI-2 | SCSI Parallel Interface 2 standard (SCSI-3) |
| SPI-3 | SCSI Parallel Interface 3 standard (SCSI-3) |
| SPP | Standard Parallel Port |
| SQL | Structured Query Language |
| SRAM | Static Random Access Memory |
| sRGB | 32-bit standard Red Green Blue color encoding (Microsoft / Hewlett Packard) |
| sRGB64 | 64-bit standard Red Green Blue double-precision color encoding (Microsoft/Hewlett Packard) |
| SSA | Serial Storage Architecture bus/interface |
| SSE | Streaming SIMD Extensions (Intel Pentium III) |
| SSE2 | Streaming SIMD Extensions version 2 (Intel Pentium IV) |
| SSL | Secure Sockets Layer |
| SSR | Super Scalar Rendering (3D video) |
| STA | SCSI Trade Association |
| STD/VR | Standard Voltage Regulator (CPU) |
| STM | Scanning Tunneling Microscope |
| SVGA | Super Video Graphics Array standard |
| SX | X86 Intel CPU without FPU (386/SX, 486/SX) |
| Sync SRAM | Synchronous burst Static Random Access Memory (CPU L2 cache) |
| Glossary T | |
| TAPI | Telephony Application Programming Interface |
| TB | TeraByte (1 TB = 1,024 GigaBytes = 1,048,576 MegaBytes) |
| T-Buffer | Multiple Frame Buffer rendering engine (3Dfx 3D video) |
| TCL | Transform, Clipping & Lighting (ATI 3D video) |
| TCO | Total Cost of Ownership |
| TCP | Transmission Control Protocol |
| TCP/IP | Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol |
| TEC | ThermoElectric Cooler (Peltier effect) |
| Texel | Bilinear TEXtured pixEL (3D video) |
| TFT | Thin Film Transistor (active matrix display) |
| TFTP | Trivial File Transfer Protocol |
| TGA | True-Vision Graphic file (Targa) |
| THD | Total Harmonic Distortion |
| THX | Lucas Film Home/Cinema Theatre Hi-Fi Dolby Digital Surround audio / video standard (RC: George Lucas' first moviC: "THX 1138") |
| TIFF | Tagged Image File Format (Aldus) |
| T&L | Transform & Lighting (3D video) |
| TMM | Terabit Molecular Memory technology (Toshiba DVD) |
| TNT | TwiN Texel processing engine (NVidia RIVA TNT 2D/3D) |
| TNT2 | TwiN Texel 2 processing engine (NVidia RIVA TNT2 2D/3D) |
| TPU | Texture Processing Unit (3Dfx Voodoo / Voodoo2 / Voodoo3) |
| TSR | Terminate and Stay Resident program/device/driver |
| TTF | True Type Font |
| TTL | Time To Live (Internet protocol) |
| TWI | True Web Integration (Microsoft) |
| Glossary U | |
| UAE | Unrecoverable (fatal) Application Error |
| UART | Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter |
| U-ATA | Ultra Advanced Technology Attachment (EIDE / ATA disk controller / drive) |
| UCE | Unsolicited Commercial Email |
| UDF | Universal Disk Format (Compact Disk) |
| UDMA | Ultra Direct Memory Access (EIDE/ATA disk controller/drive) |
| UDMA/33 | Ultra DMA / Ultra ATA 33 = 33 MB/second transfer rate (EIDE / ATA hard disk controller / drive standard) |
| UDMA/66 | Ultra DMA / Ultra ATA 66 = 66 MB/second transfer rate (EIDE / ATA hard disk controller / drive standard) |
| UDMA/100 | Ultra DMA / Ultra ATA 100 = 100 MB/second transfer rate (EIDE / ATA hard disk controller / drive standard) |
| UDP | User Datagram Protocol |
| UDSP | Uni-processor Digital Signal Processor Drive Electronics based architecture |
| UHF | Ultra High Frequency |
| Ultra160/m SCSI | Ultra3 SCSI standard (160 MB/s burst transfer rate) |
| Ultra2b SCSI | Ultra2 SCSI standard (80 MB/s burst transfer rate) |
| Ultra DMA | Ultra Direct Memory Access (EIDE drive controller) |
| Ultra SCSI | Ultra1 SCSI standard (40 MB/s burst transfer rate) |
| UMA | Upper Memory Area |
| UMB | Upper Memory Block |
| UMR | Upper Memory Region |
| UNC | Uniform Naming Convention |
| UNIX | Multi-User Network Operating System |
| UPnP | Universal Plug and Play |
| UPS | Uninterruptible Power Supply |
| URI | Uniform Resource Identifier |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator |
| URM | Universal Retention Mechanism (Slot 1 CPU) |
| USB | Universal Serial Bus standard |
| USB2 | Universal Serial Bus version 20 standard |
| USENET | User Network (public access newsgroups) |
| USR | U S Robotics (3Com modem brand) |
| UUE | Uniform Resource Locator UNIX Encoded |
| UUENCODE | Unix to Unix Encoding |
| Glossary V | |
| V.90 | ITU PCM 56 Kbps analog modem transfer standard |
| V.92 | ITU PCM 56 Kbps analog modem transfer standard |
| VAR | Value Added Reseller |
| VAT | Virtual Allocation Table (Compact Disk) |
| VBE | VESA BIOS Extensions |
| VBI | Vertical Blanking Interval |
| VCM | Virtual Channel Memory |
| VCP | Video Cassette Player |
| VCPI | Virtual Control Program Interface |
| VCR | Video Cassette Recorder |
| VDSL | Variable Digital Subscriber Line modem |
| VESA | Video Electronics Standards Association |
| VFAT | Virtual File Allocation Table (Microsoft Windows) |
| VFIR | Very Fast InfraRed protocol (Hewlett Packard) |
| VfW | Video for Windows |
| VGA | Video Graphics Array standard |
| VHD | Very High Density connector standard (Centronics) |
| VHF | Very High Frequency |
| VIS | Visual Image Size |
| VLB | VESA Local Bus (VL bus) |
| VLM | Very Large Memory addressing (Intel Merced) |
| VLSI | Very Large Scale Integration |
| VMM | (1) Virtual Machine Monitor (2) Virtual Memory Manager |
| VoIP | Voice over Internet protocol |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network |
| VR | (1) Virtual Reality (2) Voltage Regulator (as used on a CPU) |
| VRE | Voltage Regulator Enhanced (MMX / SSE / KNI / 3DNow! CPU dual voltage) |
| VRAM | Video Random Access Memory |
| VRM | Voltage Regulator Module |
| VRML | Virtual Reality Modeling Language |
| VSA-100 | Voodoo Scalable Architecture (3Dfx Napalm 3D chipset) |
| VSM | Virtual Storage Management (Microsoft Windows) |
| VXD | Virtual eXtended (everything) device Driver (Microsoft Windows) |
| Glossary W | |
| W3C | World Wide Web Consortium |
| WAIS | Wide Area Information Server |
| WAN | Wide Area Network |
| WAR | Wide Aspect Ratio display |
| WBEM | Web Based Enterprise Management Initiative |
| WDM | Win32 Driver Model |
| WfM | Wired for Management |
| WfWG | Microsoft Windows for WorkGroups 31x |
| WHQL | Windows Hardware Quality Labs (Microsoft approved drivers) |
| Win16 | Microsoft Windows 3xx 16-bit OS |
| Win2000 | Microsoft Windows 2000 (formerly NT 50) |
| Win2K | Microsoft Windows 2K (2000) |
| Win31 | Microsoft Windows 3.1x |
| Win32 | Microsoft Windows 32-bit OS |
| Win32s | Microsoft Windows 32-bit extensions for Windows / WfWG 31x 16-bit |
| Win95 | Microsoft Windows 95 |
| Win98 | Microsoft Windows 98 first edition |
| Win98 Gold | Microsoft Windows 98 first edition |
| Win98SE | Microsoft Windows 98 second edition |
| WinME | Microsoft Windows ME (Millennium Edition) |
| WinNT | Microsoft Windows NT 3.xx / 40 (New Technology) |
| WinXP | Microsoft Windows XP (eXPerience) |
| WinNET | Microsoft Windows .Net Server |
| WMF | Microsoft Windows MetaFile |
| WORM | (1) (2)Write Once Read Many (CD-R) |
| WOSA | Windows Open Services Architecture (Microsoft) |
| WOSSA | Windows Operating Systems and Services Architecture (Microsoft) |
| WPE | Windows Protection Error (Microsoft Windows) |
| WPG | WordPerfect Graphic file |
| WRAM | Windows Random Access Memory |
| WTX | Workstation Advanced Technology EXtended (Intel motherboard form factor) |
| WWIF | World Wide InterFace |
| WWW | World Wide Web |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
| Glossary X | |
| x2 | 3Com/US Robotics 56 kbps analog modem transfer standard |
| X86 | Intel X86 CPU (family compatible) |
| X87 | Intel X87 FPU (family compatible) |
| Xeon | Intel Pentium II / III / IV Xeon CPU (80686) |
| XHTML | Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (W3C standard) |
| XLL | Extensible Link Language (W3C standard) |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language (W3C standard) |
| XMM | Extended Memory Manager |
| XMS | Extended Memory Specifications |
| XSL | Extensible Style Language (W3C) |
| XT | Extended Technology (Intel motherboard form factor) |
| XVGA | EXtended Video Graphics Array |
| Glossary Y | |
| Y2K | Year 2000 |
| Glossary Z | |
| ZAK | Zero Administration Kit for Windows NT workstations |
| ZAW | Zero Administration initiative for Windows |
| Z-buffer | Third (3rd) dimension / depth / z axis memory (3D video) |
| ZIF | Zero Insertion Force (CPU socket) |
| A | |
| AMOF | as a matter of fact |
| ADN | any day now |
| AFAIC | as far as I'm concerned |
| AFAICS | as far as I can see |
| AFAICT | as far as I can tell |
| AFAIK | as far as I know |
| AFAIR | as far as I remember |
| AFK | away from keyboard |
| AISB | as I said before |
| AISI | as I see it |
| AIUI | as I understand it |
| AKA | also known as |
| ANFAWFOS | and now for a word from our sponsor |
| ANFSCD | And now for something completely different... |
| ASAP | as soon as possible |
| ATLA | another three letter acronym |
| AWGTHTGTATA | Are we going to have to go through all this again? |
| AWGTHTGTTA | Are we going to have to go through this again? |
| AYOR | at your own risk |
| B | |
| BAK | back at keyboard |
| BBL | be back later |
| BBS | be back soon |
| BCNU | be seeing you |
| BF | boyfriend |
| BFN | bye for now |
| BOT | back on topic |
| BRB | be right back |
| BSF | but seriously folks |
| BST | but seriously though |
| BTAIM | be that as it may |
| BTDT | been there done that |
| BTHOM | Beats the hell outta me! |
| BTSOOM | Beats the shit out of me! |
| BTW | by the way |
| BTWBO | Be there with bells on. |
| C - E | |
| CMIIW | Correct me if I'm wrong. |
| COTFLGOHAHA | Crawling on the floor laughing guts out and having a heart attack |
| CU | See you. |
| CUA | commonly used acronym |
| CUL | See you later. |
| CUL8R | See you later. |
| CWYL | Chat with you later. |
| CYA | Cover your ass. |
| D&C | Duck and cover |
| DILLIGAD | Do I look like I give a darn?! |
| DILLIGAF | Do I look like I give a f***! |
| DNPM | darn near pissed myself |
| DUCWIC | Do you see what I see? |
| DWISNWID | Do what I say not what I do |
| DYHWIH | Do you hear what I hear? |
| DYJHIW | Don't you just hate it when... |
| E2EG | ear to ear grin |
| EOD | end of discussion |
| EOF | end of file |
| EOS | end of show |
| ESAD | Eat shit and die! |
| ESAL | Eat shit and live! |
| ETLA | extended three letter acronym |
| F | |
| FAAK | falling asleep at keyboard |
| FAFWOA | for a friend without access (Blush-blush really dumb question coming up) |
| FIFO | first in first out |
| FITB | Fill in the blank. |
| FOAD | F*** off and die. |
| FOAF | friend of a friend |
| FOAFOAG | father of a friend of a girlfriend |
| FOAG | father of a girlfriend |
| FOC | free of charge |
| FTASB | faster than a speeding bullet |
| FTL | faster than light |
| FU | f***ed up |
| FUBAR | f***ed up beyond all repair |
| FUBB | fouled up beyond belief |
| FUD | (spreading) fear, uncertainty, and disinformation |
| FWIW | for what it's worth |
| FYA | For your amusement |
| FYE | For your entertainment |
| FYI | for your information |
| G - H | |
| GA | go ahead |
| GAFIA | get away from it all |
| GAL | get a life |
| GF | girlfriend |
| GFAK | go fly a kite |
| GGN | gotta go now |
| GIGO | garbage in, garbage out |
| GIWIST | Gee, I wish I'd said that. |
| GR&D | grinning, running & ducking |
| GMTA | great minds think alike |
| GTFOOMF | Get the f*** out of my face. |
| HAK | hugs and kisses |
| HAND | have a nice day |
| HLOL | hysterically laughing out loud |
| HLOLARAWCHAWMP | hysterically laughing out loud and rolling around while clapping hands and wetting my pants |
| HOMPR | Hang on, mobile phone's ringing. |
| HTH | hope this helps |
| HWS(PEST) | husband wants sex (please excuse slow typing) |
| I | |
| IAC | in any case |
| IAE | in any event |
| IANAL | I am not a lawyer (also IANAxxx, such as IANACPA) |
| IANALBIPOOTV | I am not a lawyer, but I play one on TV |
| IARTPFWTSIOWIM | I am repeating this parrot-fashion with out the slightest idea of what it means |
| IBC | inadequate, but cute |
| IBTD | I beg to differ. |
| IDGAD | I don't give a damn. |
| IDGAS | I don't give a shit. |
| IDK | I don't know |
| IRL | in real life |
| IIRC | If I recall correctly |
| IITYWIMWYBMAD | If I tell you what it means will you buy me a drink? |
| IITYWTMWYKM | If I tell you what this means will you kiss me? |
| IIWM | if it were me (mine) |
| ILIWTPCT | I love it when the plan comes together |
| ILSHIBAMF | I laughed so hard I broke all my furniture! |
| ILSHIBATF | I laughed so hard I broke all the furniture. |
| IMBO | in my biased opinion |
| IMCAO | in my completely arrogant opinion (Use for attracting flames!) |
| IMCO | in my considered opinion |
| IME | in my experience |
| IMHO | in my humble opinion |
| IMNSHO | in my not so humble opinion |
| IMO | in my opinion |
| INPO | in no particular order |
| IOW | in other words |
| ISTM | it seems to me |
| ISTR | I seem to recall |
| ITA | I totally agree |
| IYSWIM | If You see what I mean. |
| J - L | |
| JAM | Just a minute. |
| KISS | keep it simple, stupid |
| LIFO | last in first out |
| LLTA | Lots and lots of thunderous applause! |
| LMFAO | Laughing my f***ing ass off. |
| LOL | lots of luck or laughing out loud |
| LSHMSH | laughing so hard my side hurts |
| LTIP | laughing till I puke |
| M - N | |
| MFG | more friendly garbage |
| MFTL | my favorite toy language |
| MHOTY | my hat's off to you |
| MMIF | my mouth is full |
| MTFBWY | May the force be with you! |
| MYOB | Mind your own business! |
| NALOPKT | Not a lot of people know that. |
| NBD | no big deal |
| NFI | no f***ing' idea |
| NFW | no f***ing way |
| NIMBY | not in my back yard |
| NRN | no reply necessary |
| NTL | nevertheless |
| NTTAWWT | not that there's anything wrong with that |
| O - P | |
| OAO | over and out |
| OATUS | on a totally unrelated subject |
| OAUS | on an unrelated subject |
| OBTW | oh, by the way |
| OIC | Oh, I see! |
| ONNA | Oh no, not again! |
| ONNTA | Oh no, not this again! |
| OOTB | out of the box (brand new) |
| OOTC | obligatory on-topic comment |
| OTC | Over the counter |
| OTOH | on the other hand |
| OTOOH | on the other other hand |
| OTT | over the top |
| OTTH | on the third hand |
| OTTOMH | off the top of my head |
| OTTOMHAROOB | off the top of my head and rolling out of bounds |
| OTW | on the whole |
| OWTTE | or words to that effect |
| PD | public domain |
| PITA | pain in the ass |
| PMFJI | pardon me for jumping in |
| PMIGBOM | Put mind in gear, before opening mouth! |
| PMYMHMMFSWGAD | Pardon me, you must have mistaken me for some one who gives a damn |
| POV | point of view |
| R | |
| RAEBNC | Read and enjoyed, but no comment. |
| ROTBA | reality on the blink again |
| ROTFFNAR | rolling on the floor for no apparent reason |
| ROTFL | rolling on the floor rolling on the floor laughing (also, ROFL) |
| ROTFLAHMS | rolling on the floor laughing and holding my sides |
| ROTFLASTC | rolling on the floor laughing and scaring the cat |
| ROTFLBTC | rolling on the floor laughing and biting the carpet |
| ROTFLGO | rolling on the floor laughing guts out |
| ROTFLMAO | rolling on the floor laughing my ass off |
| ROTFLOL | rolling on the floor laughing out loud |
| ROTFLOLVH | rolling on the floor laughing out loud very hard |
| ROTFTPOF | rolling on the floor laughing trying to put out flames |
| ROTFLSTC | rolling on the floor laughing scaring the cat |
| ROTFWTIME | rolling on the floor with tears in my eyes |
| RSN | real soon now (which may be a long time coming) |
| RTFAQ | read the FAQ |
| RTFI | read the f***ing instructions |
| RTFM | read the f***ing manual |
| RTFMA | read the f***ing manual, again |
| RTFMS | Read the f***ing manual, sir! (from the military) |
| RUOK | Are You OK? |
| S - T | |
| SBCN | Sitting behind the computer naked. |
| SCNR | Sorry, couldn`t resist |
| SHM | Shit happens, mate. |
| SICS | sitting in chair snickering |
| SIMCA | sitting in my chair amused (for something not quite as funny as to deserve ROTFL) |
| SITD | still in the dark |
| SMOP | small matter of programming |
| SNAFU | situation normal, all f***ed up |
| SNR | signal to noise ratio |
| SO | significant other |
| SOI | stuck on ice |
| TAFN | that's all for now |
| TANJ | there ain't no justice |
| TANSTAAFL | there ain't no such thing as a free lunch |
| TARFU | things are really fouled up |
| TGAL | think globally, act locally |
| TIA | thanks in advance |
| TIC | tongue in cheek |
| TINALO | this is not a legal opinion |
| TINAR | this is not a recommendation |
| TINWIS | that is not what I said |
| TLA | three-letter acronym (such as this) |
| TMTOWTDI | there's more than one way to do it |
| TNOTVS | there's nothing on TV so,.... |
| TNX | thanks |
| TPS(S) | this program sucks (severely) |
| TPTB | the powers that be |
| TRDMC | tears running down my cheeks |
| TSOHF | total sense of humor failure |
| TTBOMK | to the best of my knowledge |
| TTFN | ta ta for now |
| TTYL | talk to you later |
| TTYRS | talk to you real soon |
| TUFD | the user file died |
| TVM | thanks very much |
| TYCLO | Turn your CAPS LOCK off. (Quit shouting.) |
| TYVM | thank you very much |
| U - Y | |
| UBD | user brain damage |
| UPGS | unfinished project guilt syndrome |
| UTC | under the counter |
| UTT | under the table |
| VETLA | very enhanced TLA |
| VR | virtual reality |
| WAB? | What another bill? |
| WAG | wild ass guess |
| WDYMBT | What do you mean by that? |
| WGAS | Who gives a shit? |
| WIBAMU | Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle. |
| WIBNI | would it be nice if |
| WMMOWS | Wash my mouth out with soap! |
| WNOHGB | where no one has gone before |
| WRT | with regard to |
| WT | without thinking |
| WTF | what the f*** |
| WTFDYTYA | Who the f*** do you think you are? |
| WTFWT | What the f*** was that? |
| WTH | what the hell |
| WTTM | without thinking too much |
| WWS | wife wants sex |
| WYLABOCTGWTR | Would you like a bowl of cream to go with that remark? |
| WYLASOMWTC | Would you like a saucer of milk with that comment? |
| WYTYSYDG | What you thought you saw, you didn't get |
| YAOTM | yet another off-topic message |
| YHGASP | You have got a serious problem |
| YMMV | Your mileage may vary |
| YSS | You suck severely |
| YWSYLS | You win some, you lose some |
| Glossary of Miscellaneous Acronyms and Emoticons | |||
| Note : These are terms that will most commonly appear in news groups or Email messages Almost any of the Usenet terms can be found enclosed with <> on news groups. An example is <GDR> (or <GD&R>) = Grin, Duck and Run. | |||
| <g> or <G> | Grin | <jk> | Just Kidding |
| <vbg> or <VBG | Very Big Grin | :-] | Smirk |
| :-) (leads with a colon) | Smile | :-D | Laughing |
| :-( | Frown | ;-) (leads with a semi-colon) | Wink |
| :-X | Close-mouthed | 8-) | Wide-eyed |
| :-O | Open-mouthed | ||
