Glossary

Common Terms, Abbreviations and Acronyms

Here are over 600 of our Computing, Internet, Electronics, Audio & Video Worlds common Terms, File Extensions, Abbreviations and Acronyms listed in alphabetical order.

This Glossary is also available as GLOSSARY.TXT (plain text file), part of my updated ©Tricks + Secrets Files [freeware]:
  • MS Windows 98/95/OSR1/OSR2 + MS-DOS 7.xx users: W95-11D.ZIP
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  • MS Windows/WfWG 3.1x + MS-DOS 6.xx users: W31-11D.ZIP
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    NOTE: This file is updated frequently to include new terms. Please contact me for other terms (including their definitions) you consider I should add here, or for any corrections.
    Enjoy.
     

    0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Z


     
      
    0-9
    286 = Intel 80286 processor. 2D = Two (bi) Dimensional (x and y axes). 386 = Intel 80386 processor. 386MAX = Qualitas 386 Expanded Memory Manager (386MAX.SYS). 3D = Three (tri) Dimensional (x, y and z axes). 3Dfx = 3D Graphics Interactive (Voodoo family 3D chipsets). 3DRAM = 3D Dynamic Random Access Memory. 486 = Intel 80486 processor. 586 = Intel 80586 processor (Pentium). 686 = Intel 80686 processor (Pentium Pro). 86 = Intel 8086 central processing unit (CPU). 87 = Intel 8087 floating point unit (FPU).
    BACK TO TOPA
    A3D = Aureal 3D surround sound technology. AAF = Advanced Authoring format (Microsoft video). AC = Alternating Current. AC-3 = AC-3 Dolby Digital 5.1 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. AFM = Atomic Force Microscope. 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). AGRAS = AntiGlare, antiReflection and AntiStatic screen treatment. AI = Artificial Intelligence. AIFF = Audio Interchange File Format. AIT = Advanced Intelligent Tape (Sony). ALDC = Adaptive Lossless Data Compression (IBM). AMI = American Megatrends Incorporated. ANSI = American National Standards Institute. AOL = America OnLine. API = Application Programming Interface. APIC = Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controler. APM = Advanced Power Management. ARAG = AntiReflection, AntiGlare screen treatment. ARAS = AntiReflection, AntiStatic screen treatment. 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 = Advanced Sound Processor (Creative Labs). ASPI = Advanced SCSI Programming Interface. ASVD = Analog Simultaneous Voice and Data. Async SRAM = Asynchronous Static Random Access Memory (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 33.3 MB/second tranfer rate (EIDE/ATA hard drive standard). ATAPI = Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface. ATM (1) = Adobe Type Manager. ATM (2) = Asynchronous Transfer Mode (network). 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). AXCEL216 = Packard Bell AXCEL216 386/SX 25 MHz (my first PC).
    BACK TO TOPB
    b = bit (binary digit): unit of information: 0 or 1. B = Byte (1 Byte = 8 bits). BASIC = Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. BAT = MS-DOS ASCII BATch program file. Baud = Modem line (carrier) signal high/low shifts per second. BBS = Bulletin Board System. BDA = BIOS Data Area. BEDO = Burst Extended Data Out. BGA = Ball Grid Array. BIF = Binary Image Format file. BIOS = Basic Input Output System. BMP = RGB/RLE encoded Microsoft Windows BitMap Picture file. BPP = Bits Per Pixel. bps = bits per second. Bus = Binary data gateway.
    BACK TO TOPC
    CAD = Computer Aided Design. CAS = Column Access Strobe. CAV = Constant Angular Velocity (compact disc). CCITT = Comité Consultatif International de Télégraphe et Téléphonie (International Consultative Committee of Telegraph and Telephony). 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 technology (Rockwell). CERT = Computer Emergency Response Team. CGA = Color Graphics Adapter. CGI (1) = Computer Generated Image. CGI (2) = Common Gateway Interface. CGM = Computer Graphics Metafile. CHAP = Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol. CHS = Cylinder/Head/Sector. CIAC = Computer Incident Advisory Capability team. CISC = Complex Instruction Set Computing (CPU). CLP = Microsoft Windows Clipboard Bitmap file. CLV = Constant Linear Velocity (compact disk). CMOS = Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor. CMOS 7S = Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor Manufacturing Process (IBM). CMOS-SOS = CMOS Silicon On Sapphire. CODEC = Digital video COmpressor and DECompressor (Intel Indeo). COM (1) = Serial COMmunication Port. COM (2) = Component Object Model (Microsoft). CON = CONsole. 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). CUT = Dr. Halo picture file.
    BACK TO TOPD
    D3D = Microsoft DirectX3D APIs. 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. DDE = Dynamic Data Exchange. DDMA = Distributed Direct Memory Access standard. 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 Control Protocol. DHTML = Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (W3C). DIB (1) = RGB/RLE encoded Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap. DIB (2) = Dual Independent Bus architecture (Intel Pentium Pro and Pentium II). DIG = Digital Imaging Group. DIMM = Dual In-line Memory Module. DIN = Deutsche Institut für Normung (German Institute for Standards). DIP = Dual In-line Package. Divx = Digital Video Express (DVD). DLL = Dynamic Link Library. DLP = Digital Light Processing technology. DLS = DownLoadable Sounds standard (PCI MIDI). DMA = Direct Memory Access. 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. DOM = Document Object Model standard (W3C). DOS = Disk Operating System. DPI = Dots Per Inch. DPLSS = Dolby Pro Logic Surround Sound standard (5 channels). DPMI = DOS Protected Mode Interface. DPMS = VESA Display Power Management Signaling standard. DRAM = Dynamic Random Access Memory. DR-DOS = 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. DSC = Digital Servo Control (Toshiba CD-ROM). DS/DD = Double-Sided Double-Density (floppy disk standard: 720KB). DS/HD = Double-Sided High-Density (floppy disk standard: 1.44MB). DSL = Digital Subscriber Line modem. DSP (1) = Digital Signal Processor. DSP (2) = Delivery Service Partner (OEM). DSS = Digital Satellite System. DSVD = Digital Simultaneous Voice and Data. DTD = Document Type Definition. DTE = Data Terminal Equipment (modem to PC speed). DTR = Data Transfer Rate. DTV (1) = DeskTop Video. DTV (2) = Digital TeleVision. DUN = Dial-Up Networking (Microsoft Windows 95/98). DVD = Digital Versatile (Video) Disc. DVD-2 = Second generation DVD drive. DVD-R = Digital Versatile Disk Recordable. DVD-RAM = Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable Access Media. DVD-ROM = Digital Versatile Disc Read Only Media. DVD+RW = Digital Versatile Disk ReWritable (new standard). DVI = Digital Video Interactive (Intel). DX = X86 Intel CPU with FPU (386/DX, 486/DX). DXF = Autodesk picture File. Dxr2 = Dynamic EXtended Resolution 2 technology (Creative Labs DVD).
    BACK TO TOPE
    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. ECP = Extended Capabilities Port. EDC = Error Detection Code. EDI = Electronic Data Interchange. EDO = Extended Data Out. EDRAM = Enhanced Dynamic Random Access Memory. EECS = Enhanced Elliptical Correction System (Sony CRT). EEPROM = Enhanced Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. EGA = Extended Graphics Adapter. EIA = Electronics Industries Association. EICA = Enhanced Intellight Cooler Architecture. EIDE = Enhanced IDE. EISA = Extended Industry Standard Architecture. EISCA = Enhanced Intelligent System Cooler Architecture (CPU heatsink). E-mail = Electronic mail. EMM386 = Microsoft 386 Expanded Memory Manager (EMM386.EXE). EMI = Electro Magnetical Interference. EMS = Expanded Memory Specifications. EMM = Expanded Memory Manager. EPA = Environmental Protection Agency. EPIC = Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing (Intel/HP). EPP = Enhanced Parallel Port. EPROM = Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory. EPS = Encapsulated PostScript File. ESD = ElectroStatic Discharge. ESDI = Enhanced System Device Interface. ESDRAM = Enhanced Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory. EULA = End User License Agreement. EUV = Extreme UltraViolet lithography (CPU).
    BACK TO TOPF
    FAST-20 = Fast SCSI-3 Parallel Interface standard. FAT = File Allocation Table. FAT16 = File Allocation Table 16bit (MS-DOS). FAT32 = File Allocation Table 32bit (Windows 95/98). FCBS = File Control Blocks. FC-AL = Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (Ultra Fast SCSI). FCC = Federal Communications Commission. FC-PH = Fibre Channel PHysical and signaling interface (SCSI-3). FD = Floppy Disk (Drive). FDDI = Fiber Distributed Data Interface. FED = Field Emission Display. FIFO = First In First Out. FMV = Full Motion Video. FPD = Flat Panel Display. FPM = Fast Page Mode (DRAM). fps = frames per second. FPU = Floating Point Unit (coprocessor). FRAM = Ferroelectric Random Access Memory. Frame-buffer = 1st + 2nd dimensions/height + width/x + y axes memory (2D video). FSB = Front Side Bus (Pentium/Pentium II class motherboards). FTP = File Transfer Protocol. Full-Duplex = Two way modem communication protocol (echo-plex).
    BACK TO TOPG
    GB = GigaByte (1 GB = 1,024 MegaBytes = 1,048,576 KiloBytes). GDI = Graphics Device Interface. 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. GMR = Giant Magneto-Resistive effect head (IBM hard drive). GUI = Graphical User Interface.
    BACK TO TOPH
    HAL = Hardware Abstraction Layer. Half-Duplex = One way modem communication protocol (simplex or local-echo). HAVi = Home Audio Video interoperability (entertainment APIs). HD = Hard Disk (Drive). HDA = High reliability Hard Disk Assembly. HDD = Hard Disk Drive. HDSL = High bit rate Digital Subscriber Line modem. HDSS = Holographic Data Storage System (IBM). HDTV = High Definition TeleVision. HEL = Hardware Emulation Layer (Microsoft Direct3D standard). 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 200 MB Floppy Drive standard (Sony/Fuji). HIMEM = Microsoft High/Extended Memory Manager (HIMEM.SYS). HMA = High Memory Area. HP = Hewlett-Packard Corporation. H/PC = Handheld Personal Computer. HPFS = High Performance File System (OS/2). HTML = HyperText Markup Language (W3C). HTTP = HyperText Transfer Protocol. HVD = High Voltage Differential standard (SCSI-2). Hz = Hertz (clock speed). 1 Hz = 1 clock cycle.
    BACK TO TOPI
    IA-32 = Intel Architecture 32 bit (32 bit CPUs). IA-64 = Intel Architecture 64 bit (high-end 64 bit CPUs). IBM = International Business Machines Corporation. IC = Interface Controller. ICD = Installable Client Driver (Microsoft 3D). ICMP = Internet Control Message Protocol. IDCT = Inverse Discreet Cosine Transform (DVD decoding). IDE = Integrated Device (Drive) Electronics. IE = Microsoft Internet Explorer. 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. 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. IPX = Internetwork Packet EXchange (Novell Netware). 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 format (CD-ROM). ISP = Internet Service Provider. ITU = International Telecommunications Union.
    BACK TO TOPJ
    Java = Sun Microsystems programming language. JAR = Java ARchive file. 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.
    BACK TO TOPK
    K56flex = Lucent/Rockwell 56 kbps analog modem transfer standard. KB = KiloByte (1 KB = 1,024 Bytes). KNI = Katmai New 70 MMX Instructions (Intel Katmai CPU).
    BACK TO TOPL
    L1 = Level 1 cache (on-chip). L2 = Level 2 cache (off-chip). L3 = Level 3 cache (off-chip SMP). LAN = Local Area Network. LAPM = Link Access Protocol for Modems. LBA = Logical Block Address (HDD). 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. 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).
    BACK TO TOPM
    MAC = MAC Paint picture file. MAPI = Messaging Application Program Interface. MB = MegaByte (1 MB = 1,024 KiloBytes = 1,048,576 bytes). MBR = Master Boot Record (partition table). MCA = Multilink Channel Aggregation technology (MS Windows 98). MCD = Mini Client Driver (Microsoft 3D). MCI = Media Control Interface. MDA = Modular Digital Architecture. MDI = Multiple Document Interface. MDRAM = Multibank Dynamic Random Access Memory. 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. MMA = MIDI Manufacturer's Association. MMVF = MultiMedia Video Format (NEC DVD). MMX = MultiMedia eXtensions (Intel). MMX2 = MultiMedia eXtensions 2nd generation (Intel). MO = Magneto-Optical. modem = MODulator/DEModulator (data to analog converter). MP3 = MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 compression/format standard. MPC = Multimedia Personal Computer. MPEG = Motion Picture Expert Group standards (versions 1 and 2). MPG = Motion Picture Expert Group compressed image file standard. MR = Magneto-Resistive head technology (HDD). MRX = Magneto-Resistive EXtended head technology (IBM HDD). ms (1) = Microsecond (1/1,000,000 = 1 millionth of a second). MS (2) = MicroSoft. MS-DOS = MicroSoft Disk Operating System. MSCDEX = MicroSoft Compact Disc EXtensions device driver (MSCDEX.EXE). MSD = MicroSoft Diagnostics (MSD.EXE). MSP = MicroSoft Paint picture file. 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).
    BACK TO TOPN
    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 = Networked Information Center. 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). NTFS = Windows NT File System standard (32bit). NTSC = National Television Standards Committee.
    BACK TO TOPO
    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. OOB = Out Of Band. OpenGL = Silicon Graphics Open standard Graphical Language (32 bit 3D graphics architecture layout). OpenGVS = Open Gemini Visual System 3D API 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 + OEM. OSR2 = OEM Service Release 2 (Microsoft Windows 95 version 4.00.950 B/C: 2nd release). OEM only.
    BACK TO TOPP
    P II = Intel Pentium II processor (80686 Klamath/Deschutes/Xeon). P5 = Intel Pentium processor (80586). P6 = Intel Pentium Pro processor (80686). PAL = Phase Alternating Line. PAP = Password Authentication Protocol. PBC = Pipeline Burst Cache. PBM = Portable BitMap UNIX picture file. PBSRAM = Pipeline Burst Static Random Access Memory (L2 cache). PC = Personal Computer. PC98 = Intel/Microsoft PC 98 System Design Guide. PCB = Printed Circuit Board. PCD = Kodak Photo CD image file. PCI = Peripheral Component Interconnect bus architecture: 32 bit, 33 MHz (Intel). PCI-X = Peripheral Component Interconnect eXtended bus architecture: 64 bit, 133 MHz (Intel/Compaq/HP/IBM). 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. PDF = Portable Document Format file (Adobe Acrobat). PDP = Parallel Data Processing (Intel I-740). pel = Picture ELement: RGB 3 dot pattern (color TV). Also pixel. PERL = Practical Extraction and Report Language. PFPT = Pure Flat Picture Tube. PGM = Portable GrayMap UNIX picture file. PIC (1) = Programmable Interrupt Controller. PIC (2) = Lotus Development Corp. PICtor/PC Paint picture file. PIF = Program Information File (MS Windows). PIM = Personal Information Manager. PING = Packet InterNet Groper. PIO = Programmed Input/Output. pixel = PIcture ELement: RGB 3 dot pattern (color CRT). Also pel. PMTU = Path Maximum Transmission Unit (Internet protocol). PNG = Portable Network Graphics file. PnP = Plug and Play standard. POP (1) = Post Office Protocol. PoP (2) = Point of Presence. POP3 = Post Office Protocol 3 standard. POST = Power On Self Test (BIOS). POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service. PPI = Precise-Pixel Interpolation (Intel I-740). PPM = Portable PixelMap UNIX picture file. PPP = Point to Point Protocol. PPTP = Point to Point Tunneling Protocol. PRI = Primary Rate Interface. PRML = Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (Fujitsu HDD). PRN = PRiNter port. PS/2 = IBM Personal System/2. PSD = RGB/indexed PhotoShop image file. PSTN = Public Switched Telephone Network.
    BACK TO TOPQ
    QBE = Query By Example. QEMM = Quarterdeck Systems 386 Expanded Memory Manager (QEMM386.SYS). QOS = Quality Of Service.
    BACK TO TOPR
    RAID = Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. RAM = Random Access Memory. RAMDAC = Random Access Memory Digital to Analog Converter. RARP = Reverse Address Resolution Protocol. RAS (1) = Sun Microsystems picture file. RAS (2) = Row Access Strobe. RAVE = Rendering Acceleration Virtual Engine (Apple). RAW = Unencoded pixel data image file. RDF = Resource Description Framework (Netscape Aurora). RDRAM = Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory. RFC = Request for Comments. 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 encoded graphic file. RM386 = Helix Software 386 Expanded Memory Manager (RM386.EXE). ROM = Read Only Memory. RPC = Remote Procedure Calls. RPM = Rotations Per Minute. RTF = Rich Text Format. RWIN = Receive WINdow (Internet protocol).
    BACK TO TOPS
    S3TC = S3 Texture Compression architecture (S3 Savage3D). 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. SDK = Software Developers Kit. SDRAM = Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory. SDS = Satellite Data Service. SDX = Storage Data Acceleration (Western Digital). SEC = Single Edge Contact standard (Intel). SEL = Software Emulation Layer (Microsoft Direct3D standard). SET = Secure Electronic Transaction standard. SGI = Silicon Graphics Incorporated. SGML = Standard Generalized Markup Language (W3C). SGRAM = Synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory. 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 = Symetrical Multi-Processing standard. 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. SSA = Serial Storage Architecture bus/interface. SSL = Secure Sockets Layer. 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 (L2 cache).
    BACK TO TOPT
    TAPI= Telephony Application Programming Interface. TB = TeraByte (1 TB = 1,024 GigaBytes = 1,048,576 MegaBytes). TCO = Total Cost of Ownership. TCP = Transmission Control Protocol. TCP/IP = Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. Texel = Textured pixel (3D video). TFT = Thin Film Transistor (active matrix display). TFTP = Trivial File Transfer Protocol. TGA = TrueVision Graphic file. THD = Total Harmonic Distortion. TIFF = Tagged Image File Format (Aldus). TMM = Terabit Molecular Memory technology (Toshiba DVD). TNT = TwiN Texel processing engine (Nvidia RIVA TNT 2D/3D). TPU = Texture Processing Unit (3Dfx Voodoo2). TSR = Terminate and Stay Resident program/device/driver. TTF = True Type Font. TTL = Time To Live (Internet protocol). TWI = True Web Integration (Microsoft).
    BACK TO TOPU
    UAE = Unrecoverable Application Error. UART = Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter. U-ATA = Ultra Advanced Technology Attachment (EIDE drive). UCE = Unsolicited Commercial Email. UDF = Universal Disk Format (Compact Disk). U-DMA = Ultra Direct Memory Access (EIDE drive controller). UDP = User Datagram Protocol. UDSP = Uniprocessor 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 SCSI = Ultra1 SCSI standard (40 MB/s burst transfer rate). UMA = Upper Memory Area. UMB = Upper Memory Block. UNC = Universal Naming Convention. UNIX = Multi-User Network Operating System. UPS = Uninterruptible Power Supply. URL = Uniform Resource Locator. USB = Universal Serial Bus. USENET = USEr NETwork (newsgroups). UUE = Uniform Resource Locator UNIX Encoded. UUENCODE = Unix to Unix Encoding.
    BACK TO TOPV
    V.90 = 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. 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. 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 = Virtual Memory Manager. VoIP = Voice over Internet protocol. VPN = Virtual Private Network. VR (1) = Virtual Reality. VR (2) = Voltage Regulator (CPU). VRE = Voltage Regulator Enhanced (MMX CPU). VRAM = Video Random Access Memory. VRM = Voltage Regulator Module. VRML = Virtual Reality Modeling Language. VSM = Virtual Storage Management (Microsoft Windows). VXD = Virtual eXtended memory device Driver.
    BACK TO TOPW
    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 3.1x. Win2000 = Microsoft Window NT 5.0. Win31 = Microsoft Windows 3.1x/Windows 3.x. Win32 = Microsoft Windows 32bit OS. Win32s = Microsoft Windows 32bit extensions for Windows 3.1x 16bit. Win95 = Microsoft Windows 95 (4.0x.xxxx). Win98 = Microsoft Windows 98 (4.10.1998). WinNT = Microsoft Windows NT (New Technology). WIP = Web Interoperability Pledge. WMF = Microsoft Windows MetaFile. WORM = Write Once Read Many (CD-R). WOSA = Windows Open Services Architecture. WPG = WordPerfect Graphic file. WRAM = Windows Random Access Memory. WWIF = World Wide InterFace. WWW = World Wide Web. WYSIWYG = What You See Is What You Get.
    BACK TO TOPX
    x2 = 3COM/US Robotics 56 kbps analog modem transfer standard. X86 = Intel X86 CPU (family compatible). X87 = Intel X87 FPU (family compatible). XML = EXtensible Markup Language (W3C). XMM = EXtended Memory Manager. XMS = EXtended Memory Specifications. XT = EXtended Technology (Intel motherboard form factor). XVGA = EXtended Video Graphics Array.
    BACK TO TOPZ
    ZAK = Zero Administration Kit for Windows NT workstations. ZAW = Zero Administration initiative for Windows. Z-buffer = 3rd dimension/depth/z axis memory (3D video). ZIF = Zero Insertion Force (Intel CPU).
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