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Terminology list additions
| Term | Explanation |
| ADSL | Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line – a form of data communications technology that allows high speed data transfer over conventional copper lines. The technology uses a signal that can only be transmitted over short distances (usually within 5 km of a compatible exchange). |
| Athlon | A CPU manufactured by AMD. There are various versions, including 64 bit and dual core. |
| Broadband | Broadband is used in everyday terms and conversations to loosely describe any kind of data communications that operates at speeds higher than 64 k. |
| Centralised processing | A Central computer is responsible for all the tasks – originated with a powerful central mainframe and dumb terminals (with no cpu / memory / storage) but can still be found in systems such as the Windows Terminal Services network and thin client computing. |
| Centrino | A brand used for a laptop that uses Intel’s Pentium M processor, Intel’s Wi-Fi networking chip and Intel’s motherboard. Any laptop not using all three of these components may not use the word ‘Centrino’ but must be called a laptop with ‘Pentium M’ processor. Seehttp://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3121_7-5023902-1.html |
| CMOS | A manufacturing process for technology. Typically used for making the memory chip that stores the data that the BIOS needs for configuring the computer at startup. Commonly this memory in a computer is simply called 'The CMOS'. This memory, like normal RAM, needs power to keep its data. The chip only needs low levels of power so the data can be maintained by a small trickle of electricity from a battery (and so appear to work when the power is off). Another place that CMOS manufacturing is used is in the manufacturing of sensors for digital cameras. |
| Distributed processing | This is a processing method designed so that a task is broken up into segments, the segments are sent off to different computers that work on the segments and then send the answer back to the co-ordinating / controlling computer. Examples include projects such as SETI@Home, various projects run by grid.org (including cancer research at home) and the render farms used to create the 3D animations / digital special effects created for movies. This can also refer to a data processing setup where each section of a company (e.g. An admin section, a design section, a sales section and an accounting section) work independently but are networked for communication. The processing is distributed around a number of computers which have sufficient processing power to support their activities independently.Seehttp://setiathome.berkeley.edu/http://www.grid.org/home.htm |
| Dual Core / Core 2 Duo | Technologies which incorporate 2 physical CPU’s into a single chip. Core 2 is a brand name for a specific architecture by Intel. |
| Dual Core CPU’s | 2 physical CPUs are included on a single chip. This chip alone is therefore equivalent to plugging two separate single core CPUs into a multi-processor motherboard. Seehttp://www.short-media.com/review.php?r=261http://www.intel.com/products/processor/coreduo/home.htmhttp://www.theinquirer.net/?article=13344http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-dual-core-processor.htm |
| Ergonomics | The practice of designing equipment / furniture / etc. so that it does not place undue strain on the human body – specific computer areas of interest include ergonomic keyboards, mouses, etc. |
| Gimp | A free, open source image editor that provides advanced features close to those of Photoshop. Available from: http://www.gimp.org/ |
| GMail | A term that is creeping in as a replacement for e-mail for users who are using Google’s free e-mail service. GMail is special because you have 5 gb (and continually increasing) of storage space that is indexed by Google, making your e-mail easily searchable. It does, however, display adverts related to the mail you are reading – and so raises privacy concerns. Gmail now includes the ability to read and work with mail whilst offline using ‘Google Gears’. Seehttp://www.google.co.za/intl/en/options/ |
| Hardware Interrupt | A signal sent to the CPU which temporarily halts the running of a program or process and initiates an interrupt service routine. E.g. pressing a key on the keyboard, moving a mouse, printer out of paper. |
| Heatsink | A piece of hardware usually placed over the CPU, the north bridge chipset and the GPU on a 3D graphics accelerator that is usually made of copper or aluminium and incorporates fins or ridges over which air flow. It is meant to cool the circuitry by conducting heat away from it. |
| Hotspot | A location where wireless network connectivity is provided for public / paying subscribers. Typically found in airports, hotels, coffee shops, etc. Hotspots have a limited range depending on the power of the radio antenna used. Typically uses the 802.11 x wireless standard. Seehttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-hotspot.htm |
| Hyperthreading | A technology which allows a single CPU to appear to be made up of two virtual CPUs. The CPU still only contains 1 processor. Seehttp://www.intel.com/technology/hyperthread/http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/cpu/hyperthreading.ars/1 NB: Multi-core CPU’s can still Hyper-thread. |
| Memory Cards | Memory for use in mobile devices that makes use of flash memory technology. Most frequently used in cameras / PDA’s, etc. There are many different standards (the cards have different physical sizes and connections) including, amongst others, Compact Flash, Secure Digital, Multi-Media card, Memory stick, etc. Seehttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-flash-card.htm |
| North Bridge | Part of the chipset on the motherboard. Connects the CPU, the RAM, the graphics card and the South Bridge together. |
| OpenOffice | A free, open source alternative to commercial office suites. Includes, word processor, spreadsheet, presentations and a database. Compatible with most commercial packages. Available from: http://www.openoffice.org/ |
| PAN | Personal Area Network. The network of small, personal devices (printer, cellphone, PDA, headset, etc) connected by Bluetooth technology. Seehttp://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/wireless/2000/11/03/bluetooth.htmlhttp://www.devx.com/wireless/Door/11306 |
| PCI Express | PCI Express is a new bus design for communication between cpu, memory and peripherals. Typically provides bandwidth and speed improvements for demanding peripherals such as graphics accelerators. It uses serial connections and a switch to provided dedicated point-to-point link between components on a motherboard. Seehttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-pci-express.htm |
| Pentium D | The Intel processor family with Dual Core technology – see Dual Core. |
| Pentium M | The Intel processor designed for use in laptops – including features such as variable speed, lower maximum speed, more cache, etc to maximise a combination of processing power and minimise electrical power consumption (maximise battery life). |
| PLN | Power Line Networking. A proposed standard for using power lines (yes, your ESCOM electricity line) as the backbone for networking into every household. Has the great benefit of existing infrastructure. Seehttp://computer.howstuffworks.com/power-network.htmhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-power-line-networking.htm |
| POS | Point Of Sale software. The software used to manage tills in shops and supermarkets. Usually linked to some form of stock control software. |
| RFID | A small electronic circuit embedded in labels, material etc for purposes of tracking and stock control. When brought near a sensor the RFID unit broadcasts its unique ID number on low power radio. RFID has serious privacy implications. See:http://www.epic.org/privacy/rfid/http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/ |
| Router | A networking device used to link different networks together. A switch links items within a LAN. A router joins various LANs together. |
| SKYPE | A company that provides free VOIP software for pure internet telephony – and supplies VOIP – normal telephone connectivity at a fee. See VOIP.www.skype.com/ |
| Software Interrupt | A signal generated by the CPU that temporarily halts the running of a program or process and initiates an interrupt service routine. E.g. when a program makes an error such as division by zero. |
| South Bridge | Part of the chipset on the motherboard. Connects the external buses, USB, etc to the North Bridge. |
| Symbian | An OS used in mobile devices such as smartphones. In competition with other mobile OS’s such as Windows Mobile, OS X (on the iPhone), Android (Linux based on the GPhone) and Palm OS. Symbian is an open industry standard (i.e. everyone can find out how it works and how to program for it) but it is neither free nor open source. See http://www.symbian.com/ |
| TSR | Terminate and Stay Resident. Refers to a technology used in DOS to allow more than one program to appear to be running at the same time (usually used for drivers, anti-virus, etc). The equivalent in terms of Windows would be a program that sits in the system tray and only pops up when it is needed (like anti-virus or firewall software).A TSR program started up, linked itself to a particular interrupt (so that it checked the interrupts before the currently running program) and then ‘shut down’. When the interrupt occurred the TSR checked to see if it should activate itself. If it did activate it first saved the state of the currently running program so that it could re-activate that program when it ‘shut down’ again. |
| Turion | AMD’s mobile version of their 64 bit processor optimised for use in Laptops (minimise power usage). |
| Virus Hoax | Usually an e-mail message that warns people about a virus that does not exist. Usually is over-the-top, warning people that the virus can do impossible things (like burning out your hard drive or frying your RAM). Often contains capitals, exclamation marks, bad spelling and grammar, says it comes from several well known companies (few of which are likely to be anti-virus companies) and encourages you to forward the message to all the people you know before the world ends! |
| VOIP | A technology that allows you to use the internet to carry telephonic conversations. This bypasses the normal telecommunications channels and so reduces the cost of communication to the cost of your internet connectivity. Companies supplying VOIP to conventional connectivity include SKYPE, Vonage, etc. Seehttp://computer.howstuffworks.com/ip-telephony.htmhttp://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-voip.htmwww.skype.com/www.vonage.com/ |
| Vonage | A company that supplies VOIP – normal telephone connectivity for a fee. SeeVOIPwww.vonage.com/ |
| VPN | Virtual Private Network. A way of linking computers into a network with the same privacy and security as a LAN but by using public internet connections to do so. A VPN is a much cheaper way to connect company networks than a dedicated leased line. |
| WAP | An internet based protocol for transferring data to small handheld devices. |
| Wi-Fi | A standard for communication between computers using radio waves. Also known as 802.11 x where the x refers to letters such as a, b, g & n. The letter refers to the bandwidth of the implementation of the standard – 802.11b is 11 mbps whilst 802.11g is 54 mbps. This type of wireless communication technology is built into many new laptops / mobile devices and is the technology used when wireless 'Hotspots' are provided. |
| Wi-Max | An incremental improvement in wireless networking (Wi-Fi) technology that allows high speed wireless connectivity over ranges of 20 – 30 km. Uses the 802.16 wireless standard. Seehttp://www.wimaxforum.org/home/http://www.intel.com/netcomms/technologies/wimax/ |
| NEW for 2009 | |
| Blog | Blogs have evolved. They have become commercially oriented businesses and brought into corporate environments. They are no longer personal online diaries but more like private online newspapers / journals that compete for readerships and advertising as a way to make money. |
| Podcast | Audio / Video files that are designed to be downloaded and played on mobile devices such as an iPod. These are regular episodes like radio programs or TV programs that you download, synch to your device and watch / listen to as and when you feel like it. |
| Smartphone OS’s | Android (Linux based)SymbianWindows MobileOS X (iPhone – Unix Based)Palm OS |
| Micro Blog | Adaptation of a Bog system to send much smaller communication slivers – e.g. Twitter (140 char maximum message length, able to work with SMS) |
| Cloud Computing | Also known as : Internet applications or SAAS (Software as a Service). Effectively a mixture of time sharing and distributed computing on the internet.Applications and data are hosted on servers connected to the internet. These applications run through the browser interface. Mostly free at present but ultimately will ask a monthly fee (like water / lights – you get charged per month for how much you use). Advantages include:
|
| Moodle | Learning management system designed to facilitate online learning. Free & OSS. |
| PCI X | Extension of the standard PCI expansion slots to increase bandwidth – NOT the same as PCI Express which is a serial technology. |
| ExpressCard | Replacement for the PCMCIA (PC Card) expansion slot used mainly in laptops. |
| Social Networking | Social networking is a web based technology that allows you to communicate, share data and otherwise connect with friends, family, and colleagues and even strangers online – it also allows you to meet and co connect to people with similar interests, backgrounds, activities or hobbies. |
| A social networking site popular with teenagers. The term has become synonymous with social networking just as Google has become synonymous with search. | |
| Fat Client | A normal stand alone computer with full CPU, memory, storage and local software. The network is only used for communication / accessing shared resources. |
| Keylogger | Software that records all the keystrokes (and possibly mouse movements, clicks and screenshots of where the mouse is when clicked) of your activity on a computer. This data can be analysed to discover otherwise hidden information such as passwords, back account details etc. Keyloggers are often Trojans (programs that pretend to do one thing and actually have hidden features such as the keylogging code). |
| OSS / Open Source Software | Software where the user has access to the source code. Generally changes / improvements made must be returned to the community. When sold what is being paid for is additional such as installers, manuals, help & tech support. |
| Privacy Statement | A statement that describes, often in legalese, what a company / person / the owner of a web site will do with the data it collects from you. This data may be collected using cookies / online forms / e-mail, etc. |
| RSS feed | Really Simple Syndication – a way of collecting notifications of new material posted on web sites such as blogs into one reader for easy access. |
| Smartphone | Distinctions between smartphones and normal phones are blurring. Normal phones have many high end features such as music players, cameras, synching of contacts, games, basic application support and even GPS. True smartphones have greater storage, touch screen interface, larger, higher resolution screens and the ability to run more sophisticated and useful applications. |
| Synchronising Cell Phones and Computers | When a Cell phone is synchronised with a PC a list of contacts and appointments on each device is updated to reflect changes made on each of them. E.g. you add a new contact on your phone and delete an old one on your PC. When you synch the contact is deleted on the phone as well and the new contact is added to the contacts on the pc. Synching can take place through cable connections, Bluetooth or using a web technology like apple’s ‘Mobile Me’. |
| Thin Client | A computer on a network with reduced cpu, memory and storage. Relies on a powerful server on the network to perform most of these functions. Some thin client solutions have no storage at all. Some even run their OS on the server (in which case the server is time sharing). Thin clients are supposed to be cheaper and easier to maintain. |
| A microblog – entries are limited to 140 characters. You ‘follow’ someone and their ‘tweets’ (what they post) is forwarded to you as e-mail or, in the USA, SMS. This means you get immediate updates on their thoughts / activities as they post them. | |
| Virtualisation | Creating a ‘virtual’ (i.e. not real) computer (i.e. a full simulation of the hardware) on your computer using software. This allows all types of software that can work with this hardware to be installed on the ‘virtual’ computer. A virtual computer has the advantage of allowing the user to work with different configurations on the same physical machine. E.G. you can run different operating systems with different software installed at the same time – or test out different drivers / application software / utilities without changing the configuration of your real system. MS Virtual PC & VM Ware are two examples of virtualising software. An example of usage: – let’s say you want to test Linux but don’t want to remove your current set up and install Linux on your computer, nor do you want to make a dual boot system. Using Virtualisation software you create a virtual PC and install Linux on that. You can then run Linux and test it on the virtual PC without affecting your current setup at all. |
| Web 2.0 | Often called ‘the Social Web’. A movement away from static pages to dynamically generated content, interactive applications and collaborative content – wikis, social networking and ‘cloud computing’. |
| Emulation | Emulation is software that takes software written for different hardware and interprets it so that it will run on your current hardware. |
| Time Sharing | Clients / terminals connect to a server / mainframe and each client / terminal gets a slice of the server’s time so that it appears to the user at the terminal that they have full access to the computer. A model typically used before the advent of the PC and one that is coming back into fashion as ‘Cloud Computing’. |
Other Terminology (previously defined)
| Web cam | Ip address | Browser | Router | Crosstalk |
| Resolution | Linux | IrDA | Overclocking | Firewire |
| Flash memory | Multithreading | Buffer | Compiler | Embedded OS |
| Driver | Phishing | Smartcard | Ghz | Celeron |
| Processor | Hard disk drive | RAM | Gb | LCD |
| CRT | Digital camera | Memory card reader | Peripheral | USB |
| Monitor | Desktop | Floppy Disk drive | Virtual memory | DVD / CD RW |
| Cache | ROM | Application | OS | Utility |
| FAT32 | NTFS | Scandisk | Defrag | Batch procesing |
| Real time processing | Chaining | Isp | Gateway | Switch |
| Modem | Broadband | Mbps | EMI | Eavesdropping |
| Attenuation | Star | Bus | Ring | CSMA/CD |
| Wi-Fi | MAN | PDA | Smartphone | RSI |
| Spyware | Cookie | Firewall | Compiler | Interpreter |
| Ethernet | Bluetooth | Mb |
More about this module: Metadata | Downloads | Version History
This work is licensed by kogis rajah under a Creative Commons Attribution License (CC-BY 3.0), and is an Open Educational Resource.
Last edited by kogis rajah on Sep 5, 2009 11:18 am GMT-5.
