Computer Jargon - The Illustrated Glossary of Basic Computer Terminology: Decode and simplify complex computer terms with easy-to-follow visual guides

Computer Jargon

The Illustrated Glossary of Basic Computer Terminology

Kevin Wilson

Computer Jargon

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About the Author

With over 20 years’ experience in the computer industry, Kevin Wilson has made a career out of technology and showing others how to use it. After earning a master’s degree in computer science, software engineering, and multimedia systems, Kevin has held various positions in the IT industry including graphic & web design, programming, building & managing corporate networks, and IT support.

He serves as senior writer and director at Elluminet Press Ltd, he periodically teaches computer science at college, and works as an IT trainer in England while researching for his PhD. His books have become a valuable resource among the students in England, South Africa, Canada, and in the United States.

Kevin’s motto is clear: If you can’t explain something simply, then you haven’t understood it well enough. To that end, he has created the Exploring Tech Computing series, in which he breaks down complex technological subjects into smaller, easy-to-follow steps that students and ordinary computer users can put into practice.

You can contact Kevin using his email address:

[email protected]

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100BaseFX is an Ethernet LAN standard that runs over fibre optic cable at 100Mbps and can carry data a maximum distance of 2km. Base indicates baseband signalling, and the letter F indicates fiber-optic cable.

100BaseT is an Ethernet standard that runs at 100Mbps over UTP cable such as Cat5 or Cat5e, and can carry data up to 100m. Base indicates baseband signalling, and the letter T indicates twisted pair copper cabling.

1000BaseT also known as Gigabit Ethernet, is an Ethernet standard that runs at 1Gbps over UTP cable such as Cat-5e, Cat-6, or Cat-7 and can carry data up to 100m.

1080i is a display resolution used in HDTV with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and is also known as Full HD. The i stands for interlaced where the image is refreshed on the screen by scanning lines 1, 3, 5... on the first scan, then lines 2, 4, 6... on the second scan.

1080p is a display resolution used in HDTV with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels and is also known as Full HD. The p stands for progressive scan where the image on the screen is refreshed by scanning each line in sequence.

10Base2 also known as thinnet and is a variant of Ethernet that uses thin coaxial cable terminated with BNC connectors to connect computers together.

10BaseT is an Ethernet LAN standard that runs over UTP cable and runs at 10mbps.

16-Bit Audio is a unit of measure that indicates the resolution of a digitised sound sample and uses 16 bits per sample. The higher the resolution, the better the audio fidelity. 16-bit audio is the standard used for standard audio Compact Discs (CD-DA)

1GL or First Generation Language is a programming language that uses nothing but binary machine code.

24p refers to 24 frames per second progressive scan. This is the frame rate of motion picture film. It is also one of the rates allowed for transmission in the DVB and ATSC television standards, allowing them to handle film without needing any frame rate change. It is now accepted as a part of television production formats, usually associated with high-definition, 1080-line, progressive scans.

2-Factor Authentication is an extra level of security included in many online services, where a confirmation code is sent to the user’s cell/mobile phone number or email address that was registered when the account was opened.

2GL or Second Generation Language is a programming language that uses assembly language mnemonics which are assembled into machine code for execution.

3D API is a 3D application programming interface that controls all aspects of the 3D rendering process such as Microsoft’s DirectX and OpenGL.

3D Graphics is the display of objects and scenes in 3 dimensions: height, width, and depth. The information is calculated using 3D a co-ordinate system that represents three dimensions as x, y, and z axes.

3D Sound is a blanket term for technologies that alter the way sound is distributed in real-world space. Spatialisation broadens the soundstage (the area in space where the sound seems to be coming from), making it more dramatic and spacious, and gives the illusion of pushing it beyond the physical location of the speakers. Positional audio uses encoded audio streams to position sounds realistically in the space around the listener when the sounds are played back on compatible equipment.

3G is short for Third Generation wireless mobile telecommunications technology.

3GL or Third Generation Language is a programming language that is machine independent that uses english-like statements that are compiled or interpreted for execution. Common examples are C, C++, Python, Basic and Pascal.

4G is short for Fourth Generation wireless mobile telecommunications technology, and the successor to 3G.

4GL or Fourth Generation Language uses english like statements with a minimum of programming code such as SQL.

4K also known as UltraHD (or UHD) and is a resolution used in digital televisions and monitors with a resolution of 3840 × 2160 pixels in many consumer displays (2160p), and 4096 × 2160 in digital cinema.

5G is short for Fifth Generation wireless mobile telecommunications technology, and the successor to 4G.

68000 is a CISC microprocessor introduced in 1979 by Motorola and was used in the Apple Lisa and early models of Amiga, Atari ST, and Macintosh computers.

5GL or Fifth Generation Language is a programming language that is based on problem-solving and is often used in AI.

720i is a resolution used in HDTV with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels, and is also known as HD Ready. The i stands for interlaced where the image is refreshed on the screen by scanning lines 1, 3, 5 on the first scan, then lines 2, 4, 6... on the second scan.

720p is a resolution used in HDTV with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels and is also known as HD Ready. The p stands for progressive scan where the image on the screen is refreshed by scanning each line in sequence.

802.11a is a wireless networking standards that operates in the 5 GHz band with a maximum net data rate of 54 Mbps.

802.11ac is a wireless networking standards that operates in the 5 GHz band with a maximum net data rate of 500 Mbps - 1Gbps.

802.11b is a wireless networking standards that operates in the 2.4 GHz band with a maximum net data rate of 11 Mbps.

802.11g is a wireless networking standards that operates in the 2.4 GHz band with a maximum net data rate of 22 Mbps.

802.11n is a wireless networking standards that operates on both 2.4 and 5 GHz band with a maximum net data rate of 54 - 600 Mbps.

8086 is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel that gave rise to the x86 architecture. The chip had a 16-bit data bus, 20-bit external bus, 64K I/O ports and ran at up to 10Mhz.

80286 an Intel 16-bit microprocessor that was introduced on February 1, 1982.

80386 an Intel 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985.

80486 an Intel 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1989

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8-Bit Audio is audio that is digitised using 8 bits.

A

AAAA Record is a record on a DNS server that maps a domain name to an IPv6 address.

A Record is a record on a DNS server that maps a domain name to the IPv4 address.

A3D is a positional audio technology and audio API developed by Aureal Semiconductor Inc. A3D provides a real-life audio experience by surrounding the listener with sounds in 3D using only a single pair of ordinary speakers or headphones.

Abort is to terminate or stop a computer program from running usually when there is an error.

AC stands for Alternating Current and is the electricity generated at a power plant and distributed to homes and offices. The voltage is 110v in the US and 250v in the UK. Alternating means the direction of the current is reversed 60 times a second (60Hz) in the US and 50 times a second (50Hz) in the UK.

AC 97 is an audio codec standard developed by Intel in 1997 used on PC motherboards and sound cards to supply audio to the system.

Access Control List is a list of permissions that specify what operations a user can perform on a resource such as a shared resource, folder or file.

Access Time is the time taken between the requested for data from memory or a peripheral device, and the moment the information is returned. Access time includes the actual seek time, rotational latency, and command processing overhead time.

Accumulator is a register in the CPU used to temporarily store the result of a calculation during the execution of an instruction.

ACK short for acknowledgement, a notification sent from one network device to another to acknowledge an event or receipt of a message.

ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface and is an interface for controlling power management and monitoring the health of the computer system.

ACR stands for Advanced Communication Riser, a rival riser card architecture to Intel’s CNR specification, which emerged at about the same time and offers similar features.

Acrobat is an Adobe application for producing documents that can either be printed or displayed on the screen, with the correct fonts and layout on a variety of different devices and operating systems. Usually a PDF document.

Action Center is a slideout panel included in Windows 10 that displays notifications from various apps, system events, and provides quick access toggles to various settings.

Active Directory is a directory service usually running on a server called a domain controller and is found on Microsoft Domain Networks. The active directory contains registered user accounts, as well as any available services and resources such as printers, etc

Active Matrix is an LCD technology used in flat panel monitors and televisions that produces a brighter and sharper display with a broader viewing angle than passive matrix screens. Active matrix technology uses a thin film transistor at each pixel and is often designated as a TFT screen. See also Passive Matrix.

ActiveX is a deprecated technology developed by Microsoft. Introduced in 1996, ActiveX components (or controls) were embedded in web pages to extend functionality and interactivity. Most modern browsers no longer support ActiveX.

Actuator is the internal mechanism of a hard disk drive that moves the read/write head to the correct track on the surface of the disk. The actuator itself, typically consists of a rotary voice coil and a series of arms. At the end of each arm is a read/write head. As a voltage is applied to the voice coil, it rotates, positioning the heads over the desired track on the surface of the disk.

Adaptive Compression is data compression software that continually changes its compression algorithm depending on the type and content of the data being compressed.

ADC is short for analogue to digital converter and is a device that converts continuously varying analogue signals into binary code for the computer. The converter may be contained on a single chip or can be one circuit within a chip.

ADD2 is a PCI Express card that can be used to display system output on a television, digital display, or simultaneously to a monitor and digital display.

Adder or Full Adder is a digital circuit that is used in the arithmetic logic unit of a CPU to add two numbers.

A and B are the two numbers being added together, C is the carry. The truth table would be:

Additive Colour also known as RGB colour. Additive colours are created by mixing different amounts of light using the three primary colours: red, green, and blue. Additive colour mixing begins with black and ends with white, meaning that as more colour is added, the result is lighter and more white. TVs, projectors and computer monitors use the additive colour to create images on screen.

Address is a unique reference point to a memory location, a location on a storage device, or peripheral device. This is known as an absolute address or real address.

Relative address is an address expressed as an offset from the value of a register such as the program counter (PC), or the distance from a base address.

Address Bus is the channel between the CPU to the main memory (RAM) that allows the CPU to send an address to the memory controller.

Address Space is the total amount of memory addresses the address bus can contain.

Addressability refers to how many pixels can be sent to the display horizontally and vertically. The most common combinations currently in use are 640×480 (VGA mode), 800×600 (SVGA mode), 1024×768, 1280×1024 and 1600×1200.

Administrator is a user account often created when the operating system is installed that allows full access to the system.

Administrator Tools are specialised utilities and programs used for backup, monitoring, error checking, troubleshooting and system management.

ADSL stands for Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line, and is a data communications technology provided over copper telephone lines. With ADSL, the download speed is greater than the upload speed, hence the name asymmetric. Max transmission speed depends on the distance from the exchange.

Adware is a program that tracks your activity across different websites and generates targeted adverts and popups usually to the annoyance of the user.

AGP stands for Accelerated Graphics Port and is a 32-bit PC bus architecture introduced in 1997 allowing graphics cards direct access to the system bus, rather than going through the slower PCI bus. AGP was phased out in favour of PCI-Express.

AHCI stands for Advanced Host Controller Interface defined by Intel that provides a standard interface that enables software to communicate with a SATA device such as a hard disk drive using advanced SATA features such as native command queuing (NCQ), hot swapping and power management.

AI See Artificial Intelligence.

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a web development technology that allows web pages to communicate with a web server asynchronously, enabling dynamic and interactive user experiences without requiring the entire page to be reloaded. Ajax enables web applications to retrieve data from the server, send data, and update specific parts of a web page asynchronously in the background, without interrupting the user's interaction with the application. Ajax combines JavaScript, XML (or other data formats such as JSON), and asynchronous HTTP requests to exchange data between the client and server, facilitating responsive and interactive web applications.

AIIF stands for Audio Interchange File Format and is used for high end audio applications.

Algorithm is a sequence of instructions a computer uses to perform a task. An example could be a search algorithm that searches a database for a given term, or a sort algorithm that sorts a list into alphabetical order.

Aliasing is a form of image distortion associated with signal sampling. A common form of aliasing is a stair-stepped appearance along diagonal and curved lines. Another is moiré, two geometrically regular patterns such as two sets of parallel lines or two halftone screens superimposed.

Alpha is an additional colour component along with red, green, and blue (RGB) channels often used to denote transparency or opacity.

Alpha