Geektionary

Don’t you just get tired of answering the same questions about geeknology? I do…. So when I stumbled upon this geektionary, I was compelled to post it here not just so when someone asks about geekstuff, I can say ‘visit anomaly.i.ph’ but also to refresh my mind on some terminologies that I tend to forget.

I warn you, some of these terms can be a mouthfull.

Access Time: The amount of time something takes to find a piece of information and allow it to be used by other devices.

ACR: Audio Communications Riser - a slot that is only used by large OEMs to add cheap devices to their computers. Since ACR devices are software based, they often times sap a lot of CPU resources.

ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line - Like ISDN, ADSL uses standard phone lines to deliver high-speed data communications. But while ISDN’s transmission speed is limited to 64 kbps, ADSL technology can deliver upstream (from the user) speeds of 640 kbps and downstream (to the user) speeds of more than 6 mbps. Even better, ADSL uses the portion of a phone line’s bandwidth not utilized by voice, allowing for simultaneous voice and data transmission.

AGP: Accelerated Graphics Port - Brown slot located nearest to the processor on most motherboards. AGP ports are used exclusivly for graphics cards and are set back and keyed differently so that other expansion cards will not fit in them.

AMR: Audio Modem Riser - like the ACR, AMR’s are extremely low cost software devices that can do a host of functions. Since they are software based, they use quite a bit of CPU resources.

Anti Alaising: The method in which jagged lines in 3d enviroments (easily seen in the horizon of games) are removed and smoothed out for a picture that is easier on the eyes.

API: Application Program Interface - The API is a set of functions that programmers use to develop software for specific purposes or to interface with other software. For example, the windows api allows programmers to develop software for windows. The api for a graphics suite would allow programmers to develop software for that graphics suite.

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange - The ASCII set of 128 characters includes letters, numbers, punctuation, and control codes (such as a character that marks the end of a line). Each letter or other character is represented by a number: an uppercase A, for example, is the number 65, and a lowercase z is the number 122. Most operating systems use the ASCII standard, except for Windows NT, which uses the suitably larger and newer Unicode standard.

Asic: Application Specific Integrated Circuit - ASIC is a custom microchip designed for a specific application.

AT Power connector: Mother Board Connects for an AT power supply.

ATX Power Connector: ATX - AT Extended form factor. Referrs to a standard for motherboard configuration and layout called the ATX Motherboard Specification. The AtX power connector replaced the older standard and allows the power supply to be turned on or off by the computer itself, rather than just by a physical switch.

Backup: A duplicate copy of files or an entire hard drive. A backup of your important files should be done regularly.

Bandwidth: The amount of data that can be transmitted along a communications channel in a fixed amount of time. Usually expressed in bits per second (bps).

Benchmarks: A set of conditions or criteria against which a product or system is measured.

Beta: Beta versions of commercial software are work-in-progress test copies released prior to the full version. They’re used to put the product through real-world tests and to ferret out bugs before the finished software hits the shelves. Betas often expire after a period of time, usually when the full version or the next beta is released.

BGA: Ball Grid Array - the method chipsets are attached to motherboards, using solder balls.

Bios: Basic Input/Output System.Software that determines what a computer can do without accessing programs. Your BIOS has the information to control the keyboard, screen, drives, serial communications, and other functions. BIOS is typically built into a ROM chip installed on the motherboard.

Boot Sequence: The order of drives that a system’s BIOS follows when looking for the operating system to boot after the computer has performed POST. This can be defined by you in your computers BIOS.

Borked: To really screw something up. Usually code. As in “Wow, you really borked that script.”

Broadband: High speed internet access via cable lines or ADSL phone lines.

BSOD: Blue Screen of Death - when the Windows OS continually shows a blue screen and a reboot is required.

Burn: To record information onto a writable optical medium such as a CD-R or CD-RW.

Burn in: A given period of time in which a new computer is fully stressed to make sure there are no faults.

Bus Mastering: Allows for peripherals to directly communicate to each other without the help of the CPU. This often results in higher performance as well as less CPU utilization.

Capacitor: A small electric element that is used to temporarily store electrical charge.

CardBus: 32-bit industry standard used for devices that fit into a laptop PC slot.

CAT5: Referring to Category 5 Ethernet cabling, the CAT5 standard allows for data transfers up to 100 Mbps.

CAT7: Category 7 quality cabling is needed for Gigabit (Gbps) Ethernet transmissions.

CD-R: Recordable CD technology for data and music storage using a low-cost disc that can be written only once.

CD-ROM: Compact Disc Read Only Memory - A compact disc format used to hold text, graphics and hi-fi stereo sound. The audio CD player cannot play CD-ROMs, but CD-ROM players can play audio discs.

CD-RW: CD ReWritable - A rewritable CD technology. CD-RW drives can also be used to write CD-R discs, and they can read CD-ROMs. A CD-RW disc can be rewritten over a thousand times and read on MultiRead CD-ROM drives or CD-RW compatible Audio CD players.

CMOS: Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor - a chip that packs many components into a very small semiconductor.

CNR: Communications Network Riser - Small slot next to the PCI slots which a modem or sound riser card plugs into.

Coax: Referring to coaxial cable, Coax is similar to TV cabling. Used for older 10Base2 Ethernet networks.

CompactFlash: A very small removable mass storage device that relies on flash memory technology, a storage technology that does not require a battery to retain data indefinitely. CompactFlash cards can support 3.3V and 5V operation and can switch between the two, in contrast to other small-form factor flash memory cards that can only operate at one voltage. There are two types of CompactFlash cards to accommodate different capacities: Type I cards are 3.3mm thick while Type II cards are 5.5mm thick. The card was designed based on the PCMCIA PC Card standard and can fit into a PCMCIA slot with an adapter.

Cookie: A small file placed on your hard drive by a website to identify you when you visit again. For example, these can store user information such as your username and password to the website or keep track of ads you have been shown. While many cookies can be good, some now track where you go and report this information back to the tracking website. See spyware for more on this.

Corona: Another AMD DDR Athlon board reference name. Also a great beer, even better with lime.

Corrupted: When data gets damaged and can no longer be used.

CPU: Central Processing Unit - Your processors, for example, Pentium IV, AMD Athlon. It is your computer’s brain, taking requests from applications and then processing, or executing, actions or operations. The faster your processor, the more operations it can execute per second. The more operations you have per second, the faster things happen in your applications. Often people refer to a computers tower as the “CPU” but as explained above, the CPU is simply one of many parts in that tower.

Crossover cable: Cat 5 cable in which the internal wiring crosses over; used to connect computer-to-computer or when no uplink ports are available on a hub.

CRT: Cathod Ray Tube - the glass portion of any traditional monitor. Operates by shooting electrons through a screen which enables images to be projected on the back of a phosphorescent coating on the screen.

Daisy-chain: Connecting devices together in a string. Most often associated with SCSI devices.

DDR: Double Data Rate - a type of Synchronous DRAM, or SDRAM. DDR SDRAM enables data transfers to occur on both edges of the clock cycle, thus doubling the memory throughput of the chip.

DDR RAM: An extention of SDRAM technology, DDR effectively doubles the bandwidth available by sending data on the falling edge of the clock cycle as well as on the rising edge.

Desktop: No, not the thing your keyboard and mouse are sitting on, but rather the main screen on your monitor where you find your icons, background wallpaper and maybe your screensaver.

DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol - Method of assigning temporary IP addresses to computers to ensure network security.

Digi board: Hardware to build a ras server.

Dimm: DIMM RAM is characterized by its 168 pins.

DIMM Slots: DIMM memory fits into special 168 pin slots which are located on the motherboard, usually adjacent from the processor.

OCSIS: Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification - A standard for transferring internet data over cable lines.

Dot Pitch: Used to describe the horizontal size of pixels on CRT and LCD displays. The smaller the dot pitch (for example 0.25 mm) the better the resolution of the display.

Double Click: 2 clicks of the mouse at the same time. If the program detects a double click it often will open the selected application.

DSL: Digital Subscriber Line - High-speed internet connection offered by telephone companies over existing phone lines.

DVD: Digital Versatile Disc - Introduced in 1996, the optical discs share the same overall dimensions of a CD, but have significantly higher capacities - holding from 4 to 28 times as much data.

DVD Video: Popular format for high quality MPEG2 video and digital surround sound. Enables multi-language, multi-subtitling and other advanced user features.

DVD+RW: DVD ReWritable - It is the only rewritable format that provides full, non-cartridge, compatibility with existing DVD-Video players and DVD-ROM drives for both real-time video recording and random data recording across PC and entertainment applications.

DVD-Audio: This audio-only storage format similar to CD-Audio, however offers 16, 20 and 24-bit samples at a variety of sampling rates from 44.1 to 192KHz, compared to 16 bits and 44.1KHz for CDs. DVD-Audio discs can also contain music videos, graphics and other information.

DVD-RAM: DVD Random Access Memory - A rewritable DVD disc endorsed by Panasonic, Hitachi and Toshiba. It is a cartridge-based, and more recently, bare disc technology for data recording and playback. DVD-RAM bare discs are fragile and do not guarantee data integrity. The first DVD-RAM drives had a capacity of 2.6GB (single sided) or 5.2GB (double sided). DVD-RAM Version 2 discs have double-sided 9.4GB discs. DVD-RAM drives typically read DVD-Video, DVD-ROM and CD media. The current installed base of DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players cannot read DVD-RAM media.

DVD-ROM: Read Only Memory - This read-only DVD disc is used for storing data and interactive sequences as well as audio and video. DVD-ROMs run in DVD-ROM or DVD-RAM drives, not DVD-Video players connected to TVs and home theaters. However, most DVD-ROM drives will play DVD-Video movies.

DVD-RW: DVD ReWritable - A rewritable DVD format that is similar to DVD+RW, but its capability to work as a random access device is not as good as +RW. It has a read-write capacity of 4.7 GB.

ECC: Error Correcting Code - A method of generating redundant information which can be used to detect and correct errors in stored or transmitted data.

EDO: Extended Data Output - a type of random access memory (RAM) chip designed to improve the time to read from memory on faster microprocessors such as the Intel Pentium.

EEPROM: Electronically Eraseable Programmable Read Only Memory - like ROM cannot be erased unless it recieves proper erasing signals from the mother deivce. Commonly used for BIOS’s of motherboards.

EMI: Electromagnetic Interference - A form of electronic radiation which can potentially corrupt data transfer.

ESD Strap: A device that plugs into a standard outlet which discharges static electricity from a person.

Ethernet: The most widely-installed local area network technology. An Ethernet LAN typically uses coaxial cable or special grades of twisted pair wires.

Fan Header: A place where you can plug a Fan with RPM monitoring straight into the board.

FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions - A place where common questions are answered already, saving users time so they don’t have to ask the same thing.

Fast Ethernet: A local area network transmission standard that provides a data rate of 100 megabits per second.

FAT32: File Allocation Table - Maintained by an operating system on a hard disk that provides a map of the clusters that a file has been stored in. FAT 32 supports 32-bit processors.

FC-PGA: CPU’s with the die on the top instead of the bottom uses the Flip Chip Pin Grid Array. This is done to improve thermal heat transfer to the heatsink.

FC-PGA2: Because FC-PGA CPU’s often got damaged when the heatsink is installed, Intel came up with the idea of putting a heatspreader on top of the CPU to protect it from damage.

FDD: Floppy Disk Drive - Traditionally refers to the A:\ drive or 1.44 MB (3.5″) High Density Floppy format, but can also refer to older 720K (5.25″) Floppy drives.

Fibre Channel: A technology for transmitting data between computer devices at a data rate of up to 1 Gbps, especially suited for connecting computer servers to shared storage devices and for interconnecting storage controllers and drives. Devices can be as far as ten kilometers apart. The longer distance requires optical fiber as the physical medium. Fibre Channel also works using coaxial cable and ordinary telephone twisted pair.

Firewall: Firewalls are used to create a protective barrier for the internal network (LAN) against the external one (WAN, Internet) which monitors packets traveling in and out of the network. Usually located at the network’s gateway.

Flatscreen: Type of computer display which uses an LCD panel instead of a CRT to project images. Typically the flatscreen or flatpanel display is less than two inches thick.

Folder: A folder is space on your hard drive holding files. Similar to a filing cabinet, you can store many files in your folders and create as many folders as you need.

Foot Print: The amount of physical space or memory a component will take up.

FSAA: Full Screen Anti Aliasing - What is done by videocard to remove the jagged edges in lines. The resulting image is much smoother on the eyes, though performance may suffer.

FSB: Front Side Bus - Which denotes the speed at which your processor interacts with the components on the motherboard. Typically the FSB is 100Mhz or 133Mhz, but overclockers often manipulate this value to increase the speed at which their processor runs. i.e. 100Mhz FSB X 5.0 clockmultiplier = 500Mhz processor.

Full Duplex: Data transfer that allows a switch to send and receive data to a node at the same time. Also known as bidirectional communication.

Gateway: Hybrid device that translates data into different protocols, serves as network security and distributes high-speed internet connections.

GB: Giga Byte - Or 1 billion bytes of information.

Gbps: GigaBits Per Second - Refers to bits of information traveling at 1 billion bits per second. Gbps is usually associated with Gigabit Ethernet.

GFD: Golden finger device - This is the device that you attach to the Slot A Athlon to manipulate the clock multiplier and voltage.

Gigabit: 1,000,000,000 (10 9 ) bits

Gigabit Ethernet: 1000Mbps Ethernet connection. 10 times faster than fast Ethernet.

Gigabyte: 1, 000,000,000 (10 9 ) bytes

GPU: Graphics Processor Unit - A GPU takes on the task of working with Transform and Lighting (T&L) away from the CPU so it can focus on more important things such as AI.

GUI: Graphical User Interface - A software interface that interacts with the user through color graphics and a mouse.

Half Duplex: Data transfer that only sends or receives data to a node. Hubs commonly perform in half duplex mode.

HDD: Hard Disk Drive - Also known as hard drive, it is a mechanical deviced used to store information on your computer. Information is stored on spinning discs magnetically. Usually your main hard drive is known as your “C” drive in Windows Explorer or My Computer.

Heatsink: Metal device used to cool processors and other components by means of convection or forced air.

Hop: When accessing a WAN or Internet, data packets often have to travel through several places to reach it’s destination, each place the packet lands on is called a hop.

Hot Plugging: The ability to add and remove devices to a computer while the computer is running and have the operating system automatically recognize the change. Two external bus standards — Universal Serial Bus (USB ) and IEEE 1394 — support hot plugging. This is also a feature of PCMCIA.

Hot Swapping: A method in which devices are plugged and unplugged into a computer, usually referring to USB, IEEE, 1394, and similar devices.

HSF: Heatsink and Fan combination.

HTML: HyperText Markup Language - The authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. HTML defines the structure and layout of a Web document by using a variety of tags and attributes. This allows the HTML to be read as your reading this now, as a web page.

Hub: Network device that joins all the network devices centrally in a star configuration.

HyperTransport: The new name for LDT, or Lightning Data Transport. Jointly developed by AMD and API as a replacement to the aging PCI bus.

Hz: Hertz - unit of measurement for Frequency.

I/O Address: Input/Output address - A 3 to 4 digit hexadecimal number used to identify and signal a peripherial device.

IBM: International Business Machines - IBM is the largest computer company in the world and the first to produce a computer back in 1953. Often IBM compatible is used still to refer to a computer running Windows.

Icon: A small picture on your screen which usually represents a program, folder, file or shortcut.

ICS: Internet Connection Sharing - A method in which 1 internet source can be shared with multiple computers. ICS can be setup with Windows XP or with software like Sygate/Wingate or hardware (routers).

IEEE 802.1: Standard for 11Mbps wireless network operation.

IEEE 802.11b: Standard for 11Mbps wireless network operation.

IEEE 802.1p: Standard for quality of service; network traffic prioritization.

IEEE 802.1Q: Standard relating to VLANs.

IEEE 802.2: Specifies the logical link control for various access methods.

Integrated: When intergrated is used, it means that 2 or more devices have been made into one device. For example, many motherboards have sound cards built into the board making it an integrated sound card.

IP Address: Internet Protocol address - The address of a network node in the form of four sets of numbers up to 3 digits each and divided by periods, for example; 127.0.0.1. Everywhere you connect to, and even yourself when you login to your internet provider, is assigned an IP address.

IPX: Novell network protocol that connects computers running NetWare.

IRC: Internet Relay Chat - A place where IRC clients connect to an IRC server to participate in real time test conversations.

IRQ: An IRQ is a signal from a piece of hardware (such as a keyboard or sound card) indicating that it needs the CPU to do something. The interrupt request signals run along the IRQ lines to an interrupt controller that assigns priorities to incoming IRQs and delivers them to the CPU.

ISA: A standard bus architecture associated with the IBM AT motherboards. It’s a limited 8-bit and 16-bit bus, but widely compatible.

ISP: Internet Service Provider - If your reading this, you have an ISP. They are the backbone to the internet that you pay to connect to the internet, for example Earthlink, Road Runner, AOL and MSN to name a few larger ones.

Java: Sun Microsystems’ Java is a programming language for adding animation and other action to Web sites. The small applications (called applets) that Java creates can play back on any graphical system that’s Web-ready, but your Web browser has to be Java-capable for you to see it. According to Sun’s description, Java is a “simple, object-oriented, distributed, interpreted, robust, secure, architecture-neutral, portable, high-performance, multithreaded, dynamic, buzzword-compliant, general-purpose programming language.”

Java Virtual Machine: The Java Virtual Machine (VM) is a program that interprets Java bytecodes into machine code. The VM is what makes Java portable–a vendor such as Microsoft or Sun writes a Java VM for their operating system, and any Java program can run on that VM.

JavaScript: Designed by Sun Microsystems and Netscape as an easy-to-use adjunct to the Java programming language, JavaScript code can be added to standard HTML pages to create interactive documents. As a result, JavaScript has found considerable use in the creation of interactive Web-based forms. Most modern browsers, including those from Microsoft and Netscape, contain JavaScript support.

JPG: Pronounced jay-peg, it is a graphics file format that can be compressed to save file size. Because they can be compressed, they are one of the most popular format of pictures found on websites and can be downloaded quickly at their compressed size, but can also be very high quality and large, when needed.

Jumper: An on/off switch used to alter hardware configurations. A jumper is made of wires and a small metal piece that can connect the wires to turn the jumper on. Jumpers are found on devices such as CD-ROM interface boards, bus expansion boards, controller boards, input/output cards, sound cards, graphics cards, modem cards, and motherboards.
Kbps: KiloBits Per Second, a unit of bits that is moved per second. Commonly found used to describe the throughput of analog modems, ie; 56kbps

Kermit: This is a protocol for transferring files during direct dial-up communications that’s named after a Muppet (seriously). Kermit is sound but old and can be very slow, slower than Xmodem, Ymodem, and much slower than Zmodem.

Khz: Kilo Hertz - Unit of measurement for 1000 x Frequency.

KVM Switch: Console switch - Controls and scans multiple CPU’s from one set of keyboard, video display and mouse.

L2 Cache: Level 2 Cache - The secondary cache memory found on CPU’s, L2 Cache uses extremely high speed SRAM coupled with extremely low latencies which helps improve performance.

LAN: Local Area Network - Network of interconnected workstations sharing the resources of a single processor or server, typically within the area of a small office building.

LCD: Liquid Crystal Display - Created by sandwiching an electrically reactive substance between two electrodes, LCDs can be darkened or lightened by applying and removing current. Large numbers of LCDs grouped closely together can act as pixels in a flat-panel display.

LIF: Light Insertion Force - When installing a peripheral, requires light force to insert the device into it’s slot/socket. Installing expansion cards (PCI cards and such) require LIF in order to seat it properly.

Liquid Cooling: Method of cooling processors and other devices by liquid cooled water blocks. Similar in operation to heatsinks, but more efficient due to the high thermal conductivity of water.

Lithium-ion: Name for an electrochemical cells whose voltages are derived from the electropotential difference of lithium in the anode and cathode. The electrolyte contains lithium ions that are transferred between the anode and cathode on charge and discharge. Unlike earlier systems, lithium-ion does not use unstable lithium metal as the anode material. Yeah, that didnt help me much either.

LVD: Low Voltage Differential - A form of SCSI signalling that was introduced with Ultra2 SCSI. Low Voltage Differential allows cable lengths of up to 12 meters with up to 15 devices. The devices need to be Ultra2 SCSI LVD devices in order to take advantage of the LVD signalling. LVD uses data high and data low signal lines to increase transmission distances over those of single-ended. LVD differs from conventional differential signaling. LVDs advantages are that it consumes less power and it can sense single-ended devices on the bus and revert to single-ended signalling.

Mbps: Megabits per second - Or one million bits per second. Referrs to how fast data packets travel, or network speed.

Megabyte: 1,000,000 (10 6 ) bytes

Memory: Also referred to as RAM, memory is a temporary storage area for programs and data when your computer is on. Anything stored in memory (RAM) is lost when the computer is shut off. Most modern computers have 128, 256, 512 or 1 gig of memory.

MFLOPS: Mega-floating point operations per second - Used as a measure of how powerful your computer is, MFLOPS gauge the capability of your system to deal with floating-point math instead of raw instructions.

Mhz: A megahertz is 1 million complete cycles per second. This unit is most commomly used to measure transmission speeds of electronic devices, such as the clock speed of a microprocessor.

Millisecond (ms): A millisecond is one-thousandth of a second. The term is most commonly used to measure data access speeds, such as the amount of time it takes to retrieve data from a hard disk. Milliseconds are sometimes confused with mbps (megabits per second), which describe data transmission speeds.

Moire: Moiré pattern describes the interference pattern you see when it appears there are ripples or waves on your monitor.

Motherboard: Everything attached to your computer connects to the motherboard directly or indirectly. It generally houses the CPU chip, the controller circuitry, the bus, and sockets for additional boards, which are called daughterboards.

MP3: A very popular compressed audio format. Millions of MP3’s can be downloaded on the internet and played on your computer, and MP3 player or even converted to CD Audio to play in most CD players. A song that is 40 megs can often be downloaded as a 4-5 meg MP3 making it accessible to even dial up users.

MTBF: Mean Time Between Failures - The average time from start of use to failure in a large population of identical systems, computers, or devices.

Multimedia: The way computers display the use of any combination of text, graphics, animation and video.

Multiplier Lock: What is done to all modern CPU’s to prevent overclocking. The multiplier of a locked CPU will remain the same even if it is changed in the BIOS.

n00b: See newbie

Nano Seconds: NS for short, nano seconds refer to the speed of RAM. By looking at the last numbers usually right after a dash (-), it gives the timing fo the RAM. When refering with SDRAM, DDR or RDRAM, there sometimes are two numbers. A -75 doesn’t mean 75 ns, it means 7.5 ns.

NAT: Network Address Translation - A method used by firewalls to keep a network behind under just one IP address for security reasons.

NetBEUI: Network BIOS Enhanced User Interface - IBM developed this standard protocol, which is a set of rules that an operating system uses to control how computers on a network to talk to each other. This protocol is now also used by Microsoft and Novell on many network operating systems including LAN Server, LAN Manager, Windows NT, and Windows 95.

Newbie: A term for a person who is new to the given subject/topic.

NIC: Network Interface Card - Network cards connect to local area networks via ethernet cables or some other means of connectivity to bring computers together electronically.

NS: See Nano Seconds (Above)

OCR: Optical character recognition - When your computer gets a fax or scans in text, all it sees are graphical bits on a virtual page. That text is not usable, searchable, or editable. If you pass the page through an OCR program, the software converts the shapes on it into a text document. However, few documents are perfectly recognized and the errors are frequent if the type is small or the scan unclear. But the conversion is often faster than typing text manually.

OEM: Original equipment manufacturer - Originally OEM was an adjective used to describe a company that produced hardware to be marketed under another company’s brand. Mitsumi, for example, produced CD-ROM drives that dozens of companies would label as their own. When purchasing OEM products you usually get a great price, but little to no warranty, manuals or pretty packaging.

Operating System: The most important program that runs on a computer. Every general purpose computer must have an operating system to run other programs. Operating systems perform basic tasks, such as recognizing input from the keyboard, sending output to the display screen, keeping track of files and directories on the disk, and controlling peripheral devices such as disk drives and printers. Examples include Windows XP and Linux.

Orb: Thermatake have adopted this name for a line of conical-finned heatsinks that are based loosely on a design used in HP servers in the 80’s. The heatsinks have the fan located in the midst of the fins which allows the unit to offer a good price/performance ratio.

OSD: On Screen Display - How digital monitors can be configured.

Overclocking: Making a processor run at a higher then normal clock speed. For instance, changing the multiplier so that a 500Mhz chip runs at 667Mhz. This is a way to get more out of your chip then you paid for, but hardware failure is a risk.

PC Card: Three (soon to be four) types of credit-card-sized cards plug into portable computers (and some desktop models) to add and remove RAM, modems, network adapters, hard disks, and other devices without requiring that you open the box. These PC Cards conform to several standards set by the PCMCIA.

PCI: Peripheral Component Interconnect - Slot card interface. PCI is a standardized architecture that provides a high-speed data path between peripherals and the CPU.

PCMCIA: Personal Computer Memory Card International Association - Based in Sunnyvale, California, the PCMCIA’s specifications for the PC Card enabled the computer industry to manufacture credit-card-sized removable cards to add RAM, modems, network adapters, hard disks, and even radio devices like pagers and global positioning systems to portable computers. Many people call PC Cards by the longer name PCMCIA cards. The association has trademarked the term PC Card, however, so that’s the preferred usage.

Peer-to-peer network: A network where there is no dedicated server. Every computer can share files and peripherals with all other computers on the network, given that all are granted access privileges. File sharing programs like Kazaa are a good example of this on a larger scale.

Peripheral: A hardware component you add to your computer, usually by a cable. When this word is used, it usually refers to hardware such as a mouse, keyboard, monitor or printer.

PGA: Pin Grid Array - The method in which the CPU uses to interact with the CPU socket.

Pincushion: Corrects the curve at the vertical edges of a monitors display.

Plonk: Usenet slang term for adding someone to your kill file. It can be used as a verb to describe the action: “I so plonked that guy”. Usenet slang term for adding someone to your kill file. Thought to be an acronym for “Put Lamer on Killfile”.

Plug And Play: The ability of certain operating systems to automatically detect a new device that has been added to the system, uniquely identify that device, and install the appropriate drivers and system files for that device. Identification is facilitated by means of predetermined identification numbers hard-coded into the device. When the operating system boots up, it polls all installed devices and checks the returned identification numbers against the list of previously installed devices.

PoP: So that your Internet access provider can offer a local dial-up number to give you access to the Net, it either maintains or leases PoPs throughout the areas it serves. A PoP (pronouced “pop”) is likely to contain modems, digital leased lines, and multiprotocol routers.

POP: Post Office Protocol - Internet email access standard.

Port: A conduit for trasferring information between a computer and an external devide. Examples of these found on most computers are USB ports and serial ports. Some items that can be plugged into these include scanners, printers, joysticks modems and digital cameras.

POST: Power On Self Test - A quick test the BIOS does on the components in the computer to make sure everything is working when you first turn it on.

Processor: Short for Central Processing Unit or CPU, the brains of any computer. The Intel Pentium line of processors and the AMD Duron and Athlon processors are classed as CPU’s.

PSU: Power Suppy Unit - The powersupply supplies electricity to the motherboard, device drives and any other peripherials in the computer.

RAID: Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks - Several different forms of RAID implementation have been defined. Each form is usually referred to as a “RAID level.” RAID provides convenient, low-cost, and highly reliable storage by saving data on more than one disk simultaneously. At its simplest, a RAID-1 array consists of two drives that store identical information. If one drive goes down, the other continues to work, resulting in no downtime for users.

Ram: Random Access Memory - When you run an application the program is called up from its permanent storage area (like the hard drive, floppy disk, or CD-ROM) and moved into the RAM, where it sends requests to the CPU. Running out of Ram causes it to be sent to the hard drive, which is slower.

RAMDAC: Random Access Memory to Digital Analog Converter - A chip on videocard which turns digital signals to analog ones which can be outputed to a monitor. The faster the RAMDAC (measured in MHz), the higher the screen refresh rates that the card will support at each given resolution.

RDRAM: Rambus DRAM - A DRAM architecture that has a huge amount of memory bandwidth, however has a high latency penalty. RDRAM is best suited for processors that need high bandwidth like Pentium 4 processors.

Refresh Rate: The amount of times the monitor refreshes (redraws) the picture on the screen. Lower rates, around 60 Hz will appear to flicker, especially under lighting. Refresh rates above 75 Hz are recommended since anything lower will cause headaches after a prolonged period of time.

Resolution: Resolution is a measure of graphics that’s used to describe what a printer can print, a scanner can scan, and a monitor can display. In printers and scanners, resolution is measured in dots per inch (dpi)–the number of pixels a device can fit in an inch of space..

Riser: A device that is an add from another card, takes up an expansion slot however doens’t plug directly into the motherboard.

RJ-11: This is the standard telephone connector–a tab snaps into the socket and has to be pressed to remove the connector from the wall. An ordinary phone circuit uses two wires. The RJ-11 jack has room for up to four wires, but at a glance it’s easy to mistake with the larger RJ-45 jack, which can house up to eight wires.

RJ-45: RJ-45 connectors look a bit like a standard phone connector but are twice as wide (with eight wires). RJ-45s are used for hooking up computers to local area networks (LANs) or for phones with lots of lines.

ROM: ROM is a storage chip that typically contains hardwired instructions for use when a computer starts (boots up). The instructions, contained in a small program called the BIOS (basic input/output system) load from ROM and start up the hard disk so that the operating system (OS) can be loaded.

Router: A device that forwards data packets along networks. A router is connected to at least two networks, commonly two LANs or WANs or a LAN and its ISP’s network. Routers are located at gateways, the places where two or more networks connect. Routers use headers and forwarding tables to determine the best path for forwarding the packets, and they use protocols such as ICMP to communicate with each other and configure the best route between any two hosts.

SCSI: Small Computer System Interface - With SCSI, you can add up to seven new devices to your computer and depend on them to deal with single-interface issues by themselves. It’s a robust standard, and it’s rendered even more so with its latest implementation, SCSI-2. Prounounced “scuzzy”.

SDRAM: Synchronous dynamic RAM - SDRAM incorporates new features that allow it to keep pace with bus speeds as high as 100 MHz. It does this primarily by allowing two sets of memory addresses to be opened simultaneously. Data can then be retrieved alternately from each set, eliminating the delays that normally occur when one bank of addresses must be shut down and another prepared for reading during each request.

Serial Port: This is the communications port on your computer; it’s also called the COM or RS-232 port. It’s called serial because, although it has nine pins and many wires, the PC sends data on only one wire and receives data on one other wire. All the data bits have to follow one another on the single wire, as opposed to the parallel port, where eight separate wires transfer each bit of a byte.

SGRAM: Synchronous Graphics Random Access Memory - A special form of RAM that is designed specifically for graphics cards. SGRAM offers a little more bandwidth then SDRAM, however it costs more as well.

Shadow Mask: In monitors, the shadow mask is a metal plate with holes in it that focuses the beams from the electron guns at the back of the CRT. The distance between these holes is called the dot pitch.

Shareware: Software that you can download that is either limited in features, or by how long\many times you can run it. Paying a fee registers the program and releases the limitations.

SIM: Designed to be inserted into a mobile telephone, a SIM or “smart” card contains all subscriber-related data, such as phone numbers, service details, and memory for storing messages. With a SIM card, calls can be made from any valid mobile phone because the subscriber data–not the telephone’s internal serial number–is used to make the call.

SIMM: Single In-Line Memory Module - RAM generally used in older 486 and pentium computers. Denoted by either 30 or 72 pin configurations, available from 1-32 megs.

Slave: A device that get’s its instructions from another device, for example 2 hard drives or 2 CD-ROM’s on the same cable. First in line is considered master and the second in line slave.

SMTP: When you’re exchanging electronic mail on the Internet, SMTP is what keeps the process orderly. It’s a protocol that regulates what goes on between the mail servers.

Socket: Socket usually refers to where the processor is placed. Examples are Socket A, Socket 370 and Socket 462.

Spam: Mass emailings that are used to market products or websites. Keeping your email private and using a free email address service for anywhere you post your email publicly goes a long way to avoiding this mess.

Spyware: Cookies or programs that track your surfing habits and use your internet connection to send this data to a third party. They can profile your shopping preferences, hijack your browser start page or pages, alter important system files, and can do this without your knowledge or permission. The security and privacy implications of these exploits should be quite obvious and undesirable on any system or network.

SRAM: Static RAM, extremely high speed RAM that doesn’t need a constant refresh unlike DRAM. Because it is very expensive, SRAM is usually used as cache RAM on CPU’s.

SSL: Secure Sockets Layer - Secure encrypted communication between a network (Internet). Used often by online stores for security. Developed by Netscape Communications.

Taskbar: The long horizontal bar at the bottom of your screen that houses your Start button, for example. It may also have the quick launch next to the start button and to the far right more icons of running programs. It be customized to suit your needs and preferences.

TCP-IP: Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - These two protocols were developed by the U.S. military to allow computers to talk to each other over long distance networks. IP is responsible for moving packets of data between nodes. TCP is responsible for verifying delivery from client to server. TCP/IP forms the basis of the Internet, and is built into every common modern operating system.

Terabyte: 1 trillion bytes or 1000 Gigabytes. In binary, 1 TB is 2 to the power of 40.

TFT: Thin-Film Transistor - A technology for building the LCD screens that are commonly found on laptop computers. TFT screens are brighter and more readable than dual-scan LCD screens, but consume more power and are generally more expensive.

Toolbar: Icons grouped together within a program, usually in a strip across the top of the window. Each toolbar icon provides a shortcut to one of the programs commands or features such as help or a website link.

Transistor: One of the most important inventions in history, the transistor can be found in nearly every common electronic device manufactured today–radios, TV sets, cellular phones, computers, and so on. Originally created in the late 1940s by Bell Labs, the transistor was hailed as a smaller, less-expensive, and cooler-running replacement for the vacuum tubes then commonly used to amplify current in electronic devices. Today, millions of transistors are often packed into silicon chips to create the processors used in modern computers.

TruForm: Found only in ATi’s Radeon 8500 series and above, TruForm allows for the GPU to draw many more triangles for objects on the screen without a performance hit. This allows for rendered objects to have a more realistic look to them since curves and such will be smoother.

UDMA: Ultra Direct Memory Access - UDMA defines a new protocol for the interface between the hard drive and the computer. It improves upon the ATAPI/EIDE standard by doubling data transfer rates to 33MB/sec, which translates into faster disk reads and writes. For users to take advantage of UDMA, both their system and hard drive must support the protocol. UDMA retains backwards compatibility for previously existing hardware.

Unix: Described by one of its developers as “a weak pun on Multics” (which was an experimental, time-sharing operating system at Bell Labs in the 1960s), Unix took off in the early 1970s as a general-purpose operating system. Since much of the Internet is hosted on Unix machines, the OS took on a new surge of popularity in the early 1990s.
Unix comes in many flavors and runs on a variety of platforms, which makes its development a subject of widespread discussion.

Unzip: To decompress a file that has been compressed using the zip format. Tools like WinZip or WinRar can extract these.

Uplink Port: Special port on a hub or switch that connects to another hub or switch to expand port density.

USB: Universal Serial Bus - High speed plug and play standard that supports data transfer rates of 12 Mbps. A single USB port can be used to connect up to 127 peripheral devices, such as mice, modems, and keyboards. USB also supports Plug-and-Play installation and hot plugging.

Usenet: Usenet is a worldwide network of thousands of Unix systems with a decentralized administration. The Usenet systems exist to transmit postings to special-interest newsgroups covering just about any topic you can imagine (and many you wouldn’t even want to imagine).

VESA: Video Electronic Standards Association - This industry organization formed to create various personal computer standards, including those for Super VGA video displays and the VLB bus standard.

Virtual Memory: Virtual memory is really a part of your hard disk called a swap file, dedicated as a storage area for bits of data in RAM that aren’t being used much. By freeing up RAM, you’re virtually increasing the amount of working memory available to you.

Virus: A virus is a piece of code usually disguised as something else that causes some unexpected and usually undesirable event. A virus is often designed so that it is automatically spread to other computer users. Viruses can be transmitted as attachments to an e-mail or files, for example.

VPN: Virtual Private Network - A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, is a private network of computers that’s at least partially connected by public phone lines. A good example would be a private office LAN that allows users to log in remotely over the Internet (an open, public system). VPNs use encryption and secure protocols like PPTP to ensure that data transmissions are not intercepted by unauthorized parties.

WAN: Wide Area Network - Take two local area networks, hook them together, and you’ve got a WAN. Wide area networks can be made up of interconnected smaller networks spread throughout a building, a state, or the entire globe.

WYSIWYG: What You See Is What You Get - Pronounced “whizzy-wig”

Xmodem: This is a protocol for transferring files during direct dial-up communications. Developed by Ward Christensen in 1977, Xmodem has basic error checking to ensure that information isn’t lost or corrupted during transfer; it sends data in 128-byte blocks. Xmodem has undergone a couple of enhancements: Xmodem CRC uses a more reliable error-correction scheme, and Xmodem-1K transfers data faster by sending it in 1,024-byte blocks.

Ymodem: This is a protocol for transferring files during direct dial-up communications. So named because it builds on the earlier Xmodem protocol, Ymodem sends data in 1,024-byte blocks and is consequently faster than Xmodem. However, it doesn’t work well on noisy phone lines, unlike its successor, Zmodem. Ymodem has undergone a few enhancements: Ymodem-Batch can send several files in one session; Ymodem-G drops software error correction, which speeds up the process by leaving hardware-based error correction in modems.

Z-buffer: In a graphics card, this section of video memory keeps track of which onscreen elements can be viewed and which are hidden behind other objects.

Zmodem: This file transfer protocol should be your first choice for sending and receiving files using dial-up connections. Zmodem’s speed and error checking recommend it, and it can resume a file transfer after a break in communications, so make sure this protocol is available in your communications software and any BBS you dial into. In case you couldn’t tell, it’s so named because it’s intended to supersede Xmodem and Ymodem.

100Base T: 100 Mbps Ethernet.There are three types of physical wiring that can carry signals: 100BASE-T4, 100BASE-TX, and 100BASE-FX. This designation is an IEEE shorthand identifier. The “100″ in the media type designation refers to the transmission speed of 100 Mbps. The “BASE” refers to baseband signaling, which means that only Ethernet signals are carried on the medium. The “T4,” “TX,” and “FX” refer to the physical medium that carries the signal.

10Base T: The most widely installed Ethernet local area networks use ordinary telephone twisted-pair wire. When used on Ethernet, this carrier medium is known as 10BASE-T. 10BASE-T supports Ethernet’s 10 Mbps transmission speed.

3D Accelerator: Refering to the graphics cards or videocard, today’s videocards also incorporate some form of 3D acceleration, rendering images faster then the CPU would by itself.

3D API: 3D Application Programming Interface - This generic term refers to any API that supports the creation of standard 3D objects, lights, cameras, perspectives, and so on. Such APIs include Argonaut’s BRender and Microsoft’s Reality Lab.

802.11: 802.11 refers to a family of specifications developed by the IEEE for wireless LAN technology. 802.11 specifies an over-the-air interface between a wireless client and a base station or between two wireless clients. The IEEE accepted the specification in 1997.