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Major Geeks - Glossary of IT terms Category: Technical and IT Date & country: 24/01/2013, USA Words: 260

POP
Post Office Protocol - Internet email access standard.

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.

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.

Ransomware
Ransomware (also referred to in some cases as cryptoviruses, cryptotrojans or cryptoworms) comprises a class of malware which restricts access to the computer system that it infects, and demands a ransom paid to the creator of the malware in order for the restriction to be removed. Some forms of ransomware encrypt files on the system's hard drive,...

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.

Rendering
Rendering is the process of generating an image from a model (or models in what collectively could be called a scene file), by means of computer programs.

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..

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.

Reformat
Reformatting is a high-level formatting performed on a functioning disk drive to free the contents of its medium. Reformatting is unique to each Operating system because what actually is done to existing data varies by OS.

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 p...

SATA
(SATA or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment) is a computer bus interface for connecting host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and optical drives. Serial ATA was designed to replace the older parallel ATA (PATA) standard (often called by the old name IDE)

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 shu...

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 separa...

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 longmany times you can run it. Paying a fee registers the program and releases the limitations.

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.

Skype
Skype is a VOIP (voice over internet protocol) it uses your wifi connection to connect one computer to another for video or voice calls.

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.

Snail Mail
To send a letter through the postal service rather than via an email!

Sniffer
network analyzer, protocol analyzer or sniffer is a computer software or hardware that can intercept and log traffic passing over a digital network

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

Solid State Drive
A solid-state drive (SSD), sometimes called a solid-state disk or electronic disk, is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data with the intention of providing access in the same manner of a traditional block i/o hard disk drive. SSDs are distinguished from traditional magnetic disks such as hard disk drives (HDD)...

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 shou...

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.

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.

Streaming
In computing, the term stream is used in a number of ways, in all cases referring to a sequence of data elements made available over time. A stream can be thought of as a conveyor belt that allows items to be processed one at a time rather than in large batches.

Tablet
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a complete mobile computer, larger than a mobile phone or personal digital assistant, integrated into a flat touch screen and primarily operated by touching the screen. It often uses an onscreen virtual keyboard, a passive stylus pen, or a digital pen, rather than a physical keyboard.

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 b...

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 tu...

Track Pad
Used on laptops instead of a mouse to increase portability it detects the heat given off from your finger and moves the pointer accordingly.

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...

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.

Upload
Uploading, can refer to the sending of data from a local system to a remote system such as a server or another client with the intent that the remote system should store a copy of the data being transferred, or the initiation of such a process. See Download

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 dat...

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.

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 ...

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-B...

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

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.

n00b
See newbie