Common Terms and Abbreviations Reference List

 

0-9

86=Intel 8086 processor.

286=Intel 80286 processor.

386=Intel 80386 processor.

386MAX=Qualitas 386 Expanded Memory Manager (386MAX.SYS).

3D=Three Dimensional.

486=Intel 80486 processor.

586=Intel 80586 processor (Pentium).

686=Intel 80686 processor (Pentium Pro).

 

 

A

 

ANSI= American National Standards Institute.

AOL= America online.

API= Application Programming Interface.

ASCII= American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

AT= IBM Computer Class Name

ATA=AT Attachment (IDE).

ATAPI=AT Attachment Programming Interface.

Active = X Microsoft language

 

 

B

B= Byte (1B = 8 bits).

BAT= Batch program file.

Baud = Bits per second (baud rate).

BBS= Bulletin Board System.

BEDO=

BIF= Binary Image Format file.

BIOS= Basic Input Output System.

BMP=RGB/RLE encoded Microsoft Windows Bit Map Picture file.

BPP= Per Pixel.

Basic = Programming language

 

c

CD= Compact Disk.

CDA= Compact Disk Audio.

CDR= CorelDraw! Image file.

CD-R= Compact Disk Recorder.

CD-ROM= Compact Disk Read Only Media.

CGM= Computer Graphics Metafile.

CHS= Cylinder/Head/Sector.

CLP= Microsoft Windows Clipboard Bitmap file.

CMOS= Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor.

CODEC= Video for Windows encoding Decoding standard.

COM= Communication Port.

CON= Console.

CPU= Central Processing Unit (processor).

CRT= Cathode Ray Tube.

CS= CompuServe.

CUT= Dr. Halo picture file.

C,C++= Programming languge

 

 

D

DAC= Digital to Analog Converter.

DBX=

DDE= Dynamic Data Exchange.

DIB=RGB/RLE encoded Microsoft Windows Device Independent Bitmap.

DLL= Dynamic Link Library.

DMA= Direct Memory Access.

DMF= High Density Media Format (floppy disk).

DPI= Dots Per Inch.

DPMI= DOS Protected Mode Interface.

DPMS= Display Power Management Signaling standard.

DOS= Disk Operating System.

DRAM= Dynamic Random Access Memory.

DRW= Micrografx Draw image file.

DVD= Digital VideoDisc.

DVD-ROM= Digital VideoDisc Read Only Media.

DXF= Autodesk picture File.

 

 

E

EBIOS= Extended Basic input/output System.

ECP= Extended Communications Port.

EDO=

EGA= Extended Graphics Adapter.

EIDE= Enhanced IDE.

EISA= Extended Industry Standard Architecture.

EMM386=Microsoft 386 Expanded Memory Manager (EMM386.EXE).

EMS= Expanded Memory Specifications.

EMM= Expanded Memory Manager.

EPP= Extended Printer Port.

EPROM= Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory.

EPS= Encapsulated PostScript File.

ESDI= Extended Standard Disk Interface.

 

 

F

FAT= File Allocation Table.

FCBS= File Control Blocks.

FIFO= First In First Out.

FPU= Floating Point Unit (coprocessor).

FTP= File Transfer Protocol.

 

 

G

GB= gigabyte (1GB = 1024 megabytes).

GEM= Ventura/GEM image file.

GIF= CompuServe Graphic Image File.

GPF= General Protection Fault.

GUI= Graphical User Interface.

 

 

H

HD= Hard Disk.

HDD= Hard Disk Drive.

HGL= Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language image file.

HIMEM= Microsoft Extended Memory Manager (HIMEM.SYS).

HMA= High Memory Area.

HTML= hypertext Markup Language.

HTTP= hypertext Transfer Protocol.

 

 

I

IBM= International Business Machines corporation.

IC= Interface Controller.

IDE=

IFF= Electronic Arts Image File.

IMG=GEM Paint image file.

ISA= Industry Standard Architecture.

ISP= Internet Service Provider.

I/O= input/output.

IRQ= Interrupt request line.

 

 

J

JIF= Joint Photograph Expert Group Image file.

JPG= Joint Photograph Expert Group Picture file.

 

 

K

KB= kilobyte (1KB = 1024 Bytes).

 

 

L

LAN= Local Area Network.

LBA= Logical Block Address.

LBM= deluxe Paint bitmap picture file.

LED= Light Emitting Diode.

LFN= Long File Names.

LH= LoadHigh.

LIM= Lotus/Intel/Microsoft expanded/extended memory specifications.

LPT= Line printer.

 

 

M

MAC= MACPaint picture file.

MB= megabyte (1MB = 1024 kilobytes).

MBR= Master Boot Record (partition table).

MCI= Media Control Interface.

MIDI= Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

MIME=

MIPS= Millions of Instructions per Second.

MPC= Multimedia Personal Computer.

MPEG= Motion Picture Expert Group standard.

MS= Microsoft.

MS-DOS= Microsoft Disk Operating System.

MSCDEX= Microsoft Compact Disc Extensions device driver (MSCDEX.EXE).

MSD= Microsoft Diagnostics (MSD.EXE).

MSP= Microsoft Paint picture file.

 

 

N

Net Room = Helix Software 386 Expanded Memory Manager (RM386.EXE).

NT= Microsoft New Technology

 

 

O

OEM= Original Equipment Manufacturer.

OLE= Object Linking and Embedding.

OS= Operating System.

ODBC= Open Data Base Connection

 

 

P

P5=Intel Pentium processor (586).

P6=Intel Pentium Pro processor (686).

PBM= Portable bitmap UNIX picture file.

PC= Personal Computer.

PCD= Kodak Photo CD image file.

PCI=

PCX= Zsoft PC Paintbrush Picture file.

PDF= Portable Document Format file.

PEL= Picture Element (pixel).

PGM= Portable GrayMap UNIX picture file.

PIC= Lotus Development Corp. PICtor/PC Paint picture file.

PIF= Program Information File.

PNG= Portable Network Graphics file.

PnP Plug and Play standard.

PPM= Portable PixelMap UNIX picture file.

PPP= Point to Point Protocol.

PRN= Printer port.

PSD= RGB/indexed PhotoShop image file.

 

 

Q

QEMM= Quarterdeck Systems 386 Expanded Memory Manager (QEMM386.SYS).

 

 

R

RAM= Random Access Memory.

RAS= Remote Access Services.

RAW= UUencoded pixel data image file.

RGB= Red Green Blue picture encoding.

RLE= CompuServe/Microsoft Windows encoded graphic file.

RM386=Helix Software 386 Expanded Memory Manager (RM386.EXE).

ROM= Read Only Memory.

 

 

S

SCSI= Small Computers Standard Interface.

SDRAM= Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory.

SIMM= Single Inline Memory Module.

SLIP=

SMP= symmetrical Processing standard.

SRAM= Static Random Access Memory.

SVGA= Super Video Graphics Array standard.

 

 

T

TCP/IP= Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.

TIFF= Aldus Corporation Image file.

TGA= TrueVision Graphic file.

TSR= Terminate and Stay Resident program/device/driver.

TTF= True Type Font.

 

 

U

UART= Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter.

UMA= Upper Memory Area.

UMB= Upper Memory Block.

URL= Universal Resource Locator.

USB= Universal Serial Bus.

UUE=

 

 

V

VBE=VESA BIOS Extensions.

VCPI= Virtual Control Program Interface.

VESA= Video Electronics Standards Association.

VfW= Video for Windows.

VGA= Video Graphics Array standard.

VLB= VESA Local Bus.

VMM= Virtual Memory Manager.

VR= Virtual Reality.

VRML= Virtual Reality Modeling Language.

VXD= Virtual Extended memory Driver.

Visual Basic = Programming Language

 

 

W

WAN= Wide Area Network.

WfWG = Windows for workgroup's.

Win31=Windows 3.1x.

Win95=Windows 95.

WMF= Microsoft Windows metafile.

WPG= WordPerfect Graphic file.

WWW= World Wide Web.

WINNT= Windows NT 3.1,3.51,4.0,5.0

 

 

X

XMM= Extended Memory Manager.

XMS= Extended Memory Specifications.

XT=8088,8086 IBM class of computers

XVGA= Extended Video Graphics Array.

 

 

Y

 

Z

ZIP= Compression type.

 

 

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 Wayne Smith