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| b, Kb, Mb, B, KB, MB, GB-bits, Kilobits, Megabits, Bytes, Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes- all are units of storage in computers.
CPU-Central Processing Unit-This is basically the brains of your computer, and all instruction your computer does go through the CPU. Intel has the most popular brand of CPU's, the Pentium, but companies such as Cyrix, AMD, Motorola, and IBM make CPU's. DOS-Disk Operating System- DOS was the first operating system for the original IBM PC, and DOS code still is in products sold today. In the late 70's/early 80's a Seattle software company named Microsoft bought the rights to DOS from Seattle Computer Products for $50,000 and then IBM sold it under the name PC-DOS before Microsoft sold it as MS-DOS. FTP-File Transfer Protocol- FTP is used to download files, as it transfers larger file more quickly than a HTTP server. GPF-General Protection Fault-This is the official name for a program crash. This usually happens when a program uses memory improperly, and the result is it freezes up or the operating system forces it to close. Other things might cause a GPF, but I think that is the most common one. GUI-Graphical User Interface- examples of GUIs are Windows, OS/2 Warp, and the MacOS. The first GUI was Lisa, which was made by Apple in 1983 and was the predecessor of the Macintosh. The versions of Windows before Win95 were simply graphical interfaces that ran on top of DOS. The only "true" GUIs today are probably Windows NT and the Macintosh (MacOS). HTML-Hyper Text Markup Language-the "language" most pages on the Internet and WWW are made out of. Variations include VRML and ASP. Intranet- a sort of Internet network that is within business and schools. It uses TCP/IP and its pages are accessed through a Web browser just like the one you use. Internet-the network of supercomputers throughout the globe. Created by the Defense Department in the 1960's to link their 4 computers across the USA. It uses the TCP/IP protocol to transmit data in it. The Internet still uses TCP/IP today, although with many improvements. The Internet links together the WWW, FTP, gopher, and much, much, more. Linux-mainly considered the "other" operating system compared to Windows, and maybe the MacOS. I'd like to explain, but it can get quite complicated (imagine taking a command-line interface (like DOS, but a lot better) and then adding the the software that lets you see graphics, and then you put on the GUI). There is a score of much better information all over the Internet. I'll probably add some links to the links page soon, so check there! MODEM-MODulator/DEModulator- Yes, the word modem is actually an acronym. The modem takes the digital information on you computer and then converts it in to an analog signal that can be sent over telephone lines. The maximum theoretical speed of a signal modem is 36.6 kilobits per second (36,600 bits per second, 36,600 or 36.6Kbps). RAM, EDO RAM, SDRAM-Random Access Memory, Extended Data Out Random Access Memory, Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory- All the are basically the same thing, but each is also very unique. But still, basically, it is your computer's short-term memory that is cleared when ever you reboot or turn the power off. It is used to store open programs and keep track of certain things. TCP/IP-Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol-The language of the Internet. When the Internet was created in the 1960's, TCP/IP was designed so if one of the supercomputers was blown up by a ICBM or something, the protocol would "sense" the absence of the computer and route the data accordingly. Today TCP/IP still completes this basic function, except it goes faster when doing it. TCP controls the way you get data from the servers, and IP actually figures out the way from the server to your computer. URL-Uniform Resource Locator-Also known as an Internet or web address. It tells your browser where and what things are. The chart below has more information.
Windows-a GUI created by Microsoft. The first version of Windows was a GUI that ran on top of DOS, not a true operating system. Windows 2.0, later split into Windows/286 and Windows/386, also was an operating shell, still not an OS, and still didn't sell that well. Windows 3.0 was the first version to sell, but also was an operating shell that ran on top of DOS. Also by this time Microsoft had released Windows NT (Windows New Technology, WinNT) which was based on an OS called OS/2 (NOT to be confused with OS/2 Warp) which IBM and Microsoft were developing together. Windows 95 (Win95) was the first version of Windows that could actually be considered an OS (besides WinNT). WWW-World Wide Web-an extension of the Internet created in 1994. Its servers use the HTTP protocol to transmit data to your computer. It contains animation, videos, graphics, text, and a bunch of other things.
Have a term you'd like to see defined? Send it to asimweb@aol.com and put "Computer Terms" in the subject line of your e-mail.
Last updated March 25, 2000.
All definitions are from my head or with the help of any issue of PC Magazine. |
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