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Welcome to the interactive glossay at Inside Computers. This glossary allows members of Inside Computers to post new definitions, allowing for collective information sharing. If there is some acronym that most people might not know, or a special computer term which others would most likely want to know, go ahead and add it. Because this is a "real time" interaction, Inside Computers can't monitor the boards 24 hours a day, but we will do our best to keep this information both correct and edit it for content that could be offensive to others. If you are so inclined, every member is allowed to edit every user added post, so if you think you can improve on a definition, if you want to correct a mistake others may have made, go ahead!

A

A3D (Aureal3D) : A propriety 3D sound API that uses sound algorithms created by NASA to produce real sound. It is able to produce more realistic sounds and echos because it actually uses a 3D model for calculations. AC-3 : Also know as Dolby Digital 5.1 Accumulation Buffer : A buffer which stores multiple finished images for output so that it can apply advanced digital effects like motion blur. Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) : The single expansion slot designed to allow high bandwidth video cards direct access to main memory. The standard AGP slot is a 32-bit bus operating at 33MHz. AGP2X and AGP4X are successors to the 32-bit AGP bus and operate at 133MHz and 266MHz respectively. Active Cooling : The term used when more than passive cooling is used. The most common active cooling used is a fan, but Thermal Electric Coolers and refrigeration units can also be used. Active Server Pages (ASP) : A way for servers to dynamically create web pages through the use of scripts. ASP's use Visual Basic, which allows for an easy and familiar creation because of the wide range of VB editors. Actuator Assembly : The read-write heads and actuator in a hard drive. They are made of very lightweight materials and physically are moved by a magnetic voice-coil. Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) : This is the protocol that is used by all IDE and EIDE devices. ATA comes in 3 different flavours, ATA is capable of 2.1 to 8.3 MB/sec transfers, ATA-2 is capable of 11.1 to 16.6 MB/sec, and Ultra-ATA is currently capable of 33.3 to 100 MB/sec. The newest version of ATA, UltraATA has three different settings, ATA33, ATA66, and ATA100. Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface (ATAPI) : The set of commands which are used by all ATA devices for communication and data transfers. Alpha : A setting for the opacity of a certain pixel. A term for under development software or hardware products. Alpha Blending : The 3D rendering process of alternating alpha values to create translucency effects such as smoke. It can also be used so simulate transparent or semi-transparent objects such as water or glass. Alpha Channel : The component of a pixel that indicates the alpha value. Pixels are usually measured in RGBA, that is red value, green value, blue value, and alpha value. AMR slot :     This stands for Advanced Modem Resource. its located only on motherboards with onboard sound, so that the osundcard can interact with the modem properly. Anisotropic Texture Filtering : This is the latest filtering process like bilinear or trilinear filtering. Anisotropic texture filtering is more advanced than even trilinear. Where trilinear filtering samples only the adjacent pixels that immediately surround the output pixel, this creates a box. To have a more gradual blend, anisotropic filtering filters 8 or more pixels in a random pattern around the output pixel, to create more accurate results. This requires even more fill rate than trilinear so it is seldom used. Anti-Aliasing : The process of smoothing out jagged edges which are created by pixel limitations. On a sloped line, the monitors pixels are unable to create a sloped line because of their square nature, resulting in a stair-step effect. Smoothing of this line is achieved by blending adjacent pixels on the line to create a much more gradual stair-step. Aperture Grille : A masking technology invented by Sony to be used in monitors, that allows for a brighter image then a shadow mask. It is made of fine metal wires instead of a perferated metal plate to block stray electrons. A downside of the technology is that it usually has 2 fine horizontal lines in the middle of the screen created by the dampening wires. Aperture Size : The amount of memory available to the AGP card for texture storage. Append : To add to the end of a piece of data or file. Applet : A small JAVA program which is run by a browser to add special effects to a web page. Application : A software program. Application Programming Interface (API) : API's bridge the gap between software and hardware. API's are user friendly to programmers offering an easy working base to reference hardware functions. Instead of programmers having to write code to each specific type of hardware, they can program to a set API. The API is written so that it can directly reference features in hardware, making it a fast solution. Hardware has to be made to support the API in order to use it. Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) : Any circuit or processor which is designed for a specific application. A CPU is not an ASIC because it is able to be programmed to multiple tasks. A DAC is an ASIC because it can only convert digital to analog signals, nothing more. ASCII :     American Standard Code for Information Interchange. All characters can be represented using a single byte of data. ASCII is a standard that governs the binary values used to represent various characters. E.G. 65 = A 66 = B 97 = a 98 = b 42 = * 91 = [ NB - Other standards exist such as EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code), but ASCII is the most commonly used. AT Form Factor : One of the older motherboard form factors / layout. ATX Form Factor : The newest motherboard form factor or layout. Subsets of the ATX form factor include NLX, LPX, and microATX. A form factor defines the layout of the components on the motherboard. The notable changes over the older AT form factor as: relocation of the CPU so that it is in proximity of the power supply fan, all I/O ports are located together near the CPU instead of being spread out, and the power supply can power down the motherboard without the power button having to be pressed. Artifact : Imperfects made in an image or 3D scene. Artifacts are created by high levels of compression or faulty coding. Aspect Ratio : The relationship between the horizontal and vertical resolution. Standard monitor resolutions are in the aspect ratio of 4/3, of 1.333. Auto Detection : The ability of a motherboard or OS to detect specific hardware and properly configure it by its default settings. Automatic Texture Compression : This is the ability of a video card to automatically compress textures in video RAM so that they occupy less space. This is done real time, and without user control. :