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| C | Cache :
A high speed buffer that stores frequently used information. Almost always made using SRAM, rather than DRAM because it needs to be fast.
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) :
A language used with HTTP for use on web pages, which adds more control over the graphical presentation of the page.
Category Cable (Cat-3,Cat-5) :
All UTP telephone wiring has to be rated by the Electrons Industry Association by its quality. As the category numbers increase, so does the wire's quality and signal integrity level. Catagory 1 (Cat-1) and Cat-2 are used with propriety devices that require only low frequencies for transferring simple voice or small amounts of data. Cat-3 cable is able to operate at speeds up to 16MHz, and is sufficient for use with all telephone lines and thin Ethernet. Cat-4 is able to operate at speeds up to 20MHz, and Cat-5 is able to operate at speeds up to 100MHz. Cat-5 is what is most often used with Ethernet, both thin and fast, because of its ability to work interchangeably with both. Cat-5 Enhanced is able to operate at speeds up to 200MHz, with Cat-5 Elite Enhanced being able to operate at speeds of 350MHz. Cat-6 is used with high speed interfaces and is able to operate at speeds of up to 600MHz.
Central Processing Unit (CPU) :
The main processor and 'brains' in a computer. The most know CPUs are the Pentium series, 486 series, and Athlon series. The CPU frequency is what is usually referred to when the speed of the computer is spoken about. A 300MHz computer means that the CPU operates at 300MHz. The CPU is almost always the largest computer chip in a computer.
Charged Couple Device (CCD) :
An optical sensor which is used in optical recorders such as digital cameras and digital camcorders. It is made out of thousands of tiny silicon sensors which will produce a small electric current when struck by a particle of light.
Chip Multiprocessing (CMP) :
The integration of two or more chip cores into a single processor. This is starting to become the wave of the future, because as transistor sizes decrease, cores get smaller. By putting 2 cores in one processor, processing capabilities almost double, an the processor is neither too small or too big.
Chromakey :
The replacement of a colour or colour range with another image or colour. The most common use is a blue screen, which allows a different background to later be added to a scene to create a special effect.
Client :
Usually refers to the users machine in where a server is involved.
Clipping :
A process to automatically remove 3D objects with are out of the field of view from the rendering process. This is usually done in hardware with video cards capable of 3D acceleration.
Clock :
The completion of one cycle of a frequency.
Cluster :
These are allocation units for data, and are multiples of the sector size. A file, no matter how small it is has to use at least one cluster, and all unused space in that cluster is wasted space. If a file is more than one cluster in size, it will use more than one cluster.
Coaxial Cable :
The two wire cabling used with coaxial networking and all cable televisions. It consists of a copper wire which is insulated and covered with an aluminum weave and foil for a ground. Coaxial cable is very sensitive to grounding so all coaxial cabling has to be properly terminated with either a device or a 50ohm resistor.
Codec :
Short for compressor/decompressor. It is an algorithm for compressing data, usually audio, video or both. The most know movie codec is MPEG. The advantages of codecs are that they are small in file size and can be used to update media players and encoders when more efficient compression techniques are discovered.
Collision :
A term given to an intersection of polygon faces in 3D rendering.
In networking when 2 separate packets are sent at the same time, corrupting each other. Collisions force the resending of data, and lower overall bandwidth.
Colour Convergence :
When the wrong phosphors are lit on-screen in a monitor because of a misaligned electron beam.
Colour Depth :
The current number of colours which are available for display. Colours are measured in bits. There is 4-bit (16 colours), 8-bit colour (256 colours), 16-bit (65536 colours, also know as "High Color" or "Thousands of Colors"), and 24-bit (16777216 colours, also know as "True Color" or "Millions of Colors"). 32-bit colour contains the same number of colours as 24-bit, but is 32-bit for memory alignment purposes. 3D acceleration is only able to operate at 16-bit or 32-bit colour. Higher colour depths result in more memory usage and usually slower performance.
Command Line Interface (CLI) :
A single threaded command line approach that often uses little or no visual effects to capture user input. The DOS prompt is probably the most known CLI. CLI is often still used in servers because it is more direct and doesn't require the graphics processing overhead that a GUI has.
Command Tag Queuing :
A feature of SCSI devices that allows multiple requests to be queued so that as soon one task is complete the next is immediately started. It also allows SCSI devices to reorder requests so that they are performed in the most efficient manner. IDE devices are not able to do this.
Compact Disk :
A optical storage medium that can hold up to 680MB of data, and can be used to hold audio data that can be played in standalone CD players.
Compiler :
A specific software program that programmers use to translate their high level programming languages like C or Visual Basic into code that the computer can run. This output code is know as low level code, object code, machine code, executable code, and binary code. Compilers usually optimize code and check for errors.
Complex Instruction Set Computing :
The term given to all computer Instruction Set Architectures (ISA)'s that were made based on the idea of reducing software complexity by making the processor more complex. The allow for processor instructions that do multiple operations, and span multiple clock cycles. Oposite of RISC architectures.
Computer Assisted Design / Computer Assisted Manufacturing (CAD / CAM) :
The use of a computer for outputting blueprints or workable models. CAD usually involves 3D modeling, so most CAD/CAM is done on high-end workstations.
Connect / Disconnect :
A feature of SCSI devices that allow multiple devices to share the SCSI bus by having devices that do not currently need the bus to disconnect and allow other devices to use it. Devices are then able to reconnect when they have a request.
Constant Angular Velocity :
Refers to the way in which a CD operates. CAV means that the CD spins at the same speed no matter where the information is being read. This produces faster transfer rates along the out tracks of a CD.
Constant Linear Velocity :
Refers to the way in which a CD operates. CLV means that the CD rotation speed is modified so that there is a constant transfer speed from all tracks of a CD. CLV drives are more expensive to produce because they need to have motors which run at variable speeds. The advantage of these drives are that they produce an even transfer rate no matter what track is being read.
Control Point :
A term used with vector graphics. It is the reference point where the calculations are centered.
Coppermine :
Intel's new processor core which features their SSE instructions. Despite the name, the core is not made with copper interconnects. All Coppermine cores are made using 0.18 micron fabrication, and have a 256-bit wide full speed L2 cache, and use Intel's SSE instructions. Pentium 3 Coppermines have 256KB of L2 cache and Celeron FCPGA chips use 128KB.
Coordinate Matrix :
Refers to the set of numbers required to draw a 3D object on screen. Every vertex, or point, in a 3D object uses a coordinate matrix. Coordinate matrix's usually include 4 numbers, the x location, y location, z location and normal information.
Core :
The main section of a computer processor, basically referring to the processor minus the L2 cache and control units.
Core Logic Chipset :
The main processors on the motherboard which control all functions that take place. Their responsibilities include interfacing with the CPU and other peripherals, memory address translation and refresh, and frequency timing.
Corrupt :
Data which has been altered. Information has the highest chance of becoming corrupt when it has to travel great distances, like on the Internet, or when it is transferred at very high speeds. They ways of detecting corrupt data are CRC, parity, and ECC.
Cube Environmental Mapping :
The 3D rendering of a game environment on a surface as if it were a texture. The game environment is drawn as if the object being mapped was inclosed in a cube.
Cull :
The removal of non-visible faces in 3D rendering. All faces which face away from the viewpoint can be removed to save rendering time.
Cursor :
The mouse pointer.
Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) :
A mathematical formula that use variables based on the contents of the data and an answer to the formula using those variables. Data that uses CRC is divided into chucks, and the answer to the specific CRC formula is appended to the end of the data. The variables are calculated from the data received, and an answer calculated from the formula is compared to the answer which was appended. If they are the same the data is exact, and if they are different the data is corrupt. The formula used in CRC was calculated so that it is impossible to receive a correct answer if data is corrupt. This is unlike parity, but CRC is still unable to correct errors.
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