| 3GIO |
Third Generation I/O
specification - It has been transferred to the
PCI-SIG -
Renamed PCI Express |
| 3G |
A focus group started by nine wireless
companies, including AT&T Wireless Services Inc., British
Telecommunications Plc. and Nokia Corp. The group set its sights
squarely on third-generation (3G) mobile technology by creating a
wireless system based on IP and adding the General Packet Radio
System (GPRS) model, a wireless packet-switched protocol that will
boost data speeds to 100Kbps. |
| 4G |
The newest and fourth generation of
mobile phones, 4G, is expected to provide users with an all-Internet
Protocol solution, which will exponentially increase bandwidth. This
will allow simultaneous use of voice, Internet access gaming and
streamlined multimedia services such as TV and video streaming
services.
4G has two standards for transmitting traffic: Long Term Evolution,
or LTE, and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, more
commonly known as Mobile WiMAX.
Both LTE and Mobile WiMAX promise unprecedented download speeds that
blow current 3G cellular networks out of the water. But who will win
out is still up in the air. Sprint Nextel and Comcast have placed
their bets on Mobile WiMAX. Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T are deploying
a 4G network based on the LTE standard.
Is 4G better than 3G? |
| 802.11a, 802.11b,
& 802.11g (Also
known WiFi) |
An embellishment of the IEEE's 802.11
standard. It is intended for wireless LAN interoperability, an
important feature if wireless is ever to break free of niche markets
and move to more general-purpose applications. While 802.11 governs
2Mbps data transmission rates, the 802.11b standard supports 11Mbps
rates. If wireless vendors adhere to 802.11b, wireless data will
travel at the same speed as standard Ethernet, though far slower
than 100BaseT, the 100Mbps Ethernet standard that the wired
enterprise sees as standard. 802.11a provides for data rates up to
54Mbps. 802.11g is compatible with 802.11b, yet
provides for data rates of 54Mbps. 802.11a runs on a different
frequency that 802.11a/g thus incompatible with each other unless
the two wireless standards are run on the same networks with
multiple access points. |
| 802.11n |
On January 19, 2006
an IEEE working group approved a proposal for the upcoming 802.11n
wireless standard. The draft specifications will come out in
March of 2006, after which engineers will work toward releasing a
final standard in 2007.
The new "n" protocol was developed by IEEE's Enhanced Wireless
Consortium, a group that includes Intel, Apple Computer, Microsoft,
Sony and several other major players. The new protocol aims to
increase maximum Wi-Fi speeds roughly tenfold to throughputs of up
to 600 Mbps.This
technology is targeted to use the MIMO technology |
| 100BaseT |
IEEE 802.3 standard for 100 Mbps Fast Ethernet |
| ADSL |
Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line |
| AGP |
Accelerated Graphics Port |
| AJAX |
Asynchronous JavaScript plus XML |
| API |
Application Programming Interface |
| APM |
Advanced Power Management |
| ASCII |
American Standard Code for Information Interchange |
| ACPI |
Advanced Configuration and Power
Interface |
| ASIC |
Application-Specific Integrated Circuit |
| ASP |
Active Server Page or Application
Service Provider |
| ATA |
AT Attachment (See
IDE -- IDE is ATA |
| ATAPI |
AT Packet Interface |
| AT&T |
American Telephone and Telegraph |
| ATX |
(A PC motherboard specification by Intel.) |
| AVI |
Audio/Video Interleaved |
| BASIC |
Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
| BIOS |
Basic Input Output System |
| Bluetooth |
A standard that lets wireless devices
communicate with each other in the 2.45GHz frequency. It's
designed to govern short-range data transmission-10 meters or
less-at a relatively low speed of 1Mbps. |
| Bonjour |
Bonjour is a networking technology that
lets you create an instant network of computers and devices without
any configuration. It allows the services and capabilities of each
device to be registered on the network, and allows these services to
be dynamically discoverable by other devices on the network.
The open source mDNSResponder project contains the Bonjour service
discovery implemenation that's built into Mac OS X and Bonjour for
Windows. Additionally, this project contains the mDNSResponder
daemon for POSIX and the Java libraries for all platforms. Hardware
developers are encouraged to embed the mDNSResponder source code
into their firmware. |
| BRI |
Basic Rate Interface |
| CARP |
Cache Array Routing Protocol |
| CCITT |
Committee Consultif Internationale Telegraph et Telephonie |
| CDMA |
Code Division Multiple Access - A
digital, cellular radio-based system that employs spread-spectrum
technology. |
| CGI |
Common Gateway Interface |
| CGMS-A |
Copy Generation
Management System for Analog |
| CHAP |
Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol |
| CIM |
Common Information Model |
| CIO |
Chief Information Officer |
| CISC |
Complex Instruction Set Computer |
| CLM |
Career Limiting Move |
| CO |
Central Office |
| CORBA |
Common Object Request Broker
Architecture. |
| CODEC |
COmpressor/DECompressor |
| CPU |
Central Processing Unit |
| CRC |
Cyclic Redundancy Check |
| CSMA/CD |
Carrier Sense Multiple Access/Collision Detection |
| CTO |
Chief Technical Officer |
| CYA |
Cover Your As… |
| D3D |
Microsoft Direct 3D |
| DAT |
Digital Audio Tape |
| Data Mining |
The process of identifying commercially
useful patterns or relationships in databases or other computer
repositories through the use of advanced statistical tools. |
| DCE |
Distributed Computing Environment |
| DDR |
Double Data Rate |
| DHTML |
Dynamic HTML |
| DIME |
Direct Internet Message Encapsulation |
| DIMM |
Dual In-line Memory Module |
| DIN |
Deutsche Institut fuer Normung |
| DIP |
Dual In-Line Package |
| DLP |
Digital Light Processing is the world's
only all-digital display solution and a key ingredient in the best
digital projectors available today. DLP technology uses an optical
semiconductor to recreate source material with a fidelity analog
systems cannot match. At the heart of every DLP projection system is
an optical semiconductor known as the Digital Micromirror Device, or
DMD chip, which was invented by Dr. Larry Hornbeck of Texas
Instruments in 1987. The DMD chip is probably the world's most
sophisticated light switch. It contains a rectangular array of up to
1.3 million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors; each of these
micromirrors measures less than one-fifth the width of a human hair.
When a DMD chip is coordinated with a digital video or graphic
signal, a light source, and a projection lens, its mirrors can
reflect an all-digital image onto a screen or other surface. The DMD
and the sophisticated electronics that surround it are what we call
Digital Light Processing technology. http://www.dlp.com |
| DMA |
Direct Memory Access |
| DMTF |
Distributed Management Taskforce, Inc. |
| DNS |
Domain Name Server |
| DOJ |
Department Of Justice |
| DPF |
Dynamic Packet Filtering |
| dpi |
Dots Per Inch |
| DRAM |
Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| DSL |
Digital Subscriber Line |
| DSLAM |
Digital Subscriber Line Access
Multiplexer |
| DSP |
Digital Signal Processor |
| DSSS |
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum - A
wide-band mode of transmission that involves creating a redundant
bit pattern, called a chip, to transmit each bit. DSSS spreads the
data across a wider bandwidth. It generally offers faster
transmission speeds, covers a larger area and reduces
interference. |
| DVD |
Digital Versatile Disc |
DVD:
HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray |
VHS vs. Beta all
over again?
HD-DVD - Backed by Toshiba, NEC, Sanyo, Memory-Tech, Hewlett
Packard, Intel and Microsoft (supporting HD-DVD in its next version
of Windows (support for Blu-ray is on the table)). This is
considered an evolutionary, not revolutionary technology. The
advantages appear to be the name itself, HD-DVD, is far more
consumer-friendly than Blu-ray. HD-DVDs carry the same basic
structure as current DVDs, so converting existing DVD manufacturing
lines into HD-DVD lines is supposedly simple and cost effective.
Memory-Tech, a leading Japanese manufacturer of optical media,
stated that producing HD-DVD discs would initially cost only 10
percent more than for existing DVDs and that it could quickly bring
the cost down to match that of standard DVD. Disadvantages
appear to be that HD-DVD simply can't boast the same storage
capacity as Blu-ray. It's confusing, but it appears that the
rewritable HD-DVD-RW will go up 32GB, while the recordable HD DVD-R
discs will only be single layer (15GB). The other downside is
that with Sony holding the rights to Columbia Pictures and MGM movie
and television libraries, there will probably be a hole in HD-DVD's
content offering.
Blu-ray - Backed by Sony, Dell, Hitachi, LG Electronics, Matsushita
Electric Industrial (Panasonic), Mitsubishi Electric, Philips
Electronics, Pioneer Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sharp, TDK,
and Thomson Multimedia. This is considered a new technology
offering. The advantages appear to be that Blu-ray got an
early start, Blu-ray has enjoyed more mindshare than HD-DVD, as well
as a conglomerate of powerful backers. Technologically, the biggest
edge Blu-ray appears to have over HD-DVD is that it offers 30
percent more capacity and is designed for recording high-def video.
Rewritable BD-RW discs, with similar features to Panasonic's current
DVD-RAM discs, can play back content while recording to the disc at
the same time. Also, Sony owns Columbia Pictures and recently
bought MGM, which gives it a leg up on releasing content and the
PlayStation 3 certainly will carry a huge chunk of clout in the
marketplace. Disadvantages appear to be, real or not, that the
Blue-ray discs--initially, at least--will be more costly to produce
than HD-DVD media (Sony claims otherwise). Until recently, the other
knock was that unlike DVD-HD, the Blu-ray spec did not include
support for more advanced video compression codecs such as MPEG-4
AVC and Microsoft's VC-1, in addition to the MPEG-2 codec, but the
Blu-ray Group recently announced support for those codecs, so
they're now on even ground on that front.
Time, cost, content and consumer choice will most likely dictate a
winner, unless the two both emerge as joint winners. |
| ebXML |
Electronic Business XML |
| ECP |
Enhanced Capability Port |
| EDGE |
Enhanced Data GSM Environment (EDGE) is
a faster GSM wireless service that can deliver data at rates up to
384 Kbps on a broadband. The standard is based on the GSM standard
and uses TDMA. |
| EDI |
Electronic Data Interchange |
| EDO |
Extended Data Out |
| EDTV |
Enhanced Definition
TV (852x480) |
| EIA |
Electronics Industries Association |
| EIDE |
Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics |
|
eSATA |
Initially SATA was designed as an
internal or inside-the-box interface technology, bringing improved
performance and new features to internal PC or consumer storage.
Creative designers quickly realized the innovative interface could
reliably be expanded outside the PC, bringing the same performance
and features to external storage needs instead of relying on USB or
1394 interfaces. Called external SATA or eSATA, customers can now
utilize shielded cable lengths up to 2 meters outside the PC to take
advantage of the benefits the SATA interface brings to storage. SATA
is now out of the box as an external standard, with specifically
defined cables, connectors, and signal requirements released as new
standards in mid-2004. eSATA provides more performance than existing
solutions and is hot pluggable.
Key benefits of eSATA are that it is up
to 6 times faster than existing external storage solutions: USB 2.0,
& 1394, it is a robust and user friendly
external connection, it offers high
performance cost effective expansion
storage and it will support up to 2 meter
shielded cables and connectors. |
| ESDI |
Enhanced Small Device Interface |
| EV-DO |
Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) is a
high-speed wireless data connection on a CDMA network. The
technology allows users to access high-speed Internet through
portable devices, such as cell phones, laptops and PDAs. |
| EXIF |
Exchangeable Image File |
| FAT |
File Allocation Table |
| FAT32 |
32-bit File Allocation Table |
| FCC |
Federal Communications Commission |
| FDDI |
Fiber Distributed Data Interface |
| FHSS |
Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum - A
method of data transmission in which the radio signal
"hops" between frequencies within a narrow band from
2.40GHz to 2.483GHz as it sends data packets. |
| Fiber,
MultiMode |
Multimode
fiber is optical fiber that is designed to carry multiple light rays
or modes concurrently, each at a slightly different reflection angle
within the optical fiber core. Multimode fiber transmission is used
for relatively short distances because the modes tend to disperse
over longer lengths (this is called modal dispersion). For longer
distances, single mode fiber (sometimes called monomode) fiber is
used. Multimode fiber has a larger
core than single mode. |
| Fiber,
Single Mode |
Single mode
fiber is optical fiber that is designed for the transmission of a
single ray or mode of light as a carrier and is used for
long-distance signal transmission. For
short distances, multimode fiber is used.
Single mode fiber has a much smaller core than multimode
fiber. |
| Firewall |
Router or access server designated as a buffer between
private and public networks |
| FOOBAR |
Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition |
| FTP |
File Transfer Protocol |
| FUD |
Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt |
| GPS |
Global Positioning System |
| G.SHDSL |
Single-pair,
high-bit-rate digital subscriber line or Symmetric
high-speed digital subscriber line |
| GUI |
Graphical User Interface |
| HDCP |
High-bandwidth
Digital Copy Protection - An Intel copy
protection scheme that will add a layer of encryption between the
system and the digital display. The HDCP approach
encrypts each pixel as it moves from a PC or set-top box to digital
displays, such as digital flat panels and high-definition
televisions. |
| HDTV |
High-Definition Television
(720p (1,280x720), 1080i (1,920x1,080), 1080p) |
| Hypervisors |
Hypervisors use a thin layer of code in
software or firmware to achieve fine-grained, dynamic resource
sharing. Because hypervisors provide the greatest level of
flexibility in how virtual resources are defined and managed, they
are the primary technology of choice for system virtualization.
There are two types of hypervisors. Type
1 hypervisors run directly on the system hardware.
Type 2 hypervisors run on a host
operating system that provides virtualization services, such as I/O
device support and memory management.
Type 1 hypervisors are typically the preferred approach because they
can achieve higher virtualization efficiency by dealing directly
with the hardware.
Information in part provided from the article "Virtual
Systems Overview" by IBM |
| HPFS |
High Performance File System (IBM OS/2) |
| HTML |
HyperText Markup Language |
|
HTML5 |
HyperText Markup Language
5 - Among Web developers, anticipation is mounting for HTML5, the
overhaul of the Web markup language currently under way at the
Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C). For many, the revamping is long
overdue. HTML hasn't had a proper upgrade in more than a decade. In
fact, the last markup language to win W3C Recommendation status --
the final stage of the Web standards process -- was XHTML 1.1 in
2001. |
| HTTP |
HyperText Transport Protocol |
| Hz |
Hertz |
| IBM |
International Business Machines |
| ICE |
Information and Content Exchange |
| IDE |
Integrated Drive Electronics
IDE Is ATA - The IDE interface is
officially known as the ATA (AT Attachment) specification. ATAPI
(ATA Packet Interface) defines the IDE standard for CD-ROMs and tape
drives. ATA-2 (Fast ATA) defined the faster transfer rates used in
Enhanced IDE (EIDE). ATA-3 added interface improvements, including
the ability to report potential problems (see S.M.A.R.T.). |
| iDEN |
Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) uses
TMDA technology to provide cell phone voice communication,
messaging, digital two-way radio and data transfers. |
| IEEE |
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers |
| IETF |
Internet Engineering Task Force |
| IGMP |
Internet Group Multicast Protocol |
| IPX |
Internetwork Packet Exchange |
| IPv6 |
Internet Protocol version 6 |
| IRC |
Internet Relay Chat |
| ISA |
Industry Standard Architecture |
| iSCSI |
SCSI over a network
connection |
| ISDN |
Integrated Service Digital Network |
| ISP |
Internet Service Provider |
| ITU |
International Telecommunications Union |
| JPEG |
Joint Photographic Experts Group |
| KB |
Kilobit |
| KHz |
Kilohertz |
| LAN |
Local Area Network |
| LINQ |
Language-Integrated Query |
| LCOS |
Liquid Crystal on Silicon |
| MAN |
Metropolitan Area Network |
| MB |
Megabit |
| Mbps |
Megabits per second |
| MCNS |
Multimedia Cable Network Systems |
| MHTML |
Messaging HTML - It is the concept of
using the HTML standard for messaging. |
| MHz |
Megahertz |
| MIME |
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| MIMO |
Multiple Input, Multiple Output |
| MIPS |
Millions of Instructions Per Second |
| Modem |
Modulate/DEModulate |
Moore's
Law |
Former Intel CEO Gordon Moore in 1965
first wrote the supposition that would become known as Moore's Law.
That law states that the available transistor budget for computer
processors would roughly double every 18 months. |
| MPEG |
Motion Picture Experts Group - a video
file format offering excellent quality in a relatively small file. |
| MPLS |
MultiProtocol Label Switching
- Considered as one possible approach for scalable Quality of
Service QoS provisioning in the Internet. MPLS is being
standardized by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) |
| MS |
Microsoft Corporation |
| NAS |
Network Attached
Storage |
| NTFS |
NT File System (Microsoft) |
|
OASIS |
Organization for the Advancement of
Structured Information Standards |
| OEM |
Original Equipment Manufacturer |
| OLAP |
OnLine Analytical Processing - A
database capable of handling queries more complex than those
handled by standard relational databases, through the ability to
view data by different criteria, intensive calculation capability,
and specialized indexing techniques. |
| OLED |
Organic Light Emitting Device
or Organic Light Emitting Diode.
Also known as an Organic Electroluminescent Device (OEL), it
is a thin-film, light-emitting device that typically consists of a
series of organic layers between two electrical contacts
(electrodes). OLEDs can be made using small-molecular weight organic
materials (SM-OLEDs) or polymer-based materials (PLEDs, LEPs).
Unlike LCDs and FEDs, which are constructed of layered materials,
OLEDs are monolithic devices, because each layer is deposited on the
other, creating a single unit.
Initially developed for display applications, OLEDs offer bright,
colorful images with a wide viewing angle and low power.
They do not need backlights as do
LCD screens. OLEDs are commonly
constructed on glass, but can also be fabricated on plastic and
other flexible substrate films, such as Universal Display's Flexible
OLED (FOLED).
OLED in HDTV technology represents an
important milestone by shepherding in the latest flat-panel TV
technology, which may eventually replace plasma and traditional LCD.
OLED promises better picture quality,
smaller size and more efficient operation. |
| ORB |
Object Request Broker - It acts as the
middleware between clients and servers; typically receiving
requests from the clients, forwarding them to the appropriate
server, and then handing the results back to the client. |
| OSR2 |
OEM Service Release 2 |
| PAP |
Password Authentication Protocol |
| PBCC |
Packet
Binary Convolutional
Code (Related to 802.X) |
| PCI |
Peripheral Component Interconnect |
| PCI Express |
Third Generation I/O spec
- Previously known as 3GIO - It has been
transferred to the PCI-SIG |
| PCMCIA |
Personal Computer Memory Card International Association |
| PCS |
Personal Communications Service - It is
a set of exclusively digital cellular technologies that are
capable of operating at the 1900 MHz frequency range. |
| PFC |
Power Factor Correction
- allows power distribution to operate at its maximum
efficiency. There are two types of PFC, Active PFC and Passive PFC.
Active PFC is the preferable type of
PFC since it provides more efficient power
frequency. Because Active PFC uses a circuit to correct power
factor, Active PFC is able to generate a theoretical power factor of
over 95%. Active Power Factor Correction also markedly diminishes
total harmonics, automatically corrects for AC input voltage, and is
capable of a full range of input voltage. Since Active PFC is the
more complex method of Power Factor Correction, it is more expensive
to produce an Active PFC power supply.
Passive PFC is the most common type of
PFC. Passive PFC uses a capacitive filter at the AC input to correct
poor power factor. Passive PFC may be affected when environmental
vibration occurs. Passive PFC requires that the AC input voltage be
set manually. Passive PFC also does not use the full energy
potential of the AC line.
|
| PIN |
Personal Identification Number |
| POP |
Post Office Protocol |
| POTS |
Plain Old Telephone Service |
| PPP |
Point to Point Protocol |
| PPTP |
Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol |
| QoS |
Quality of Service |
| RAS |
Remote Access Services |
| RAMBUS |
DRAM architecture and a very high-speed
data transfer technology |
| RBOC |
Regional Bell Operating Company |
| RDRAM |
Rambus DRAM |
| RFC |
Request For Comments |
| RIMM |
Rambus In-line Memory Module |
| RISC |
Reduced Instruction Set Computer |
| RMON |
Remote Monitoring |
| RPC |
Remote Procedure Call |
| RRAS |
Routing and Remote Access Services |
| RSS |
Really Simple Syndication
or Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary. An XML format for
news and content syndication, in which headlines and links to the
actual content are made available to Web sites. After the publishing
site creates an RSS file of its content, other Web sites may use the
headline feed, and the content can be read with a standard Web
browser or by specialized RSS viewers. |
| SAML |
Security Assertion Markup Language |
| SAN |
Storage Area Network |
|
SAS |
Serial Attached SCSI
offers features that liberate SCSI from its parallel
predecessor and delivers new levels of
speed and connectivity while retaining the functionality and
reliability that has made SCSI the premier enterprise storage I/O
standard for over two decades.
By combining serial performance and
scalability with existing SCSI environments, SAS adds new freedom to
storage solutions while maintaining the long-standing foundation on
which enterprise storage was built. It accelerates
storage performance compared to Parallel SCSI, ensures
data integrity, preserves IT investments
and enables system design flexibility with SATA drives in a
single enclosure. |
| SATA |
Serial ATA -
The evolution of the ATA (IDE) interface that changes the physical
architecture from parallel to serial and from master-slave to
point-to-point. Unlike parallel ATA interfaces that connect two
drives; one configured as master, the other as slave, each Serial
ATA drive is connected to its own interface. At initial
introduction, Serial ATA (SATA) increases the transfer rate to 150
MB/sec (Now 300 MB/sec). It uses four-wire cables up to one meter in length compared
to the 18" limitation of the 80-pin flat cable used on ATA-66 and
higher drives.
Serial ATA has another advantage. Its connectors are considerably
smaller than its parallel ATA (PATA) counterpart, which allows more
drives to be attached to the same real estate on the motherboard or
controller card. See IDE |
| SCSI |
Small Computer Systems Interface |
| SDRAM |
Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory |
| SDX |
Storage Data Acceleration |
| SGML |
Standard Generalized Markup Language |
| SIP |
Session Initiated Protocol |
| SLDRAM |
SyncLink DRAM |
| SMIME |
Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions |
| SMTP |
Simple Mail Transfer Protocol |
| SOAP |
Simple Object Access Protocol |
| SO DIMM |
Small Outline Dual In-line Memory
Module |
| SPF |
Sender Policy
Framework
- An emerging authentication protocol for preventing e-mail
forgeries, or spoofing |
| Spoofing |
The act of a packet claiming to be from an address from which
is was not actually sent |
| SQL |
Structured Query Language |
| SR |
Service Release |
SSL
SSLv2
SSLv3 |
Secure Sockets Layer |
| SwA |
SOAP Messages with Attachments |
| TCP/IP |
Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol |
| TCO |
Total Cost of Ownership |
| TDMA |
Time Division Multiple Access - A
digital radio system like CDMA (see above). But with TDMA, a
frequency channel is divided into separate time slots to
accommodate multiple sessions. |
| TLA |
Three Letter Acronym |
| TLSv1 |
Transport Layer Security
- Next generation and stronger that the SSLv2 (Secure Socket
Layer) |
| Touch Screen
Technology |
Early mobile devices with touchscreen
capabilities (such as the Palm Pilot and the Treo) used resistive
touch technology, which requires the user to press down on the
screen in order to register a function. When the user presses down
on the screen (with a stylus or fingernail), the top layer makes
contact with the bottom layer for activation. Resistive touchscreens
have a tendency to wear out because of the nature of the technology.
Today resistive touchscreens still claim
a majority of the market (2008), however,
more manufacturers (Apple) are
implementing capacitive touchscreen technology. Capacitive
technology detects the capacitance that your finger introduces to
several wires, and there is no pressure requirement. This makes a
capacitive screen much more durable than its resistive counterpart.
Capacitive touchscreens are designed to work with your finger, which
introduces the ability to manipulate objects on the screen through
gestures, and to drag and drop events. |
| UAE |
Unrecoverable Application Error |
| UART |
Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter |
| UDDI |
Universal Description, Discovery and
Integration initiative |
| UEFI |
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface
- Often shortened to EFI - The apparent
replacement to the 20 year old BIOS standard |
| UPS |
Uninterruptable Power Supply |
| URL |
Universal Resource Locator |
| USB |
Universal Serial Bus |
| VFAT |
Virtual File Allocation Table |
| Viiv |
Intel Viiv
(rhymes with "five") is a Centrino-style
standard rather than a specific product, and specifies a PC with a
dual-core processor, remote control operation, gigabit Ethernet, TV
tuner card, and Windows XP Media Center Edition. Viiv also
incorporates Intel's new Quick Resume Technology, which allows for
instant on/off of the PC (once it's booted). |
Virtual
Systems |
System virtualization creates many
virtual systems within a single physical system. Virtual systems are
independent operating environments that use virtual resources.
System virtualization can be approached through hardware
partitioning or hypervisor technology. |
| VLAN |
Virtual Local Area Network |
| VLB |
VESA Local Bus |
| VLSI |
Very Large Scale Integration |
| VPN |
Virtual Private Network |
| VRAM |
Video Random Access Memory, (pronounced vee-ram) |
| W3C |
World Wide Web Consortium |
| WAN |
Wide Area Network |
| WBEM |
Web-Based Enterprise Management |
| WbXML |
Wireless Binary XML
- Compressed Wireless Binary XML (WbXML), which makes
efficient use of the constrained bandwidth of mobile clients |
| WDM |
Wave Division Multiplexing |
|
WECA |
Wireless Ethernet
Compatibility Alliance (Wi-Fi) |
| WEP |
Wired Equivalent Privacy |
| Wi-Fi |
See 802.11a, 802.11b,
& 802.11g (Also
known WiFi) |
|
WHDI |
Wireless Home Digital Interface
- In the new consortium, Sony Corp. and Samsung Electronics
Co., along with Motorola Inc., Sharp Corp. and Hitachi Ltd., will
develop an industry standard around technology from Amimon Ltd. of
Israel called WHDI.
Wireless streaming of high-definition video is a relatively tricky
engineering problem that many companies are trying to tackle. It can
be done with the fastest versions of Wi-Fi, a technology already in
many homes, but that requires "compression," or reduction of the
data rate, with picture quality degrading as a result. There's also
a delay in transmission as chips on both ends of the link work to
compress, then decompress the image.
Sony is part of the WirelessHD group as well, and is supporting WHDI
to have "wider options," the company said in a statement.
Samsung, on the other hand, looks at WHDI as a stopgap technology
until the higher-picture-quality WirelessHD takes over. JaeMoon Jo,
Samsung's vice president of TV research, said the company believes
WirelessHD will be the "ultimate solution in the long run."
Still another contending wireless technology is ultra-wideband, or
UWB. It requires less compression than Wi-Fi, but its range is more
limited, generally to in-room networking. Monster Cable Products
Inc. plans to introduce a kit that produces a wireless video link
using UWB.
WHDI is less exotic than either WirelessHD or UWB. It uses a radio
band at 5 gigahertz that's used by some Wi-Fi devices, which means
it can take advantage of research in that field. To get around the
limitations of the limited bandwidth, Amimon uses a clever trick
instead of compression. |
| WWiSE |
World Wide Spectrum Efficiency
- Consortium working to replace the
current Wi-Fi with a standard called
802.11n using technology such as MIMO |
WiMAX
802.16
802.20 |
WiMAX
technology, also known as 802.16, should be available in 2005/2006
and will function as a wireless alternative to cable modems and DSL.
WiMAX plans to offer wireless connectivity up to 30 miles from an
antenna at speeds of up to 75 mbps, cable modems bring in data at
just over 1 mbps. WiMax, which carriers can use to wirelessly
deliver broadband, will include the 802.16 standard, plus revisions
and additions. WiMAX is thirty times faster than 3G
(Voice/Data) networks and one WiMAX radio mast covers an area 10
times larger than G3. |
| WOSA |
Windows Open Standards Architecture |
| WPA |
Wi-Fi Protected Access |
| WPA2 |
Wi-Fi Protected Access 2 (WPA2), which
is the latest standards-based wireless security solution derived
from the IEEE 802.11i standard. |
| WSDL |
Web Services Description Language |
| WS-I |
Web Services Interoperability
Organization |
| WWW |
World Wide Web |
| WYSIWYG |
What You See Is What You Get |
| XLL |
eXtensible Linking Language |
| XML |
eXtensible Markup Language |
| XPS |
XML Paper Specification |
| XSL |
eXtensible Stylesheet Language |
