Popular Computer Terms

Anyone who has even a passing in interest in computers and computing will be aware that there are an abundance of technical terms, abbreviations and acronyms. Over the  next few pages, we will list some of the more popular of these, in the hope that it will help you find your way around these terms.

ACL - Access Control List
ADC - Analogue to Digital Converter
ADF - Automatic Document Feeder
ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port
AIFF - Audio Interchange File Format
AIX - Advanced Interactive Executive
ANSI - American National Standards Institute
API - Application Program Interface
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
ASCII - American Standard Code For Information Interchange
ASP - Active Server Page OR Application Service Provider
ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment
ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode
BASIC - Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
BCC - Blind Carbon Copy
BIOS - Basic Input/Output System
BLOB - Binary Large Object BMP Bitmap
CAD - Computer-Aided Design
CC - Carbon Copy
CCD - Charged Coupled Device
CD - Compact Disc
CD-R - Compact Disc Recordable
CD-ROM - Compact Disc Read-Only Memory
CD-RW - Compact Disc Rewritable
CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access
CGI - Common Gateway Interface
CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computing
CMOS - Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
CMYK - Cyan Magenta Yellow Black
CPA - Cost Per Action
CPC - Cost Per Click
CPL - Cost Per Lead
CPM - Cost Per 1,000 Impressions
CPS - Classroom Performance System
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
CRT - Cathode Ray Tube
CSS - Cascading Style Sheet
CTP - Composite Theoretical Performance
CTR - Click-Through Rate
DAC - Digital-to-Analogue Converter
DBMS - Database Management System
DDR - Double Data Rate
DDR2 - Double Data Rate 2
DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DIMM - Dual In-Line Memory Module
DLL - Dynamic Link Library
DMA - Direct Memory Access
DNS - Domain Name System
DOS - Disk Operating System
DPI - Dots Per Inch
DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory
DRM - Digital Rights Management
DSL - Digital Subscriber Line
DSLAM - Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer
DTD - Document Type Definition
DV - Digital Video
DVD - Digital Versatile Disc
DVD+R - Digital Versatile Disc Recordable
DVD+RW - Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable
DVD-R - Digital Versatile Disc Recordable
DVD-RAM - Digital Versatile Disc Random Access Memory
DVD-RW - Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable
DVI - Digital Video Interface
DVR - Digital Video Recorder
ECC - Error Correction Code
EDI - Electronic Data Interchange
EPS - Encapsulated PostScript EUP Enterprise Unified Process
FIFO - First In First Out
FIOS - Fibre Optic Service
FLOPS - Floating Point Operations Per Second
FPU - Floating Point Unit
FSB - Front Side Bus
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format
GIGO - Garbage In Garbage Out
GIS - Geographic Information Systems
GPS - Global Positioning System
GPU - Graphics Processing Unit
GUI - Graphical User Interface
GUID - Globally Unique Identifier
HDMI - High-Definition Multimedia Interface
HDTV - High Definition Television
HDV - High-Definition Video
HFS - Hierarchical File System
HSF - Heat Sink Fan
HTML - Hyper-Text Mark-up Language
HTTP - Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol
HTTPS - Hyper-Text Transport Protocol Secure
I/O - Input/Output
ICANN - Internet Corporation For Assigned Names And Numbers
ICF - Internet Connection Firewall ICMP Internet Control Message Protocol
ICS - Internet Connection Sharing
IDE - Integrated Device Electronics
IDE - Integrated Development Environment
IEEE - Institute Of Electrical And Electronics Engineers
IGP - Integrated Graphics Processor
IM - Instant Message
IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol
INTERNIC - Internet Network Information Centre
IP - Internet Protocol
IPX - Internetwork Packet Exchange
IRC - Internet Relay Chat
IRQ - Interrupt Request
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
ISCSI - Internet Small Computer Systems Interface
ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO - International Organization For Standardization
ISP - Internet Service Provider
IT - Information Technology
IVR - Interactive Voice Response
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group
JRE - Java Runtime Environment
JSP - Java Server Page
KBPS - Kilobits Per Second
KDE - K Desktop Environment
KVM - Keyboard, Video, And Mouse Switch
LAN - Local Area Network
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LPI - Lines Per Inch
LUN - Logical Unit Number
MAC -Media Access Control
MANET - Mobile Ad Hoc Network
MBPS - Megabits Per Second
MCA - Micro Channel Architecture
MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIPS - Million Instructions Per Second
MPEG - Moving Picture Experts Group
NAT - Network Address Translation
NETBIOS - Network Basic Input/Output System
NIC - Network Interface Card
NNTP - Network News Transfer Protocol
NOC - Network Operations Centre
NTFS - New Technology File System
OASIS - Organization For The Advancement Of Structured Information Standards
OCR - Optical Character Recognition
ODBC - Open Database Connectivity
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
OLAP - Online Analytical Processing
OLE - Object Linking And Embedding
OOP - Object-Oriented Programming
P2P - Peer To Peer
PC - Personal Computer
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCI-X - Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PDA - Personal Digital Assistant
PDF - Portable Document Format
PHP - Hypertext Pre-processor
PIM - Personal Information Manager
PMU - Power Management Unit
PNG - Portable Network Graphic
POP3 - Post Office Protocol
PPC - Pay Per Click
PPGA - Plastic Pin Grid Array
PPI - Pixels Per Inch
PPL - Pay Per Lead
PPM - Pages Per Minute
PPP - Point To Point Protocol
PPTP - Point-to-Point Tunnelling Protocol
PRAM - Parameter Random Access Memory
PS/2 - Personal System/2
QBE - Query By Example
RAID - Redundant Array Of Independent Disks
RAM - Random Access Memory
RDF - Resource Description Framework
RDRAM - Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory
RGB - Red Green Blue
RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computing
ROM - Read Only Memory
RPC - Remote Procedure Call
RPM - Revenue Per Thousand Impressions
RSS - RDF (see above) Site Summary
RTE - Runtime Environment
RTF - Rich Text Format
RUP - Rational Unified Process
SAN - Storage Area Network
SATA - Serial Advanced Technology Attachment
SCSI - Small Computer System Interface
SD - Secure Digital
SDRAM - Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
SDSL - Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line
SEM - Search Engine Marketing
SEO - Search Engine Optimization
SIMM - Single In-Line Memory Module
SKU - Stock Keeping Unit
SLI - Scalable Link Interface
SMART - Self-Monitoring Analysis And Reporting Technology
SMB - Server Message Block
SMS - Short Message Service
SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol
SO-DIMM - Small Outline Dual In-Line Memory Module
SOA - Service Oriented Architecture
SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol
SQL - Structured Query Language
SRAM - Static Random Access Memory
SRGB - Standard Red Green Blue
SSH - Secure Shell
SSID - Service Set Identifier
SSL - Secure Sockets Layer
TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
TFT - Thin-Film Transistor
TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
TWAIN - Toolkit Without An Informative Name
UDDI - Universal Description Discovery And Integration
UDP - User Datagram Protocol
UML - Unified Modelling Language
UNC - Universal Naming Convention
UPNP - Universal Plug And Play
UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply
URI - Uniform Resource Identifier URL Uniform Resource Locator
USB - Universal Serial Bus
VCI - Virtual Channel Identifier
VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association
VFAT - Virtual File Allocation Table
VGA - Video Graphics Array
VLB - VESA Local Bus
VLE - Virtual Learning Environment
VOIP - Voice Over Internet Protocol
VPI - Virtual Path Identifier
VPN - Virtual Private Network
VPS - Virtual Private Server
VRAM - Video Random Access Memory
VRML - Virtual Reality Modelling Language
WAIS - Wide Area Information Server
WAN - Wide Area Network
WEP - Wired Equivalent Privacy
WI-FI - Wireless Fidelity
WPA - Wi-Fi Protected Access
WWW - World Wide Web
XHTML - Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language
XML - Extensible Mark-up Language
XSLT - Extensible Style Sheet Language Transformation
Y2K - Year 2000
ZIF - Zero Insertion Force 

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