Some Important Terms Related To ICT
Some Important Terms and Abbreviations/ ICT Glossary
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1. ABEND (Abnormal End)
When an application program ends earlier then expected due to some unforeseen error-often something which the programmer had not considered.
2. ADC (Analog to Digital Converter)
A device which converts analog information to digital.
3. ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line)
A mechanism by which data can be transmitted across conventional telephone lines. The circuit need to be configured to connect 2 specified locations.
4. AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
The Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) is a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a video card to a computer system, primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics. It was originally designed as a successor to PCI-type connections for video cards.
5. ARP (Address Resolution Protocol)
ARP is a method for finding a host’s hardware address from it’s Internet address. The sender uses the ARP to put forth a message seeking to delineate the IP address from the hardware address and waits to receive the latter. Each host maintains a cache of address translations to reduce delay and loading. ARP allows the Internet address to be independent of the hardware address but it only works if all hosts support it.
6. (ASCII) American Standard Code for Information Interchange
A standard coding system for computers. ASCII-7 is a 7-bit code, and its extended version, ASCII-8 is an 8-bit code.
7. Array
A data type that is a collection of elements in which all elements are of the same type. It has a fixed number of elements, called its length or size, given at the time of its declaration. All elements of an array are stored in contiguous memory locations.
8. Asynchronous communication
Data transmission mode in which sender sends data at any convenient time and receiver accepts it. In asynchronous transmission, data is transmitted character by character at irregular intervals. That is, a sender sends a character at any convenient time and receiver accepts it. For instance, transmission of data from a terminal to a computer is asynchronous because during data entry by an operator, time between successive keystrokes varies.
9. ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode)
A networking standard which is predicted by many experts to be the networking protocol of the future.
10. Automated tape library
A mass storage device that uses a set of magnetic tapes, tape drives and a controller mounted in a single unit to function as a single large storage unit. Its typical use is for data archiving and as on-line data backup device for automated backup.
11. Auxiliary memory
A storage that supplements main memory of a computer. Often referred to as secondary storage this section of a computer’s memory is non-volatile and has low cost per bit stored, but its operating speed is generally far slower than that of primary storage.
