| A | B |
|---|
| IC | Integrated Circuit - The formal name for the computer chip. |
| AI | Artificial Intelligence - The effort to simulate the human cognitive (thought) process in machines. |
| CPU | Central Crocessing Unit - This component (a chip) controls and coordinates the operations of the computer and its various sub-systems. Also know as the 'microprocessor.' |
| EDP | Electronic Data Processing - Read it backwards and it tells what computers do and how they do it. |
| CAI | Computer Assisted Instruction - Tutorial courseware delivered and managed through computers and computer software. |
| OCR | Optical Character Reader - Input device often used to read hand printed "characters" from specialized order forms. |
| VLSI | Very Large Scale Integration - Base technology for 4th generation computers.Represents the "micro-miniaturization" of circuits onto a silicon wafer. |
| LCD | Liquid Crystal Display - the type of display used on digital wrist watches, calculators and on some laptop computers. |
| CRT | Cathode Ray Tube - The formal name for the "picture tube" of a video display monitor. |
| pixel | Picture Element - Refers to the tiny dots of light that make the image on a video display. |
| BASIC | Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code - a free form "language" for programming computers. |
| FORTRAN | Formula Translation - One of the earliest high level languages for programming computers. Developed by John Backus of IBM and used for scientific and mathematical calculations. |
| CoBOL | Common Business Oriented Language - An early high level language for programming computers. Used mostly in business and accounting. Developed by Bob Bemer following a prototype by Grace Hopper. |
| RAM | Random Access Memory - Computer memory that is user programmable but temporary. |
| ROM | Read Only Memory - Computer memory that has instructions 'hard wired' into chips at the factory. NOT user programmable, but permanent. |
| MICR | Magnetic Ink Character Reader - Input device used in banking to read account data from checks and deposit slips. |
| UPC | Universal Product Code - Found on most product packaging and is read by the bar code scanner input device. |
| bit | Short for 'Binary Digit,' A bit is the smallest unit of memory in an electronic computer. Traditionally, 8 bits = 1 byte. |
| byte | The traditional "standard unit of memory" in a computer, one byte is made of 8 bits. It takes one byte to store one character of data. |
| MHz | Megahertz - one million cycles per second. A speed term used in reference to microprocessor clock cycles. |
| GHz | Gigahertz - one billion cycles per second - a speed term used in reference to microprocessor clock cycles. |
| MB | Megabyte - One MB is 1,048,576 (aproximately one million) bytes of computer memory or auxiliary storage capacity. |
| GB | Gigabyte - 1,073,741,842 (aproximately one billion) bytes of computer memory or auxiliary storage capacity. |
| K or KB | Kilobyte - 1,024 (aproximately one thousand) bytes of computer memory or auxiliary storage capacity. |
| HTML | Hyper Text Markup Language - The authoring language used to create documents on the World Wide Web. |
| http | Hyper Text Transfer Protocol, the underlying protocol used by the World Wide Web. HTTP defines how messages are formatted and transmitted. |
| ASCII | American Standard Code for Information Interchange (pronounced "as - key") Developed by Bob Bemer in c. 1963 so that all computers would represent data internally in the same way. |
