List of computing and IT abbreviations: Meaning (information, definition, explanation)

There are many abbreviations associated with the computer industry PC, IT, CPU etc. Add them to this alphabetical listing.

Table of contents 1 A-C 2 D-F 3 G-I 4 J-M 5 N-R 6 S-V 7 W-Z 8 External links

A-C AA - anti-aliasing <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Antialiasing.html> AABB - Axis aligned bounding box AAC - Advanced Audio Coding <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Advanced-Audio-Coding.html> (audio compression format defined by the MPEG-2 <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/MPEG-2.html> standard) ACID - Atomiticy Consistency Isolation Durability ACM ACPI <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/ACPI.html> Advanced Configuration and Power Interface APCI - Application-Layer Protocol Control Information APIC <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/IO-APIC.html> Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller ADC - Apple Display Connector (DVI <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Digital-visual-interface.html> variant) ADO - ActiveX Data Object ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, variant of DSL

AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Accelerated-Graphics-Port.html>, sometimes used with a suffix indicating the port's bandwidth, like APG4x AI - artificial intelligence <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Artificial-intelligence.html> AIM - AOL Instant Messenger AMD - Advanced Micro Devices <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/AMD.html> AMI - American Megatrends ... (BIOS manufacturer) AMR - Audio Modem Riser ANSI - American National Standards Institute AOL - America Online API - Application Programming Interface <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Application-Programming-Interface.html> ASCII <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/ASCII.html> American Standard Code for Information Interchange ASIC ASP - Application Service Provider ASP (MS ASP) AVI <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/AVI.html> - Audio Video Interleaved BASIC - Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, acronym was added later, originally it was simply Basic BBS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/BBS.html> - Bulletin Board System BIND - Berkeley Internet Name Daemon BIOS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/BIOS.html> - Basic Input Output System BJT - Bipolar Junction Transistor BSA <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/BSA.html> Business Software Alliance

BSD <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Berkeley-SoftwareDistribution.html> - Berkeley Software Distribution (Unix variant) BSOD - Blue Screen of Death (MS Windows specific) CAD <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/CAD.html> Computer Aided Design CAM CASE CD-R <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/CD-R.html> - CDRecordable CD-RW - CD-Rewritable CF - Compact Flash CFG - Context-free grammar - control flow graph CG - Computer Graphics? CGA - Color Graphics Array CGI - Common Gateway Interface CLI - Command Line Interface CM - Configuration Management CNC COM - Component Object Model CPAN <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/CPAN.html> Comprehensive Perl Area Network CPU <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Central-processingunit.html> - Central Processing Unit CRC - Cyclic Redundancy Check CRM CRT - Cathode Ray Tube CS - Computer Science CSE - Computer Science Engineering

CSS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Cascading-StyleSheets.html> - Cascading Style Sheets CSS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Content-scramblingsystem.html> - Content Scrambling System CT - Computerized Tomography CVS - Concurrent Versioning System

D-F DAO - Data Access Objects DB - database DBA - database administrator DBMS - Database Management System DDE DEC - Digital Equipment Company DES DHTML - Dynamic HTML DIMM - Dual Inline Memory Module DLL - Dynamic Load Library DMA - Direct Memory Addressing DN - Distinguished Name DND - drag and drop DNS - Domain Name Server DOM - Document Object Model DOS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/DOS.html> - Disk Operating System DRAM ECC - Elliptic Curve Cryptography

EEPROM EGA EISA ELF - Extremely Low Frequency ELM EOF - End of File EOL - End of Life EPROM ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning FAT - File Allocation Table FAQ <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/FAQ.html> Frequently Asked Questions FET - Field Effects Transistor FIFO - First In First Out FPGA - Field Programmable Gate Array FS - file system FTP - File Transfer Protocol

G-I GB - Gigabyte GCC GDB <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/GNUDebugger.html> - GNU debugger GIF - Graphics Interchange Format GIGO <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/GIGO.html> Garbage In Garbage Out GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program

GNOME - GNU Object Model Environment GNU <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/GNU.html> - GNU's Not Unix GPG - GNU Privacy Guard GPL - GNU Public License GRUB - GRand Unified Boot-loader GUI - Graphical User Interface HAL - Hardware Abstraction Layer HCI - Human Computer Interaction HDD - Hard Disk Drive HF - High Frequency HPFS HTML <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/HTML.html> Hypertext Markup Language HTTP <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/HTTP.html> Hypertext Transport Protocol HURD Hz - Hertz IBM - International Business Machines IC - Integrated Circuit ICMP IDL - Interface Definition Layer IEEE IETF IM - Instant Messaging IMAP IP <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Internet-

Protocol.html> - Internet Protocol IRC - Internet Relay Chat IrDA IRQ - Interrupt Request IS - Information Systems ISA - Industry Standard Architechture ISO - International Organization for Standardization ISP - Internet Service Provider IT <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/IT.html> - Information Technology

J-M JDK - Java Developer's Kit JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group JFET JFS - Journaling filesystem JS - Javascript JSP - Java Server Page KB - Kilobyte KDE - K Desktop Environment kHz - Kilohertz KISS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/KISSPrinciple.html> - Keep it simple, stupid LAN - Local Area Network LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol LED - Light Emitting Diode LF - Low Frequency

LIFO - Last In First Out LILO LGPL LOC - Lines of Code LUG - Linux User's Group LZW MAN <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Metropolitan-areanetwork.html> - Metropolitan Area Network MB - Megabyte MCSE - Microsoft Certified System Engineer MHz - Megahertz MMU <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/MMU.html> Memory Management Unit MOSFET - Metal-oxide semiconductor FET MPEG <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/MPEG.html> Motion Pictures (Coding) Experts Group MPL - Mozilla Public License MS - Microsoft MS-DOS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/MS-DOS.html> Microsoft DOS MSDN - Microsoft Developer's Network MUD - Multi-user dungeon

N-R NCSA NDS - Novell Directory Services NFS - Network filesystem

NIST NP - Non-polynomial NPL - Netscape Public License NPU - Numeric processing unit? NMI - Non-Maskable Interrupt NNTP - Network News Transfer Protocol NT NTFS - NT file system OLED - Organic Light Emitting Diode OO - Object Oriented OO - Open Office OOo - openoffice.org OOP - Object Oriented Programming OS - Operating System OSI - Open Source Initiative OSI - Open Systems Interconnect OSS - Open Source Software OSDN - Open Source Developer's Network PAN - Personal Area Network PCB - Printed Circuit Board PC <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Personalcomputer.html> - personal computer PCI PCMCIA <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/PCMCIA.html> Personal Computer Memory Card International Association PCM - Pulse Coded Modulation PDA - Personal digital assistant <http://explanation-

guide.info/meaning/Personal-Digital-Assistant.html> PERL - Practical Extraction and Reporting Language PGA - Programmable Gate Arrays PGP - Pretty Good Privacy PINE - PINE Is Not Elm PL PNG - Portable Network Graphics POP <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/POP.html> - Point of Presence POP3 <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/POP3.html> - Post Office Protocol v3 PPP PPPOE PS2 PVR - Personal Video Recorder PXE - Pre Excecution Environment PXI QoS - Quality of Service? RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks RAM - Random Access Memory RC - Release Candidate RDBMS - Relational Database Management System RDF - Resource Description Framework RF - Radio Frequency RFI - Radio Frequency Interference RFID - Radio Frequency Identification RGB - Red, Green, Blue

RIP - Routing Information Protocol <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/Routing-Information-Protocol.html> - raster image processor <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Rasterimage-processor.html> RLE - run-length encoding ROM - Read Only Memory RSA - Rivest Shamir Adelman RSS -

S-V SCP - Secure Copy SAN - Storage Area Network SDK - Software Developer's Kit SEAL - Semantics-directed Environment Adaptation Language SEI - Software Engineering Institute SIMM - Single Inline Memory Module SMC SMP - Symmetric Multi-Processing SMTP - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SP - Service Pack SQL - Structured Query Language SSH - Secure Shell SSI - Server Side Include SSL - Secure Socket Layer SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics SVGA TB - Terabyte

TCL TCP - Transmission Control Protocol TCP/IP - Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol TLA <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/TLA.html> - three letter acronym (actually an initialism, not an acronym <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Acronym.html>) TLD - top-level domain TSP - Traveling Salesman Problem TTL - transistor to transistor logic TTL - time to live UDMA UDP UHF - Ultra High Frequency UML - Unified Markup Language UPS - Uninterruptible Power Supply URI - Uniform Resource Identifier? URL - Uniform Resource Locator? USB - Universal Serial Bus VRML - Virtual Reality Markup Language VB - Visual Basic VBA - Visual Basic for Applications VBS - Visual Basic Script VESA VGA - Variable Graphics Array VHF - Very High Frequency VLB - Vesa Local Bus VLF - Very Low Frequency

W-Z WAIS <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/WAIS.html> - Wide Area Information Servers WAN - Wide Area Network WAP - wireless application protocol WEP - Wired equivalent protocol? WOL <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/Wol.html> - Wake on LAN WMA WPA (wireless protocol) WWW - World Wide Web <http://explanationguide.info/meaning/World-Wide-Web.html> XFS XHTML <http://explanation-guide.info/meaning/XHTML.html> eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language XML XP - Cross Platform (not Windows XP) XPCOM - Cross Platform Component Object Model XPI - Cross Platform Installer XPIDL - Cross Platform IDL XUL YACC YAML YAST ZIF - Zero Insertion Force

Back to Acronym <http://explanation-

guide.info/meaning/Acronym.html>

External links: Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms <http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/vera/vera_toc.html> (http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/vera/vera_toc.html)