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Documents for "Computers and Computing":
  • Ada see programming language.
  • alphanumeric or alphameric , the set of letters and numbers. When used in reference to computer input and output, the set usually is expanded to include the upper- and lower-case alphabetic characters (A-Z, a-z), the numeric characters (0-9), and special characters (such as the symbols $, #,...
  • artificial intelligence (AI), the use of computers to model the behavioral aspects of human reasoning and learning. Research in AI is concentrated in some half-dozen areas. In problem solving, one must proceed from a beginning (the initial state)...
  • ASCII or American Standard Code for Information Interchange, a set of codes used to represent letters, numbers, a few symbols, and control characters. Originally designed for teletype operations, it has found wide application in computers. A seven-digit (or seven-bit) binary number (see binary system ) can represent one of 128 distinct codes. Thus, in decimal equivalents, the series "72, 69, 76, 76, 79" represents the letters "h, e, l, l, o" in ASCII. With the introduction of its personal computer in 1981, the International Business Machines Company (IBM) increased the number of available characters to 256 by using an eight-bit byte...
  • bar code computer coding system that uses a printed pattern of lines or bars to identify products, mail and packages, customer accounts, and the like. Bar codes are read by optically scanning the printed...
  • baud measure of the rate at which signals are transmitted over a telecommunications link. It is equivalent to the number of elements or pulses transmitted in one second, e.g., in computer input/output, 2400 baud equals 2400 bits per second (bps) if each pulse encodes one bit (either 0 or 1). Many modems permit the encoding of several bits per baud. A 9600-bps modem that operates at 2400 baud sends four bits per baud by using a range of 16 tones (representing the four-bit combinations 0000 to 1111)...
  • C see programming language.
  • CAD see computer-aided design.
  • CAM see computer-aided manufacturing.
  • computer device capable of performing a series of arithmetic or logical operations. A computer is distinguished from a calculating machine, such as an electronic calculator , by being able to store a computer program (so that it can repeat its operations and make logical decisions), by the number and complexity of the operations it can perform, and by its ability to process, store, and retrieve data without...
  • computer graphics the transfer of pictorial data into and out of a computer. Using analog-to-digital conversion techniques, a variety of devices—such as curve tracers, digitizers, and light pens—connected to graphic computer terminals , computer-aided design programs, or optical scanners can be used to store pictorial data in a digital computer. By reversing the process through digital-to-analog conversion techniques, the stored data can be displayed in graphical form on a mechanical plotting board, or plotter, or on a televisionlike graphic display terminal. Raster graphics stores and displays...
  • computer program a series of instructions that a computer can interpret and execute; programs are also called software to distinguish them from hardware, the physical equipment used in data processing. These programming instructions cause the computer to perform arithmetic and logical operations or comparisons (and then take some additional action based on the comparison) or to input or output...
  • computer terminal a device that enables a computer to receive or deliver data. Computer terminals vary greatly depending on the format of the data they handle. For example, a simple early terminal comprised a typewriter keyboard for input and a...
  • computer virus rogue computer program , typically a short program designed to disperse copies of itself to other computers and disrupt those computers' normal operations. A computer virus usually attaches or inserts itself to or in an...
  • computer-aided design (CAD) or computer-aided design and drafting (CADD), form of automation that helps designers prepare drawings, specifications, parts lists, and other design-related elements using special graphics- and calculations-intensive computer programs. The technology is used...
  • computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), a form of automation where computers communicate work instructions directly to the manufacturing machinery. The technology evolved from the numerically controlled machines of the 1950s, which were directed by a set of...
  • cybernetics [Gr.,=steersman], term coined by American mathematician Norbert Wiener to refer to the general analysis of control systems and communication systems in living organisms and machines. In cybernetics,...
  • data communications application of telecommunications technology to the problem of transmitting data, especially to, from, or between computers. In popular usage, it is said that data communications make it possible for one computer to "talk" with another. Telephone circuits are often used to transfer data, although their relatively limited bandwidth makes them relatively slow paths for data. Recent techniques, however, have made it...
  • data encryption the process of scrambling stored or transmitted information so that it is unintelligible until it is unscrambled by the intended recipient. Historically, data encryption has been used primarily to...
  • data processing or information processing, operations (e.g., handling, merging, sorting, and computing) performed upon data in accordance with strictly defined procedures, such as recording and summarizing the financial transactions of a...
  • desktop publishing system for producing printed materials that consists of a personal computer or computer workstation, a high-resolution printer (usually a laser printer), and a computer program that allows the user to select from a variety of type fonts and sizes, column justifications, page layouts, and graphics libraries and often includes support for document creation and editing...
  • Doomsday 2000 term coined by Canadian computer consultant Peter de Jager in 1993 to describe the operational and financial impact of a defect of contemporary computer hardware and software, known as the Year 2000 problem , that caused computer programs to incorrectly perform arithmetic or logic operations involving a date beyond Dec. 31, 1999. In the late 1990s corporations and governments spent millions of dollars...
  • electronic game device or computer program that provides entertainment by challenging a person's eye-hand coordination or mental abilities. Made possible by the development of the microprocessor , electronic games are marketed in various formats, such as hand-held one-player models, cartridges or compact discs that are inserted in modules attached to television sets, computer programs run on personal or network computers, and freestanding arcade versions. Most of their appeal comes from the computer...
  • electronic mail or e-mail, the electronic transmission of messages, letters, and documents. In its broadest sense electronic mail includes point-to-point services such as telegraph and facsimile (fax) systems. It is commonly thought of, however, in terms of computer-based message systems where the electronic text file that is received can be edited, replied to, excerpted, or even pasted...
  • expert system a computer system or program that uses artificial intelligence techniques to solve problems that ordinarily require a knowledgeable human. The method used to construct such systems, knowledge engineering, extracts a set of rules and data from an expert or...
  • grid computing the concurrent application of the processing and data storage resources of many computers in a network to a single problem. It also can be used for load balancing as well as high availability by employing multiple computers—typically personal computers and workstations—that are remote...
  • hypertext technique for organizing computer databases or documents to facilitate the nonsequential retrieval of information. Related pieces of information are connected by preestablished or user-created...
  • information storage and retrieval the systematic process of collecting and cataloging data so that they can be located and displayed on request. Computers and data processing techniques have made possible the high-speed, selective retrieval of large amounts of information for government, commercial, and academic purposes. There are several basic...
  • information theory or communication theory, mathematical theory formulated principally by the American scientist Claude E. Shannon to explain aspects and problems of information and communication. While the theory is not specific in all respects, it proves the existence of optimum coding schemes without showing how to find...
  • integrated circuit (IC), electronic circuit built on a semiconductor substrate, usually one of single-crystal silicon. The circuit, often called a chip, is packaged in a hermetically sealed case or a nonhermetic plastic capsule, with leads extending from it for...
  • Internet, the international computer network linking together thousands of individual networks at military and government agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, industrial and financial corporations of all sizes, and...
  • laser printer a computer printer that produces high-resolution output by means of a process that is similar to photocopying. In place of reflected light from an image (as is used in xerography ), a laser printer uses data sent from a computer to turn a laser beam on and off rapidly as it scans a charged drum. The drum then attracts toner powder to the areas not exposed to the light...
  • LISP see programming language.
  • local area network (LAN), a computer network dedicated to sharing data among several single-user workstations or personal computers , each of which is called a node. A LAN can have from two to several hundred such nodes, each separated by distances of several feet to as much as a mile, and should be distinguished from...
  • logic circuit electric circuit whose output depends upon the input in a way that can be expressed as a function in symbolic logic ; it has one or more binary inputs (capable of assuming either of two states, e.g., "on" or "off" ) and a single binary output. Logic circuits that perform particular functions are called gates. Basic logic circuits include the AND gate, the OR gate, and the NOT gate, which perform the logical...
  • LSI see integrated circuit.
  • machine translation in computational linguistics, publishing, and other fields, the use of computers to conduct large-scale translation operations. The electronic translation of one language into another or the...
  • microprocessor integrated circuit containing the arithmetic, logic, and control circuitry required to interpret and execute instructions from a computer program. When combined with other integrated circuits that provide storage for data and programs, often on a single semiconductor base to form a chip, the microprocessor becomes the heart of a small computer , or microcomputer. Microprocessors are classified by the semiconductor technology of their design (TTL, transistor-transistor logic; CMOS, complementary-metal-oxide semiconductor; or ECL,...
  • modem [ mo dulator/ dem odulator], an external device or internal electronic circuitry used to transmit and receive digital data over a communications line normally used for analog signals. A modem attached to a computer converts digital data to an analog signal that it uses to modulate a carrier frequency. This frequency is transmitted over a line, frequently as an audio signal over a telecommunications line, to...
  • MSI see integrated circuit.
  • multimedia in personal computing, software and applications that combine text, high-quality sound, two- and three-dimensional graphics, animation, photo images, and full-motion video. In order to work with...
  • network in computing, two or more computers connected for the purpose of routing, managing, and storing rapidly changing data. A local area network (LAN), which is restricted by distances of up to one mile, and a metropolitan area network (MAN), which is restricted to distances of up to 60 miles, connect personal computers and workstations...
  • neural network or neural computing, computer architecture modeled upon the human brain 's interconnected system of neurons. Neural networks imitate the brain's ability to sort out patterns and learn from trial and error, discerning and extracting the relationships that underlie the...
  • object-oriented programming a modular approach to computer program (software) design. Each module, or object, combines data and procedures (sequences of instructions) that act on the data; in traditional, or procedural, programming the data are separated from the...
  • optical character recognition (OCR), method for the machine-reading of typeset, typed, and, in some cases, hand-printed letters, numbers, and symbols using optical sensing and a computer. The light reflected by a printed text, for example, is recorded as patterns of light and dark areas by an array of photoelectric cells in a optical scanner. A computer program analyzes the patterns and identifies the characters they represent, with some tolerance for less than perfect and uniform text. OCR is also used to produce...
  • optical sensing in general, any method by which information that occurs as variations in the intensity, or some other property, of light is translated into an electric signal. This is usually accomplished by the...
  • palmtop or hand-held personal computer, lightweight, small, battery-powered, general-purpose programmable computer. It typically has a miniaturized full-function, typewriterlike keyboard for input and a small, full color, liquid-crystal display for output. In addition to an operating system that is compatible...
  • parallel processing the concurrent or simultaneous execution of two or more parts of a single computer program , at speeds far exceeding those of a conventional computer. Parallel processing requires two or more interconnected...
  • pen-based computer computer that uses pattern-recognition software to enable it to accept handwriting as a form of input. A stylus, which may contain special electronic circuitry, is used to write on the computer display or...
  • personal computer (PC), small but powerful computer primarily used in an office or home without the need to be connected to a larger computer. PCs evolved after the development of the microprocessor made possible the hobby-computer movement of the late 1970s, when some computers were built from components or kits. In the early 1980s the first low-cost, fully assembled units were mass-marketed...
  • personal digital assistant (PDA), lightweight, hand-held computer designed for use as a personal organizer with communications capabilities; also called a handheld. A typical PDA has no keyboard, relying instead on special hardware and pen-based computer software to enable the recognition of handwritten input, which is entered on the surface of a liquid crystal display screen. In addition to including such applications as a word processor, spreadsheet, calendar, and address book, PDAs are used as notepads, appointment schedulers, and wireless...
  • printer computer output device that reproduces data on paper or another medium. Impact printers use a mechanical hammering device to produce each character. A formed character printer forces metal or plastic characters against an inked ribbon to produce a sharp image on paper; the characters may be on a moving bar, a rapidly rotating chain, a rotatable ball, or wheel spokes. A dot matrix printer uses a matrix of tiny pegs that, when hit from behind against a ribbon, impart a set of dots to form a character on the paper; a wide variety of characters and graphics is created using different...
  • RISC processor [ R educed I nstruction S et C omputer], computer arithmetic-logic unit that uses a minimal instruction set, emphasizing the instructions used most often and optimizing them for the fastest possible execution. Software for RISC processors must...
  • robot or automaton mechanical device designed to perform the work generally done by a human being. The Czech dramatist Karel Čapek popularized the expression [Czech,=compulsory labor] in his play R. U. R. (Rossum's Universal Robots), produced in Prague in 1921. Modern robotics has produced innumerable devices that replace human personnel, and the term robot is used to designate much of this machinery. It is used frequently in fiction, referring to a self-controlling machine shaped like a human being. While the concept has been the subject of stories...
  • robotics science and technology of general purpose, programmable machine systems. Contrary to the popular fiction image of robots as ambulatory machines of human appearance capable of performing almost any task, most robotic systems are anchored to fixed positions in factories where they perform a flexible, but restricted,...
  • smart card small device that resembles a credit card but contains an embedded microprocessor to store and process information. Magnetic-stripe cards, which store a very small amount of information (most typically used to identify the owner) and have no processing capability of their own,...
  • supercomputer a state-of-the-art, extremely powerful computer capable of manipulating massive amounts of data in a relatively short time. Supercomputers are very expensive and are employed for specialized scientific and engineering applications that must...
  • Turing machine a mathematical model of a device that computes via a series of discrete steps and is not limited in use by a fixed maximum amount of data storage. Introduced by the British mathematician Alan Turing in 1936, a Turing machine is a particularly simple computer , one whose operations are limited to reading and writing symbols on tape, or moving along the tape to the left or to the right one symbol at a time. Its behavior at a given moment is determined by...
  • Turing test a procedure to test whether a computer is capable of humanlike thought. As proposed (1950) by the British mathematician Alan Turing , a person (the interrogator) sits with a teletype machine isolated from two correspondents—one is another person, one is a computer. By asking questions through the teletype and studying the...
  • Unicode set of codes used to represent letters, numbers, control characters, and the like, designed for use internationally in computers. It has been expanded to include such items as scientific, mathematical, and technical symbols, and even musical notation. The Unicode standard defines codes for linguistic symbols used in every...
  • videotex communications service that is linked to an adapted television receiver or a personal computer by telephone lines, cable television facilities, or the like, and that allows a user to retrieve and display alphanumeric and pictorial information at home. Traditional videotex systems are limited to menu-oriented applications, in which information is selected from hierarchically arranged menus and displayed in fixed...
  • virtual reality (VR) or virtual environment (VE), computer-generated environment with and within which people can interact. The advantage of VR is that it can immerse people in an environment that would normally be unavailable due to cost,...
  • VLSI see integrated circuit.
  • word processing use of a computer program or a dedicated hardware and software package to write, edit, format, and print a document. Text is most commonly entered using a keyboard similar to a typewriter's, although...
  • World Wide Web (WWW or W3), collection of globally distributed text and multimedia documents and files and other network services linked in such a way as to create an immense electronic library from which information can be retrieved quickly by intuitive searches. The Web...
  • WWW or W3: see World Wide Web.
  • Year 2000 problem   Y2K problem, or millennium bug, in computer science, a design flaw in the hardware or software of a computer that caused erroneous results when working with dates beyond Dec. 31, 1999. In the 1960s and 70s programmers who...
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