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Technology Terminologies(A to Z)

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

icons

On-screen pictures that symbolize various commands.

I/O

Input/Output. The part of a computer system or the activity that is primarily dedicated to the passing of information into or out of a central processing unit.

IEEE

Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers. A leading standards-setting group in the United States.

inbox

The mailbox that holds incoming e-mail.

index

A list of the messages contained in a conference or a mail folder. Indexes generally show the date of the message, its title (or subject), the name of the user who wrote it, and an indication (with a "*" marker) of whether you have read that message.

information server

A computer on the Internet which acts as a library of documents and files that users can download.

information superhighway

A term popularized by Vice President Al Gore. According to his vision, it is a high-speed network of computers that will serve thousands of users simultaneously, transmitting E-mail, multimedia files, voice, and video.

inheritance

The ability of hierarchically-arranged objects to acquire attributes and behaviors of objects above them without duplicating the code.

input

As a verb, to enter information, instructions, text, etc. , in a computer system or program. As a noun, the data so entered. Input devices include the keyboard and OCR reader.

instruction

A statement to the computer that specifies an operation to be performed and the values and locations of the data to be processed.

interactive

Pertaining to an application in which each entry evokes a response from a system or program, as in an inquiry system, for example, an airline reservation system. An interactive system may also be conversational, implying continuous dialog between the user and the system.

INTERNET

A concatenation of many individual TCP/IP campus, state, regional, and national networks (such as CSUNET, SUPERNET, WESTNET, NSFNET, ARPANET) into one single logical network all sharing a common addressing scheme. The global "network of networks" that connects huge corporations, small businesses, universities, and individuals. Every Internet user can send E-Mail to every other Internet user. Most Internet users can also read and post Netnews messages. In addition, many Internet users have access to more advanced services for information search and retrieval, such as Gopher, FTP, WWW, and WAIS.

IP

Internet Protocol. The Internet standard protocol that provides a common layer over dissimilar networks, used to move packets among host computers and through gateways if necessary.

IP Address

The numeric address of a computer connected to the Internet; also called Internet address.

interrupt

A suspension of a process, such as the execution of a computer program, caused by an event external to the computer and performed in such a way that the process can be resumed. Events of this kind include sensors monitoring laboratory equipment or a user pressing an interrupt key.

IRC

Internet Relay Chat, or just Chat. An on-line group discussion.

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network. An international communications standard for a common interface to digital networks that allows the integration of voice and data on a common transport mechanism. Proposed by Bellcore for transmission of data, voice and higher-bandwidth technologies over phone lines.

ISO

International Standards Organization. International standard making body responsible for the OSI network standards and the OSI reference model.

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