Glossary of Computer Terms—T

Glossary of Computer Terms—T

T

T1: An Internet backbone line that carries up to 1.536 million bits per second (1.536Mbps).

T3: An Internet line that carries up to 45 million bits per second (45Mbps). That’s 160 times as fast as a 28.8k modem!

TCP/IP: Stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. This is a large grouping of programs and standards that govern how information moves round the Internet. The protocols were established around 1970-1980 to allow computers to attach to one another.

TERABYTE (TB): It’s about a trillion bytes. Actually it’s 2 to the 40th power or 1,009,511,627,776 bytes.

TERAFLOP: A measure of a computer’s speed. It can be expressed as a trillion floating-point operations per second.

TERMINAL: This is what you look at when you’re on the Internet. It’s your computer screen.

TERMINAL EMULATION: This is an application that allows your terminal to act as a dumb terminal.

TEXT EDITOR: See EDITOR.

TELNET: An Internet protocol that let you connect your computer as a remote workstation to a host computer anywhere in the world and to use that computer as if you were logged on locally.

THIRD-PARTY SOFTWARE: Software developed by a software company rather than by a computer manufacturer or user.

THREAD: In online discussions, a series of messages that have been posted as replies to each other. A single forum or conference typically contains many threads covering different subjects. By reading each message in a thread, one after the other, you can see how the discussion has evolved. You can start a new thread by posting a message that is not a reply to an earlier message.

THROUGHPUT: The number of instructions executed per second, measured in millions of instructions per second (MIPS) or billions of instructions per second (BIPS).

TOGGLE: To switch back and forth between two states or conditions of operation, as in a toggle switch.

TOP-DOWN HIERARCHICAL DESIGN: A hardware and/or software design approach that starts at the most general level of a machine or software program. It proceeds, step-by-step, to lower levels, adding detail as the design progresses.

TRACK: A ring on the surface of a magnetic disk.

TRACKBALL: Input device that controls the position of the cursor on the screen; the unit is mounted near the keyboard, and movement is controlled by moving a ball.

TRACTOR-FEED: A pin-fed device for advancing continuous form paper through a computer printer.

TRANSISTOR-TRANSISTOR LOGIC (T2L): A logic gate family that provides higher-speed and higher-power than the obsolete DTL logic family. The first transistor in the circuit performs the required logic. Another transistor amplifies and inverts the output. Improved pin-compatible versions of this logic family are called TTL-Schottky (T2L-S) and Low Power TTLS (LPT2L-S).

TRANSLATOR: See ASSEMBLER, MACROASSEMBLER, INTERPRETER, and COMPILER.

TRANSPARENT: Something that occurs without being known to the user.

TRI-STATE LOGIC: The term that designates the possible conditions of a specific logic gate output: “0”, “1” or “undefined”.

TROJAN: A type of computer virus that is loaded into an unsuspecting users system via a host program such as a free game. The Trojan can be programmed by the author to perform many actions once activated by the user. These actions usually have malicious intent. The term “Trojan” comes from ancient Greece, where the Greeks used a wooden horse containing hidden Greek soldiers to gain entrance to the city of Troy.

TRUNCATE: The dropping of digits or characters from one end of a data item causing loss of accuracy or information.

TRUTH TABLE: A tabulation of all possible combinations of states at the inputs of a logic gate which will result in a specific logic state at the output of the gate.

TURNKEY SYSTEM: A complete computer system ready to operate without any hardware or software modification or addition. 
TWAIN: Stands for Technology Without An Interesting Name. I like this, I found it on another site.