Glossary-1

Glossary

10BaseT – Unshielded twisted pair cable used to connect computers on an Ethernet network. See Ethernet.

American National Standards Institute (ANSI) – A private, non-profit organization that facilitates the development of national technical standards by establishing consensus among qualified public and private sector groups.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) – The code used to represent the conversion of keyboard characters into binary digits that can be processed by the computer. See American National Standards Institute.

analog – A continuous electronic current of varying frequency. Digital data from a computer must be converted to an analog signal by a modem before it can be transmitted over standard telephone lines. Contrast digital.

ANSI – See American National Standards Institute.

anti-virus utility – A program that detects and in many cases repairs the damage caused by harmful program code. See virus, utility.

application – A software program that facilitates the performance of useful work, such as a word processing program.

ASCII – See American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

backup – A copy of one or more files for safekeeping.

Basic Input Output System (BIOS) – An instruction set stored on the read-only memory chip of a computer that handles how the hardware reacts to commands from software.

binary – A number system that uses only the symbols 0 and 1. Used to represent digital data.

binary digit – A representation of the basic building block of all computer information using the symbols 0 and 1. The data represented by one binary digit is equal to one bit. See bit, byte.

BIOS – See Basic Input Output System.

bit – A unit of measurement used to describe the smallest possible piece of computer information, represented as a binary digit. Eight bits is equal to one byte. See byte; binary digit.