Glossary

within several buildings of a campus.

Mapping The transformation of one coordinate system into another. In the 3-D viewing pipeline, for instance, an object is defined by the application developer in model coordinates; these are mapped to world coordinates, the world coordinates are mapped to normalized device coordinates (NDCs); the NDCs are mapped to device coordinates; and the final picture is displayed. Also, an application for computer graphics systems. See geographic mapping, and geographic information systems.

mass storage Any device used to store large amounts of data. Usually refers to hard disks and tape backup units.

memory modules Miniature boards containing memory chips. Used for increasing the amount of memory available in the computer.

MID files Standard file format used to store MIDI sequence information.

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface. An international hardware/ software standard that specifies the cable and hardware interface that allows several devices, instruments, and computers to interchange music codes and events.

multimedia Combining static media (such as text and pictures) with dynamic data (such as sound, video, and animation) on the same system.

network adapter An accessory board that connects a computer to the cables of a network and transmits the type of signals used throughout the network. On some computers, mainly portables, the adapter may be an external device, rather than a board.

network server mode A security feature that prevents unauthorized use of an input device (like a keyboard or mouse) while your computer is running as an unattended network server.

OLE Object Linking and Embedding. A Windows feature that allows different object types (such as speech clips or notes of music) to appear in a document. The objects can be linked, in which case they remain separate files, or embedded, where they become a part of the document.

PCI Peripheral Connect Interface. The PCI local bus is a high performance, 32-bit or 64-bit bus with multiplexed address and data lines. It is intended for use as an interconnect mechanism between highly integrated peripheral controller components, peripheral add-in boards, and processor/memory systems.

pixel Picture element. The smallest addressable spot on the screen.

Plug & Play Plug & Play is an architecture designed to simplify installation and configuration of new devices in a PC.

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