
Glossary
Synchronous Transmission: The transmission of data which involves sending a group of characters in a packet. This is a common method of transmission between computers on a network or between modems. One or more synchronous characters are transmitted to confirm clocking before each packet of data is transmitted. Compare to Asynchronous Transmission.
T
T1 Transmission: A standard transmission speed of 1.544M bps that may be used in its full bandwidth, or as narrower channels called "fractional T1" carriers.
Terminal: The screen and keyboard device used in a centralized computing environment for interactive data entry. Terminals have no "box", which is to say they have no file storage or processing capabilities.
Terminal emulation: This allows a PC to access a mainframe computer by generating and accepting data like a "dumb" terminal.
Threshold: A value or condition which, when reached, triggers an event.
Toggle: To alternate back and forth between two states.
Tone dialing: One of two methods of dialing a telephone, usually associated with
Transistor: A semiconductor device used to amplify a signal, or open and close a circuit. In digital computers, it functions as an electronic switch.
Twisted pair wiring: A type of cabling with one or more pairs of insulated wires wrapped around each other. An inexpensive wiring method used for LAN and telephone applications, also called UTP wiring.
U
UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter) (pronounced "you art"): A chip that transmits and receives data on the serial port. It converts bytes into serial bits for transmission, and vice versa, and generates and strips the start and stop bits appended to each character.
UTP (unshielded twisted pair):
V
V.21: The
V.22: The
V.22bis: The
V.23: The
V.24: The
V.32: The
V.32bis: The
V.32terbo: The AT&T modulation standard for 19,600 bps,
V.34: The
V.35: The
W
WATS (Wide Area Telephone Service) (pronounced "watts"): A discounted
Workstation: Traditionally a workstation has been a dumb terminal connected to a host. With the advent of LANs and WANs, PCs that are connected to a LAN are now called workstations also, even though they are capable of independent processing. A workstation, then, is simply an input/display device through which a user accesses a resource.