A Ampere. Electrical current measurement unit.
AC Alternating Current (a.k.a. Audio Codec). This is a type of electrical current that reverses its direction at a regular interval. Alternating current is the type typically found in a wall outlet. Devices that use AC power as a source typically change the alternating current into direct current so that they can use the current properly.
ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. A power management specification created by a number of vendors. The specification allows an operating system to control power to devices attached to the computer.
ACTS Advanced Communication Technology Satellite (NASA).
ADA Americans with Disabilities Act. This set of laws requires builders of public buildings to provide access to those with physical disabilities.
ADI AutoCAD Device Interface. ADI drivers enable advanced capabilities of video cards within Softdesk / AutoCAD programs.
ADP Automatic Data Processing.
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (See also DSL). A new phone-line technology designed for high-speed Internet access via existing copper phone lines. ADSL is not symmetrical; uplink speed (up to 384Kbps) differs from downlink speed (up to 6Mbps). ADSL requirements currently limit users in that you must live within 3 miles (approx.) of a telephone company switching office, though ongoing research and infrastructure improvements may extend this range considerably.
AEC Architecture, Engineering, Construction. A CADD standard providing specialized applications that facilitate efficient project development.
AFK Away from Keyboard. This term is used in chat rooms to explain that the user is going to be away from the PC but remain in the chat.
AGP Accelerated (Advanced) Graphics Port. AGP is a high performance, component level interconnect targeted at 3D graphical display applications and is based on a set of performance extensions or enhancements to PCI.
AI Artificial Intelligence.
AIA American Institute of Architects.
AIM AOL Instant Messenger.
AKA also known as.
AMD Advanced Micro Devices. AMD is a manufacturer of PC components. AMD makes CPU's, chipsets, etc. The AMD Thunderbird (successor to Athlon) CPU has just been released.
AMR Audio Modem Riser. AMR is an interface developed by Intel (etal.) which allows for a riser card, inserted into a proprietary slot, which contains both the audio chipset/jacks and the modem chipset/jacks.
ANSI American National Standards Institute. ANSI is an organization that reviews and approves products in the US.
AOL America Online. The largest ISP in the world, AOL provides its users access to its own network as well as the WWW.
API Application Protocol (or Programming) Interface. A set of subroutines that a program, or application, can call to tell the OS to perform some task. The Windows API consists of more than 1,000 functions that programs written in C, C++, Pascal, and other languages can call to create windows, open files, and perform other essential tasks.
APM Advanced Power Management.
ARCNet Attached Resource Computer Network.
ARPANET Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. The ARPANET is credited as being the birthplace of the Internet, similar to Alexander Graham Bell and his famous "Come here, Watson" being the birth of the telephone. The ARPANET was developed in the late 1960's by computer researchers at a number of US universities, namely in California.
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Exchange. A standard developed for uniformity among PC's and the data thereon.
ASPI Advanced SCSI Programming Interface.
ASP Application Service Provider or Active Server Pages.
ATA A T Attachment. This standard was developed in the 1980's by a group of PC hardware and software manufacturers. AT refers to the IBM PC/AT architecture (computer design).
ATA33/66/100 This describes the BUS speed of data transfer for IDE drives. Older drives ran even slower than ATA33 (or 33mb/sec data transfer). ATA66 is the current standard, though ATA100 is fast becoming the new standard (data throughput at 100MB/second).
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A networking protocol designed to move multimedia data around with high reliability and speed. Some ISPs use ATM as the protocol for their backbones.
ATX Power interface standard, allowing for enhanced control of power-related items (remote power-up, sleep modes, etc.). Cases and mainboards use the ATX standard interface.
AUI This is a synonym for the 10Base-5 Thicknet Ethernet standard.
AVI Audio/Video Interleaved format. This is a motion-picture format including both sound and video in the same file. Windows Media Player will play AVI's.
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