I from FOLDOC

Internet Architecture Board

The processor chip architecture and instruction set used by Intel in its Pentium processors.

Last updated: 2007-06-17

IAB

IAD

A dynamic analyser from IBM giving information on run-time performance and code use.

IAL

ALGOL 58

IAM

Interactive Algebraic Manipulation. Interactive symbolic mathematics for PDP-10.

["IAM, A System for Interactive Algebraic Manipulation", C. Christensen et al, Proc Second Symp Symb Alg Manip, ACM Mar 1971].

IANA

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

IANAL

<chat>

I Am Not A Lawyer (but my legal opinion is...).

Last updated: 1998-07-28

IAP

Internet Access Provider

I-APL

A version of APL. ftp://watserv1.waterloo.edu/languages/apl/.

Last updated: 1992-07-06

IAR

Instruction Address Register.

The IBM name for program counter.

Last updated: 1995-03-21

IAS

<computer>

1. The first modern computer. It had main registers, processing circuits, information paths within the central processing unit, and used Von Neumann's fetch-execute cycle.

The IAS machine's basic unit of information was a 40-bit word and the memory had 4096 words. A word stored in memory could represent either an instruction or data. Each IAS instruction was twenty bits long, so that two instructions could be stored in each 40-bit memory location. Each instruction consisted of an 8-bit operation code and a 12-bit address that could identify any of 2^12 locations that may be used to store an operand of the instruction.

The CPU consisted of a data processing unit and a program control unit. It contained various processing and control circuits along with a set of high-speed registers for the temporary storage of instructions, memory addresses, and data.

The main actions specified by instructions were performed by the arithmetic-logic circuits of the data processing unit. An electronic clock circuit was used to generate the signals needed to synchronise the operation of the different parts of the system.

[Who? Where? When? Implemented using what?]

2. Immediate Access Storage.

Last updated: 2003-10-24

IAW

<chat>

inactive window.

Used in talk systems to mean that that person will not be taking part in the conversation for a while. The sadly mispelled alternative, "unactive window" (UAW) has also been reported.

Last updated: 1994-12-05

IAYSDAH

<chat>

I acknowledge your strangely depressing attempt at humour.

Last updated: 2004-03-04

IBEX

Interactive and Batch EXecutive

IBM

International Business Machines

IBM 1130

<computer>

A computer introduced by IBM in 1965. It was their cheapest computer to date, and was aimed at price-sensitive, computing-intensive technical markets like education and engineering. It notably included inexpensive disk storage. Non-IBM clones were produced.

IBM 1130 Enthusiasts.

Last updated: 2005-01-17

IBM 1403

<printer>

A printer used with the IBM 360 mainframe, a successor to the 1401.

Last updated: 1999-01-11

IBM 1620

<computer>

A computer built by IBM and released in late 1959. The 1620 cost from around $85,000(?) up to hundreds of thousands of dollars(?) according to the configuration. It was billed as a "small scientific computer" to distinguish it from the business-oriented IBM 1401. It was regarded as inexpensive, and many schools started out with one.

It was either developed for the US Navy to teach computing, or as a replacement for the very successful IBM 650 which did quite well in the low end scientific market. Rumour has it that the Navy called this computer the CADET - Can't Add, Doesn't Even Try.

The ALU used lookup tables to add, subtract and multiply but it could do address increments and the like without the tables. You could change the number base by adjusting the tables, which were input during the boot sequence from Hollerith cards. The divide instruction required additional hardware, as did floating point operations.

The basic machine had 20,000 decimal digits of ferrite core memory arranged as a 100 by 100 array of 12-bit locations, each holding two digits. Each digit was stored as four numeric bits, one flag bit and one parity bit. The numeric bits stored a decimal digit (values above nine were illegal).

Memory was logically divided into fields. On the high-order digit of a field the flag bit indicated the end of the field. On the low-order digit it indicated a negative number. A flag bit on the low order of the address indicated indirect addressing if you had that option installed. A few "illegal" bit combinations were used to store things like record marks and "numeric blanks".

On a subroutine call it stored the return address in the five digits just before the entry point to the routine, so you had to build your own stack to do recursion.

The enclosure was grey, and the core was about four or five inches across. The core memory was kept cool inside a temperature-controlled box. The machine took a few minutes to warm up after power on before you could use it. If it got too hot there was a thermal cut-out switch that would shut it down.

Memory could be expanded up to 100,000 digits in a second cabinet. The cheapest package used paper tape for I/O. You could also get punched cards and later models could be hooked up to a 1311 disk drive (a two-megabyte washing machine), a 1627 plotter, and a 1443 line printer.

Because the 1620 was popular with colleges, IBM ran a clearing house of software for a nominal cost such as Snobol, COBOL, chess games, etc.

The model II, released about three years later, could add and subtract without tables. The clock period decreased from 20 to 10 microseconds, instruction fetch sped up by a few cycles and it added index registers of some sort. Some of the model I's options were standard on the model II, like indirect addressing and the console teletype changed from a model C to a Selectric. Later still, IBM marketed the IBM 1710.

A favorite use was to tune a FM radio to pick up the "interference" from the lights on the console. With the right delay loops you could generate musical notes. Hackers wrote interpreters that played music from notation like "C44".

1620 consoles were used as props to represent Colossus in the film "The Forbin Project", though most of the machines had been scrapped by the time the film was made.

A fully configured 1620.

IBM 1620 at Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

(Thanks Victor E. McGee, pictured).

["Basic Programming Concepts and the IBM 1620 Computer", Leeson and Dimitry, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962].

Last updated: 2018-09-11

IBM 1710

<computer>

An IBM 1620 with additional features useful for industrial process control: A/D convertors, D/A convertors, general-purpose I/O lines, and interrupts.

[Date?]

Last updated: 1997-07-20

IBM 2741

<printer>

A slow, letter-quality printing device and terminal based on the IBM Selectric typewriter. The print head was a little sphere resembling a golf ball, bearing reversed embossed images of 88 different characters arranged on four parallels of latitude; one could change the font by changing the golf ball. The device communicated at 134.5 bits per second, half duplex. When the computer transmitted, it physically locked the keyboard.

This was the technology that enabled APL to use a non-EBCDIC, non-ASCII, and in fact completely non-standard character set. This put it 10 years ahead of its time - where it stayed, firmly rooted, for the next 20, until character displays gave way to programmable bit-mapped devices with the flexibility to support other character sets.

Last updated: 2006-08-04

IBM 3270

<hardware>

A class of terminals made by IBM known as "Display Devices", normally used to talk to IBM mainframes. The 3270 attempts to minimise the number of I/O interrupts required by accepting large blocks of data, known as datastreams, in which both text and control (or formatting functions) are interspersed allowing an entire screen to be "painted" as a single output operation. The concept of "formatting" in these devices allows the screen to be divided into clusters of contiguous character cells for which numerous attributes (color, highlighting, character set, protection from modification) can be set. Further, using a technique known as 'Read Modified' the changes from any number of formatted fields that have been modified can be read as a single input without transferring any other data, another technique to enhance the terminal throughput of the CPU.

The 3270 had twelve, and later twenty-four, special Programmed Function Keys, or PF keys. When one of these keys was pressed, it would cause the device to generate an I/O interrupt and present a special code identifying which key was pressed. Application program functions such as termination, page-up, page-down or help could be invoked by a single key-push, thereby reducing the load on very busy processors.

A version of the IBM PC called the "3270 PC" was released in October 1983. It included 3270 terminal emulation.

tn3270 is modified version of Telnet which acts as a 3270 terminal emulator and can be used to connect to an IBM computer over a network.

IBM 360

System/360

IBM 370

System/370

IBM 370ESA

<computer, IBM>

(Enterprise System Architecture) An IBM mainframe computer introduced in 1988. Successor to the IBM 370XA had enhanced access registers that allowed access to other forms of virtual memory. This enhancement allowed more data storage in main and virtual memory, reducing I/O operating and improving speed and efficiency. The IBM 370ESA was rebranded as the IBM390, and later as the zSeries.

Last updated: 2004-06-06

IBM 370XA

<computer, IBM>

An IBM mainframe computer introduced in 1983. Successor to the System/370, this machine had an enhanced address space.

Last updated: 2004-05-27

IBM 3720

<hardware>

A communications controller made by IBM, suitable for use in an IBM S/390. Official service support was withdrawn in 1999 in favour of the IBM 3745.

http://ibm.com/search?q=3720&realm=Networking.

Last updated: 2000-02-21

IBM390

IBM 370ESA

IBM 650

<computer>

A computer, produced ca. 1955 and in use in the late 1950s, with rotating magnetic drum storage and punched card input. Its memory words could store 10-digit decimal numbers and each instruction had two addresses, one for the operand and one for address of the next instruction on the drum.

SOAP was its (optimising) assembler. Languages used on it included BACAIC, BALITAC, BELL, CASE SOAP III, DRUCO I, EASE II, ELI, ESCAPE, FAST, FLAIR, FORTRANSIT, FORTRUNCIBLE, GAT, IPL, Internal Translator, KISS, MITILAC, MYSTIC, OMNICODE, PIT, RELATIVE, RUNCIBLE, SIR, SOAP, Speedcoding, SPIT, SPUR.

[More details?]

Last updated: 1995-03-30

IBM 700 series

<computer>

A family of computers made by IBM, including the IBM 701, IBM 702, IBM 704, IBM 705 and IBM 709.

Last updated: 2005-06-20

IBM 701

<computer>

("Defense Calculator") The first of the IBM 700 series of computers.

The IBM 701 was annouced internally on 1952-04-29 as "the most advanced, most flexible high-speed computer in the world". Known as the Defense Calculator while in development at IBM Poughkeepsie Laboratory, it went public on 1953-04-07 as the "IBM 701 Electronic Data Processing Machines" (plural because it consisted of eleven connected units).

The 701 was the first IBM large-scale electronic computer manufactured in quantity and their first commercial scientific computer. It was the first IBM machine in which programs were stored in an internal, addressable, electronic memory. It was developed and produced in less than two years from "first pencil on paper" to installation. It was key to IBM's transition from punched card machines to electronic computers.

It consisted of four magnetic tape drives, a magnetic drum memory unit, a cathode-ray tube storage unit, an L-shaped arithmetic and control unit with an operator's panel, a punched card {reader, a printer, a card punch and three power units. It performed more than 16,000 additions or subtractions per second, read 12,500 digits a second from tape, print 180 letters or numbers a second and output 400 digits a second from punched-cards.

The IBM 701 ran the following languages and systems: BACAIC, BAP, DOUGLAS, DUAL-607, FLOP, GEPURS, JCS-13, KOMPILER, LT-2, PACT I, QUEASY, QUICK, SEESAW, SHACO, SO 2, Speedcoding, SPEEDEX.

IBM History.

Last updated: 2005-06-20

IBM 704

<computer>

A large, scientific computer made by IBM and used by the largest commercial, government and educational institutions.

The IBM 704 had 36-bit memory words, 15-bit addresses and instructions with one address. A few index register instructions had the infamous 15-bit decrement field in addition to the 15-bit address.

The 704, and IBM 709 which had the same basic architecture, represented a substantial step forward from the IBM 650's magnetic drum storage as they provided random access at electronic speed to core storage, typically 32k words of 36 bits each.

[Or did the 704 actually come *before* the 650?]

A typical 700 series installation would be in a specially built room of perhaps 1000 to 2000 square feet, with cables running under a raised floor and substantial air conditioning. There might be up to eight magnetic tape transports, each about 3 x 3 x 6 feet, on one or two "channels." The 1/2 inch tape had seven tracks and moved at 150 inches per second, giving a read/write speed of 15,000 six bit characters (plus parity) per second.

In the centre would be the operator's console consisting of cabinets and tables for storage of tapes and boxes of cards; and a card reader, a card punch, and a line printer, each perhaps 4 x 4 x 5 feet in dimension. Small jobs could be entered via punched cards at the console, but as a rule the user jobs were transferred from cards to magnetic tape by off-line equipment and only control information was entered at the console (see SPOOL). Before each job, the operating system was loaded from a read-only system tape (because the system in core could have been corrupted by the previous user), and then the user's program, in the form of card images on the input tape, would be run. Program output would be written to another tape (typically on another channel) for printing off-line.

Well run installations would transfer the user's cards to tape, run the job, and print the output tape with a turnaround time of one to four hours.

The processing unit typically occupied a position symmetric but opposite the operator's console. Physically the largest of the units, it included a glass enclosure a few feet in dimension in which could be seen the "core" about one foot on each side. The 36-bit word could hold two 18-bit addresses called the "Contents of the Address Register" (CAR) and the "Contents of the Decrement Register" (CDR).

On the opposite side of the floor from the tape drives and operator's console would be a desk and bookshelves for the ever-present (24 hours a day) "field engineer" dressed in, you guessed it, a grey flannel suit and tie. The maintenance of the many thousands of vacuum tubes, each with limited lifetime, and the cleaning, lubrication, and adjustment of mechanical equipment, was augmented by a constant flow of bug reports, change orders to both hardware and software, and hand-holding for worried users.

The 704 was oriented toward scientific work and included floating point hardware and the first Fortran implementation. Its hardware was the basis for the requirement in some programming languages that loops must be executed at least once.

The IBM 705 was the business counterpart of the 704. The 705 was a decimal machine with a circular register which could hold several variables (numbers, values) at the same time.

Very few 700 series computers remained in service by 1965, but the IBM 7090, using transistors but similar in logical structure, remained an important machine until the production of the earliest integrated circuits.

[Was the 704 scientific, business or general purpose? Difference between 704 and 709?]

Last updated: 1996-01-24

IBM 7040

<computer>

A scaled down version of the IBM 7090.

Last updated: 1997-02-23

IBM 705

<computer>

A business-oriented counterpart of the IBM 704. The 705 was a decimal machine with a circular register which could hold several values at the same time.

Languages incuded ACOM, Autocode, ELI, PRINT, PRINT I, SOHIO, SYMBOLIC ASSEMBLY.

Last updated: 2000-06-01

IBM 709

<computer>

A computer made by IBM oriented toward scientific work. The 709 had the same basic architecture as the IBM 704 but with many I/O and performance refinements over the 704.

The IBM 709 (like the 704) had 36-bit memory words, 15-bit addresses and instructions with one address. A few index register instructions had the infamous 15-bit decrement field in addition to the 15-bit address.

The IBM 7090 was a transistorised version of the 709.

[Difference between 704 and 709?]

Last updated: 1999-01-19

IBM 7090

<computer>

A transistorised version of the IBM 709 which was a very popular high end computer in the early 1960s. The 7090 had 32Kbytes of 36-bit core memory and a hardware floating point unit. Fortran was its most popular language, but it supported many others. It was later upgraded to the IBM 7094, and a scaled down version, the IBM 7040 was also introduced.

IBM 7090s controlled the Mercury and Gemini space flights, the Balistic Missile Early Warning System (until well into the 1980s), and the CTSS time sharing system at MIT.

The 7090 was not good at unit record I/O, so in small configurations an IBM 1401 was used for SPOOL I/O and in large configurations (such as a 7090/94) a 7040/44 would be directly coupled and dedicated to handling printers and card readers. (See the film Dr Strangelove).

Last updated: 1999-01-19

IBM 7094

<computer>

A faster version of the IBM 7090 with more index registers.

Last updated: 1997-02-23

IBM 801

The original IBM RISC processor, developed as a research project. It was named after the building in which it was designed.

[Features? Dates?]

Last updated: 1995-03-01

IBM compatible

<computer>

A computer which can use hardware and software designed for the IBM PC (or, less often, IBM mainframes).

This was once a key phrase in marketing a new PC clone but now in 1998 is rarely used, the non-IBM wintel personal computer manufacturers such as Compaq, Dell and Gateway 2000 and OS vendor Microsoft having taken control of the market, marginalising IBM.

Last updated: 1998-07-30

IBM Customer Engineer

<job>

(CE) A hardware guy from IBM.

[Are/were any CEs female?]

Last updated: 1998-07-08

IBM discount

A price increase. Outside IBM, this derives from the common perception that IBM products are generally overpriced (see clone); inside, it is said to spring from a belief that large numbers of IBM employees living in an area cause prices to rise.

Icon-Based Parser Generation System 2

Last updated: 1995-02-07

IBM PC

<computer>

International Business Machines Personal Computer.

IBM PCs and compatible models from other vendors are the most widely used computer systems in the world. They are typically single user personal computers, although they have been adapted into multi-user models for special applications.

Note: "IBM PC" is used in this dictionary to denote IBM and compatible personal computers, and to distinguish these from other personal computers, though the phrase "PC" is often used elsewhere, by those who know no better, to mean "IBM PC or compatible".

There are hundreds of models of IBM compatible computers. They are based on Intel's microprocessors: Intel 8086, Intel 8088, Intel 80286, Intel 80386, Intel 486 or Pentium. The models of IBM's first-generation Personal Computer (PC) series have names: IBM PC, IBM PC XT, IBM PC AT, Convertible and Portable. The models of its second generation, the Personal System/2 (PS/2), are known by model number: Model 25, Model 30. Within each series, the models are also commonly referenced by their CPU clock rate.

All IBM personal computers are software compatible with each other in general, but not every program will work in every machine. Some programs are time sensitive to a particular speed class. Older programs will not take advantage of newer higher-resolution display standards.

The speed of the CPU (microprocessor) is the most significant factor in machine performance. It is determined by its clock rate and the number of bits it can process internally. It is also determined by the number of bits it transfers across its data bus. The second major performance factor is the speed of the hard disk.

CAD and other graphics-intensive application programs can be sped up with the addition of a mathematics coprocessor, a chip which plugs into a special socket available in almost all machines.

Intel 8086 and Intel 8088-based PCs require EMS (expanded memory) boards to work with more than one megabyte of memory. All these machines run under MS-DOS. The original IBM PC AT used an Intel 80286 processor which can access up to 16 megabytes of memory (though standard MS-DOS applications cannot use more than one megabyte without EMS). Intel 80286-based computers running under OS/2 can work with the maximum memory.

Although IBM sells printers for PCs, most printers will work with them. As with display hardware, the software vendor must support a wide variety of printers. Each program must be installed with the appropriate printer driver.

The original 1981 IBM PC's keyboard was severely criticised by typists for its non-standard placement of the return and left shift keys. In 1984, IBM corrected this on its AT keyboard, but shortened the backspace key, making it harder to reach. In 1987, it introduced its Enhanced keyboard, which relocated all the function keys and placed the control key in an awkward location for touch typists. The escape key was relocated to the opposite side of the keyboard. By relocating the function keys, IBM made it impossible for software vendors to use them intelligently. What's easy to reach on one keyboard is difficult on the other, and vice versa. To the touch typist, these deficiencies are maddening.

An "IBM PC compatible" may have a keyboard which does not recognize every key combination a true IBM PC does, e.g. shifted cursor keys. In addition, the "compatible" vendors sometimes use proprietary keyboard interfaces, preventing you from replacing the keyboard.

The 1981 PC had 360K floppy disks. In 1984, IBM introduced the 1.2 megabyte floppy disk along with its AT model. Although often used as backup storage, the high density floppy is not often used for interchangeability. In 1986, IBM introduced the 720K 3.5" microfloppy disk on its Convertible laptop computer. It introduced the 1.44 megabyte double density version with the PS/2 line. These disk drives can be added to existing PCs.

Fixed, non-removable, hard disks for IBM compatibles are available with storage capacities from 20 to over 600 megabytes. If a hard disk is added that is not compatible with the existing disk controller, a new controller board must be plugged in. However, one disk's internal standard does not conflict with another, since all programs and data must be copied onto it to begin with. Removable hard disks that hold at least 20 megabytes are also available.

When a new peripheral device, such as a monitor or scanner, is added to an IBM compatible, a corresponding, new controller board must be plugged into an expansion slot (in the bus) in order to electronically control its operation. The PC and XT had eight-bit busses; the AT had a 16-bit bus. 16-bit boards will not fit into 8-bit slots, but 8-bit boards will fit into 16-bit slots. Intel 80286 and Intel 80386 computers provide both 8-bit and 16-bit slots, while the 386s also have proprietary 32-bit memory slots. The bus in high-end models of the PS/2 line is called "Micro Channel". EISA is a non-IBM rival to Micro Channel.

The original IBM PC came with BASIC in ROM. Later, Basic and BasicA were distributed on floppy but ran and referenced routines in ROM.

IBM PC and PS/2 models

PC range

 	Intro	  CPU	  Features
 PC	 Aug 1981   8088	  Floppy disk system
 XT	 Mar 1983   8088	  Slow hard disk
 XT/370	 Oct 1983   8088	  IBM 370 mainframe emulation
 3270 PC	Oct 1983   8088	  with 3270 terminal emulation
 PCjr	 Nov 1983   8088	  Floppy-based home computer
 PC Portable	Feb 1984   8088	  Floppy-based portable
 AT	 Aug 1984   286	  Medium-speed hard disk
 Convertible	Apr 1986   8088	  Microfloppy laptop portable
 XT 286	 Sep 1986   286	  Slow hard disk

PS/2 range

 	Intro	  CPU	  Features
 Model 1987-08-25   8086	  PC bus (limited expansion)
 Model 1987-04-30   8086	  PC bus
 Model 30 1988-09-286   286	  PC bus
 Model 1987-04-50   286	  Micro Channel bus
 Model 50Z	Jun 1988   286	  Faster Model 50
 Model 55 SX	May 1989   386SX  Micro Channel bus
 Model 1987-04-60   286	  Micro Channel bus
 Model 1988-06-70   386	  Desktop, Micro Channel bus
 Model P1989-05-70   386	  Portable, Micro Channel bus
 Model 1987-04-80   386	  Tower, Micro Channel bus

IBM PC compatible specifications

 CPU   CPU    Clock    Bus	    Floppy	  Hard
       bus    speed   width  RAM    disk	  disk	   OS
       bit    Mhz     bit   byte    inch   byte	  Mbyte

 8088  16    4.8-9.5	8    1M*     5.25  360K	  10-40	  DOS
 	 	     3.5   720K
 	 	     3.5   1.44M

 8086  16     6-12     16    1M*	   20-60

 286   16     6-25     16   1-8M*    5.25  360K	  20-300  DOS
 	 	     5.25  1.2M	   OS/2

 386   32     16-33    32   1-16M**  3.5   720K	   Unix
 	 	     3.5   1.44M  40-600

 386SX 32     16-33    16   1-16M**	   40-600

*Under DOS, RAM is expanded beyond 1M with EMS memory boards

**Under DOS, RAM is expanded beyond 1M with normal "extended" memory and a memory management program.

IBM PC AT

<computer>

("Advanced Technology") A version of the IBM PC, released in Aug 1984 with an Intel 80286 processor, a 16-bit bus, a medium-speed hard disk and a 1.2 megabyte floppy disk drive. It had a larger case than the PC, which allowed it to accept "tall cards".

The AT keyboard corrected the PC's non-standard placement of the return and left shift keys but shortened the backspace key, making it harder to reach.

Last updated: 1995-03-01

IBM PCjr

<computer>

(IBM PC Junior) A floppy disk-based home computer with an Intel 8088 CPU and a chiclet keyboard, released in November 1983. The PCjr could be expanded to have two floppy drives and 640 kilobytes of RAM using sidecars. Some even had a mouse and could run drawing programs with popup menus.

Last updated: 1995-10-06

IBM PC XT

<computer>

An IBM PC with a (slow) hard disk. The XT was released in March 1983. It had an Intel 8088 CPU. The XT/370, released in October 1983, added IBM 370 mainframe emulation, and the XT 286 followed in September 1986 with an Intel 80286 CPU [Why?].

Last updated: 1996-05-21

IBM System/36

<computer>

A mid-range computer introduced in 1983, which remained popular in the 1990s because of its low cost and high performance. Prices started in the $20k range for the small 5362 to $100+k for the expanded 5360. In 1994, IBM introduced the Advanced 36 for $9,000.

The largest 5360 had 7MB of RAM and 1432MB of hard disk. The smallest 5362 had 256K of RAM and 30MB of hard disk. The Advanced 36 had 64MB of RAM and 4300MB of hard disk, but design issues limit the amount of storage that can actually be addressed by the operating system; underlying microcode allowed additional RAM to cache disk reads and writes, allowing the Advanced 36 to outperform the S/36 by 600 to 800%.

There was only one operating system for the S/36: SSP (System Support Product). SSP consumed about 7-10MB of hard drive space. Computer programs on the S/36 reside in "libraries," and the SSP itself resides in a special system library called #LIBRARY.

Components of SSP include the Data File Utility (DFU), the Source Entry Utility (SEU), the largely obselete Work Station Utility (WSU), the Screen Design Aid (SDA) and Operational Control Language (OCL).

Using the IBM S/36 is relatively simple. The operator sits in front of a computer monitor, types on a keyboard, and interacts using a series of on-screen forms. S/36 is command-oriented, like MS-DOS, however, S/36 additionally uses more than 70 menus which allow operators to type the number of an appropriate command or response, and application writers can create their own menus and commands ("procedures.")

Programmers use SEU to create or modify a source program which is then compiled into an object program. SEU uses 50 or so templates to assist the operator with the syntax of different types of sources.

By 1985, an application called Programmer/Operator Productivity was widely available and was probably the most popular (and pirated) S/36 software ever written. POP included a full-screen editor called FSEDIT which could be used in place of SEU, which only allowed single-line editing.

Data File Utility allows the programmer to quickly create a simple, single-record display program to add, update and delete records within a file. Also, simple report programs can be created.

Screen Design Aid allows the programmer to create menus, create and update simple forms which are called "display formats" or "prompt screens", and view existing display formats.

By using Operational Control Language, the programmer can assign files and resources to a particular program and pass run-time information like a processing date, order number, or user name to the compiled program. Programs can acquire up to 8 workstations, or run in the background, but usually they run on only one workstation. The largest program size is 64K.

Whenever a program is called, SSP searches in the named user library and then #LIBRARY. Therefore, a system program can be called from any library and all users have access to it.

S/36 has three types of security: (1) password security, (2) a badge reader option that almost no-one ever bought, and (3) resource security. There are five levels of users access and five levels of resource access. By using password and resource security effectively, the administrator (who was at that time often called a DP Manager or Information Systems Manager) can restrict access to critical and secure applications.

The cheapest, and therefore most popular, language compiler for the S/36 is RPG II, a language based on fixed logic cycles which arose in the days of card readers. Other languages include COBOL, FORTRAN and BASIC. Almost every S/36 shop with in-house design uses RPG.

It's interesting to note that the S/36 allows the operator to change a program while it is being used, which can be very dangerous on live data. The S/38 and the iSeries computer do not allow this.

IBM has not marketed the S/36 or Advanced 36 since 2000. Price/performance of the AS/400 (aka iSeries) and hardware technology of the present-generation PC makes the S/36 a much less attractive offering from a different era in computing.

Last updated: 2005-04-05

IBM Systems Engineer

<job>

(SE) A software person from IBM.

Last updated: 1998-07-08

IBM zSeries

IBM 370ESA

Ibpag2

Iburg

A program by Christopher W. Fraser <[email protected]>, David R. Hanson <[email protected]> and Todd A. Proebsting <[email protected]> that generates a fast tree parser.

Iburg is compatible with Burg. Both programs accept a cost-augmented tree grammar and emit a C program that discovers an optimal parse of trees in the language described by the grammar. They have been used to construct fast optimal instruction selectors for use in code generation. Burg uses BURS. Iburg's matchers do dynamic programming at compile time.

ftp://ftp.cs.princeton.edu/pub/iburg.tar.Z.

Last updated: 1993-02-10

IC

<hardware>

1. integrated circuit.

2. Independent Carrier.

3. Imperial College.

Last updated: 1997-04-12

ICA

Independent Computing Architecture

ICAM

Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing

ICANN

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

I-CASE

Integrated CASE. Another term for an IPSE.

ICBM address

<networking, humour>

(Or "missile address") The form used to register a site with the Usenet mapping project includes a space for longitude and latitude, preferably to seconds-of-arc accuracy. This is actually used for generating geographically-correct maps of Usenet links on a plotter; however, it has become traditional to refer to this as one's "ICBM address" or "missile address", and many people include it in their sig block with that name. (A real missile address would include target altitude.)

Last updated: 1994-12-15

ICE

2. Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics.

1. in-circuit emulator.

<security, jargon>

Last updated: 2000-03-18

icebreaker

<security, jargon>

A program designed for cracking security on a system.

ICES

Integrated Civil Engineering System. Subsystems include COGO, STRUDL, BRIDGE, LEASE, PROJECT, ROADS and TRANSET. Internal languages include ICETRAN and CDL. "An Integrated Computer System for Engineering Problem Solving", D. Roos, Proc SJCC 27(2), AFIPS (Spring 1965). Sammet 1969, pp.615-620.

ICETRAN

An extension of Fortran IV and a component of ICES.

[Sammet 1969, p. 617].

ICI

<language>

An extensible, interpretated language by Tim Long with syntax similar to C. ICI adds high-level garbage-collected associative data structures, exception handling, sets, regular expressions, and dynamic arrays.

Libraries provide additional types and functions to support common needs such as I/O, simple databases, character based screen handling, direct access to system calls, safe pointers, and floating-point.

ICI runs on Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS, Unix, and Linux and in embedded environments.

http://zeta.org.au/~atrn/ici/.

ftp://ftp.research.canon.com.au/pub/misc/ici.

E-mail: Andy Newman <[email protected]>.

Mailing list: [email protected].

Last updated: 1999-12-07

ICL

International Computers Limited.

ICMP

Internet Control Message Protocol

ICMP Router Discovery Protocol

<protocol>

(IRDP) A routing protocol used by Microsoft Windows DHCP clients and various Unix flavors.

Vulnerability.

[Details? Reference?]

Last updated: 1999-10-31

I-Comm

<tool, web>

A graphical web browser for IBM PCs with a window system (Windows 95, Windows NT or OS/2). I-Comm does NOT require a SLIP or PPP connection, just a modem. It is available as a shareware program.

Version: 1.15 Beta1.

http://talentcom.com/icomm/icomm.htm, mirror.

FTP netcom.com, FTP best.com.

E-Mail: <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1996-03-22

iCOMP

Intel Comparative Microprocessor Performance index

Icon

<language>

A descendant of SNOBOL4 with Pascal-like syntax, produced by Griswold in the 1970's. Icon is a general-purpose language with special features for string scanning. It has dynamic types: records, sets, lists, strings, tables. If has some object oriented features but no modules or exceptions. It has a primitive Unix interface.

The central theme of Icon is the generator: when an expression is evaluated it may be suspended and later resumed, producing a result sequence of values until it fails. Resumption takes place implicitly in two contexts: iteration which is syntactically loop-like ('every-do'), and goal-directed evaluation in which a conditional expression automatically attempts to produce at least one result. Expressions that fail are used in lieu of Booleans. Data backtracking is supported by a reversible assignment. Icon also has co-expressions, which can be explicitly resumed at any time.

Version 8.8 by Ralph Griswold <[email protected]> includes an interpreter, a compiler (for some platforms) and a library (v8.8). Icon has been ported to Amiga, Atari, CMS, Macintosh, Macintosh/MPW, MS-DOS, MVS, OS/2, Unix, VMS, Acorn.

icon

<graphics>

A small picture intended to represent something (a file, directory, or action) in a graphical user interface. When an icon is clicked on, some action is performed such as opening a directory or aborting a file transfer.

Icons are usually stored as bitmap images. Microsoft Windows uses a special bitmap format with file name extension ".ico" as well as embedding icons in executable (".exe") and Dynamically Linked Library (DLL) files.

The term originates from Alan Kay's theory for designing interfaces which was primarily based on the work of Jerome Bruner. Bruner's second developmental stage, iconic, uses a system of representation that depends on visual or other sensory organization and upon the use of summarising images.

IEEE publication.

[What MS tool can create .ico files?]

Last updated: 2003-08-01

Icon-Based Parser Generation System 2

<language>

(Ibpag2) A parser generator for Icon by Richard L. Goerwitz <[email protected]>. It can handle both SLR1 grammars and even GLR grammars (Tomita grammars). Ibpag2 runs under Unix.

Last updated: 2004-06-06

Iconicode

1990-1992. Visual dataflow language, token-based with hierarchical, recursive and iterative constructs. Version: IDF with extensions for image processing.

["IDF: A Graphical Data Flow Programming Language for Image Processing and Computer Vision", Neil Hunt, Proc IEEE Conf on Systems Man & Cybernetics, IEEE, Nov 1990. Available from Iconicon <[email protected]>].

ICONIX Software Engineering, Inc.

<company>

Makers of ICONIX PowerTools, software development tools, and the first CD-ROM training course in object-oriented methods. ICONIX started operating in 1984.

http://biap.com/iconix/.

Address: 2800 28th Street, Suite 320, Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA. Telephone: +1 (310) 458 0092

Last updated: 1995-04-30

IC-Prolog

Clark & McCabe, Imperial College 1979. Logic language with coroutining.

["IC-Prolog Language Features", K.L. Clark <[email protected]> et al in Logic Programming, K.L. Clark et al eds, pp.253-266, Academic Press 1982].

IC Prolog II

<language, Prolog>

Imperial College Prolog. A Prolog with multi-threading, TCP primitives for interprocess communication, mailboxes, and an interface to Parlog.

ftp://doc.ic.ac.uk/computing/programming/languages.

["IC Prolog II: A Language for Implementing Multi-Agent Systems", Y. Cosmadopoulos et al, in Tutorial and Workshop on Cooperating Knowledge Based Systems, Keele U 1992].

Last updated: 1994-11-01

ICQ

<chat>

1. Abbreviation for "I seek you".

2. A proprietary chat system created by a couple of israeli guys, who later founded "mirabilis". ICQ was sold to America On-Line around 1998.

The name "ICQ" is a play on "cq", the radio signal for seeking conversation.

http://icq.com/.

[Confirm derivation? TCP? Summary?]

Last updated: 2000-04-03

ICSI

International Computer Science Institute at Berkeley, CA.

ICT

<education>

1. Information and Communication Technology.

<testing>

2. In Circuit Test.

Last updated: 2000-04-04

ICW

Interactive CourseWare

ICWS

International Core War Society.

Id

Irvine Dataflow

id

international direct dialing

The country code for Indonesia.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

I-D

Internet-Draft

ID10T

<abuse>

/I D ten T/ A grade of user problem somewhere between PEBCAK and UBD. Considered friendlier than saying, "You called me down here to exit a modal dialog box for you?"

Last updated: 2003-06-07

IDAMS

A pictorial retrieval language implemented in APL.

["Concept of the Diagnostic Image Workstation", D. Meyer-Ebrecht, Proc 2nd Conf on Picture Archiving (PACS II), SPIE 418, pp.180-183 (1983)].

IDD

IDE

<storage>

1. Integrated Drive Electronics, see Advanced Technology Attachment.

<programming, tool>

2. Integrated Development Environment.

<company>

3. Interactive Development Environments.

Last updated: 2002-04-14

IDEA

<language>

1. Interactive Data Entry/Access.

<algorithm>

2. International Data Encryption Algorithm.

Last updated: 1996-02-16

IDEAL

1. Ideal DEductive Applicative Language. A language by Pier Bosco and Elio Giovannetti combining Miranda and Prolog. Function definitions can have a guard condition (introduced by ":-") which is a conjunction of equalities between arbitrary terms, including functions. These guards are solved by normal Prolog resolution and unification. It was originally compiled into C-Prolog but was eventually to be compiled to K-leaf.

2. A numerical constraint language written by Van Wyk of Stanford in 1980 for typesetting graphics in documents. It was inspired partly by Metafont and is distributed as part of Troff.

["A High-Level Language for Specifying Pictures", C.J. Van Wyk, ACM Trans Graphics 1(2):163-182 (Apr 1982)].

Last updated: 1994-12-15

ideal

<theory>

In domain theory, a non-empty, downward closed subset which is also closed under binary least upper bounds. I.e. anything less than an element is also an element and the least upper bound of any two elements is also an element.

Last updated: 1997-09-26

Idealized CSP

<language>

A programming language combining simply typed, call-by-name procedures with asynchronous communicating processes, assuming fair parallel execution. Idealized CSP generalises Anthony Hoare's original CSP and Kahn's networks of deterministic processes, and is closely related to Parallel Algol by Stephen Brookes of CMU.

Procedures permit the encapsulation of common protocols and parallel programming idioms. Local variables and local channel declarations provide a way to delimit the scope of interference between parallel agents, and allow a form of concurrent object-oriented programming.

[Was this language also designed by Brookes?]

Last updated: 1997-09-26

Idealized Instruction Set

<language>

(IIS) The assembly language for the Flagship parallel machine.

["An Idealized Instruction Set for a Packet Rewrite Machine", J. Sargeant, Manchester U, 1988].

Last updated: 1994-11-07

IDEF

ICAM Definition.

IDEF0

<modeling>

A minor elaboration on SADT.

IDEF Home.

Last updated: 2007-02-12

idempotent

1. A function f : D -> D is idempotent if

 f (f x) = f x  for all x in D.

I.e. repeated applications have the same effect as one. This can be extended to functions of more than one argument, e.g. Boolean & has x & x = x. Any value in the image of an idempotent function is a fixed point of the function.

2. This term can be used to describe C header files, which contain common definitions and declarations to be included by several source files. If a header file is ever included twice during the same compilation (perhaps due to nested #include files), compilation errors can result unless the header file has protected itself against multiple inclusion; a header file so protected is said to be idempotent.

3. The term can also be used to describe an initialisation subroutine that is arranged to perform some critical action exactly once, even if the routine is called several times.

Last updated: 1995-01-11

identifier

<programming, operating system>

1. A formal name used in source code to refer to a variable, function, procedure, package, etc. or in an operating system to refer to a process, user, group, etc.

Each different type of entity may have a different range of valid identifiers or "name space". For example, an identifier in C is a series of one or more letters, digits and underscores that does not begin with a digit. An identifier has a type, e.g. integer variable, hash, variant and a scope, e.g. block, global.

Last updated: 2006-05-29

<database>

2. (id) A primary key. The column containing a table's primary key is frequently named after the table with "_id" appended, e.g. "customer_id".

Last updated: 2006-05-29

ideogram

<text, graphics>

A symbol representing a concept. Nearly all ideograms are pictograms - pictures of the thing represented, others are merely conventional. An example of non-pictorial ideogram might be the degree symbol (a superfix circle) when used for temperature.

Last updated: 2014-07-30

I didn't change anything!

An aggrieved cry often heard as bugs manifest during a regression test. The canonical reply to this assertion is "Then it works just the same as it did before, doesn't it?" See also one-line fix. This is also heard from applications programmers trying to blame an obvious applications problem on an unrelated systems software change, for example a divide-by-0 fault after terminals were added to a network. Usually, their statement is found to be false. Upon close questioning, they will admit some major restructuring of the program that shouldn't have broken anything, in their opinion, but which actually hosed the code completely.

2. Integrated Database Management System.

idk

<chat>

I don't know.

Last updated: 2003-09-23

IDL

<language>

1. Interactive Data analysis Language (Xerox).

2. Interface Description Language (Snodgrass, UNC, Arizona).

3. Interface Definition Language (SunSoft, OMG).

4. Interactive Data Language (Research Systems).

Last updated: 2004-05-07

IDMS

<language, database>

1. A pictorial query language, an extension of Sequel2.

["A Management System for an Integrated Database of Pictures and Alphanumeric Data", G.Y. Tang, Computer Graphics Image Processing 16:270-286 (1981)].

<database>

Last updated: 2002-06-10

IDMSX

<database>

IDMS extended.

Last updated: 1995-04-19

Id Nouveau

A dataflow language by Arvind <[email protected]> and R.S. Nikhil <[email protected]>, MIT LCS, ca. 1986.

Id Nouveau began as a functional language, added streams, resource managers and I-structures (mutable arrays). Loops are syntactic sugar for tail recursion.

IDOL

Icon-Derived Object Language. An object-oriented preprocessor for Icon.

ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/pub/languages/icon/idol.tar.Z.

["Programming in Idol: An Object Primer", C.L. Jeffery, U Arizona CS TR #90-10].

IDS/I

Integrated Data Store. An extension to COBOL involving "chains" (circular lists), for General Electric computers.

["A General Purpose Programming System for Random Access Memories", C.W. Bachman et al, Proc FJCC 26(1), AFIPS (Fall 1964)].

[Sammet 1969, p. 376].

IDSN

ISDN

id Software

<games>

Creators and publishers of the DOOM game for IBM PCs.

E-mail: <[email protected]>. Telephone: +1 800-ID-GAMES (Orders only).

IDSS

Intelligent Decision Support Systems

IE

Internet Explorer

ie

International Electrotechnical Commission

The country code for Ireland.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

IEC

IEC 559

IEEE Floating Point Standard

IEEE

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

IEEE 1076

The IEEE standard for VHDL.

IEEE 1394

High Performance Serial Bus

IEEE 488

<hardware, standard>

(GPIB, General-Purpose Interface Bus, HP-IB, Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus) An 8-bit parallel bus common on test equipment.

The IEEE-488 standard was proposed by Hewlett-Packard in the late 1970s and has undergone a couple of revisions. HP documentation (including data sheets and manuals) calls it HP-IB, or Hewlett-Packard Interface Bus.

It allows up to 15 intelligent devices to share a single bus, with the slowest device participating in the control and data transfer handshakes to drive the speed of the transaction. The maximum data rate is about one megabit per second.

Other standards committees have adopted HP-IB (American Standards Institute with ANSI Standard MC 1.1 and International Electro-technical Commission with IEC Publication 625-1).

To paraphrase from the HP 1989 Test & Measurement Catalog (the 50th Anniversary version): The HP-IB has a party-line structure wherein all devices on the bus are connected in parallel. The 16 signal lines within the passive interconnecting HP-IB (IEEE-488) cable are grouped into three clusters according to their functions (Data Bus, Data Byte Transfer Control Bus, General Interface Management Bus).

In June 1987 the IEEE approved a new standard for programmable instruments called IEEE Std. 488.2-1987 Codes, Formats, Protocols, and Common Commands. It works with the IEEE Standard Digital Interface for Programmable Instrumentation, IEEE 488-1978 (now 488.1). HP-IB is Hewlett-Packard's implementation of IEEE 488.1.

Last updated: 1996-05-10

IEEE 754

IEEE Floating Point Standard

IEEE 802

The IEEE standards for local area networks. The spanning tree algorithm is defined in IEEE 802.1 (under consideration), Logical Link Control (LLC, the upper portion of the data link layer) in IEEE 802.2, Ethernet in IEEE 802.3, Token Bus in IEEE 802.4 and IBM Token Ring in IEEE 802.5.

The equivalent ISO standard is IS 8802.

Last updated: 1995-02-15

IEEE 802.1

An IEEE working group concerned with the IEEE 802 family of networking standards, specifically bridging and network management.

The spanning tree protocol is standardised as 802.1D.

Last updated: 2010-09-26

IEEE 802.2

(Networks) The IEEE standard defining Logical Link Control (LLC, the upper portion of the data link layer) for local area networks.

Last updated: 1995-02-14

IEEE 802.3

The IEEE standard defining the hardware layer and transport layer of (a varient of) Ethernet. The maximum segment length is 500m and the maximum total length is 2.5km. The maximum number of hosts is 1024.

The maximum packet size is 1518 bytes. If the upper layer protocol submits a PDU less than 64 bytes, 802.3 will pad the LLC Info field to achieve the minimum 64 bytes.

Although it is not technically correct, the terms "packet" and frame are used interchangeably. The ISO/IEC 8802-3 ANSI/IEEE 802.3 Standards refer to MAC sub-layer frames consisting of the Destination Address, Source Address, Length, LLC Info., and FCS fields. The Preamble and SFD are (usually) considered a header to the MAC Frame. This header plus the MAC Frame constitute a "Packet".

Last updated: 1995-07-09

IEEE 802.3u

The IEEE committee working on standards for Fast Ethernet.

Last updated: 1998-06-30

IEEE 802.3z

The IEEE committee working on standards for Gigabit Ethernet.

Last updated: 1998-06-30

IEEE 802.4

Internet Engineering and Planning Group

The IEEE Token Bus standard.

Last updated: 1996-12-12

IEEE 802.5

The IEEE token ring standard. The most common type of token ring.

Last updated: 1994-10-27

IEEE Computer Society

<body>

The society of the IEEE which publishes the journal "Computer".

http://computer.org/.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

IEEE Floating Point Standard

<standard, mathematics>

(IEEE 754) "IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic (ANSI/IEEE Std 754-1985)" or IEC 559: "Binary floating-point arithmetic for microprocessor systems". A standard, used by many CPUs and FPUs, which defines formats for representing floating-point numbers; representations of special values (e.g. infinity, very small values, NaN); five exceptions, when they occur, and what happens when they do occur; four rounding modes; and a set of floating-point operations that will work identically on any conforming system.

IEEE 754 specifies formats for representing floating-point values: single-precision (32-bit) is required, double-precision (64-bit) is optional. The standard also mentions that some implementations may include single-extended precision (80-bit) and double-extended precision (128-bit) formats.

[On-line document?]

Last updated: 2003-06-17

IEEE Standard 1149.1

Joint Test Action Group

IEF

Advantage Gen

IEN

Internet Experiment Note

IEPG

IESG

Internet Engineering Steering Group

IETF

Internet Engineering Task Force

IF1

<language>

A graph language used as an intermediate language for dataflow hardware. Used by the OSC SISAL compiler.

["The Manchester Prototype Dataflow Computer", J.R. Gurd et al, CACM 28(1):34-52, Jan 1985].

Last updated: 1996-01-05

IF2

<language>

S graph language used by the OSC SISAL compiler, a superset of IF1.

["IF2: An Applicative Language Intermediate Form with Explicit Memory Management", M. L. Welcome et al, UC-LLNL, Nov 1986].

Last updated: 1996-01-05

IFAC

International Federation of Automatic Control, involved in informatics related to control systems.

IFC

Internet Foundation Classes

ifdef out

/if'def owt/ v. Synonym for condition out, specific to C.

Illinois Functional Programming

IFDL

<language>

Independent Form Description Language.

DEC's language for describing form-based human interfaces in DECforms.

Last updated: 1995-04-21

IFF

<file format>

1. Interchange File Format.

2. Identify friend or foe (radar).

iff

<mathematics, logic>

if and only if, i.e. necessary and sufficient. For example, two figures are congruent iff one can be placed over the other so that they coincide.

Last updated: 2002-12-28

IFIP

1. International Federation for Information Processing.

2. A subset of ALGOL.

[Sammet 1969, p. 180].

IFP

IFS

1. internal field separators.

2. Installable File System.

<graphics>

3. Iterated Function System.

Last updated: 1999-04-07

IFX

["Type Reconstruction with First-Class Polymorphic Values", J. O'Toole et al, SIGPLAN Notices 24(7):207-217 (Jul 1989)].

If you want X, you know where to find it.

<exclamation>

There is a legend that Dennis Ritchie, inventor of C, once responded to demands for features resembling those of what at the time was a much more popular language by observing "If you want PL/I, you know where to find it." Ever since, this has been hackish standard form for fending off requests to alter a new design to mimic some older (and, by implication, inferior and baroque) one. The case X = Pascal manifests semi-regularly on Usenet's comp.lang.c newsgroup. Indeed, the case X = X has been reported in discussions of graphics software (see X Window System).

Institute for Global Communications

Last updated: 1995-10-25

IGC

IGES

Initial Graphics Exchange Specification: an ASME/ANSI standard for the exchange of CAD data.

IGL

Interactive Graphic Language. Used primarily by Physics Dept at Brooklyn Poly, uses numerical methods on vectors to approximate continuous function problems that don't have closed form solutions.

[Is this being confused with Tektronix's graphics library by the same name?]

IGMP

Internet Group Management Protocol

IGP

Interior Gateway Protocol

IGPL

Interest Group in Pure and Applied Logics

IGS

Internet Go Server.

IGU

<chat>

I Give Up. Often found appended to documents, e-mail, programs that don't work, etc.

Last updated: 1999-09-30

IHS

Integrated Home System

IHV

Independent Hardware Vendor

IIcx

Apple IIcx

IIDMS/R

Integrated database management system

IIL

Integrated Injection Logic

IINREN

Interagency Interim National Research and Education Network

IIOP

Internet Inter-ORB Protocol

IIR

Infinite Impulse Response

IIRC

<chat>

If I recall/remember correctly.

Last updated: 1996-11-28

IIS

<web>

1. Internet Information Server.

<language>

2. Idealized Instruction Set.

Last updated: 1999-08-26

IIT

Integrated Information Technology

IITF

Information Infrastructure Task Force

IITRAN

Simple PL/I-like language for students, on IBM 360.

["The IITRAN Programming Language", R. Dewar et al, CACM 12(10):569-575 (Oct 1969)].

il

High Performance Serial Bus

The country code for Israel.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

ILBM

interleaved bit-map

ILF

Independent Logical File

ILIAD

<language, real-time>

A real-time language.

["On the Design of a Language for Programming Real-Time Concurrent Processes", H.A. Schutz, IEEE Trans Soft Eng SE-5(3):248-255, May 1979].

Last updated: 2000-09-03

I-Link

ILISP

A somewhat LISP Machine-like interface to lisp listeners from Emacs.

Version 5.0 Emacs interface by ? Ivan Vazquez <[email protected]>.

ftp://haldane.bu.edu/ (128.197.54.25). E-mail: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> (discussion).

Last updated: 1993-06-28

ill-behaved

1. [numerical analysis] Said of an algorithm or computational method that tends to blow up because of accumulated roundoff error or poor convergence properties.

2. Software that bypasses the defined operating system interfaces to do things (like screen, keyboard, and disk I/O) itself, often in a way that depends on the hardware of the machine it is running on or which is nonportable or incompatible with other pieces of software.

In the IBM PC/mess-dos world, there is a folk theorem (nearly true) to the effect that (owing to gross inadequacies and performance penalties in the OS interface) all interesting applications are ill-behaved.

See also bare metal. Opposite: well-behaved, compare PC-ism.

ILLIAC

Assembly language for the ILLIAC computer. Listed in CACM 2(5):16, (May 1959) p.16.

Illiac IV

<computer>

One of the most infamous supercomputers ever. It used early ideas on SIMD (single instruction stream, multiple data streams). The project started in 1965, it used 64 processors and a 13MHz clock. In 1976 it ran its first sucessfull application. It had 1MB memory (64x16KB).

Its actual performance was 15 MFLOPS, it was estimated in initial predictions to be 1000 MFLOPS. It totally failed as a computer, only a quarter of the fully planned machine was ever built, costs escalated from the $8 million estimated in 1966 to $31 million by 1972, and the computer took three more years of enginering before it was operational.

The only good it did was to push research forward a bit, leading way for machines such as the Thinking Machines CM-1 and CM-2.

Last updated: 1995-04-28

Illinois Functional Programming

<language>

(IFP) An interpreter written in portable C by Arch D. Robison for a variant of Backus's FP with syntax like ALGOL or Modula-2. IFP Runs under Unix, CTSS (Cray) and MS-DOS.

Version: 0.5.

ftp://a.cs.uiuc.edu/pub/ifp. Posted to comp.sources.unix volume 10.

["The Illinois Functional Programming Interpreter", A.D. Robison, Proc 1987 SIGPLAN Conf on Interpreters and Interpretive Techniques (June 1987), pp. 64-73].

["Illinois Functional Programming: A Tutorial", A.D. Robison, BYTE Feb 1987, pp. 115-125].

Last updated: 1994-10-24

ILOC

Rice U. Register-oriented intermediate language targeted to PC/RT. Source languages include Fortran and Russell.

Ilog Solver

A commercial constraint programming system.

Last updated: 1994-11-15

iMac

<computer>

One of the trademark/brand names that Apple Inc use for their Mac family of personal computers.

Last updated: 2009-05-05

image

<data, graphics>

1. Data representing a two-dimensional scene. A digital image is composed of pixels arranged in a rectangular array with a certain height and width. Each pixel may consist of one or more bits of information, representing the brightness of the image at that point and possibly including colour information encoded as RGB triples.

Images are usually taken from the real world via a digital camera, frame grabber, or scanner; or they may be generated by computer, e.g. by ray tracing software.

See also image formats, image processing.

Last updated: 1994-10-21

Internet Message Access Protocol

2. The image (or range) of a function is the set of values obtained by applying the function to all elements of its domain. So, if f : D -> C then the set f(D) = { f(d) | d in D } is the image of D under f. The image is a subset of C, the codomain.

Last updated: 2000-01-19

image formats

<graphics, file format>

There are many formats used to store images in files. GIF, TIFF and JPEG are very common. Others are BIFF, bmp, Clear, FITS, IFF, NFF, OFF, PCX, PNG, TGA, XBM.

Some of these are documented on-line at the following sites:

The Graphics File Format Page. The NCSA file formats archive. The Avalon repository.

[Others?]

Last updated: 1997-08-07

image map

<web>

An image in an HTML document with "hot spots" which when clicked on in a suitable browser, act as anchors or links to other information. For example, an image of a map of the world might provide links to resources related to different countries. Clicking on a country would take the user to the relevant information.

[Documentation URL?]

Last updated: 1995-12-05

image processing

<graphics>

Computer manipulation of images. Some of the many algorithms used in image processing include convolution (on which many others are based), FFT, DCT, thinning (or skeletonisation), edge detection and contrast enhancement. These are usually implemented in software but may also use special purpose hardware for speed.

Image processing contrasts with computer graphics, which is usually more concerned with the generation of artificial images, and visualisation, which attempts to understand (real-world) data by displaying it as an artificial image (e.g. a graph). Image processing is used in image recognition and computer vision.

Silicon Graphics manufacture workstations which are often used for image processing. There are a few programming languages designed for image processing, e.g. CELIP, VPL.

Usenet newsgroup: sci.image.processing.

[Other algorithms, languages? FAQ?]

Last updated: 1995-04-12

image recognition

<graphics, artificial intelligence>

The identification of objects in an image. This process would probably start with image processing techniques such as noise removal, followed by (low-level) feature extraction to locate lines, regions and possibly areas with certain textures.

The clever bit is to interpret collections of these shapes as single objects, e.g. cars on a road, boxes on a conveyor belt or cancerous cells on a microscope slide. One reason this is an AI problem is that an object can appear very different when viewed from different angles or under different lighting. Another problem is deciding what features belong to what object and which are background or shadows etc. The human visual system performs these tasks mostly unconsciously but a computer requires skillful programming and lots of processing power to approach human performance.

Last updated: 1997-07-20

imaging

<graphics>

The production of graphic images, either from a video camera or from digitally generated data (see visualisation), or the recording of such images on microfilm, videotape or laser disk.

Imago Europe plc

A UK Internet provider. There sevice is called Imago On-line. E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Imago On-line

An Internet electronic mail and news service in the United Kingdom provided by Imago Europe plc.

A one year subscription to the service costs just seventy five pounds plus VAT and offers dial-up access with a graphical user interface for users of Macintosh and Microsoft Windows PCs and the Apple Newton MessagePad PDA family.

imake

A tool which generates Makefiles from a template, a set of cpp macros, and a per-directory input file called an Imakefile. This allows machine dependencies (such has compiler options, alternate command names, and special make rules) to be kept separate from the descriptions of the various items to be built.

imake is distributed with, and used extensively by, the X Window System.

Last updated: 1995-02-21

IMAO

IMHO

IMAP

imc

<language>

A REXX interpreter for SunOS.

Current version 1.3 [?].

ftp://rexx.uwaterloo.ca/pub/freerexx/imc/.

Last updated: 2000-11-07

IMD

intermodulation distortion

IMHO

<chat>

(From SF fandom via Usenet) In My Humble Opinion. Also seen in variant forms such as IMO, IMNSHO (In My Not-So-Humble Opinion) and IMAO (In My Arrogant Opinion).

Initial Microprogram Load

Last updated: 1998-09-24

IML

immediate version

child version

Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!

<messaging>

Since Usenet first got off the ground in 1980-81, it has grown exponentially, approximately doubling in size every year. On the other hand, most people feel the signal-to-noise ratio of Usenet has dropped steadily. These trends led, as far back as mid-1983, to predictions of the imminent collapse (or death) of the net. Ten years and numerous doublings later, enough of these gloomy prognostications have been confounded that the phrase "Imminent Death Of The Net Predicted!" has become a running joke, hauled out any time someone grumbles about the S/N ratio or the huge and steadily increasing volume, or the possible loss of a key node or link, or the potential for lawsuits when ignoramuses post copyrighted material etc.

Last updated: 1998-09-24

IMNSHO

IMHO

IMO

IMHO

IMP

<language>

1. IMProved Mercury autocode.

<language>

2. An extensible dialect of ALGOL 60, for CDC 1604.

["Experience with an Extensible Language", Edgar T. Irons, CACM 13(1):31-39, Jan 1970].

<language>

3. Interpretive Menu Processor.

<language>

4. IMPlementation language.

5. Interface Message Processor.

Last updated: 1996-04-07

impact printer

<printer>

The earlier, noisier kind of printer where part of the mechanism comes into contact with the paper. The term would only be only used in contrast to "non-impact printer". Examples include line printer, daisy wheel printer, golf ball printer, dot matrix printer, Braille printer.

Last updated: 1998-10-13

impedance

<electronics, physics>

Opposition to flow of alternating current. Impedance consists of resistance plus reactance (capacitive or inductive). Measured in Ohms.

Last updated: 2003-12-02

imperative

imperative language

<language>

Any programming language that specifies explicit manipulation of the state of the computer system, not to be confused with a procedural language, which specifies an explicit sequence of steps to perform.

An example of an imperative (but non-procedural) language is a data manipulation language for a relational database management system. This specifies changes to the database but does not necessarily require anyone to specify a sequence of steps.

Both contrast with declarative languages, which specify neither explicit state manipulation nor a sequence of steps.

Last updated: 2007-10-02

imperative programming

imperative language

Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine

<education>

(IC, ICST&M) One of the colleges of London University. The Department of Computing is the home of FOLDOC.

IC Home.

Last updated: 2005-05-09

Imperial Software Technology

<company>

A software engineering company which emerged from Imperial College in about 1982. It enjoys a world-wide reputation for technical excellence as a software product and technology provider in the Open Systems market. Its flagship product is X-Designer, the award-winning graphical user interface builder. It also has considerable expertise in the Z language and Formal Methods.

http://ist.co.uk/.

Last updated: 1995-11-23

IMPlementation language

<language>

(IMP) An extension of B with floating-point operations, developed by W. Davidsen at General Electric in 1970 for the GE 600. It was also cross-compiled to VAX and Intel 8080.

Last updated: 1996-04-07

implication

implies

implicit parallelism

<parallel>

A feature of a programming language for a parallel processing system which decides automatically which parts to run in parallel.

The best way of providing implicit parallelism is still (1995) an active research topic. The problem is to generate the right number of parallel tasks of the right size (or "granularity"). Too many tasks and the system gets bogged down in house-keeping, or memory for waiting tasks runs out, too few tasks and processors are left idle.

The best performance is usually achieved with explicit parallelism where the programmer can annotate his program to indicate which parts should be executed as independent parallel tasks.

Last updated: 1995-02-16

implicit type conversion

Information Management System

(Or "coercion") The abilty of some compilers to automatically insert type conversion functions where an expression of one type is used in a context where another type is expected.

A common example is coercion of integers to reals so that an expression like sin(1) is compiled as sin(integerToReal(1)) where sin is of type Real -> Real.

A coercion is usually performed automatically by the compiler whereas a cast is an explicit type conversion inserted by the programmer.

implies

<logic>

(=> or a thin right arrow) A binary Boolean function and logical connective. A => B is a true implication unless A is true and B is false. The truth table is

 A B | A => B
 ----+-------
 F F |   T
 F T |   T
 T F |   F
 T T |   T

It is surprising at first that A => B is always true if A is false, but if X => Y then we would expect that (X & Z) => Y for any Z.

If A is actually an expression X & Y then the implication is called a syllogism.

Last updated: 2009-10-28

imply

implies

import

<data>

To read data that is not in the native format of the application. For example, a web browser will have its own way of storing bookmarks but it will usually provide a function to import bookmarks from Internet Explorer. The alternative is to provide an independent external conversion utility but this is usually less convenient for the user.

Last updated: 2004-11-15

imprecise probability

<probability>

A probability that is represented as an interval (as opposed to a single number) included in [0,1].

Last updated: 2001-02-21

IMProved Mercury autocode

<language>

(IMP) A version of Autocode used to program the Edinburgh Multi Access System (EMAS), one of the first operating systems written in a high-level language, apparently predating Unix.

Luis Damas' Prolog interpreter in IMP for EMAS led to C-Prolog.

[Papers in J. British Computer Society].

Last updated: 1996-04-07

IMR

Internet Monthly Report

IMS

IMS 6100

Intersil 6100

Imsai

<company>

One of the companies that made very early microprocessor systems.

[Where? When? Who? What?]

Last updated: 1995-05-12

IMS/Data Base

<database>

(IMS/DB) A hierarchical high performance database for IBM mainframes, part of IMS. IMS/DB is implemented on top of VSAM and uses its underlying data structures.

Last updated: 1999-01-11

IMS/Data Communications

<database>

(IMS/DC) The teleprocessing monitor/transaction processing sytem in IMS from IBM.

Last updated: 1999-01-11

IMSE

Integrated Modelling Support Environment

IMTC

International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium

in

Inverse Address Resolution Protocol

1. The country code for India.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

2. The typical type or "mode" of function parameter that passes information in one direction - from the caller to the function. Other modes are out and inout.

Last updated: 2010-01-19

Ina Jo

<specification, language>

[FDM?]

["The Ina Jo Specification Language Reference Manual", J. Scheid et al, TR TM-(L)-6021/001/00, SDC Mar 1985].

Last updated: 2000-02-24

InARP

in-band signaling

in-band signalling

(Or CAS, channel associated signaling) Transmission of control signals in the same channel as data. This is commonly used in the Public Switched Telephone Network where the same pair of wires carry both voice and control signals (e.g. dialling, ringing). Another example is the use on a computer serial line of Control-S and Control-Q characters for flow control as opposed to hardware flow control which would be out-of-band signalling.

In digital communications, in-band signalling often uses "bit-robbing" where, for example, one bit in each frame is used for signalling instead of data. This is the reason why a D1 channel in the T-carrier system can only carry 56 Kbps of usable data instead of the 64 Kbps carried by the D0 channel in the E-carrier system.

Last updated: 2007-01-26

inc

/ink/ increment, i.e. increase by one. Especially used by assembly programmers, as many assembly languages have an "inc" mnemonic.

Antonym: dec.

Last updated: 2019-07-14

incantation

Any particularly arbitrary or obscure command that one must mutter at a system to attain a desired result. Not used of passwords or other explicit security features. Especially used of tricks that are so poorly documented that they must be learned from a wizard. "This compiler normally locates initialised data in the data segment, but if you mutter the right incantation they will be forced into text space."

include

[Usenet] 1. To duplicate a portion (or whole) of another's message (typically with attribution to the source) in a reply or followup, for clarifying the context of one's response. See the discussion of inclusion styles under "Hacker Writing Style".

2. [C] "#include <disclaimer.h>" has appeared in sig blocks to refer to a notional "standard disclaimer file".

include war

Excessive multi-leveled including within a discussion thread, a practice that tends to annoy readers. In a forum with high-traffic newsgroups, such as Usenet, this can lead to flames and the urge to start a kill file.

inclusive

<theory>

In domain theory, a predicate P : D -> Bool is inclusive iff

 For any {chain} C, a subset of D, and
 for all c in C,
 P(c) => P(lub C)

In other words, if the predicate holds for all elements of an increasing sequence then it holds for their least upper bound.

("lub is written in LaTeX as \sqcup).

Last updated: 1995-02-03

incomparable

Two elements a, b of a set are incomparable under some relation <= if neither a <= b, nor b <= a.

Last updated: 1995-09-21

incremental analysis

<testing>

Partial analysis of an incomplete product to allow early feedback on its development.

Last updated: 1996-05-22

incremental backup

A kind of backup that copies all files which have changed since the date of the previous backup. The first backup of a file system should include all files - a "full backup". Call this level 0. The next backup could also be a full level 0 backup but it is usually much quicker to do a level 1 backup which will include only those files which have changed since the level 0 backup. Together the level 0 and level 1 backups will include the latest version of every file. Level 1 backups can be made until, say, the backup tape is nearly full, after which we can switch to level 2. Each level includes those files which have changed since the last backup at a lower level. The more levels you use, the longer it will take to restore the latest version of a file (or all files) if you don't know when it was last modified.

Compare differential backup.

Last updated: 2004-03-01

incremental constraint solver

A system in which a constraint solver is given constraints one at a time by an inference engine (as is found in Prolog). The solver adds the new constraint to an initially empty set of solved constraints. If the new constraint is consistent with the solved constraints it will be added to the set. If it was inconsistent, the inference engine backtracks. This is the basis of Constraint Logic Programming.

Last updated: 1994-11-01

Incremental Prototyping Technology for Embedded Realtime Systems

<project>

An Esprit project.

[Partners? Results?]

Last updated: 1998-11-27

increment operator

A programming language unary operator that adds one to its operand. Similarly, a decrement operator subtracts one from its operand.

In the B programming language and its many descendents (e.g. C, Perl, Java), the increment operator is written "++" and decrement "--". They can be either prefix or postfix, both of which return a value as well as changing their operand. The prefix form, e.g. ++x, increments variable x before returning its value whereas postfix, x++, returns x's original value before it was incremented.

The expression ++x is equivalent to the assignment operator, x += 1. There is no simple corresponding equivalent for x++. These expressions, ++x, x++, x += 1 are almost equivalent to the long form x = x + 1 except that the latter involves two references to x. In the case of a simple variable, this makes no difference but the operand can be any lvalue (something that can be assigned to), including a complex pointer expression whose value changes each time it is evaluated.

If the operand is a pointer then incrementing it (in any of the above ways) causes it to point to the next element of its specified type.

The name of the programming language C++ is a humourous use of the postfix increment operator to imply that C++ is "one better than" C.

Last updated: 2019-07-14

indent

indentation

<text, programming>

Space and/or tab characters added at the beginning of a line to indicate structure, e.g. indenting a quotation to make it stand out or indenting a block of code controlled by an if statement.

Indentation is important in source code for readability. There are a number of different indent styles. Some programming languages go further and use indentation as the main method to represent block structure to the compiler or interpreter, see off-side rule.

Last updated: 2008-10-23

indent style

Rules for formatting code to make it easier to visually match up the beginning and end of a block of statements, particularly one controlled by a control statement such as "if", "else", "for", "while", "do". This becomes important with large, nested blocks of code.

Indent styles vary in the placement of "" and "" with respect to the statement(s) they enclose and the controlling statement.

The normal style is "Allman style", named after Eric Allman, a Berkeley hacker who wrote many BSD utilities in it. It is sometimes called "BSD style". It resembles normal indent style in Pascal and ALGOL. Basic indent per level is eight or four spaces. This is the only indent style to clearly associate the controlling statement and the beginning and the end of the block by aligning them vertically, which probably explains its widespread adoption.

 if (cond)
 {
 <body>
 }

Other styles such as K&R style, Whitesmiths style and GNU style are either obsolete or should be avoided because they make it harder (much harder in some cases) to match braces with each other and with the control statement that controls them.

Many related languages such as Perl offer the same choices while others, following B, eschew braces and rely entirely on relative indentation to express block structure. In Python, braces can be used to override indentation.

Last updated: 2014-09-24

Independent Computing Architecture

<protocol>

(ICA) Citrix's proprietary protocol that allows client desktop computers to run applications on application servers. Originally used between Windows systems, ICA is now also suported on Unix and Macintosh desktops and servers as well as some thin client hardware.

Last updated: 2012-07-08

Independent Logical File

<database>

(ILF) One kind of dynamic database management system.

Examples of ILF databases are INQUIRE, ADABAS, NOMAD, FOCUS and DATACOM.

[More details?]

Last updated: 1998-10-07

Independent Verification and Validation

<testing>

(IV&V) The verification and validation of a software product by an organisation that is both technically and managerially separate from the organisation responsible for developing the product.

Last updated: 1996-12-27

index

(Plural "indices" or "indexes")

1. A number used to select an element of a list, vector, array or other sequence. Such indices are nearly always non-negative integers but see associative array.

<database>

2. See inverted index. [Other kinds?]

<web>

3. A search engine.

<web>

4. A subject index.

Last updated: 1997-04-09

Index Data

<company>

A Danish company who have released a lot of ANSI Z39.50 related source under GPL.

http://130.228.5.168.

Last updated: 1996-07-22

IndexedDB

<database>

A transactional, JavaScript-based object-oriented database for use in web browsers. IndexedDB stores and retrieves objects that are indexed with a key. Using the structured clone algorithm, it can serialise complex data structures that may contain cyclic references.

IndexedDB is supported by Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Safari and even Internet Explorer.

MDN, W3C Proposal.

Last updated: 2014-12-01

Indexed Sequential Access Method

<database>

(ISAM) An IBM file management system allowing records to be accessed either sequentially (in the order they were entered) or via an index. Each index orders the records on a different key.

ISAM was followed by VSAM (Virtual Storage Access Method) and pre-dated relational databases.

Last updated: 2003-07-13

index.htm

index.html

<web>

The default HTML page served by most web servers in response to a request for a directory. The name suggests that the page will contain some kind of index of the contents of the requested directory.

For example, if the content for website example.com is stored in the file system in directory /var/www/example.com, then a request for http://example.com/products would return the contents of file /var/www/example.com/products/index.html.

A website's home page follows the same logic. For the above example, a request for http://example.com/ would return the contents of /var/www/example.com/index.html.

It is often possible, and occasionally necessary, to specify index.html explicitly in the URL, as in http://example.com/index.html, though modern practice is to omit it.

If you're looking for FOLDOC's home page at http://foldoc.org/index.html, then you followed an out-of-date link. Please update your bookmark to http://foldoc.org/ or inform the owner of the site you came from.

Microsoft, of course, has to be different and uses default.htm instead of index.html. The variant index.htm is a throw-back to the days when some file systems only allowed three-character file name extensions.

Last updated: 2014-06-22

index register

<processor>

A register found in some CPUs, whose contents can be added to the address operand to give the effective address. Incrementing the index register then allows the program to access the next location in memory and so on, making it very useful for working with arrays or blocks of memory.

Index registers first appeared around April 1949 in the Manchester Mark I. The Mark I's index register's contents were simply added to the entire instruction, thus potentially changing the opcode (see The story of Mel)!

Last updated: 2006-09-20

indices

<spelling>

A plural of "index".

indirect address

<processor>

An addressing mode found in many processors' instruction sets where the instruction contains the address of a memory location which contains the address of the operand (the "effective address") or specifies a register which contains the effective address. In the first case (indirection via memory), accessing the operand requires two memory accesses - one to fetch the effective address and another to read or write the actual operand. Register indirect addressing requires only one memory access.

An indirect address may be indicated in assembly language by an operand in parentheses, e.g. in Motorola 68000 assembly

 MOV D0,(A0)

writes the contents of register D0 to the location pointed to by the address in register A0.

Indirect addressing is often combined with pre- or post- increment or decrement addressing, allowing the address of the operand to be increased or decreased by one (or some specified number) either before or after using it.

Last updated: 1994-11-07

indirect addressing

indirect address

indirection

Manipulating data via its address. Indirection is a powerful and general programming technique. It can be used for example to process data stored in a sequence of consecutive memory locations by maintaining a pointer to the current item and incrementing it to point to the next item.

Indirection is supported at the machine language level by indirect addressing. Many processor and operating system architectures use vectors which are also an instance of indirection, being locations which hold the address of a routine to handle a particular event. The event handler can be changed simply by pointing the vector at a new piece of code.

C includes operators "&" which returns the address of a variable and its inverse "*" which returns the variable at a given address.

Last updated: 1997-02-06

indirect jump

A jump via an indirect address, i.e. the jump instruction contains the address of a memory location that contains the address of the next instruction to execute.

The location containing the address to jump to is sometimes called a vector.

Indirect jumps make normal code hard to understand because the jump target is a run-time property of the program that depends on the execution history. They are useful for, e.g. allowing user code to replace operating system code or setting up event handlers.

Last updated: 2010-01-01

induction

<logic>

A method of proving statements about well-ordered sets. If S is a well-ordered set with ordering "<", and we want to show that a property P holds for every element of S, it is sufficient to show that, for all s in S,

 IF for all t in S, t < s => P(t) THEN P(s)

I.e. if P holds for anything less than s then it holds for s. In this case we say P is proved by induction.

The most common instance of proof by induction is induction over the natural numbers where we prove that some property holds for n=0 and that if it holds for n, it holds for n+1.

(In fact it is sufficient for "<" to be a well-founded partial order on S, not necessarily a well-ordering of S.)

Last updated: 1999-12-09

inductive inference

grammatical inference

inductive relation

A relation R between domains D and E is inductive if for all chains d1 .. dn in D and e1 .. en in E,

 For all i, di R ei  =>  lub(d) R lub(e)

Industrial Programming, Inc.

<company>

The company which developed MTOS.

http://ipi.com.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Telephone: +1 (516) 938 6600. Address: 100 Jericho Quadrangle, Jericho, NY 11753, USA.

Last updated: 1997-07-23

Industrial Robot Language

<language, robotics>

(IRL) A high-level language for programming industrial robots.

["IRL, Industrial Robot Language", DIN 66312, Beuth-Verlag 1992].

Last updated: 1996-11-28

Industry Standard Architecture

<architecture, standard>

(ISA) A bus standard for IBM compatibles that extends the XT bus architecture to 16 bits. It also allows for bus mastering although only the first 16 MB of main memory is available for direct access. In reference to the XT bus architecture it is sometimes referred to as "AT bus architecture".

Compare EISA, MCA.

Last updated: 1996-06-25

inetd

<networking, tool>

Berkeley daemon program that listens for connection requests or messages for certain ports and starts server programs to perform the services associated with those ports. Sometimes known as netd.

Unix manual page: inetd(8).

Last updated: 1995-03-20

inews

<messaging, application>

A Unix program for posting Usenet news articles, written by Rich $alz <[email protected]> for InterNetNews. inews reads an article (perhaps with headers) from a file or standard, adds some headers and possibly a signature, and, if the article passes some consistency checks (too much quoting, non-existent newsgroup) then inews sends the article to the local news server for distribution.

If an unapproved posting is made to a moderated newsgroup, inews will try to send the article to the moderator (specified in a configuration file) by electronic mail.

Version: 1.25, dated 1993/03/18.

Unix manual page: inews(1).

Last updated: 1996-02-27

infant mortality

<hardware>

It is common lore among hackers (and in the electronics industry at large) that the chances of sudden hardware failure drop off exponentially with a machine's time since first use (that is, until the relatively distant time at which enough mechanical wear in I/O devices and thermal-cycling stress in components has accumulated for the machine to start going senile). Up to half of all chip and wire failures happen within a new system's first few weeks; such failures are often referred to as "infant mortality" problems (or, occasionally, as "sudden infant death syndrome").

See bathtub curve, burn-in period.

Last updated: 1995-03-20

infeasible path

dead code

inference

<logic>

The logical process by which new facts are derived from known facts by the application of inference rules.

See also symbolic inference, type inference.

Last updated: 1995-03-20

inference engine

A program that infers new facts from known facts using inference rules. Commonly found as part of a Prolog interpreter, expert system or knowledge based system.

Last updated: 1994-11-01

inference rule

<logic>

A procedure which combines known facts to produce ("infer") new facts. For example, given that

 1. Socrates is a man and that
 2. all men are motal,

we can infer that Socrates is mortal. This uses the rule known as "modus ponens" which can be written in Boolean algebra as

 (A & A => B) => B

(if proposition A is true, and A implies B, then B is true).

Or given that,

 1. Either Denis is programming or Denis is sad and
 2. Denis is not sad,

we can infer that Denis is programming. This rule can be written

 ((A OR B) & not B) => A

(If either A is true or B is true (or both), and B is false, then A must be true).

Compare syllogism.

Last updated: 1994-10-31

infimum

greatest lower bound

infinite

1. Bigger than any natural number. There are various formal set definitions in set theory: a set X is infinite if

(i) There is a bijection between X and a proper subset of X.

(ii) There is an injection from the set N of natural numbers to X.

(iii) There is an injection from each natural number n to X.

These definitions are not necessarily equivalent unless we accept the Axiom of Choice.

2. The length of a line extended indefinitely.

Infinite Impulse Response

<electronics, DSP>

A type of digital signal filter, in which every sample of output is the weighted sum of past and current samples of input, using all past samples, but the weights of past samples are an inverse function of the sample age, approaching zero for old samples.

Last updated: 2001-06-06

infinite loop

(Or "endless loop") Where a piece of program is executed repeatedly with no hope of stopping. This is nearly always because of a bug, e.g. if the condition for exiting the loop is wrong, though it may be intentional if the program is controlling an embedded system which is supposed to run continuously until it is turned off. The programmer may also intend the program to run until interrupted by the user. An endless loop may also be used as a last-resort error handler when no other action is appropriate. This is used in some operating system kernels following a panic.

A program executing an infinite loop is said to spin or buzz forever and goes catatonic. The program is "wound around the axle".

A standard joke has been made about each generation's exemplar of the ultra-fast machine: "The Cray-3 is so fast it can execute an infinite loop in under 2 seconds!"

See also black hole, recursion, infinite loop.

Last updated: 1996-05-11

Infinite Monkey Theorem

<humour>

"If you put an infinite number of monkeys at typewriters, eventually one will bash out the script for Hamlet." (One may also hypothesise a small number of monkeys and a very long period of time.) This theorem asserts nothing about the intelligence of the one random monkey that eventually comes up with the script (and note that the mob will also type out all the possible *incorrect* versions of Hamlet). It may be referred to semi-seriously when justifying a brute force method; the implication is that, with enough resources thrown at it, any technical challenge becomes a one-banana problem.

This theorem was first popularised by the astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington. It became part of the idiom through the classic short story "Inflexible Logic" by Russell Maloney, and many younger hackers know it through a reference in Douglas Adams's "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

infinite set

A set with an infinite number of elements. There are several possible definitions, e.g.

(i) ("Dedekind infinite") A set X is infinite if there exists a bijection (one-to-one mapping) between X and some proper subset of X.

(ii) A set X is infinite if there exists an injection from N (the set of natural numbers) to X.

In the presence of the Axiom of Choice all such definitions are equivalent.

Last updated: 1995-03-27

infinity

1. The size of something infinite.

Using the word in the context of sets is sloppy, since different infinite sets aren't necessarily the same size cardinality as each other.

infix notation

<language>

One of the possible orderings of functions and operands: in infix notation the functions are placed between their operands, such as "1+2". Although infix notation is limited to binary functions most languages mix infix notation with prefix or postfix notation, as a form of syntactic sugar.

Last updated: 1997-01-17

infix syntax

infix notation

inflate

deflate

INFN

Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare: an Italian State research organisation.

Infobahn

(After the German "Autobahn") Information Superhighway.

Info BASIC

Variant of Pick BASIC used with PRIME's PRIMOS.

infobot

<chat>

A bot that serves as a common database of information (often noteworthy URLs) for users on a chat system. Infobots often have a simple chatbot interface, responding to key-phrases, as well as to direct queries.

Here, in a real conversation, the bot Purl's first response is triggered by the phrase "just tell me", and its second response is triggered by being directly asked "perlfunc?":

 <eesh> can someone tell me what: $num9 =
        substr($number,9,1); means

 <Tkil> eesh -- man perlfunc, look at "substr".

 <eesh> just tell me

 <purl> Didn't your momma ever tell you, "Go
        look it up in the dictionary"?!

 <Tkil> eesh -- no.  that's all we'll tell
        you.  read the documentation.

 <Tkil> eesh -- if you haven't man pages or
        perldoc, you can read them on the 'net.

 <Tkil> purl, perlfunc?

 <purl> well, perlfunc is Perl builtin
        functions, at man perlfunc or
        http://perl.com/CPAN-local/doc/manual/html/pod/perlfunc.html

http://cs.cmu.edu/~lenzo/infobot.html/.

Last updated: 1998-10-30

Informatics Corporation

<company>

Renamed to Sterling Software Corp.

[When?]

Last updated: 1998-10-30

information

<data, data processing>

The result of applying data processing to data, giving it context and meaning. Information can then be further processed to yeild knowledge.

People or computers can find patterns in data to perceive information, and information can be used to enhance knowledge. Since knowledge is prerequisite to wisdom, we always want more data and information. But, as modern societies verge on information overload, we especially need better ways to find patterns.

1234567.89 is data.

"Your bank balance has jumped 8087% to $1234567.89" is information.

"Nobody owes me that much money" is knowledge.

"I'd better talk to the bank before I spend it, because of what has happened to other people" is wisdom.

Last updated: 2007-09-10

Information Algebra

Theoretical formalism for DP, never resulted in a language. Language Structure Group of CODASYL, ca. 1962. Sammet 1969, 709.

Information and Communication Technology

<education>

(ICT) The study of the technology used to handle information and aid communication. The phrase was coined by [?] Stevenson in his 1997 report to the UK government and promoted by the new National Curriculum documents for the UK in 2000. In addition to the subjects included in Information Technology (IT), ICT emcompasses areas such as telephony, broadcast media and all types of audio and video processing and transmission.

http://rubble.ultralab.anglia.ac.uk/stevenson/ICTUKIndex.html.

Last updated: 2008-09-19

Information Appliance

<hardware>

(IA) A consumer device that performs only a few targeted tasks and is controlled by a simple touch-screen interface or push buttons on the device's enclosure.

[How does this differ from a PDA?]

Last updated: 1998-02-24

Information Builders

Distributors of LEVEL5 OBJECT. Telephone +1 800 969 INFO.

Information Engineering Facility

Advantage Gen

information highway

information superhighway

Information Infrastructure Task Force

<networking, body>

(IITF) A US government body created in 1993 by President Clinton to control and oversee the NII project. The IITF consists of representatives of the federal agencies involved in information technology. They work with the private sector to develop policy. Various IITF committees work on telecommunications, IPR, privacy, government information and applications.

In 2013, the IITF does not appear to have any presence on the WWW, which strongly suggests that it no longer exists (or that it is pretty out of touch with modern information infrastructure).

http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Information_Infrastructure_Task_Force.

[Did it ever achieve anything? What happened to it?]

Last updated: 2013-11-16

Information Innovation

A group of companies with offices in Amsterdam and New York which acts as an information filter for the web. They analyse what happens in the Web community and organise the Web's information so that it is accessible and efficient to use.

Information Innovation provides:

"The Management Guide" - a guide for managers in the information age. The Guide consists of 22 parts, each concentrating on a particular technology or issue facing managers. Topics range from Artificial Intelligence and Telecommunications to Finance and Marketing. Each part contains references to additional valuable information, including CD ROMs, conferences, magazines, articles and books.

"The Hypergraphic Matrix" - a "hypergraphic" matrix of 250 graphics discussing the interrelationships between technology, change, business functions and specific industries.

"Dictionary" - the largest Internet dictionary on management and technology.

"The Delphi Oracle" - a comprehensive guide to the latest management ideas and issues. Over 500 articles and books have been read, analysed, rated and catalogued.

"Management Software" - a guide to software which is useful to managers. Both Web software, Internet software and commecial products are included in this guide.

"The Web Word" - an information service about the Web. It includes a regular newsletter and databases about Web resources, news, interviews with Web personalities and, of course, the most comprehensive guide to sites.

"Web Bibliography" - a guide to the latest Web information printed. Over 150 articles, magazines, market research reports and books are catalogued.

"The Power Launch Pad" - our own list of useful sites on the Web. Also includes links to our own lists of special subjects such as Finance, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Technology and so forth.

http://euro.net/innovation/WelcomeHP.html. E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1994-10-27

information island

<jargon>

A body of information (i.e. electronic files) that needs to be shared but has no network connection.

Last updated: 1995-03-16

Information Management

The planning, budgeting, control and exploitation of the information resources in an organisation. The term encompasses both the information itself and the related aspects such as personnel, finance, marketing, organisation and technologies and systems. Information Managers are responsible for the coordination and integration of a wide range of information handling activities within the organisation. These include the formulation of corporate information policy, design, evaluation and integration of effective information systems and services, the exploitation of IT for competitive advantage and the integration of internal and external information and data.

Information Management System

<database>

(IMS, IMS/VS, IMS/ESA) A database system from IBM consisting of IMS/Data Base and IMS/Data Communications.

Last updated: 1999-01-11

information overload

<jargon>

When a person feels unable to read all the information that is presented or available to them, particularly where they need to make decisions based on that information but can't because there is just too much to take in in the time available.

Last updated: 2005-01-09

Information Processing Language

(IPL) Said to be the first list-processing language, also the first language to support recursion. Written by Allen Newell, J.C. Shaw and H. Simon at Carnegie ca. 1956. It was very low level.

Versions: IPL-I (never implemented), IPL-II (1957 for JOHNNIAC), IPL-III (existed briefly), IPL-IV, IPL-V (1958, for IBM 650, IBM 704, IBM 7090, many others. Widely used), IPL-VI.

[Sammet 1969, pp. 388-400].

["Information Processing Language-V Manual", A. Newell ed, P-H 1965].

Last updated: 1994-11-04

Information Resource Management

(IRM) A philosophical and practical approach to managing government information. Information is regarded as a valuable resource which should be managed like other resources, and should contribute directly to accomplishing organisational goals and objectives. IRM provides an integrated view for managing the entire life-cycle of information, from generation, to dissemination, to archiving and/or destruction, for maximising the overall usefulness of information, and improving service delivery and program management.

IRM views information and Information Technology as an integrating factor in the organisation, that is, the various organisational positions that manage information are coordinated and work together toward common ends. Further, IRM looks for ways in which the management of information and the management of Information Technology are interrelated, and fosters that interrelationship and organisational integration.

IRM includes the management of (1) the broad range of information resources, e.g., printed materials, electronic information, and microforms, (2) the various technologies and equipment that manipulate these resources, and (3) the people who generate, organise, and disseminate those resources. Overall the intent of IRM is to increase the usefulness of government information both to the government and to the public.

[Gary D. Blass et al. "Finding Government Information: The Federal Information Locator System (FILS)", Government Information Quarterly, JAI Press, Inc., Greenwich, Connecticut. Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 11-32. 1991].

Last updated: 1995-11-12

information superhighway

(Or "Infobahn", "Info Strada") The name coined by US Vice-president Al Gore in the early 1990s for the emerging high-speed global communications network capable of carrying voice, data, video, and other services around the world. These services use satellite, copper cable, optical fibre, mobile telecommunications, and are accessible via set-top boxes or suitably equipped computers.

Last updated: 2001-03-31

Information Systems Factory

(ISF) An equivalent to an SEE.

[Simultaneous Engineering Environment or Software Engineering Environment?]

Last updated: 2000-12-30

information technology

<business, jargon>

(IT) Applied computer systems - both hardware and software, and often including networking and telecommunications, usually in the context of a business or other enterprise. Often the name of the part of an enterprise that deals with all things electronic.

The term "computer science" is usually reserved for the more theoretical, academic aspects of computing, while the vaguer terms "information systems" (IS) or "information services" may include more of the human activities and non-computerised business processes like knowledge management. Others say that IT includes computer science.

Last updated: 2000-10-02

information technology governance

<business>

The structure, oversight and management processes which ensure the delivery of the expected benefits of IT in a controlled way to help enhance the long term sustainable success of the enterprise.

Last updated: 2009-04-27

Information Technology Infrastructure Library

(ITIL) A method of organising the system and network management departments of large organisations. ITIL defines the (work) processes involved and the interfaces between them.

Last updated: 1995-06-27

Informix

A relational DBMS vendor.

InfoSeek

<company>

A company providing InfoSeek Net Search, a free web search service which, in August 1995, indexed the full text of over 400,000 web pages. Net Search was rated as the fourth most popular site on the web by Interactive Age magazine.

The also sell a commercial service, InfoSeek Search, that offers access to all the Usenet news groups, daily newswires, business and computer periodicals, and more.

http://www2.infoseek.com/.

Last updated: 1995-11-09

InfoStreet, Inc.

<company>

An Internet consulting and development company dedicated to assisting companies in establishing an Internet presence. InfoStreet develope Internet strategies, design and create web pages, and host and maintain websites.

InfoStreet, has been recognized by PC/Computing as the "Best of the Top Home Page Services" (August 1996) and has been featured in Netguide magazine and the Wiley and Son's Electronic Marketing book.

http://InfoStreet.com/.

Home page hosting service.

Last updated: 1997-01-30

infotainment

<application>

Interactive services or software that provides some combination of information and entertainment.

Last updated: 2010-03-02

InfoWord Office

<tool>

A suite of applications for Unix including a word processor, spreadsheet and database.

Light Infocon S.A..

Last updated: 1998-07-21

infrared

(IR) Electromagnetic waves in the frequency range just below visible light corresponding to radiated heat. IR waves can be generated by a kind of LED and are often used for remote controls for televisions etc. and in some docking stations.

Last updated: 1997-01-30

Infrared Data Association

<standard, body>

(IrDA) A non-profit trade association providing standards to ensure the quality and interoperability of infrared (IR) hardware.

The association currently has a membership of over 160 companies from around the world, representing computer and telecommunications hardware, software, components and adapters.

IrDA typically uses direct infrared i.e. point-to-point, line-of-sight, one-to-one communications. The standards include: IrDA Data (SIR, FIR, VFIR), IrDA Control, and AIR.

Ports built to the above standards can be found in products such as PDAs, Palm devices, printers, desktop adapters, notebooks, and digital cameras.

http://irda.org.

IrDA Serial Infrared Interface.

Linux-IrDA support.

Last updated: 1999-10-14

infrastructure

<systems>

Basic support services for computing, particularly national networks.

Inglish

<games>

An English-like language used for Adventure games like "The Hobbit". Inglish could distinguish between "take the rope and axe" and "take the money and run".

Last updated: 1995-06-27

INGRES

A relational DBMS vendor.

inheritance

<programming, object-oriented>

In object-oriented programming, the ability to derive new classes from existing classes. A derived class (or "subclass") inherits the instance variables and methods of the "base class" (or "superclass"), and may add new instance variables and methods. New methods may be defined with the same names as those in the base class, in which case they override the original one.

For example, bytes might belong to the class of integers for which an add method might be defined. The byte class would inherit the add method from the integer class.

Last updated: 2000-10-10

initgame

<games>

/in-it'gaym/ [IRC] An IRC version of the venerable trivia game "20 questions", in which one user changes his nick to the initials of a famous person or other named entity, and the others on the channel ask yes or no questions, with the one to guess the person getting to be "it" next. As a courtesy, the one picking the initials starts by providing a 4-letter hint of the form sex, nationality, life-status, reality-status. For example, MAAR means "Male, American, Alive, Real" (as opposed to "fictional"). Initgame can be surprisingly addictive. See also hing.

initialise

To give a variable its first value. This may be done automatically by some languages or it may require explicit code by the programmer. Some languages allow initialisation to be combined with variable definition, e.g. in C:

 int i = 0;

Failing to initialise a variable before using it is a common programming error, but one which compilers and automatic checkers like lint can easily detect.

Last updated: 1997-06-08

Initial Microprogram Load

(IML) Loading microcode into microcode memory.

Last updated: 1997-08-31

Initial Operational Test and Evaluation

<testing>

(IOT&E) The first phase of operational test and evaluation conducted on pre-protectional items, prototypes, or pilot production items and normally completed prior to the first major production decision. Conducted to provide a valid estimate of expected system operational effectiveness and suitability.

Last updated: 1996-12-27

Initial Program Load

(IPL) The procedure used to (re-)start a computer system by copying the operating system kernel into main memory and running it. Part of the boot sequence.

Last updated: 1997-08-31

Initial Program Loader

(IPL) A bootstrap loader which loads the part of an operating system needed to load the remainder of the operating system.

Last updated: 1997-08-31

initiator

SCSI initiator

injection

1. A function, f : A -> B, is injective or one-one, or is an injection, if and only if

 for all a, b in A, f(a) = f(b) => a = b.

I.e. no two different inputs give the same output (contrast many-to-one). This is sometimes called an embedding. Only injective functions have left inverses f' where f'(f(x)) = x, since if f were not an injection, there would be elements of B for which the value of f' was not unique. If an injective function is also a surjection then is it a bijection.

<reduction>

2. An injection function is one which takes objects of type T and returns objects of type C(T) where C is some type constructor. An example is

 f x = (x, 0).

The opposite of an injection function is a projection function which extracts a component of a constructed object, e.g.

 fst (x,y) = x.

We say that f injects its argument into the data type and fst projects it out.

Last updated: 1995-03-14

inkjet printer

<hardware, printer>

A class of printer in which small ink droplets are sprayed electrostatically from a nozzle onto the paper.

Inkjet printers are very quiet in comparison to impact printers.

A popular example is the Olivetti BJ10.

Last updated: 1995-03-14

ink printer

<printer>

A retronym used by Blind users to refer to all printers which are not Braille printers, regardless of whether they actually use ink.

Last updated: 1998-10-13

inline

(Or "unfold") To replace a function call with an instance of the function's body. Actual argument expressions are substituted for formal parameters as in beta reduction. Inlining is usually done as a compile-time transformation.

If done recklessly (e.g. attempting to inline a recursive function) the compiler will fail to terminate. If done over-enthusiastically the code size may increase exponentially, e.g. if function f calls g twice, and g calls h twice and h is inlined in g which is inlined in f (in either order) then there will be four copies of h's body in f.

inline element

<web>

Any HTML element that is rendered in the same position as normal plain text, i.e. to the right of the preceding text (for left-to-right scripts).

This contrasts with a block-level elements that is always placed below the preceding text line.

Inline elements typically specify formatting, e.g. <B> (bold), <SMALL> or the kind of content, e.g. <CODE>, <KBD>, though they also include things like inline images (<IMG>) and text areas (<TEXTAREA>).

http://htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/inline.html

Last updated: 2011-01-04

inline image

<web>

An image that appears within the body of a web page. Most graphical web browsers display images inline (with an option to turn off inline images, to speed up the display of web pages).

Other image formats may have to be displayed in a separate window and/or by another application program.

An inline image in a web page is specified with the <IMG> HTML tag, which can take many attributes, the most important of which is the SRC attribute that gives the URL from which to fetch the image. The ALT attribute gives text to display in place of the image for users with images disabled or who are using text-only browsers or text-to-speech convertors (e.g. blind users).

Last updated: 2011-01-04

INMOS transputer

transputer

inner class

<Java>

In Java, a non-static, nested class.

Last updated: 2006-11-18

inner join

<database>

(Commonly "join", but see also "outer join") A relational database operation which selects rows from two tables such that the value in one column of the first table also appears in a certain column of the second table.

An example in SQL:

 select * from A, B
 where A.x = B.y

The column names (x and y in this example) are often, but not necessarily, the same.

Last updated: 1998-11-23

inner product

In linear algebra, any linear map from a vector space to its dual defines a product on the vector space: for u, v in V and linear g: V -> V' we have gu in V' so (gu): V -> scalars, whence (gu)(v) is a scalar, known as the inner product of u and v under g. If the value of this scalar is unchanged under interchange of u and v (i.e. (gu)(v) = (gv)(u)), we say the inner product, g, is symmetric. Attention is seldom paid to any other kind of inner product.

An inner product, g: V -> V', is said to be positive definite iff, for all non-zero v in V, (gv)v > 0; likewise negative definite iff all such (gv)v < 0; positive semi-definite or non-negative definite iff all such (gv)v >= 0; negative semi-definite or non-positive definite iff all such (gv)v <= 0. Outside relativity, attention is seldom paid to any but positive definite inner products.

Where only one inner product enters into discussion, it is generally elided in favour of some piece of syntactic sugar, like a big dot between the two vectors, and practitioners don't take much effort to distinguish between vectors and their duals.

Last updated: 1997-03-16

InnovAda

An object-oriented extension to Ada, said to be Lisp-like. Implemented as an Ada preprocessor.

Last updated: 1994-11-03

[Where? Who? When?]

inode

A data structure holding information about files in a Unix file system. There is an inode for each file and a file is uniquely identified by the file system on which it resides and its inode number on that system. Each inode contains the following information: the device where the inode resides, locking information, mode and type of file, the number of links to the file, the owner's user and group ids, the number of bytes in the file, access and modification times, the time the inode itself was last modified and the addresses of the file's blocks on disk. A Unix directory is an association between file leafnames and inode numbers. A file's inode number can be found using the "-i" switch to ls.

Unix manual page: fs(5).

in-order traversal

traverse

inout

Borland Software Corporation.

A type or "mode" of function parameter that passes information in both directions - from the caller to the function and back to the caller, combining the in and out modes. An "inout" parameter might be used where the function needs to read and update some data belonging to the caller as a side effect of its main purpose.

Last updated: 2010-01-19

IN point

<unit, text>

(l'Imprimerie nationale point) A variant of the point equal to 0.4 mm.

Last updated: 2002-03-11

Inprise Corporation

Input

ALPHA

input

Data transferred from the outside world into a computer system via some kind of input device.

Opposite: output.

Last updated: 1997-04-28

input device

<hardware>

A peripheral used to transfer data from the outside world into a computer system. Some input devices are operated directly by the user, e.g. keyboard, mouse, touch screen, joystick, digitising tablet, microphone; others are sensors or transducers which convert external signals into data, e.g. using an ananlog to digital converter (this would also be true of a microphone). Other kinds of inputs are really one half of a bidirectional link with another computer or storage device, e.g. serial line, SCSI interface.

Last updated: 1996-11-03

input/output

<programming, operating system>

(I/O) Communication between a computer and its users, its storage devices, other computers (via a network) or the outside world. The devices the computer uses to do this are called "peripherals". What actually counts as I/O depends on what level of detail you are considering, e.g. communication between processors would not be considered I/O when considering a multiprocessor as a single system.

Important aspects of I/O are throughput, latency, and whether the communications is synchronous or asynchronous (using some kind of buffer).

Last updated: 2003-12-04

input/output redirection

Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique

In Unix, to send ouput from a process to different file or device or to another process via a pipe, or to have a process read its input from a different file, device or pipe. Some other operating systems have similar facilities.

To redirect input to come from a file instead of the keyboard, use "<":

 myprog < myfile

Similarly to redirect output to a file instead of the screen:

 ls > filelist

A pipe redirects the output of one process directly into the input of another

 who | wc -l

A common misuse by beginners is

 cat myfile | myprog

Which is more or less equivalent to "myprog < myfile" except that it introduces an extra unnecessary cat process and buffer space for the pipe. Even the "<" is unnecessary with many standard Unix commands since they accept input file names as command line arguments anyway.

Unix's concept of standard input/output and I/O redirection make it easy to combine simple processes in powerful ways and to use the same commands for different purposes.

Last updated: 1998-04-24

inquiry/response system

<business>

Any computer system in which data is entered offline and processed in batch form, but information can be retrieved on-line. An example is the checking of credit cards.

["Computer Information Systems for Business V", Thomas Dock and James C Wetherbe, West Publishing Company 1988].

Last updated: 1996-06-24

INRIA

insanely great

(Macintosh community, from Steve Jobs; also BSD Unix people via Bill Joy) Something so incredibly elegant that it is imaginable only to someone possessing the most puissant of hacker-natures.

Last updated: 1994-12-06

insertion sort

<algorithm>

A sorting algorithm that inserts each item in the proper place into an initially empty list by comparing it with each item in the list until it finds the new element's successor or the end of the list.

Compare bubble sort.

Last updated: 1997-02-12

INSIGHT

A simulation and modelling language especially for health care problems.

["Simulation Modeling with INSIGHT", S.D. Roberts Proc 1983 Winter Sim Conf, S.D. Roberts et al eds, pp.7-16].

Last updated: 1995-03-03

Insignia Solutions, Inc.

<company>

/in-sig'nee-* s*-loosh'nz/ A company that made its name as a provider of software that allows users to run Microsoft Windows and MS-DOS application programs on Digital, HP, IBM, Motorola, NeXT, Silicon Graphics and Sun/SPARC workstations, X terminals, Java desktops, and Apple Computer's Power Mac and Motorola 68000-based computers.

Insignia Solutions was founded in 1986. Their first product, SoftPC 1.0 for Sun workstations, was introduced in 1988. Also in 1988, Insignia shipped its first version of SoftPC for Apple Computer's Macintosh. As the demand to run Windows and MS-DOS applications on non-Intel computers grew, Insignia signed OEM agreements with several companies including Data General, Digital, Fujitsu, HP, Intergraph Corp., Motorola, Silicon Graphics, and Sun Microsystems.

Insignia Solutions sold its SoftWindows and RealPC product lines to FWB Software [when?]. Its major product in 2000 is the Jeode platform, a Java virtual machine for Internet appliances and embedded devices.

Home Page.

Last updated: 2000-02-14

inspection

<testing>

A formal evaluation technique in which software requirements, design, or code are examined in detail by a person or group other than the author to detect faults, violations of development standards, and other problems.

Last updated: 1996-05-22

installable file system

(IFS or "File System Driver", "FSD") An API that allows you to extend OS/2 to access files stored on disk in formats other than FAT and HPFS, and access files that are stored on a network file server.

For example an IFS could provide programs running under OS/2 (including DOS and Windows programs) with access to files stored under Unix using the Berkeley fast file system.

The other variety of IFS (a "remote file system" or "redirector") allows file sharing over a LAN, e.g. using Unix's Network File System protocol. In this case, the IFS passes a program's file access requests to a remote file server, possibly also translating between different file attributes used by OS/2 and the remote system.

Documentation on the IFS API has been available only by special request from IBM.

An IFS is structured as an ordinary 16-bit DLL with entry points for opening, closing, reading, and writing files, the swapper, file locking, and Universal Naming Convention. The main part of an IFS that runs in ring 0 is called by the OS/2 kernel in the context of the caller's process and thread. The other part that runs in ring 3 is a utility library with entry points for FORMAT, RECOVER, SYS, and CHKDSK.

EDM/2 article.

Last updated: 1999-04-07

installed user base

user base

installer

A utility program to ease the installation of another, probably larger, application. It is also possible for hardware to have an installer accompany it, to install any low level device drivers required.

The installer commonly asks the user to enter desired configuration options for the main program or hardware, and sets up various initialisation files accordingly, as well as copying the main program to a hard disc.

Some badly designed operating systems require applications to provide an uninstaller because of the number of different files modified or created during the installation process.

Last updated: 1998-02-09

instance

An individual object of a certain class. While a class is just the type definition, an actual usage of a class is called "instance". Each instance of a class can have different values for its instance variables, i.e. its state.

Last updated: 1998-03-06

instance variable

In object-oriented programming, one of the variables of a class template which may have a different value for each object of that class. Instance variables hold the state of an object.

Last updated: 1998-01-16

instantiate

instantiation

Producing a more defined version of some object by replacing variables with values (or other variables).

1. In object-oriented programming, producing a particular object from its class template. This involves allocation of a structure with the types specified by the template, and initialisation of instance variables with either default values or those provided by the class's constructor function.

2. In logic programming, when unification binds a logic variable to some value.

3. In type checking, when type inference binds a type variable to some type.

<multimedia>

4. A specific representation of an object or artifact. Examples of instantiations would be different images of an object, text translated into English and French or a video and a still image of a museum piece.

Last updated: 2015-02-08

Institute for Global Communications

(IGC) Provider of computer networking tools for international communications and information exchange. The IGC Networks -- PeaceNet, EcoNet, ConflictNet and LaborNet -- comprise the world's only computer communications system dedicated solely to environmental preservation, peace, and human rights. New technologies are helping these worldwide communities cooperate more effectively and efficiently.

Address: 18 De Boom Street, San Francisco, CA 94107 USA. A division of the Tides Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organisation. A founding member of the world-wide Association of Progressive Communications (APC).

ftp://igc.apc.org.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1996-06-24

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

(IEEE) The world's largest technical professional society, based in the USA. Founded in 1884 by a handful of practitioners of the new electrical engineering discipline, today's Institute has more than 320,000 members who participate in its activities in 147 countries. The IEEE sponsors technical conferences, symposia and local meetings worldwide, publishes nearly 25% of the world's technical papers in electrical, electronics and computer engineering and computer science, provides educational programs for its members and promotes standardisation. Areas covered include aerospace, computers and communications, biomedical technology, electric power and consumer electronics.

http://ieee.org/. Gopher. ftp://ftp.ieee.org/.

E-mail file-server: <[email protected]>.

IEEE Standards Process Automation (SPA) System, telnet [140.98.1.11].

Last updated: 1995-03-10

Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatique

<body>

(INRIA) A French research institute for computer science, control theory, and applied mathematics. INRIA has research units in Rocquencourt (near Paris), Sophia-Antipolis (near Nice), Grenoble, Nancy (also known as LORIA) and Rennes (known as IRISA), the last two in partnership with CNRS and local universities.

INRIA works on various projects, including the development of free software such as SciLab, Objective Caml, Bigloo, and projects such as GNU MP.

Last updated: 2003-07-13

instruction

machine instruction

Instruction Address Register

(IAR) The IBM name for program counter.

The IAR can be accessed by way of a supervisor call in supervisor state, but cannot be directly addressed in problem state.

Last updated: 1995-03-21

instructional technology

<education>

Design, development, use, management and evaluation of process and resources for learning.

Instructional technology aims to promote the application of validated, practical procedures in the design and delivery of instruction. It is often defined either in terms of media and other technology used (e.g. audiovisual media and equipment and computers), or in terms of a systematic process which encompasses instructional design, development, delivery and evaluation.

["Instructional Technology: The Definition and Domains of the Field", 1994, Barbara Seels and Rita Richey, Washington, D.C., Association for Educational Communications and Technology].

Last updated: 2010-01-29

instruction mnemonic

A word or acronym used in assembly language to represent a binary machine instruction operation code. Different processors have different instruction sets and therefore use a different set of mnemonics to represent them.

E.g. ADD, B (branch), BLT (branch if less than), SVC, MOVE, LDR (load register).

Last updated: 1997-02-18

instruction prefetch

A technique which attempts to minimise the time a processor spends waiting for machine instructions to be fetched from memory. Instructions following the one currently being executed are loaded into a prefetch queue when the processor's external bus is otherwise idle. If the processor executes a branch instruction or receives an interrupt then the queue must be flushed and reloaded from the new address.

Instruction prefetch is often combined with pipelining in an attempt to keep the pipeline busy.

By 1995 most processors used prefetching, e.g. Motorola 680x0, Intel 80x86.

[First processors using prefetch?]

Last updated: 1998-03-29

instruction register

(IR) The part of a central processing unit (CPU) control unit that holds the machine instruction currently being executed. The CPU's fetch-execute cycle loads instructions from memory into the instruction register. The IR in turn drives the instruction decoding logic that determines what operation teh CPU should perform on what data.

Modern processors have an instruction pipeline to minimise the time the control unit is waiting for instructions and data to be fetched from memory. This may distrubute the job of the IR over several registers in the pipeline.

Last updated: 2018-08-31

instruction scheduling

The compiler phase that orders instructions on a pipelined, superscalar, or VLIW architecture so as to maximise the number of function units operating in parallel and to minimise the time they spend waiting for each other.

Examples are filling a delay slot; interspersing floating-point instructions with integer instructions to keep both units operating; making adjacent instructions independent, e.g. one which writes a register and another which reads from it; separating memory writes to avoid filling the write buffer.

Norman P. Jouppi and David W. Wall, "Available Instruction-Level Parallelism for Superscalar and Superpipelined Processors", Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, pp. 272--282, 1989.

[The SPARC Architecture Manual, v8, ISBN 0-13-825001-4]

instruction set

The collection of machine language instructions that a particular processor understands.

The term is almost synonymous with "instruction set architecture" since the instructions are fairly meaningless in isolation from the registers etc. that they manipulate.

Last updated: 1999-07-05

instruction set architecture

(ISA) The parts of a processor's design that need to be understood in order to write assembly language, such as the machine language instructions and registers. Parts of the architecture that are left to the implementation, such as number of superscalar functional units, cache size and cycle speed, are not part of the ISA.

The definition of SPARC, for example, carefully distinguishes between an implementation and a specification.

Last updated: 1999-01-16

Instruction Set Processor

<language>

(ISP) A family of languages for describing the instruction sets of computers.

["Computer Structures: Readings and Examples", D.P. Siewiorek et al, McGraw-Hill 1982].

Last updated: 1995-10-12

instrument

To install devices or instructions into hardware or software to monitor the operation of a system or component.

Last updated: 1996-05-22

int

1. A common name for the integer data type. In C for example, it means a (signed) integer of the computer's native word length.

2. The top-level domain for international organisations.

Last updated: 1999-01-26

INTCODE

<language>

A low-level interpreted language used in bootstrapping the BCPL compiler. The INTCODE machine has six control registers and eight functions. OCODE was used as the intermediate language.

["INTCODE - An Interpretive Machine Code for BCPL", M. Richards, Computer Lab, U Cambridge 1972].

["BCPL - The Language and its Compiler", Martin Richards & Colin Whitby-Stevens, Cambridge U Press 1979].

Last updated: 2014-08-21

integer

(Or "whole number") One of the numbers in the set

 ..., -3, -2, -1, 0, 1, 2, 3, ...

There are an infinite number of integers, though each one is finite.

An inductive definition of an integer is a number that is either zero or an integer plus or minus one.

An integer has no fractional part. If written as a real number, e.g. 42.0, the part after the decimal point will be zero.

A natural number is a non-negative integer.

Computers usually store integers in binary. Natural numbers can be stored as unsigned integers and integers that may be negative require a sign bit and typically use twos complement representation. Other representations have been used, such as binary-coded decimal.

Computers are particularly fast when operating on integers as the operations are built into the central processing unit, in contrast to floating point numbers, which typically require the use of a separate floating-point unit.

Last updated: 2019-08-31

Integer SPECbaserate

SPECrate_base_int92

Integer SPECbaseratio

SPECbase_int92

Integer SPECrate

SPECrate_int92

Integer SPECratio

SPECint92

integrated circuit

Interactive Development Environment

(IC, or "chip") A microelectronic semiconductor device consisting of many interconnected transistors and other components. ICs are constructed ("fabricated") on a small rectangle (a "die") cut from a Silicon (or for special applications, Sapphire) wafer. This is known as the "substrate". Different areas of the substrate are "doped" with other elements to make them either "p-type" or "n-type" and polysilicon or aluminium tracks are etched in one to three layers deposited over the surface. The die is then connected into a package using gold wires which are welded to "pads", usually found around the edge of the die.

Integrated circuits can be classified into analogue, digital and hybrid (both analogue and digital on the same chip). Digital integrated circuits can contain anything from one to millions of logic gates - inverters, AND, OR, NAND and NOR gates, flip-flops, multiplexors etc. on a few square millimeters. The small size of these circuits allows high speed, low power dissipation, and reduced manufacturing cost compared with board-level integration.

The first integrated circuits contained only a few transistors. Small Scale Integration (SSI) brought circuits containing transistors numbered in the tens. Later, Medium Scale Integration (MSI) contained hundreds of transistors. Further development lead to Large Scale Integration (LSI) (thousands), and VLSI (hundreds of thousands and beyond). In 1986 the first one megabyte RAM was introduced which contained more than one million transistors.

LSI circuits began to be produced in large quantities around 1970 for computer main memories and pocket calculators. For the first time it became possible to fabricate a CPU or even an entire microprocesor on a single integrated circuit. The most extreme technique is wafer-scale integration which uses whole uncut wafers as components.

[Where and when was the term "chip" introduced?]

Last updated: 1997-07-03

Integrated Database Management System

<database>

(IDMS) A network DBMS written by the staff of B.F.Goorich (Akron, Ohio, USA) circa 1972 and sold to Cullinet (Originally Cullinane, now part of Computer Associates).

IDMS was licensed to ICL in 1976 for porting to, and subsequent development on, their computers. It was implemented on the ICL 1900 Series (DME George 2, George 3, CME, TME), System 4, and ICL 2900 Series (later Series 39 Corporate Servers). The latest version runs on Series 39 OpenVME as IDMSX (IDMS extended).

[Was it a relational database?]

Last updated: 1995-04-19

Integrated Development Environment

Integrated Drive Electronics

Advanced Technology Attachment

Integrated Information Technology

<company>

(IIT) A Santa Clara based company producing a programmable, single chip H.261 and MPEG system. The chip contains a RISC processor, originally based on the MIPS architecture but now called RISCit, and a "Pixel Processor".

Last updated: 1994-11-03

Integrated Modelling Support Environment

<project>

(IMSE) An Esprit programme.

[Details?]

Last updated: 1999-04-26

Integrated Project Support Environment

<software>

(IPSE) A set of management and technical tools to support software development, usually integrated in a coherent framework, equivalent to a Software Engineering Environment.

Last updated: 1999-04-26

Integrated Services Digital Network

(ISDN) A set of communications standards allowing a single wire or optical fibre to carry voice, digital network services and video. ISDN is intended to eventually replace the plain old telephone system.

ISDN was first published as one of the 1984 ITU-T Red Book recommendations. The 1988 Blue Book recommendations added many new features. ISDN uses mostly existing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) switches and wiring, upgraded so that the basic "call" is a 64 kilobits per second, all-digital end-to-end channel. Packet and frame modes are also provided in some places.

There are different kinds of ISDN connection of varying bandwidth (see DS level):

 DS0  =    1 channel  PCM at      64 kbps
 T1  or DS1  =   24 channels PCM at   1.54  Mbps
 T1C or DS1C =   48 channels PCM at   3.15  Mbps
 T2  or DS2  =   96 channels PCM at   6.31  Mbps
 T3  or DS3  =  672 channels PCM at  44.736 Mbps
 T4  or DS4  = 4032 channels PCM at 274.1   Mbps

Each channel here is equivalent to one voice channel. DS0 is the lowest level of the circuit. T1C, T2 and T4 are rarely used, except maybe for T2 over microwave links. For some reason 64 kbps is never called "T0".

A Basic Rate Interface (BRI) is two 64K "bearer" channels and a single "delta" channel ("2B+D"). A Primary Rate Interface (PRI) in North America and Japan consists of 24 channels, usually 23 B + 1 D channel with the same physical interface as T1. Elsewhere the PRI usually has 30 B + 1 D channel and an E1 interface.

A Terminal adapter (TA) can be used to connect ISDN channels to existing interfaces such as EIA-232 and V.35.

Different services may be requested by specifying different values in the "Bearer Capability" field in the call setup message. One ISDN service is "telephony" (i.e. voice), which can be provided using less than the full 64 kbps bandwidth (64 kbps would provide for 8192 eight-bit samples per second) but will require the same special processing or bit diddling as ordinary PSTN calls. Data calls have a Bearer Capability of "64 kbps unrestricted".

ISDN is offered by local telephone companies, but most readily in Australia, France, Japan and Singapore, with the UK somewhat behind and availability in the USA rather spotty.

(In March 1994) ISDN deployment in Germany is quite impressive, although (or perhaps, because) they use a specifically German signalling specification, called 1.TR.6. The French Numeris also uses a non-standard protocol (called VN4; the 4th version), but the popularity of ISDN in France is probably lower than in Germany, given the ludicrous pricing. There is also a specifically-Belgian V1 experimental system. The whole of Europe is now phasing in Euro-ISDN.

See also Frame Relay, Network Termination, SAPI.

FAQ.

Usenet newsgroup: comp.dcom.isdn.

Last updated: 1998-03-29

Integrated Systems Architecture

(ISA for ODP) An Esprit 2 project continuing the ANSA project.

Last updated: 1995-02-21

Integrated Systems Laboratory

<company>

A joint project of Control Data Corporation and NCR Corporation, established in 1973 and dissolved in 1976.

Integrated Systems Laboratory developed Software Writer's Language.

Address: Escondidio, California, USA.

Last updated: 2003-12-31

integration

Combining software or hardware components or both into an overall system.

Last updated: 1996-05-22

integration testing

<testing>

A type of testing in which software and/or hardware components are combined and tested to confirm that they interact according to their requirements. Integration testing can continue progressively until the entire system has been integrated.

Last updated: 2003-09-24

integrity

<data>

1. data integrity.

<database>

2. referential integrity.

integrity constraint

<database>

A constraint (rule) that must remain true for a database to preserve data integrity. Integrity constraints are specified at database creation time and enforced by the database management system.

Examples from a genealogical database would be that every individual must be their parent's child or that they can have no more than two natural parents.

Last updated: 1995-11-11

Intel

Intel Corporation

Intel 4004

<processor>

The world's first microprocessor, released in 1971. The 4004 contained 2300 transistors (compared with 5.5 million in the 1996 Pentium Pro) and was intended for use in a calculator. It processed data in 4 bits, but its instructions were 8 bits long. Program and Data memory were separate, it had 1 kilobyte of data memory and a 12-bit PC for 4K of program memory (in the form of a 4 level stack, used for CALL and RET instructions). There were also sixteen 4-bit (or eight 8-bit) general purpose registers. The 4004 had 46 instructions.

Last updated: 1997-03-30

Intel 4040

<processor>

An enhanced version of the Intel 4004, adding 14 instructions, larger (8 level) stack, 8 kbyte program memory and interrupt abilities (including shadows of the first 8 registers). The 4040 was similar to the Intel 8008.

Last updated: 1994-10-31

Intel 486

<processor>

(Or "i486", "iAPX 80486", and "Intel DX4" but usually just "486"). A range of Intel CISC microprocessors which is part of the Intel 80x86 family of processors.

The 486s are very similar to their immediate predecessor, the Intel 80386DX. The main differences are that the 486 has an optimised instruction set, has an on-chip unified instruction and data cache, an optional on-chip floating-point unit (FPU), and an enhanced bus interface unit. These improvements yield a rough doubling in performance over an Intel 80386 at the same clock rate.

There are several suffixes and variants including:

Intel 486SX - a 486DX with a faulty FPU that has been disabled in the factory.

Intel 486DX - 486SX with a working FPU.

486DX-2 - runs at twice the external clock rate.

486SX-2 - runs at twice the external clock rate.

486SL - 486DX with power conservation circuitry.

486SL-NM - 486SX with power conservation circuitry; SL enhanced suffix, denotes a 486 with special power conservation circuitry similar to that in the 486SL processors.

487 - 486DX with a slightly different pinout for use in 486SX systems.

OverDrive - 486DX-2 with a slightly different pinout for use in 486SX systems.

RapidCAD - 486DX in a special package with a companion FPU dummy package for use in Intel 80386 systems.

Intel DX4, Cyrix Cy486SLC.

External clock rates include 16MHz, 20MHz, 25MHz, 33MHz, 40MHz, although 16Mhz is rare now, and the 20MHz processors are often clock doubled.

The 486 processor has been licensed or reverse engineered by other companies such as IBM, AMD, Cyrix, and Chips & Technologies. Some are almost exact duplicates in specications and performance, some aren't.

The successor to the 486 is the Pentium.

Last updated: 1995-02-21

Intel 486DX

<processor>

One of Intel's Intel 486 family of microprocessors (one of the last before the Pentium). The 486DX has a working built-in floating point unit (FPU). The Intel 486SX is effectively a DX with the FPU disabled. The DX has a pin to select the external data bus width (16 or 32).

The Intel 487SX is a 486DX with a 486SX pinout.

Last updated: 1995-05-09

Intel 486SX

<processor>

An Intel 486DX microprocessor with its floating-point unit disconnected. All 486SX chips were fabricated with FPUs. If testing showed that the CPU was OK but the FPU was defective, the FPU's power and bus connections were destroyed with a laser and the chip was sold cheaper as an SX, if the FPU worked it was sold as a DX.

[Was this true of all 486SX chips?]

Some systems, e.g. Aopen 486SX, allowed a DX to be plugged into an expansion socket. A board jumper would disable the SX which was hard to remove because it was surface mounted.

Some SX chips only had a 16-bit wide external data bus. The DX has a pin to select the data bus width (16 or 32). On the smaller SX, that line is hard-wired to 16 inside the package. This is similar to the 286 SX, which was a 16-bit processor with an 8-bit external data bus.

The Jargon File claimed that the SX was deliberately disabled crippleware. The German computer magazine, "c't", made this same theory the basis of an April Fools Joke. They claimed that if one drilled a hole of a specified diameter through the right point on a SX chip, this would brake the circuit that disables the FPU. Some people actually tried (and then bought themselves new processors).

Last updated: 1997-02-14

Intel 487SX

<processor>

A version of the Intel 486DX microprocessor with an extra pin, for use in the coprocessor socket of an Intel 486SX system. The 487SX provides the FPU which is missing in the 486SX.

Although the 486SX is completely disabled when you install a 487SX, the 487SX design requires that you leave the 486SX in your PC [why?], rather than use it elsewhere. Intel admits that in some systems you can unplug the 486SX and fit a 487SX in its place but they don't guarantee that it will always work.

See Intel 486.

Last updated: 1995-05-10

Intel 8008

<processor>

A microprocessor intended for use as a terminal controller, and similar to the Intel 4040. The 8008 had a 14-bit PC and addressing and an eight level internal stack. It was followed by the Intel 8080.

[Date?]

Last updated: 1994-10-31

Intel 80186

<processor>

A microprocessor developed by Intel circa 1982. The 80186 was an improvement on the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. As with the 8086, it had a 16-bit external bus and was also available as the Intel 80188, with an 8-bit external data bus. The initial clock rate of the 80186 and 80188 was 6 MHz. They were not used in many computers, but one notable exception was the Mindset, a very advanced computer for the time. They were used as embedded processors.

One major function of the 80186/80188 series was to reduce the number of chips required.

"To satisfy this market, we defined a processor with a significant performance increase over the 8086 that also included such common peripheral functions as software-controlled wait state and chip select logic, three timers, priority interrupt controller, and two channels of DMA (direct memory access). This processor, the 80186, could replace up to 22 separate VLSI (very large scale integration) and TTL (transistor-transistor logic) packages and sell for less than the cost of the parts it replaced."

-- Paul Wells of Intel Corporation writing in Byte (reference below)

New instructions were also introduced as follows:

 ENTER	Make stcak frame for procedure parameters
 LEAVE	High-level procedure exit
 PUSHA	Push all general registers
 POPA	Pop all general registers
 BOUND	Check array index against bounds
 IMUL	Signed (integer) multiply
 INS	Input from port to string
 OUTS	Output string to port

["The Evolution of the iAPX 286", Bob Greene, Intel Corporation, PC Tech Journal, December 1984, page 134].

["The 80286 Microprocessor", Paul Wells, Intel Corporation, Byte, November 1984, p. 231].

Last updated: 1999-05-10

Intel 80188

<processor>

A version of the Intel 80186 with an 8 bit external data bus (instead of 16 bit). This makes it cheaper to connect to peripherals.

Last updated: 1995-01-13

Intel 80286

<processor>

(Or "286", "i286") A microprocessor developed by Intel. THe 80286 processor has a 16-bit data bus and incorporates a memory management unit that allowed a limited amount of multitasking. The 80286 only has a segmented MMU while the later processors add a paged MMU "behind" the segmented one.

The 80286 was the processor in the IBM PC AT personal computer.

Last updated: 1995-02-21

Intel 80386

<processor>

(Commonly abbreviated to "386", trademark "Intel386") The successor to the Intel 80286 microprocessor. It was the first Intel processor with 32-bit data and address busses. It can address four gigabytes (2^32 bytes) of memory; however, 16 megabytes is a typical maximum in IBM PCs. The 386 allows multiple application programs to run at the same time (when running under 386-specific operating systems) using "protected mode".

The first IBM compatible to use the 386 was the Compaq 386, before IBM used it in high-end models of their PS/2 series. It is also used in HP's RS series and many others.

It does not require special EMS memory boards to expand MS-DOS memory limits. With the 386, the EMS standard can be simulated in normal extended memory, and many DOS add-ons provide this "Expanded Memory Manager" feature.

Intel 80386DX

<processor>

A version of the Intel 80386 with a 32-bit data bus and 32-bit address bus, a BGA. The 386DX was clocked at 16 to 33 MHz by Intel and up to 40 MHz by AMD. It comes in a BGA package.

Last updated: 2003-07-05

Intel 80386SX

<processor>

A lower-speed version of the Intel 80386. It uses a 16-bit data bus instead of a 32-bit data bus. It has a 24-bit address bus. It is faster than the 286, and more importantly, like the full-size 386, provides more flexibility in running existing DOS applications. Intel's version runs at 16 MHz, while AMD's can run at up to 33 MHz. It comes in a PFP package.

Last updated: 2003-07-05

Intel 8048

<processor>

The microcontroller used in IBM PC keyboards. The 8048 was inspired by, and similar to, the Fairchild F8 microprocessor but, being a microcontroller, was designed for low cost and small size. The 8048 has a modified Harvard architecture, with program ROM on chip and 64 to 256 bytes of RAM also on chip. I/O is mapped in its own address space.

Though the 8048 was eventually replaced by the very popular but bizarre Intel 8051 and Intel 8052, even in 2000 it is still very popular due to its low cost, wide availability, and development tools.

[Was it really the_first microcontroller? Are the ROM and RAM both on-chip?]

Last updated: 2000-06-01

Intel 80486

Intel 486

Intel 8051

<processor>

A microcontroller developed by Intel in 1980 for use in embedded products and still (1999) one of the most popular microcontrollers.

The 8051/8031 cores are used in over 100 devices from 10 independent manufacturers such as Dallas and Philips.

[What is the difference between the 8031/8051/8052?]

See also CAS 8051 Assembler, as31 assembler, 51forth.

8051 FAQ.

The 8031/51 series microcontroller.

Intel MCS51 series microcontrollers.

Last updated: 1999-11-21

Intel 8080

<processor>

The successor to the Intel 8008. The 8080 had a 16-bit address bus and an 8-bit data bus. It had seven 8-bit registers (six which could also be combined as three 16-bit registers), a 16-bit stack pointer to memory which replaced the 8008's internal stack and a 16-bit program counter. It also had 256 I/O ports (so I/O devices could be connected without needing to allocate any addressing space as is required for memory mapped devices) and a signal pin that allowed the stack to occupy a separate bank of memory.

Shortly after the 8080, the Motorola 6800 was introduced.

[Date?]

Last updated: 1994-10-31

Intel 8085

<processor>

A microprocessor intended to be an improved Intel 8080, as was the Zilog Z80.

Last updated: 1994-10-31

Intel 8086

<processor>

A sixteen bit microprocessor chip used in early IBM PCs. The Intel 8088 was a version with an eight-bit external data bus.

The Intel 8086 was based on the design of the Intel 8080 and Intel 8085 (it was source compatible with the 8080) with a similar register set, but was expanded to 16 bits. The Bus Interface Unit fed the instruction stream to the Execution Unit through a 6 byte prefetch queue, so fetch and execution were concurrent - a primitive form of pipelining (8086 instructions varied from 1 to 4 bytes).

It featured four 16-bit general registers, which could also be accessed as eight 8-bit registers, and four 16-bit index registers (including the stack pointer). The data registers were often used implicitly by instructions, complicating register allocation for temporary values. It featured 64K 8-bit I/O (or 32K 16 bit) ports and fixed vectored interrupts. There were also four segment registers that could be set from index registers.

The segment registers allowed the CPU to access 1 meg of memory in an odd way. Rather than just supplying missing bytes, as most segmented processors, the 8086 actually shifted the segment registers left 4 bits and added it to the address. As a result, segments overlapped, and it was possible to have two pointers with the same value point to two different memory locations, or two pointers with different values pointing to the same location. Most people consider this a brain damaged design.

Although this was largely acceptable for assembly language, where control of the segments was complete (it could even be useful then), in higher level languages it caused constant confusion (e.g. near/far pointers). Even worse, this made expanding the address space to more than 1 meg difficult. A later version, the Intel 80386, expanded the design to 32 bits, and "fixed" the segmentation, but required extra modes (suppressing the new features) for compatibility, and retains the awkward architecture. In fact, with the right assembler, code written for the 8008 can still be run on the most recent Intel 486.

The Intel 80386 added new op codes in a kludgy fashion similar to the Zilog Z80 and Zilog Z280. The Intel 486 added full pipelines, and clock doubling (like the Zilog Z280).

So why did IBM chose the 8086 series when most of the alternatives were so much better? Apparently IBM's own engineers wanted to use the Motorola 68000, and it was used later in the forgotten IBM Instruments 9000 Laboratory Computer, but IBM already had rights to manufacture the 8086, in exchange for giving Intel the rights to its bubble memory designs. Apparently IBM was using 8086s in the IBM Displaywriter word processor.

Other factors were the 8-bit Intel 8088 version, which could use existing Intel 8085-type components, and allowed the computer to be based on a modified 8085 design. 68000 components were not widely available, though it could use Motorola 6800 components to an extent.

Intel bubble memory was on the market for a while, but faded away as better and cheaper memory technologies arrived.

Last updated: 1994-12-23

Intel 8088

<processor>

An Intel 8086 with 16-bit registers and an 8-bit data bus.

The 8088 was the processor used in the original IBM PC.

Last updated: 1995-02-21

Intel 80x86

<processor>

(x86) One of the family of Intel microprocessors including the Intel 80186, Intel 80286, Intel 80386, Intel 486, in a more general sense also Intel 8086, Pentium, Pentium Pro, and Pentium II.

The abbreviation "x86" also includes compatible processors, e.g. from Cyrix or AMD.

Last updated: 2004-02-27

Intel 8751

<processor>

A microcontroller from Intel including a CPU, two timers. 128 bytes of RAM, 4 kBytes of EEPROM, four eight-bit biderectional I/O ports and an EIA-232 port.

The 8751 belongs to the Intel i51 Microcontroller family. It was designed by Intel but is now manufactured by Intel, Philips, Siemens, AMD and others. Motorola's microcontroller families (68HC05, 68HC08 and 68HC11) are meant to compete with the i51 family.

Last updated: 1995-04-22

Intel Comparative Microprocessor Performance index

<benchmark, unit>

(iCOMP) A unit used by Intel to indicate the relative performance of their 80x86 microprocessors.

http://134.134.214.1/procs/perf/icomp/.

Last updated: 1997-06-07

Intel Corporation

<company>

A US microelectronics manufacturer. They produced the Intel 4004, Intel 8080, Intel 8086, Intel 80186, Intel 80286, Intel 80386, Intel 486 and Pentium microprocessor families as well as many other integrated circuits and personal computer networking and communications products.

Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce founded Intel in 1968 to design, manufacture, and market semiconductor computer memory to replace magnetic core memory, the dominant computer memory at that time. Dr. Andrew S. Grove joined Intel soon after its incorporation. Three years later, in 1971, Intel introduced the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.

Intel has design, development, production, and administration facilities throughout the western US, Europe and Asia. In 1995 nearly 75% of the world's personal computers use Intel architecture. Annual revenues are rapidly approaching $10 billion. In March, 1994, "Business Week" named Intel one of the top ten American companies in terms of profit, one of the top 15 market value winners, and 16th out of the magazine's top 1,000 companies overall.

Intel invested a record $2.9 billion in capital and R&D in 1993, and expects to increase combined spending on these activities to $3.5 billion in 1994. Quarterly sales were $2770M and profits, $640M in Aug 1994.

http://intel.com/.

Address: Santa Clara, CA, USA.

Last updated: 1995-03-01

IntelDX4

<processor>

Essentially an Intel 486DX microprocessor with a 16 kilobyte on-chip cache.

The DX4 is the fastest member of the Intel 486 family. 75 and 100MHz versions are available. At an iCOMP index rating of 435, the 100 MHz DX4 performs up to 50% faster than the 66 MHz Intel DX2. The DX4's clock multiplier allows the processor to run three times faster than the system clock. This performance is achieved in part by a 16K on-chip cache (double that of the other 486s). The DX4 has an integrated floating point unit.

Like the other 486s, the DX4 achieves performance through a RISC integer core that executes frequently used instructions in a single clock cycle (the Pentium's can execute multiple instructions in a single clock cycle).

Low power consumption has been achieved with SL Technology and a 0.6 micron manufacturing process, giving 1.6 million transistors on a single chip operating at only 3.3 Volts.

"IntelDX4" is the entire name, the "486" has been dropped and I am assured that there is no space in the same.

Last updated: 1995-04-28

Intel i960

<processor>

A superscalar 32-bit RISC microprocessor from Intel intended for embedded applications.

The i960 CA variant can reach 66 native MIPS peak performance with a sustained execution of two instructions per clock cycle. The i960 CF has an on-chip, four kilobyte two-way set-associative instruction cache and a one kilobyte data cache. Both the CA and CF processors have on-chip RAM; a four-channel DMA unit; and integrated peripherals.

Last updated: 1996-05-23

INTELLECT

<language>

A query language written by Larry Harris in 1977, close to natural English.

Last updated: 1995-04-14

intellectual property

<legal>

(IP) The ownership of ideas and control over the tangible or virtual representation of those ideas. Use of another person's intellectual property may or may not involve royalty payments or permission, but should always include proper credit to the source.

Last updated: 1997-03-27

intelligent backtracking

<algorithm>

An improved backtracking algorithm for Prolog interpreters, which records the point at which each logic variable becomes bound and, when a given set of bindings leads to failure, ignores any choice point which does not bind any of those variables. No choice from such a choice point can succeed since it does not change the bindings which caused the failure.

Last updated: 1996-04-06

intelligent database

<database>

A database management system which performs data validation and processing traditionally done by application programs. Most DBMSs provide some data validation, e.g. rejecting invalid dates or alphabetic data entered into money fields, but often most processing is done by application programs. There is however no limit to the amount of processing that can be done by an intelligent database as long as the process is a standard function for that data.

Examples of techniques used to implement intelligent databases are constraints, triggers and stored procedures.

Moving processing to the database aids data integrity because it is guaranteed to be consistent across all uses of the data. Mainframe databases have increasingly become more intelligent and personal computer database systems are rapidly following.

Last updated: 1998-10-07

Intelligent Input/Output

Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer

/i:-too-oh/ (I2O) A specification which aims to provide an I/O device driver architecture that is independent of both the specific device being controlled and the host operating system. The Hardware Device Module (HDM) manages the device and the OS Services Module (OSM) interfaces to the host operating system. The HDM is portable across multiple operating systems, processors and busses. The HDM and OSM communicate via a two layer message passing protocol. A Message Layer sets up a communications session and runs on top of a Transport Layer which defines how the two parties share information.

I2O is also designed to facilitate intelligent I/O subsystems, with support for message passing between multiple independent processors. By relieving the host of interrupt intensive I/O tasks required by the various layers of a driver architecture, the I2O intelligent I/O architecture greatly improves I/O performance. I2O systems will be able to more efficiently deliver the I/O throughput required by a wide range of high bandwidth applications, such as networked video, groupware and client-server processing. I2O does not restrict where the layered modules execute, providing support for single processor, multiprocessor, and clustered systems.

I2O is not intended to replace the driver architectures currently in existence. Rather, the objective is to provide an open, standards-based approach, which is complementary to existing drivers, and provides a framework for the rapid development of a new generation of portable, intelligent I/O.

http://i2osig.org/.

Last updated: 1997-11-04

Intelligent I/O

Intelligent Input/Output

intelligent key

<database>

A relational database key which depends wholly on one or more other columns in the same table. An intelligent key might be identified for implementation convenience, where there is no good candidate key.

For example, if the three-letter initials of a group of people are known to be unique but only their full names are recorded, a three letter acronym for their names (e.g. John Doe Smith -> JDS) would be an intelligent key.

Intelligent keys are a Bad Thing because it is hard to guarantee uniqueness, and if the value on which an intelligent key depends changes then the key must either stay the same, creating an inconsistency within the containing table, or change, requiring changes to all other tables in which it appears as a foreign key. The correct solution is to use a surrogate key.

Last updated: 1999-12-07

intelligent terminal

<hardware>

(or "smart terminal", "programmable terminal") A terminal that often contains not only a keyboard and screen, but also comes with a disk drive and printer, so it can perform limited processing tasks when not communicating directly with the central computer. Some can be programmed by the user to perform many basic tasks, including both arithmetic and logic operations. In some cases, when the user enters data, the data will be checked for errors and some type of report will be produced. In addition, the valid data that is entered may be stored on the disk, it will be transmitted over communication lines to the central computer.

An intelligent terminal may have enough computing capability to draw graphics or to offload some kind of front-end processing from the computer it talks to.

The development of workstations and personal computers has made this term and the product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of the phrase "act like a smart terminal" used to describe the behaviour of workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely out of a remote server's storage, using said devices as displays.

The term once meant any terminal with an addressable cursor; the opposite of a glass tty. Today, a terminal with merely an addressable cursor, but with none of the more-powerful features mentioned above, is called a dumb terminal.

There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the blit terminal): "A smart terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal, but rather a terminal you can educate". This illustrates a common design problem: The attempt to make peripherals (or anything else) intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid "special features" that become just so much dead weight if you try to use the device in any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility and programmability, on the other hand, are *really* smart.

Compare hook.

Last updated: 1995-04-14

IntelliMouse

Intel Literature Sales

Address: PO Box 58130, Santa Clara, CA 95052, USA.

Telephone: +1 800 548 4725.

Last updated: 1995-01-12

Intelsat

<company, communications>

A private satellite communications company that provides telephony, corporate network, video and Internet solutions around the globe via capacity on 25 geosynchronous satellites.

Last updated: 2003-05-13

Intel x86

Intel 80x86

intensional

<philosophy>

A description of properties, e.g. intensional equality, that relate to how an object is implemented as opposed to extensional properties which concern only how its output depends on its input.

Last updated: 1995-01-12

Intent to Package

<Debian>

(ITP) A notice, posted to the Debian developer mailing list, announcing a developer's intent to make a new Debian package, including a brief description of the package and its license.

Last updated: 2000-05-31

INTERACTIVE

A network simulation language.

["Design and Implementation of a Pascal Based Interactive Network Simulation Language", R. Lakshmanan, PhD Thesis, Oakland U, Rochester MI 1983].

Last updated: 1995-01-12

interactive

A term describing a program whose input and output are interleaved, like a conversation, allowing the user's input to depend on earlier output from the same run.

The interaction with the user is usually conducted through either a text-based interface or a graphical user interface. Other kinds of interface, e.g. using speech recognition and/or speech synthesis, are also possible.

This is in contrast to batch processing where all the input is prepared before the program runs and so cannot depend on the program's output.

Last updated: 1996-06-21

Interactive and Batch EXecutive

<language>

(IBEX) The command language for Honeywell's CP-6 operating system.

Last updated: 2021-11-07

Interactive CourseWare

(ICW) A training program controlled by a computer that relies on trainee input to determine the order and pace of instruction delivery. The trainee advances through the sequence of instructional events by making decisions and selections. The instruction branches according to the trainee's responses.

ICW is a US military term which includes computer-aided instruction and computer-based training.

Last updated: 1995-11-08

Interactive Data analysis Language

<language>

(IDL) A language from Xerox, built on Interlisp-D.

Last updated: 2004-05-07

Interactive Data Entry/Access

<language>

(IDEA) A language from Data General in which you designed the screen first, and then wrote the program around the predefined fields. IDEA was a precursor to the DG COBOL Screen Section.

Last updated: 1996-02-16

Interactive Data Language

(IDL) A commercial array-oriented language with numerical analysis and display features, first released in 1977. It supports interactive reduction, analysis, and visualisation of scientific data. It is sold by Research Systems, Inc.

Version: 3.6.1 runs under Unix, MS-DOS, MS Windows, VAX/VMS and Macintosh.

Not to be confused with any of the other IDLs.

ftp://gateway.rs.inc.com/pub/idl.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1994-10-07

Interactive Development Environment

<programming, tool>

(IDE, Integrated Development Environment) A system for supporting the process of writing software. Such a system may include a syntax-directed editor, graphical tools for program entry and integrated support for compiling and running the program and relating compilation errors back to the source.

Such systems are typically both interactive and integrated, hence the ambiguous acronym. They are interactive in that the developer can view and alter the execution of the program at the level of statements and variables. They are integrated in that, partly to support the above interaction, the source code editor and the execution environment are tightly coupled, e.g. allowing the developer to see which line of source code is about to be executed and the current values of any variables it refers to.

Examples include Visual C++ and Visual Basic.

Last updated: 2002-09-21

Interactive Development Environments

<company>

(IDE) A US software engineering company.

Last updated: 1996-03-04

Interactive Software Engineering

<company>

(ISE) The company set up by Bertrand Meyer, now its president, to develop and distribute Eiffel, the language which he created. ISE also organises the TOOLS conference (Technology of Object-Oriented Languages and Systems).

http://eiffel.com/.

E-mail: [email protected].

Telephone: +1 (805) 685 1006.

Address: Santa Barbara, Goleta CA, USA.

Last updated: 1995-12-28

Interactive System Productivity Facility

(ISPF) Something to do with IBM's OS/390.

http://s390.ibm.com/bookmgr-cgi/bookmgr.cmd/BOOKS/ISPDGD02/COVER?SHELF=ISP5BK01.

[Summary?]

Last updated: 1999-07-14

Interactive Voice Response

(IVR) <communications> A telecommunications system, prevelant with PBX and voice mail systems, that uses a prerecorded database of voice messages to present options to a user, typically over telephone lines. User input is retrieved via DTMF tone key presses.

When used in conjunction with voice mail, for example, these systems typically allow users to store, retrieve, and route messages, as well as interact with an underlying database server which may allow for automated transactions and data processing.

Last updated: 1997-09-21

Interagency Interim National Research and Education Network

(IINREN) An evolving operating network system. Near term (1992-1996) research and development activities will provide for the smooth evolution of this networking infrastructure into the future gigabit NREN.

Last updated: 1994-12-06

InterBase

A commercial active DBMS.

INTERCAL

<language, humour>

/in't*r-kal/ (Said by the authors to stand for "Compiler Language With No Pronounceable Acronym").

Possibly the most elaborate and long-lived joke in the history of programming languages. It was designed on 1972-05-26 by Don Woods and Jim Lyons at Princeton University.

INTERCAL is purposely different from all other computer languages in all ways but one; it is purely a written language, being totally unspeakable. The INTERCAL Reference Manual, describing features of horrifying uniqueness, became an underground classic. An excerpt will make the style of the language clear:

It is a well-known and oft-demonstrated fact that a person whose work is incomprehensible is held in high esteem. For example, if one were to state that the simplest way to store a value of 65536 in a 32-bit INTERCAL variable is:

    DO :1 <- #0$#256

any sensible programmer would say that that was absurd. Since this is indeed the simplest method, the programmer would be made to look foolish in front of his boss, who would of course have happened to turn up, as bosses are wont to do. The effect would be no less devastating for the programmer having been correct.

INTERCAL has many other peculiar features designed to make it even more unspeakable. The Woods-Lyons implementation was actually used by many (well, at least several) people at Princeton.

Eric S. Raymond <[email protected]> wrote C-INTERCAL in 1990 as a break from editing "The New Hacker's Dictionary", adding to it the first implementation of COME FROM under its own name. The compiler has since been maintained and extended by an international community of technomasochists and is consequently enjoying an unprecedented level of unpopularity.

The version 0.9 distribution includes the compiler, extensive documentation and a program library. C-INTERCAL is actually an INTERCAL-to-C source translator which then calls the local C compiler to generate a binary. The code is thus quite portable.

Intercal Resource Page.

Usenet newsgroup: alt.lang.intercal.

["The INTERCAL Programming Language Reference Manual", Donald R. Woods & James M. Lyon].

Last updated: 1997-04-09

Interchange File Format

<file format>

(IFF, full name "EA IFF 1985") A generic file format published by Electronic Arts as an open standard. IFF is chunk-based and hierarchical so files can include other files. It is easily extensible and an all round Good Idea.

An IFF file starts with one of the following "group IDs": 'FORM', 'LIST' or 'CAT '. This is followed by an unsigned 32-bit number of bytes in the remainder of the file. Then comes an ID that indicates which type of IFF file this is. The main image type is ILBM, audio is either AIFF or 8SVX, animations are ANIM etc. An IFF file will probably have a filename extension related to this file type stored in the file. The rest of the file is divided into chunks each of which also has a four-byte header and byte count.

Microsoft WAV and AVI are all based around an almost identical scheme to IFF called RIFF. The main difference is that, in RIFF files, numbers are little-endian as on Intel processors, whereas in IFF files they are big-endian, as on the Motorola 68000 processors in the Amiga where IFF files were first used.

Last updated: 1997-07-23

INTERCOM

<language>

The assembly language for the G-15.

Versions: INTERCOM 101, INTERCOM 1000.

[Listed in CACM 2(5):16, May 1959].

Last updated: 1997-07-23

Interdata

<company>

A computer manufacturer. Interdata became Perkin-Elmer, then Concurrent.

Last updated: 2004-05-12

Interest Group in Pure and Applied Logics

(IGPL) A body of 700 researchers in various aspects of logic (symbolic, mathematical, computational, philosophical, etc.) from all over the world. The group's main rôle is as a research and information clearing house. The group also: supports exchange of information about research problems, references and common interest among group members; helps to obtain photocopies of papers; supplies review copies of books through the Journals on which some members are editors; organises exchange visits and workshops; advises on papers for publication; edits and distributes a Newsletter and an electronic Bulletin; keeps an FTP archive of papers, abstracts; obtains reductions on group purchases of logic books from publishers.

http://theory.doc.ic.ac.uk/tfm/igpl.html.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1995-02-10

interesting

In hacker parlance, this word has strong connotations of "annoying", or "difficult", or both. Hackers relish a challenge, and enjoy wringing all the irony possible out of the ancient Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times".

inter-exchange carrier

(IXC) A company allowed to handle long-distance calls following the break-up of the Bell system in the US by anti-trust regulators.

Local Exchange Carriers (LEC) are not allowed to handle long-distance traffic and Inter Exchange carriers are not allowed to handle local calls.

Last updated: 2002-08-28

interface

<jargon>

A boundary across which two systems communicate. An interface might be a hardware connector used to link to other devices, or it might be a convention used to allow communication between two software systems. Often there is some intermediate component between the two systems which connects their interfaces together. For example, two EIA-232 interfaces connected via a serial cable.

Last updated: 1996-05-22

interface analysis

<testing>

A software test which checks the interfaces between program elements for consistency and adherence to predefined rules or axioms.

Last updated: 1996-07-09

Interface Architect

An interface builder for Motif distributed by Hewlett-Packard (see UIMX).

Interface Definition Language

(IDL) 1. An OSF standard for defining RPC stubs.

[Details?]

2. Part of an effort by Project DOE at SunSoft, Inc. to integrate distributed object technology into the Solaris operating system. IDL provides the standard interface between objects, and is the base mechanism for object interaction.

The Object Management Group's CORBA 1.1 (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) specifies the interface between objects. IDL (Interface Definition Language) is the base mechanism for object interaction.

The SunSoft OMG IDL CFE (Compiler Front End) version 1.2 provides a complete framework for building CORBA 1.1-compliant preprocessors for OMG IDL. To use it you write a back-end. A complete compiler of IDL would translate IDL into client side and server side routines for remote communication in the same manner as Sun's current RPCL compiler. The IDL compiler front end allows integration of new back ends which can translate IDL to various programming languages.

Several companies including Sunsoft are building back ends to the CFE which translate IDL into target languages, e.g. Pascal or C++, in the context of planned CORBA-compliant products. IDL requires C++ 2.1.

Not to be confused with any of the other IDLs.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

ftp://omg.org/pub/omg_idl_cfe.tar.Z, ftp://omg.org/pub/OMG_IDL_CFE_1.2/.

Telephone: Mache Creeger, SunSoft, Inc. +1 (415) 336 5884.

Last updated: 1993-05-04

Interface Description Language

(IDL) A language designed by Nestor, Lamb and Wulf of CMU in 1981 for describing the data structures passed between parts of an application, to provide a language-independent intermediate representation.

It forms part of Richard Snodgrass <[email protected]>'s Scorpion environment development system.

Not to be confused with any of the other IDLs.

Mailing list: [email protected].

["The Interface Description Language: Definition and Use," by Richard Snodgrass, Computer Science Press, 1989, ISBN 0-7167-8198-0].

[SIGPLAN Notices 22(11) (Nov 1987) special issue].

Last updated: 1994-11-11

Interface Message Processor

(IMP) The original message switching node on the ARPANET.

[More details?]

Last updated: 1996-04-07

Interior Gateway Protocol

(IGP) An Internet protocol which distributes routing information to the routers within an autonomous system.

The term "gateway" is historical, "router" is currently the preferred term.

Last updated: 1994-11-09

interlace

progressive coding

interlaced image

progressive coding

interlacing

<hardware>

1. A video display system which builds an image on the VDU in two phases, known as "fields", consisting of even and odd horizontal lines.

The complete image (a "frame") is created by scanning an electron beam horizontally across the screen, starting at the top and moving down after each horizontal scan until the bottom of the screen is reached, at which point the scan starts again at the top. On an interlaced display, even numbered scan lines are displayed in the first field and then odd numbered lines in the second field.

For a given screen resolution, refresh rate (frames per second) and phosphor persistence, interlacing reduces flicker because the top and bottom of the screen are redrawn twice as often as if the scan simply proceded from top to bottom in a single vertical sweep.

<graphics>

2. progressive coding.

Last updated: 1998-02-25

Interlan

A brand of Ethernet card.

Last updated: 1994-11-09

Interleaf

A document preparation system for Sun, VAX, Apollo and other workstations.

Last updated: 1994-11-09

interleave

interleaving

sector interleave

INTERLINK

A commercial product comprising hardware and software for file transfer between IBM and VAX computers.

Interlisp

<language>

A dialect of Lisp developed in 1967 by Bolt, Beranek and Newman (Cambridge, MA) as a descendant of BBN-Lisp. It emphasises user interfaces. It is currently[?] supported by Xerox PARC.

Interlisp was one of two main branches of LISP (the other being MACLISP). In 1981 Common LISP was begun in an effort to combine the best features of both. Interlisp includes a Lisp programming environment. It is dynamically scoped. LAMBDA functions evaluate their arguments, NLAMBDA functions do not. Any function could be called with optional arguments.

See also AM, CLISP, Interlisp-10, Interlisp-D.

["Interlisp Programming Manual", W. Teitelman, TR, Xerox Rec Ctr 1975].

Last updated: 2004-05-07

Interlisp-10

An Interlisp with shallow binding.

Interlisp-D

Xerox's Interlisp with deep binding.

Intermedia

<hypertext>

A hypertext system developed by a research group at IRIS (Brown University) to support education and research. Intermedia was a "shell" over A/UX 1.1, programmed using an object-oriented toolkit and standard DBMS functions. The data model and architecture were designed for flexibility and consistency.

Intermedia consisted of several applications sharing an event-driven gui. These included a text editor (InterText), graphics editor (InterDraw), picture viewer (InterPix), timeline editor (InterVal), 3D model viewer (InterSpect), animation editor (InterPlay) and video editor (InterVideo).

[Yankelovich et al, "Intermedia: The Concept and the Construction of a Seamless Information Environment"]

http://elab.eserver.org/hfl0032.html.

Last updated: 2014-11-02

Intermedia Interchange Format

A Standard Hypertext Interchange format from IRIS.

intermediate code

intermediate language

Intermediate Distribution Frame

(IDF) A network closet containing a secondary hub, fed from the main hub.

Last updated: 1995-05-05

Intermediate Programming Language

<language>

A very early attempt by Arthur W. Burks to express machine language at a higher level of abstraction. Like Plankalkul, it used a right-handed style of assignment, in which the location appears on the right.

Last updated: 1995-05-09

Intermediate System

(IS) An Open Systems Interconnection system which performs network layer forwarding. It is analogous to an IP router.

Last updated: 1994-11-29

Intermediate System-Intermediate System

(IS-IS) The OSI Interior Gateway Protocol.

Last updated: 2003-07-12

intermercial

interstitial

Intermetrics, Inc.

AverStar

intermodulation distortion

<electronics, communications>

(IMD) Nonlinear distortion in a system or transducer, characterised by the appearance in the output of frequencies equal to the sums and differences of integral multiples of the two or more component frequencies present in the input waveform.

Last updated: 2000-08-21

internal field separators

($IFS) A predefined environment variable in the Unix Bourne shell whose default value is the three-character string containing space, tab and line feed. Any string of one or more of these characters separates the command and each of its arguments in a command line.

$IFS also tells the shell's built-in read command where to split an input line when reading into multiple variables. E.g. setting IFS=: would be appropriate for reading a file with ':'-separated fields, such as /etc/passwd.

Last updated: 1999-04-07

Internal Translator

<language, mathematics>

(IT) An early compiler for mathematics developed by A.J. Perlis et al at Carnegie Tech ca 1957. IT was originally written for the Burroughs 205, then the IBM 650.

IT was the forerunner of RUNCIBLE, GATE, CORRELATE and GAT. IT source code was converted to PIT, thence to SPIT.

IT-2 produced machine language directly, IT-3 developed at Carnegie added double-precision floating-point.

[Sammet 1969, pp. 139-141].

[CACM 1(5):22 1958].

Last updated: 1994-11-30

International Algebraic Language

ALGOL 58

International Atomic Time

<time, standard>

(TAI) An international standard measurement of time based on the comparison of many atomic clocks. TAI is maintained by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), the world's governing body for civil atomic time measurement. TAI is the basis for Coordinated Universal Time.

BIPM.

Last updated: 2001-08-02

International Business Machines

<company>

(IBM) The best known American computer manufacturer, founded by Thomas J. Watson (born 1874-02-17), known as "Big Blue" after the colour of its logo. IBM makes everything from mainframes to personal computers (PCs) and has been immensely successful in selling them, chiefly to business. It has often been said that "Nobody has ever been sacked for buying IBM".

The IBM PC in its various versions has been so successful that unqualified reference to a "PC" almost certainly means a PC from IBM, or one of the many brands of clone produced by other manufacturers to cash in on IBM's original success.

Alternative expansions of "IBM" such as Inferior But Marketable; It's Better Manually; Insidious Black Magic; It's Been Malfunctioning; Incontinent Bowel Movement, illustrate the considerable antipathy most hackers have long felt toward the "industry leader" (see fear and loathing).

Quarterly sales $15351M, profits $689M (Aug 1994).

http://ibm.com/.

Last updated: 1999-04-07

International Computers Limited plc

<company>

(ICL) A UK hardware and software manufacturer specialising in systems integration in selected markets, supported by its service and technology businesses. ICL operates in over 80 countries worldwide, with 24000 employees and revenues of £2.6 billion in 1993.

ICL produced George 2, George 3, VME, OpenVME, Series 39, DME, CME, the ICL 1900 and ICL 2900 series.

http://icl.co.uk/.

Usenet newsgroup: alt.sys.icl.

Last updated: 1995-04-19

International Core War Society

<games, standard, body>

(ICWS) The official standards body for Core War.

Last updated: 1996-02-16

International Data Encryption Algorithm

<algorithm, cryptography>

(IDEA) A conventional encryption algorithm, written by Xuejia Lai and James Massey, in 1992.

It is a block cipher, considered to be the best and most secure available, and operates on 64-bit blocks with a 128 bit key.

It is used by Pretty Good Privacy.

Last updated: 1996-03-07

International Electrotechnical Commission

<standard, body>

(IEC) A standardisation body at the same level as ISO.

[Relationship? Why separate?]

Last updated: 1995-04-21

International Federation for Information Processing

<body>

A multinational federation of professional and technical organisations (or national groupings of such organisations) concerned with information processing. From any one country, only one such organisation - which must be representative of the national activities in the field of information processing - can be admitted as a Full Member. In addition, a regional group of developing countries can be admitted as a Full Member. On 1 October 1993, 46 organisations were Full Members of the Federation, representing 66 countries.

IFIP was founded under the auspices of UNESCO and advises them and the ITU-T.

http://dit.upm.es/~cdk/ifip.html.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

International Function Point Users Group

<body, programming>

(IFPUG) A forum for the exchange of ideas about Function Point Analysis. IFPUG's membership now includes over 500 companies on four continents.

Telephone: +1 (614) 8957130.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

internationalisation

International Organization for Standardization

(i18n, globalisation, enabling, software enabling) The process and philosophy of making software portable to other locales.

For successful localisation, products must be technically and culturally neutral. Effective internationalisation reduces the time and resources required for localisation, improving time-to-market abroad and allowing simultaneous shipment. In orther words, internationalisation abstracts out local details, localisation specifies those details for a particular locale.

Technically this may include allowing double-byte character sets such as unicode or Japanese, local numbering, date and currency formats, and other local format conventions.

It also includes the separation of user interface text e.g. in dialog boxes and menus. All the text used by an application may be kept in a separate file or directory, so that it can be translated all at once. User interfaces may require more screen space for text in other languages.

The simplest form of internationalisation may be to make use of operating system calls that format time, date and currency values according to the operating system's configuration.

The abbreviation i18n means "I - eighteen letters - N".

Last updated: 1999-06-28

internationalization

internationalisation

International Multimedia Teleconferencing Consortium

<body>

(IMTC) A non-profit corporation formed in September 1994 comprising more than 150 companies from around the world. The IMTC encourages the development and implementation of interoperable multimedia teleconferencing systems based on international open standards.

http://imtc.org/.

Last updated: 1999-03-17

International Olympiad in Informatics

<event>

(IOI) An annual competition in computing science for senior pupils at secondary schools all over the world.

http://win.tue.nl/win/ioi/.

Last updated: 1996-12-07

International Organisation for Standardisation

<standard, body>

(ISO) A voluntary, nontreaty organisation founded in 1946, responsible for creating international standards in many areas, including computers and communications. Its members are the national standards organisations of 89 countries, including the American National Standards Institute.

ISO produced the OSI seven layer model for network architecture.

The term "ISO" is not actually an acronym for anything. It is a pun on the Greek prefix "iso-", meaning "same". Some ISO documents say ISO is not an acronym even though it is an anagram of the initials of the organisation's name.

http://iso.ch/.

Last updated: 1999-06-22

International Phonetic Alphabet

<text, human language>

(IPA) A system of symbols for representing pronunciation. There is no commonly agreed way to represent IPA in ASCII characters though it can be represented in Unicode.

[Reference?]

Last updated: 1998-12-30

International Programmable Airline Reservation System

<application>

(IPARS) The international version of PARS, designated by IBM for use in all IBM World trade countries (i.e. outside domestic USA).

Last updated: 1999-01-18

International Smalltalk Association

<body>

(ISA) A user group which published newsletters on Smalltalk-related issues, technical and general information. Its goal was to champion Smalltalk and its uses. It was disbanded around 1991.

Last updated: 1995-02-16

International Standard

<standard>

The series of standards from ISO and its subcommitees.

[List? Text?]

Last updated: 1995-04-21

International Telecommunications Union

<body, standard>

(ITU) ITU-T, the telecommunication standardisation sector of ITU, is responsible for making technical recommendations about telephone and data (including fax) communications systems for PTTs and suppliers. Before 1993-03-01 ITU-T was known as CCITT. Every four years they hold plenary sessions where they adopt new standards; there was one in 1992.

ITU works closely with all standards organisations to form an international uniform standards system for communication. Study Group XVII is responsible for recommending standards for data communications over telephone networks. They publish the V.XX standards and X.n protocols. V.21 is the same as EIA's EIA-232. V.24 is the same as EIA's EIA-232C. V.28 is the same as EIA's EIA-232D.

Address: International Telecommunication Union, Information Services Department, Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland.

Telephone: +41 (22) 730 5554. Fax: +41 (22) 730 5337.

E-mail: <[email protected]>, <[email protected]> (Mail body: HELP).

http://itu.ch/.

ITU-T standards can be obtained by FTP from Korea; UK - Imperial, HENSA; France - INRIA, IMAG; Israel; FTP USA: UUNET, gatekeeper, world.std.com; Australia; Germany; Japan;

Last updated: 1995-01-16

International Traffic in Arms Regulation

<legal>

(ITAR) Now called the Defense Trade Regulations.

Internaut

<jargon, web>

(From "Internet" + "astronaut") A person who explores the Internet (or "cyberspace"), normally searching for information.

Last updated: 2002-06-30

Internet

1. With a lower-case "i", any set of networks interconnected with routers.

2. With an upper-case "I", the world's collection of interconnected networks. The Internet is a three-level hierarchy composed of backbone networks, mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various protocols, chiefly the Internet Protocol.

Until the advent of the web in 1990, the Internet was almost entirely unknown outside universities and corporate research departments and was accessed mostly via command line interfaces such as telnet and FTP. Since then it has grown to become a ubiquitous aspect of modern information systems, becoming highly commercial and a widely accepted medium for all sort of customer relations such as advertising, brand building and online sales and services. Its original spirit of cooperation and freedom have, to a great extent, survived this explosive transformation with the result that the vast majority of information available on the Internet is free of charge.

While the web (primarily in the form of HTML and HTTP) is the best known aspect of the Internet, there are many other protocols in use, supporting applications such as electronic mail, chat, remote login and file transfer.

There were 20,242 unique commercial domains registered with InterNIC in September 1994, 10% more than in August 1994. In 1996 there were over 100 Internet access providers in the US and a few in the UK (e.g. the BBC Networking Club, Demon, PIPEX).

There are several bodies associated with the running of the Internet, including the Internet Architecture Board, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, the Internet Engineering and Planning Group, Internet Engineering Steering Group, and the Internet Society.

Internet Access Provider

<networking, company>

(IAP) A company or other origanisation which provides access to the Internet to businesses and/or consumers. An IAP purchases an Internet link from another company that has a direct link to the Internet and resells portions of that bandwidth to the general public.

For example, an IAP may purchase a T1 link (1.544Mb/s) and resell that bandwidth in chunks consisting of ISDN (64Kb/s, 128Kb/s) and analog modems (14.4Kb/s, 28.8Kb/s). The IAP's customer base is likely to include both businesses and individuals. Individual customers usually connect to the IAP via a modem and telephone line to a (preferably local) point of presence.

An IAP may also be an Internet Service Provider.

Last updated: 1996-06-25

Internet Adapter

<networking, product>

The Internet Adapter (TIA). A program from Cyberspace Development which runs on a Unix shell account and acts as a SLIP emulator. A TIA emulated SLIP account is not quite the same as a real SLIP account but TIA's SLIP emulation is completely standard in terms of working with MacTCP-based software on the Macintosh (or WinSock on a Microsoft Windows machine).

You do not get your own Internet Address as you do with a real SLIP account, instead, TIA uses the IP number of the machine it runs on and "redirects" traffic back to you. You cannot set up your machine as an FTP server, for instance, since there's no IP number for an FTP client elsewhere to connect to.

TIA's performance is reportedly good, faster than normal SLIP in fact, and about as fast as Compressed SLIP. Future releases will support CSLIP and even PPP.

Cyberspace Development has ported TIA to several versions of Unix and more are on the way.

TERM is a free program which performs a similar function between two machines both running Unix.

http://marketplace.com/.

Setting up TIA.

Telnet.

Gopher.

FTP.

E-mail: <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1995-04-12

Internet address

IP address

internet address

(Note lower case "i"). An IP address that uniquely identifies a node on an internet.

Last updated: 1995-04-12

Internet Architecture Board

(IAB) The technical body that oversees the development of the Internet suite of protocols. It has two task forces: the Internet Engineering Task Force and the Internet Research Task Force.

"IAB" previously stood for Internet Activities Board.

Last updated: 1994-12-06

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

<body, networking>

(IANA) The central registry for various "assigned numbers": Internet Protocol parameters, such as port, protocol, and enterprise numbers; and options, codes, and types. The currently assigned values are listed in the "Assigned Numbers" document STD 2. To request a number assignment, e-mail <[email protected]>.

Last updated: 1994-12-06

Internet backbone

<communications, networking>

High-speed networks that carry Internet traffic.

These communications networks are provided by companies such as AT&T, GTE, IBM, MCI, Netcom, Sprint, UUNET and consist of high-speed links in the T1, T3, OC1 and OC3 ranges. The backbones carry Internet traffic around the world and meet at Network Access Points (NAPs).

Internet Service Providers (ISPs) connect either directly to a backbone, or they connect to a larger ISP with a connection to a backbone.

The topology of the "backbone" and its interconnections may once have resembled a spine with ribs connected along its length but is now almost certainly more like a fishing net wrapped around the world with many circular paths.

[Map?]

Last updated: 1998-07-02

Internet Chess Server

<networking, games>

An interactive meeting-place on the Internet where people can play chess against each other.

Usenet newsgroup: alt.chess.ics.

[Server address?]

Last updated: 1995-03-25

Internet Control Message Protocol

<protocol>

(ICMP) An extension to the Internet Protocol (IP) that allows for the generation of error messages, test packets, and informational messages related to IP. It is defined in STD 5, RFC 792.

Last updated: 1999-09-18

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers

<body, networking>

(ICANN) The non-profit corporation that was formed to assume responsibility for IP address allocation, protocol parameter assignment and domain name system management. ICANN operates servers for one the the 13 root DNS server IP addresses.

According to its 2019-02-25 charter on interaction with governments, ICANN limits itself to providing governments with technical information on issues that impact its mission and does not lobby.

ICANN Home.

ICANN Organization Engagement with Governments and Standards Bodies.

Last updated: 2022-09-11

Internet-Draft

(I-D) A draft working document of the Internet Engineering Task Force, its Areas, and its Working Groups. As the name implies, Internet-Drafts are purely discussion documents with no formal status. They are valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. Very often, an I-D is a precursor to a Request For Comments.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Engineering and Planning Group

(IEPG) http://iepg.org/.

Internet Engineering Steering Group

(IESG) A body composed of the Internet Engineering Task Force Area Directors and the IETF Chair. It provides the first technical review of Internet standards and is responsible for day-to-day "management" of the IETF.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Engineering Task Force

<networking, standard, body>

(IETF) The IETF is a large, open international community of network designers, operators, vendors and researchers whose purpose is to coordinate the operation, management and evolution of the Internet and to resolve short- and mid-range protocol and architectural issues. It is a major source of proposals for protocol standards which are submitted to the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) for final approval. The IETF meets three times a year and extensive minutes are included in the IETF Proceedings.

The IETF Secretariat, run by The Corporation for National Research Initiatives with funding from the US government, maintains an index of Internet-Drafts whereas RFCs are maintained by The Internet Architecture Board.

http://ietf.org.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

Internet Experiment Note

(IEN) A series of reports pertinent to the Internet. IENs were published in parallel to RFCs and are no longer active.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Explorer

<web>

(IE, MSIE) Microsoft's free World-Wide Web browser for Microsoft Windows, Windows 95, Windows NT, and Macintosh. Internet Explorer is the main rival to Netscape Navigator (which runs on many more platforms). Both support the same core features and offer incompatible extensions.

Microsoft combined later versions of IE with their file system browser, "Explorer" and bundled it with Windows 95 in an attempt to use their dominance of the desktop operating system market to force users to abandon Netscape's browser, which they perceived as a potential threat. This, and other dubious business moves, became the subject of a US Department of Justice antitrust trial in late 1998/early 1999.

http://microsoft.com/ie/.

Last updated: 1999-01-31

Internet Express

An Internet provider in Colorado Springs, USA. Formerly called the Community News Service. They provide SLIP accounts at no extra charge.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Foundation Classes

<language, library, programming, standard>

(IFC) A library of classes used in the creation of Java applets with GUIs.

Created by Netscape, the Internet Foundation Classes provide GUI elements, as well as classes for Applications Services, Security, Messaging, and Distributed Objects.

The IFC code, which is exclusively Java, is layered on top of the Java Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), thus preserving platform independence.

The AWT and IFC collectively form the Java Foundation Classes, which provide a standardised framework for developing powerful Java applications.

IFC download.

Last updated: 2003-08-17

Internet Go Server

<games, networking>

(IGS) A place for Go players to meet and play via the Internet.

IGS Home.

Last updated: 1995-03-17

Internet Group Management Protocol

<protocol>

(IGMP) An extension to the Internet Protocol, used by IP hosts to report their host group memberships to immediately-neighbouring multicast routers.

Internet Information Server

<web>

(IIS) Microsoft's web server and FTP server for Windows NT.

IIS is intended to meet the needs of a range of users: from workgroups and departments on a corporate intranet to ISPs hosting websites that receive millions of hits per day.

Features include innovative web publishing, customisable tools, wizards, customisable management tools, flexible administration options, and analysis tools.

IIS makes it easy to share documents and information across a company intranet or the Internet, and is completely integrated with Windows NT Directory Services.

IIS 1.0 was released for Windows NT 3.51 and had a limited feature set.

IIS 2.0 was released with Windows NT 4.0 with a similar feature set to IIS 1.0.

IIS 3.0 quickly followed with many additions including Active Server Pages (ASP), ISAPI and ADO 1.0.

IIS 4.0 is built into Windows NT Server 4.0. It includes ASP 2.0, ISAPI and ADO 1.5.

http://microsoft.com/iis.

Rival servers include Apache and Netscape Enterprise Server.

Last updated: 1999-08-04

Internet Inter-ORB Protocol

<protocol, standard>

(IIOP) A protocol which will be mandatory for all CORBA 2.0 compliant platforms. The initial phase of the project is to build an infrastructure consisting of: an IIOP to HTTP gateway which allows CORBA clients to access WWW resources; an HTTP to IIOP gateway to let WWW clients access CORBA resources; a web server which makes resources available by both IIOP and HTTP; web browsers which can use IIOP as their native protocol.

http://ansa.co.uk/ANSA/ISF/wwwCorba_1.html.

Last updated: 1996-04-01

Internet Message Access Protocol

<protocol, messaging>

(IMAP) A protocol allowing a client to access and manipulate electronic mail messages on a server. It permits manipulation of remote message folders (mailboxes), in a way that is functionally equivalent to local mailboxes.

IMAP includes operations for creating, deleting, and renaming mailboxes; checking for new messages; permanently removing messages; searching; and selective fetching of message attributes, texts, and portions thereof. It does not specify a means of posting mail; this function is handled by a mail transfer protocol such as SMTP.

See RFC 2060, RFC 2061, and others.

Compare: POP.

Last updated: 1999-03-14

Internet Monthly Report

(IMR) Publication designed to communicate to the Internet Research Group the accomplishments, milestones reached, or problems discovered by the participating organisations.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Network Information Center

(InterNIC) An umbrella entity created by the National Science Foundation in Spring 1992, in cooperation with the Internet community, consisting of Network Information Service Managers who provided and/or coordinated NSFNet services. General Atomics provided information services, AT&T provided directory and database services, and Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) provided registration services.

In 1999 Internic was replaced by ICANN.

http://internic.net/.

http://nic.net/.

Last updated: 2003-04-16

internet number

internet address

Internet Open Trading Protocol

<protocol, business>

(IOTP, Formerly "Open Trading Protocol", OTP) A specification that provides an interoperable framework for Internet commerce. It is optimised for the case where the buyer and the merchant do not have a prior acquaintance and is payment system independent. It will be able to encapsulate and support payment systems such as SET, Mondex, CyberCash's CyberCoin, DigiCash's e-cash, GeldKarte, etc. IOTP is able to handle cases where such merchant roles as the shopping site, the payment handler, the deliverer of goods or services, and the provider of customer support are performed by different Internet sites.

The IOTP specification is maintained by the IETF Internet Open Trading Protocol (trade) Working Group.

http://otp.org/.

Last updated: 2001-09-22

Internet Protocol

(IP) The network layer for the TCP/IP protocol suite widely used on Ethernet networks, defined in STD 5, RFC 791. IP is a connectionless, best-effort packet switching protocol. It provides packet routing, fragmentation and re-assembly through the data link layer.

IPv4 is the version in widespread use and IPv6 was just beginning to come into use in 2000 but is still not widespread by 2008.

[Other versions? Dates?]

Last updated: 2000-12-19

Internet Protocol Control Protocol

(IPCP) The Control Protocol for Internet Protocol.

[Details?]

Last updated: 2002-06-29

Internet Protocol version 4

The version of Internet Protocol in widespread use in 2000.

Last updated: 2000-12-19

Internet Protocol version 6

Internet Service Provider

(IPv6, IPng, IP next generation) The most viable candidate to replace the current Internet Protocol. The primary purpose of IPv6 is to solve the problem of the shortage of IP addresses.

The following features have been purposed: 16-byte addresses instead of the current four bytes; embedded encryption - a 32-bit Security Association ID (SAID) plus a variable length initialisation vector in packet headers; user authentication (a 32-bit SAID plus variable length authentication data in headers); autoconfiguration (currently partly handled by Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol); support for delay-sensitive traffic - a 24 bit flow ID field in headers to denote voice or video, etc.

One possible solution is based on the TUBA protocol (RFC 1347, 1526, 1561) which is itself based on the OSI Connectionless Network Protocol (CNLP). Another is TP/IX (RFC 1475) which changes TCP and UDP headers to give a 64-bit IP address, a 32-bit port number, and a 64-bit sequence number.

RFC 1550 is a white paper on IPng.

IPv6.org.

["Doubts About IPng could create TCP/IP chaos", Johna Till Johnson, Data Communications, Nov 1994].

Last updated: 2004-06-17

Internet provider

Internet Public Library

(IPL) A project at the University of Michigan School of Information and Library Studies to provide an on-line, 24 hour public library, chaired by an assemblage of librarians and information industry professionals. The library aims to provide library services to a target audience estimated to number 1/4 of the entire American population by the end of the century.

The Internet Public Library is scheduled to go on-line in March 1995. Among the first services will be on-line reference; youth services; user education; and professional services for librarians.

http://ipl.sils.umich.edu/.

telnet://ipl.sils.umich.edu/.

Mailing list: [email protected].

Last updated: 1995-07-20

Internet Registry

(IR) The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority has the discretionary authority to delegate portions of its responsibility and, with respect to network address and Autonomous System identifiers, has lodged this responsibility with the IR. The IR function is performed by the Defense Data Network Network Information Center.

Internet Relay Chat

<chat, messaging>

(IRC) /I-R-C/, occasionally /*rk/ A client-server chat system of large (often worldwide) networks. IRC is structured as networks of Internet servers, each accepting connections from client programs, one per user.

The IRC community and the Usenet and MUD communities overlap to some extent, including both hackers and regular folks who have discovered the wonders of computer networks. Some Usenet jargon has been adopted on IRC, as have some conventions such as emoticons. There is also a vigorous native jargon (see the entry for "chat").

The largest and first IRC network is EFNet, with a smaller breakaway network called the Undernet having existed since 1992, and dozens of other networks having appeared (and sometimes disappeared) since.

Internet Research Steering Group

<body, standard>

(IRSG) The "governing body" of the Internet Research Task Force.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Research Task Force

(IRTF) The IRTF is chartered by the Internet Architecture Board to consider long-term Internet issues from a theoretical point of view. It has Research Groups, similar to Internet Engineering Task Force Working Groups, which are each tasked to discuss different research topics. Multi-cast audio/video conferencing and privacy enhanced mail are samples of IRTF output.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol

(ISAKMP) The definitions and procedures for authenticating communication between 2 peers. This includes the creation and management of Security Associations, key generation techniques, and threat mitigation. ISAKMP is proposed in RFC 2408.

Last updated: 2000-02-08

Internet Server Application Programming Interface

<web>

(ISAPI) Microsoft's programming interface between applications and their Internet Server. Active Servers created with ISAPI extensions can be complete in-process applications themselves, or can "connect" to other services. ISAPI is used for the same sort of functions as CGI but uses Microsoft Windows dynamic link libraries (DLL) for greater efficiency. The server loads the DLL the first time a request is received and the DLL then stays in memory, ready to service other requests until the server decides it is no longer needed. This minimises the overhead associated with executing such applications many times.

An HTTP server can unload ISAPI application DLLs to free memory or preload them to speed up the first access. Applications can also be enhanced by ISAPI filters

Last updated: 1997-01-06

Internet Service Provider

<company, networking>

(ISP) A company which provides other companies or individuals with access to, or presence on, the Internet. Most ISPs are also Internet Access Providers; extra services include help with design, creation and administration of websites, training and administration of intranets and domain name registration.

Last updated: 2005-06-19

Internet Society

<body>

(ISOC) A non-profit, professional membership organisation which facilitates and supports the technical evolution of the Internet, stimulates interest in and educates the scientific and academic communities, industry and the public about the technology, uses and applications of the Internet, and promotes the development of new applications for the system. The Society provides a forum for discussion and collaboration in the operation and use of the global Internet infrastructure.

The Internet Society publishes a quarterly newsletter, the Internet Society News, and holds an annual conference, INET. The development of Internet technical standards takes place under the auspices of the Internet Society with substantial support from the Corporation for National Research Initiatives under a cooperative agreement with the US Federal Government.

http://info.isoc.org/.

Last updated: 1994-10-27

Internet Telephony

IP Telephony

Internet Telephony Service Providers

(ITSP) Companies providing IP Telephony.

Last updated: 1999-04-26

internetworking

The interconnection of two or more networks, usually local area networks so that data can pass between hosts on the different networks as though they were one network. This requires some kind of router or gateway.

Last updated: 1994-11-30

Internetwork Packet eXchange

Internet Network Information Center

(IPX) A network layer protocol initially developed at XEROX Corporation and made popular by Novell, Inc. as the basic protocol in its Novell NetWare file server operating system.

A router with IPX routing can interconnect Local Area Networks so that Netware clients and servers can communicate.

The SPX transport layer protocol runs on top of IPX.

Last updated: 1997-03-04

Internet Worm

<networking, security>

The November 1988 worm perpetrated by Robert T. Morris. The worm was a program which took advantage of bugs in the Sun Unix sendmail program, Vax programs, and other security loopholes to distribute itself to over 6000 computers on the Internet. The worm itself had a bug which made it create many copies of itself on machines it infected, which quickly used up all available processor time on those systems.

Some call it "The Great Worm" in a play on Tolkien (compare elvish, elder days). In the fantasy history of his Middle Earth books, there were dragons powerful enough to lay waste to entire regions; two of these (Scatha and Glaurung) were known as "the Great Worms". This usage expresses the connotation that the RTM hack was a sort of devastating watershed event in hackish history; certainly it did more to make non-hackers nervous about the Internet than anything before or since.

Last updated: 1995-01-12

Internex On-Line

A rather cheap Internet service provider in Toronto, Canada.

http://io.org/.

Last updated: 1994-11-30

InterNIC

interoperability

The ability of software and hardware on multiple machines from multiple vendors to communicate.

interoperable database

A database front-end which communicates with multiple heterogenous databases and makes them appear as a single homogenous entity with semantic calls.

See ODBC.

Last updated: 1995-02-06

inter-packet gap

A time delay between successive data packets mandated by the network standard for protocol reasons.

In Ethernet, the medium has to be "silent" (i.e., no data transfer) for a few microseconds before a node can consider the network idle and start to transmit. This is necessary for fairness reasons. The delay time, which approximately equals the signal propagation time on the cable, allows the "silence" to reach the far end so that all nodes consider the net idle.

Last updated: 1995-11-11

interpolation

extrapolation

Interpress

Interpreted FORTH-like graphics language, possibly the first page description language, predating PostScript. Both are descendants of JaM. Used on Xerox printers.

["Interpress, The Source Book", Steven Harrington et al, P-H 1988.]

interpreted

interpreter

A program which executes other programs. This is in contrast to a compiler which does not execute its input program (the "source code") but translates it into executable "machine code" (also called "object code") which is output to a file for later execution. It may be possible to execute the same source code either directly by an interpreter or by compiling it and then executing the machine code produced.

It takes longer to run a program under an interpreter than to run the compiled code but it can take less time to interpret it than the total required to compile and run it. This is especially important when prototyping and testing code when an edit-interpret-debug cycle can often be much shorter than an edit-compile-run-debug cycle.

Interpreting code is slower than running the compiled code because the interpreter must analyse each statement in the program each time it is executed and then perform the desired action whereas the compiled code just performs the action. This run-time analysis is known as "interpretive overhead". Access to variables is also slower in an interpreter because the mapping of identifiers to storage locations must be done repeatedly at run time rather than at compile time.

There are various compromises between the development speed when using an interpreter and the execution speed when using a compiler. Some systems (e.g. some Lisps) allow interpreted and compiled code to call each other and to share variables. This means that once a routine has been tested and debugged under the interpreter it can be compiled and thus benefit from faster execution while other routines are being developed. Many interpreters do not execute the source code as it stands but convert it into some more compact internal form. For example, some BASIC interpreters replace keywords with single byte tokens which can be used to index into a jump table. An interpreter might well use the same lexical analyser and parser as the compiler and then interpret the resulting abstract syntax tree.

There is thus a spectrum of possibilities between interpreting and compiling, depending on the amount of analysis performed before the program is executed. For example Emacs Lisp is compiled to "byte-code" which is a highly compressed and optimised representation of the Lisp source but is not machine code (and therefore not tied to any particular hardware). This "compiled" code is then executed (interpreted) by a byte code interpreter (itself written in C). The compiled code in this case is machine code for a virtual machine which is implemented not in hardware but in the byte-code interpreter.

Interpretive Menu Processor

<language>

(IMP) The language used to implement much of the user interface of the Alis office automation package from Applix, Inc.

Last updated: 1996-04-07

Inter-process Communication

<programming, operating system>

(IPC) Exchange of data between one process and another, either within the same computer or over a network. It implies a protocol that guarantees a response to a request. Examples are Unix sockets, RISC OS's messages, OS/2's Named Pipes, Microsoft Windows' DDE, Novell's SPX and Macintosh's IAC.

Although IPC is performed automatically by programs, an analogous function can be performed interactively when users cut and paste data from one process to another using a clipboard.

Last updated: 1995-12-14

interrupt

1. An asynchronous event that suspends normal processing and temporarily diverts the flow of control through an "interrupt handler" routine.

Interrupts may be caused by both hardware (I/O, timer, machine check) and software (supervisor, system call or trap instruction).

In general the computer responds to an interrupt by storing the information about the current state of the running program; storing information to identify the source of the interrupt; and invoking a first-level interrupt handler. This is usually a kernel level privileged process that can discover the precise cause of the interrupt (e.g. if several devices share one interrupt) and what must be done to keep operating system tables (such as the process table) updated. This first-level handler may then call another handler, e.g. one associated with the particular device which generated the interrupt.

2. Under MS-DOS, nearly synonymous with "system call" because the OS and BIOS routines are both called using the INT instruction (see interrupt list) and because programmers so often have to bypass the operating system (going directly to a BIOS interrupt) to get reasonable performance.

Last updated: 1995-02-07

interrupt handler

<software>

A routine which is executed when an interrupt occurs. Interrupt handlers typically deal with low-level events in the hardware of a computer system such as a character arriving at a serial port or a tick of a real-time clock. Special care is required when writing an interrupt handler to ensure that either the interrupt which triggered the handler's execution is masked out (inhibitted) until the handler exits, or the handler is re-entrant so that multiple concurrent invocations will not interfere with each other.

If interrupts are masked then the handler must execute as quickly as possible so that important events are not missed. This is often arranged by splitting the processing associated with the event into "upper" and "lower" halves. The lower part is the interrupt handler which masks out further interrupts as required, checks that the appropriate event has occurred (this may be necessary if several events share the same interrupt), services the interrupt, e.g. by reading a character from a UART and writing it to a queue, and re-enabling interrupts.

The upper half executes as part of a user process. It waits until the interrupt handler has run. Normally the operating system is responsible for reactivating a process which is waiting for some low-level event. It detects this by a shared flag or by inspecting a shared queue or by some other synchronisation mechanism. It is important that the upper and lower halves do not interfere if an interrupt occurs during the execution of upper half code. This is usually ensured by disabling interrupts during critical sections of code such as removing a character from a queue.

Last updated: 2002-07-24

interrupt list

[MS-DOS] The list of all known software interrupt calls (both documented and undocumented) for IBM PCs and compatibles, maintained and made available for free redistribution by Ralf Brown <[email protected]>. As of late 1992, it had grown to approximately two megabytes in length.

interrupt priority level

The Motorola 68000 family of processors can be at an interrupt priority level from 0 (no interrupt in progress) up to 7. While the processor is handling an interrupt at one level, it will ignore other interrupts at that level or lower.

Last updated: 1994-11-23

interrupt request

(IRQ) The name of an input found on many processors which causes the processor to suspend normal instruction execution temporarily and to start executing an interrupt handler routine. Such an input may be either "level sensitive" - the interrupt condition will persist as long as the input is active or "edge triggered" - an interrupt is signalled by a low-to-high or high-to-low transition on the input. Some processors have several interrupt request inputs allowing different priority interrupts.

Last updated: 1994-12-08

interrupts

interrupt

Intersil 6100

(IMS 6100) A single chip design of the DEC PDP-8 minicomputer. The old PDP-8 design was very strange, and if it hadn't been popular, an awkward CPU like the 6100 would never been designed.

The 6100 was a 12-bit processor, which had three registers: the PC, AC (accumulator), and MQ. All 2-operand instructions read AC and MQ and wrote back to AC. It had a 12-bit address bus, limiting RAM to only 4K. Memory references were 7-bit, offset either from address 0, or from the PC page base address (PC AND 7600 oct).

It had no stack. Subroutines stored the PC in the first word of the subroutine code itself, so recursion required fancy programming.

4K RAM was pretty much hopeless for general purpose use. The 6102 support chip (included in the 6120) added 3 address lines, expanding memory to 32K the same way that the PDP-8/E expanded the PDP-8. Two registers, IFR and DFR, held the page for instructions and data respectively (IFR was always used until a data address was detected). At the top of the 4K page, the PC wrapped back to 0, so the last instruction on a page had to load a new value into the IFR if execution was to continue.

Last updated: 2003-04-04

Intersil 6120

<processor>

(IMS 6120) An improved version of the Intersil 6100. The 6120 was used in the DECmate.

[Details?]

Last updated: 1994-11-23

interstitial

<web>

A web page that appears before the expected content page. Interstitials can be used for advertising (intermercial, transition ad) or to confirm that the user is old enough to view the requested page, etc..

Last updated: 2003-07-11

Intertec

<company>

The computer manufacturer that built the Superbrain.

All Intertec systems were sold, installed and serviced by dealers. Intertec manufactured the entire product including designing and producing the circuit boards and molding the cabinets.

Intertec's first products were terminals - a dumb terminal called "Intertube" and a smart terminal that emulated various common terminals (VT100 etc.) called "The Emulator". The terminals looked similar to the Superbrain, but smaller.

http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=204.

Last updated: 2013-12-30

interupt

<spelling>

It's spelled "interrupt".

Last updated: 1996-12-13

interval

A set (of numbers) bounded by two elements - the endpoints or bounds. The interval may include or exclude either endpoint, leading to four possibilities:

 closed                   [a, b]  a <= x <= b
 open                     (a, b)  a < x < b
 left-open, right-closed  (a, b]  a < x <=b
 left-closed, right-open  [a, b)  a <= x < b

Intervals are typically defined on real numbers but may also be defined on integers or any other type that has an partial order.

Last updated: 2019-08-31

InterViews

An object-oriented toolkit developed at Stanford University for building graphical user interfaces. It is implemented in C++ and provides a library of objects and a set of protocols for composing them.

interworking

<standard>

Systems or components, possibly from different origins, working together to perform some task. Interworking depends crucially on standards to define the interfaces between the components. The term implies that there is some difference between the components which, in the absence of common standards, would make it unlikely that they could be used together. For example, software from different companies, running on different hardware and operating systems can interwork via standard network protocols.

Last updated: 1998-11-22

intranet

Any network which provides similar services within an organisation to those provided by the Internet outside it but which is not necessarily connected to the Internet. The commonest example is the use by a company of one or more web servers on an internal TCP/IP network for distribution of information within the company.

Since about 1995, intranets have become a major growth area in corporate computing due to the availability of cheap or free commercial browser and web server software which allows them to provide a simple, uniform hypertext interface to many kinds of information and application programs.

Some companies give limited access to their intranets to other companies or the general public. This is known as an "extranet".

Last updated: 1997-07-14

Intrinsics

<operating system, graphics>

A library package on top of Xlib, extending the basic functions of the X Window System. It provides mechanisms for building widget sets and application environments.

Last updated: 1996-08-26

introspection

<programming, philosophy>

A feature of some programming languages that allows a running program to obtain information about its own implementation.

For example, the Lisp function, "symbol-function" takes a Lisp symbol and returns the function definition associated with that symbol. Lisp is particularly suited to introspection because its source code uses the same underlying representation as its data. Another example is Perl's "can" method which returns true if a given object's class provides a given method.

Last updated: 2010-01-19

introspection annotation

A kind of pragma that makes information about the implementation of a program available to the program at run-time, allowing it to do introspection.

For example, gtk-doc defines a GObject Introspection syntax for annotations that give machine readable information about function parameters and return values (transfer none, transfer full). Gtk-Doc annotations are read by g-ir-scanner and put into a "GIR file".

Last updated: 2018-11-27

Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics

<security, jargon>

(ICE) A contrived acronym for security software, coined by Usenetter Tom Maddox and popularised by William Gibson's cyberpunk SF novels. In Gibson's novels ICE software responds to intrusion by attempting to literally kill the intruder.

The term is not in serious use as of 2000 apart from the commercial software product, BlackICE and a growing number of others.

Intrusive Testing

<testing>

Testing that collects timing and processing information during program execution that may change the behaviour of the software from its behavior in a real environment. Intrusive testing usually involves additional code embedded in the software being tested or additional processes running concurrently with software being tested on the same processor.

Last updated: 1996-12-01

Intuition

The Amiga windowing system (a shared-code library).

Last updated: 1997-08-01

intuitionism

intuitionistic logic

<logic, mathematics>

Brouwer's foundational theory of mathematics which says that you should not count a proof of (There exists x such that P(x)) valid unless the proof actually gives a method of constructing such an x. Similarly, a proof of (A or B) is valid only if it actually exhibits either a proof of A or a proof of B.

In intuitionism, you cannot in general assert the statement (A or not-A) (the principle of the excluded middle); (A or not-A) is not proven unless you have a proof of A or a proof of not-A. If A happens to be undecidable in your system (some things certainly will be), then there will be no proof of (A or not-A).

This is pretty annoying; some kinds of perfectly healthy-looking examples of proof by contradiction just stop working. Of course, excluded middle is a theorem of classical logic (i.e. non-intuitionistic logic).

History.

Last updated: 2001-03-18

intuitionistic probability

<logic>

Florentin Smarandache's representation of the probability of an event occuring, given by T, I, F which are real subsets representing the truth, indeterminacy, and falsity percentages respectively, and

 n_sup = sup(T) + sup(I) + sup(F) < 100

Related to intuitionistic logic.

[Florentin Smarandache, "A Unifying Field in Logics. / Neutrosophy: Neutrosophic Probability, Set, and Logic", American Research Press, Rehoboth 1999].

Last updated: 2001-03-18

intuitionist logic

<spelling>

Incorrect term for "intuitionistic logic".

Last updated: 1999-11-24

invariant

A rule, such as the ordering of an ordered list or heap, that applies throughout the life of a data structure or procedure. Each change to the data structure must maintain the correctness of the invariant.

Last updated: 1996-03-12

inverse

Given a function, f : D -> C, a function g : C -> D is called a left inverse for f if for all d in D, g (f d) = d and a right inverse if, for all c in C, f (g c) = c and an inverse if both conditions hold. Only an injection has a left inverse, only a surjection has a right inverse and only a bijection has inverses. The inverse of f is often written as f with a -1 superscript.

Last updated: 1996-03-12

Inverse Address Resolution Protocol

(InARP) Additions to ARP typically used for Frame Relay. [Any other examples of its use?]

Frame Relay stations route frames of a higher level protocol between LANs, across a Permanent Virtual Circuit. These stations are identified by their Data Link Control Identifier (DLCI), equivalent to an Ethernet address in a LAN itself.

InARP allows a station to determine a protocol address (e.g. IP address) from a DLCI. This is useful if a new virtual circuit becomes available. Signalling messages announce its DLCI, but without the corresponding protocol address it is unusable: no frames can be routed to it.

Reverse ARP (RARP) performs a similar task on an Ethernet LAN, however RARP answers the question "What is my IP Address?" whereas InARP answers the question "What is your protocol address?".

See RFC 2390.

Last updated: 2000-01-15

inverse comment convention

A kind of literate programming where the program code is marked to distinguish it from the text, rather than the other way around as in normal programs.

Last updated: 2003-09-24

inverted index

<database, information science>

A sequence of (key, pointer) pairs where each pointer points to a record in a database which contains the key value in some particular field. The index is sorted on the key values to allow rapid searching for a particular key value, using e.g. binary search. The index is "inverted" in the sense that the key value is used to find the record rather than the other way round. For databases in which the records may be searched based on more than one field, multiple indices may be created that are sorted on those keys.

An index may contain gaps to allow for new entries to be added in the correct sort order without always requiring the following entries to be shifted out of the way.

Last updated: 1995-02-08

invoking a method

method invocation

InWorld VR

<company, virtual reality>

Manufacturers of the CyberWand.

Last updated: 1995-04-04

IO

<humour, abuse>

Idiotic operator.

Last updated: 2003-05-15

io

International Olympiad in Informatics

The country code for British Indian Ocean territory.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

I/O

Input/Output

IOI

Iomega Corporation

<company, storage>

A storage device manufacturer whose major products are the Zip and Jaz removable disk drives and Ditto tape drives. They became popular with an early product called the Bernoulli Box.

These products fall in line with their focus set in 1994 "to help people manage their stuff". The company's stated aim is to create portable, fast, large and cheap storage solutions. Iomega's major competitor in the growing market for removable disks is SyQuest, who seem to always be a few weeks behind them.

In general, Iomega target the Small Office/Home Office. They are also investigating the growing digital photography market which also needs large removable storage devices.

Iomega's president and CEO is Kim Edwards. They have nearly 2000 employees in offices world-wide. Revenue for the quarter ending Dec 1996 was $371 million and net income was $20 million.

Headquarters: Roy, Utah, USA.

http://iomega.com/index.html.

Last updated: 1997-04-15

I-OOA

A tool, developed and sold by the Kennedy-Carter company, that supports the Schlaer Mellor design method, and that generates code in C and C++. This tool can be modified to generate code of different styles, and also, to generate code in different programming languages.

Last updated: 1995-01-31

I/O redirection

input/output redirection

IOS

Internetworking Operating System

Iota

<language, specification>

A specification language.

["The Iota Programming System", R. Nakajima er al, Springer 1983].

Last updated: 1994-12-08

IOT&E

Initial Operational Test and Evaluation

IOW

<chat>

in other words.

Last updated: 1997-05-26

IP

Internet Protocol

IPA

International Phonetic Alphabet

iPad

<computer>

A tablet computer announced by Apple Computer, Inc. on 2010-01-27 to be released in March 2010. The iPad runs iPhone OS 3.2, providing multi-touch interaction and multimedia processing. Like Apple's iPhone and iPod, it uses a virtual keyboard for text input and runs most iPhone apps. It adds the iBooks application for reading text in ePub format.

It has a 1GHz Apple A4 SoC processor, up to 64GB of flash memory, a 250mm LED-backlit colour LCD display (resolution 1024x768 pixels) and a 25 Wh lithium-polymer battery. Internet access will be Wi-Fi in early models with HSDPA 3G available soon after using a micro-SIM. It weighs 730g. Features it lacks include a camera, the ability to multitask and an open developement environment.

The iPad is the culmination of a series of attempts by Apple to produce a tablet device, starting with the Newton MessagePad 100 in 1993 and including collaboration with Acorn Computers in developing the ARM6 processor.

Apple iPad.

Last updated: 2010-01-31

IP address

(Internet address) The 32-bit number uniquely identifying a node on a network using Internet Protocol, as defined in STD 5, RFC 791. An IP address is normally displayed in dotted decimal notation, e.g. 128.121.4.5.

The address can be split into a network number (or network address) and a host number unique to each host on the network and sometimes also a subnet address.

The way the address is split depends on its "class", A, B or C (but see also CIDR). The class is determined by the high address bits:

Class A - high bit 0, 7-bit network number, 24-bit host number. n1.a.a.a 0 <= n1 <= 127

Class B - high 2 bits 10, 14-bit network number, 16-bit host number. n1.n2.a.a 128 <= n1 <= 191

Class C - high 3 bits 110, 21-bit network number, 8-bit host number. n1.n2.n3.a 192 <= n1 <= 223

DNS translates a node's fully qualified domain name to an Internet address which ARP (or constant mapping) translates to an Ethernet address.

International Programmable Airline Reservation System

Last updated: 2006-01-27

IPARS

I-Pay

<protocol>

A Dutch only payment system for the Internet.

[Reference?]

Last updated: 1998-04-28

IPC

Inter-Process Communication

ipconfig

Internet Protocol Control Protocol

A Microsoft Windows program to display information about the the computer's Internet Protocol settings, including IP address, DHCP lease information, network card Ethernet address, and DNS information.

[Was it ever "winipcfg"?]

Last updated: 2006-02-12

IPCP

IPE

Integrated Programming Environment

Iperf

<networking, tool>

A tool to measure maximum TCP bandwidth, allowing the tuning of various parameters and UDP characteristics. Iperf reports bandwidth, delay jitter, and datagram loss. An IPv6 version is also available.

Iperf Home.

Last updated: 2004-01-18

IPL

1. Information Processing Language.

2. Internet Public Library.

3. Initial Program Load.

4. Initial Program Loader.

Last updated: 1997-08-31

IP next generation

Internet Protocol Version 6

IPng

Internet Protocol Version 6

IP number

Internet address

IPS

A threaded language.

["IPS, An Unorthodox High Level Language", K. Meinzer, BYTE pp. 146-159 (Jan 1979)].

Last updated: 1994-11-04

IPSE

Integrated Project Support Environment

IPsec

<networking, protocol, security>

("IP Secure"?) A protocol that provides security for transmission of sensitive information over unprotected networks such as the Internet. IPsec acts at the network layer, protecting and authenticating IP packets between participating devices ("peers"), such as Cisco routers.

IETF IPsec.

Last updated: 2002-05-06

IPT

IP Telephony

Internet Protocol version 4

(IPT, Internet Telephony) Use of IP data connections to exchange voice and fax data that have traditionally been carried over the public switched telephone network.

During the late 1990s, an increasing number of telephone calls have been routed over the Internet. Calls made in this way avoid PSTN charges. Unlike traditional telephony, IP telephony is relatively unregulated.

Companies providing these services are known as Internet Telephony Service Providers (ITSPs). They include telephone companies, cable TV companies and Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

There are still many problems with voice quality, latency, compression algorithms, and quality of service.

Voice over IP is an organised effort to standardise IP telephony.

Internet Telephony Overview.

Last updated: 1999-03-17

IPv4

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6

IPX

Internetwork Packet eXchange

IPXCP

Internetwork Packet eXchange Control Protocol.

Last updated: 1995-09-27

IQ

Pictorial query language, implemented in Ratfor.

["Structured Implementation of an Image Query Language", Y.E. Lien et al, in Database Techniques for Pictorial Applications, A. Blaser ed, pp.416-430].

iq

The country code for Iraq.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

IQL

An object-oriented deductive language/database system.

IR

1. Internet Registry.

2. infrared.

Last updated: 1997-01-30

ir

Infrared Data Association

The country code for Iran.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

IrBUS

IrDA Control

IRC

Internet Relay Chat

ircop

<messaging>

/*r'-kop/ ("IRC" + "op", but with the, presumably intentional, alternate analysis "IRC" + "cop") Someone who is endowed with privileges on IRC, not limited to a particular channel. These privileges include channel op privileges in any channel, but also notably include the ability to disconnect a user from the IRC network.

Ircops are generally people who are in charge of the IRC server at their particular site. Compare op.

Last updated: 1997-12-12

IRC penis war

penis war

IrDA

IrDA-C

IrDA Control

<standard>

(IrDA-C, formerly IrBUS) Infrared standard from IrDA. IrDA Control is a low speed communication standard that allows cordless peripherals such as keyboards, mice, game pads, and joysticks to interact with intelligent host devices. Host devices include PCs, home appliances, game machines, and television and web set-top boxes.

IrDA Control supports data rates of 75 Kbps at up to 8 metres, and is designed to integrate with devices that use USB HID. Parts and products featuring IrDA Control are expected in 1998.

IrDA Data

<standard>

(IrDA-D) Infrared standards from IrDA. IrDA Data is designed for data transfer over a distance of up to 1 metre, acting as a point-to-point cable replacement. Several IrDA Data standards exist, supporting data rates from 9600 bps - 50 Mbps, namely SIR, FIR, and VFIR.

IRDATA

<robotics>

Industrial Robot DATA. A standardised robot control code. "IRDATA, Industrial Robot Data", DIN 66313, Beuth-Verlag 1991.

IRDP

ICMP Router Discovery Protocol

IRDS

Information Resource Dictionary System. A set of ISO standards for CASE repositories. It governs the definition of data dictionaries to be implemented on top of relational databases (see repository, data dictionary).

IRET

Return from interrupt

IRIS

<body>

Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship of Brown University (Providence RI).

Last updated: 1994-11-04

Iris

An object-oriented DBMS.

Last updated: 1994-11-04

IRISA

INRIA

IRIS Explorer

<mathematics, tool>

Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG)'s tool for developing visualisation applications via a visual programming environment. IRIS Explorer has a range of visualisation techniques, from simple graphs to multidimensional animation, that can help show trends and relationships in data.

IRIS Explorer uses standard Open Inventor, ImageVision and OpenGL libraries as well as NAG's own numerical libraries. It is available for Windows, Unix and Linux. It has a point-and-click interface and a library of "modules" (software routines).

IRIS Explorer home.

Last updated: 2008-09-04

IRIX

Information Resource Management

/ir'iks/ The main operating system used by Silicon Graphics workstations and servers. IRIX is multiprocessor and multi-threaded. It incorporates substantial functionality from UNIX System V, Release 4.1 and 4.2.

Last updated: 1997-06-17

IRL

<jargon, chat>

1. In real life. Generally synonymous with f2f.

<language, robotics>

2. Industrial Robot Language.

Last updated: 1997-01-31

IRM

iron

Hardware, especially older and larger hardware of mainframe class with big metal cabinets housing relatively low-density electronics (but the term is also used of modern supercomputers). Often in the phrase big iron. Oppose silicon.

Iron Age

<history>

In the history of computing, 1961-1971 - the formative era of commercial mainframe technology, when ferrite core memory dinosaurs ruled the earth. The Iron Age began, ironically enough, with the delivery of the first minicomputer (the PDP-1) and ended with the introduction of the first commercial microprocessor (the Intel 4004) in 1971.

iron box

[Unix/Internet] A special environment set up to trap a cracker logging in over remote connections long enough to be traced. May include a modified shell restricting the cracker's movements in unobvious ways, and "bait" files designed to keep him interested and logged on. See also back door, firewall machine, Venus flytrap, and Clifford Stoll's account in "The Cuckoo's Egg" of how he made and used one. Compare padded cell.

Ironman

HOLWG, DoD, Jan 1977, revised Jul 1977. Fourth of the series of DoD requirements that led to Ada. "Department of Defense Requirements for High Order Computer Programming Languages", SIGPLAN Notices 12(12):39-54 (Dec 1977). "Revised Ironman Requirements for High Order Computer Programming Languages", US Dept of Defense, Jul 1977. (See Strawman, Woodenman, Tinman, Steelman).

ironmonger

[IBM] A hardware specialist (derogatory). Compare sandbender, polygon pusher.

IRQ

interrupt request

irrational number

Internet Research Steering Group

A real number which is not a rational number, i.e. it is not the ratio of two integers.

The decimal expansion of an irrational is infinite but does not end in an infinite repeating sequence of digits.

Examples of irrational numbers are pi, e and the square root of two.

Last updated: 1995-04-12

irrefutable

The opposite of refutable.

IRSG

IRTF

Internet Research Task Force

IRUS

Irvine Research Unit in Software

Irvine Dataflow

<language>

(Always called "Id") A non-strict, single assignment language and incremental compiler developed by Arvind and Gostelow and used on MIT's Tagged-Token Dataflow Architecture and planned to be used on Motorola's Monsoon.

Irvine Research Unit in Software

<body>

(IRUS) The University of California, Irvine.

[Details?]

Last updated: 1995-04-18

IS

<standard>

1. International Standard.

2. Intermediate System.

is

The country code for Iceland.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

IS-11172

<standard>

The International Standard for MPEG-1 compression.

Last updated: 1999-01-06

IS-13818

<standard>

The International Standard for MPEG-2 compression.

Last updated: 1999-01-06

ISA

1. Integrated Systems Architecture.

<body>

2. International Smalltalk Association.

3. instruction set architecture.

Industry Standard Architecture

4. Industry Standard Architecture.

Last updated: 1997-02-13

Isabelle

<theory, tool>

A generic theorem prover with support for several object-logics, developed by Lawrence C. Paulson <[email protected]> in collaboration with Tobias Nipkow at the Technical University of Munich.

A system of type classes allows polymorphic object-logics with overloading and automatic type inference.

Isabelle supports first-order logic - constructive and classical versions; higher-order logic, similar to Gordon's HOL; Zermelo Fränkel set theory; an extensional version of Martin Löf's type theory, the classical first-order sequent calculus, LK; the modal logics T, S4, and S43; and Logic for Computable Functions.

An object logic's syntax and inference rules are specified declaratively allowing single-step proof construction. Proof procedures can be expressed using "tactics" and "tacticals". Isabelle provides control structures for expressing search procedures and generic tools such as simplifiers and classical theorem provers which can be applied to object-logics. Isabelle is built on top of Standard ML and uses its user interface.

http://cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/HVG/Isabelle/.

Mailing list: [email protected].

["tactics"? "tacticals"?]

Last updated: 1999-07-26

Isabelle-92

Isabelle

Isabelle-93

Isabelle

ISA bus

ISAKMP

Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol

ISAM

Indexed Sequential Access Method

ISAPI

Internet Server Application Programming Interface

ISAPI filter

<web>

A replaceable DLL which the server calls whenever there is an HTTP request. When the filter is first loaded, it communicates to the server what sort of notifications will be accepted. After that, whenever a selected event occurs, the filter is called to process the event.

Example applications of ISAPI filters include custom authentication schemes, compression, encryption, logging, traffic analysis or other request analyses.

Last updated: 1997-01-06

ISBL

<language>

A mathematical query language.

[Stands for? Details?]

Last updated: 1997-01-06

ISDE

Integrated Software Development Environment: equivalent to an IPSE.

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network

ISE

Interactive Software Engineering

ISEE

Integrated Software Engineering Environment - equivalent to SEE.

I see no X here.

<games>

Hackers (and the interactive computer games they write) traditionally favour this slightly marked usage over other possible equivalents such as "There's no X here!" or "X is missing." or "Where's the X?". This goes back to the original PDP-10 ADVENT, which would respond in this wise if you asked it to do something involving an object not present at your location in the game.

Information Systems Factory

ISETL

<language>

An interactive version of SETL developed by Gary Levin <[email protected]>.

["An Introduction to ISETL Version 1.9", G.M. Levin, Dept MCS, Clarkson U].

["Learning discrete mathematics with ISETL", Nancy Baxter, Ed Dubinsky, Gary Levin. Springer-Verlag, 1989, ISBN: 9783540968986, 3540968989]

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4612-3592-7

Last updated: 2024-03-06

ISF

ISINDEX

<web>

An HTML tag which tells the browser to display a text entry box on the current page. Any text entered in the box by the user is appended as a URL-encoded query string to the current URL and sent to the server using a GET method.

This is a simple way of making a website searchable or allowing other kinds of simple user input. It relies on the server mapping the query URL to an appropriate process, probably depending on the page in which the ISINDEX appeared. More complex input can be catered for using the FORM tag, or Java.

Last updated: 1996-12-22

ISIS

1. A toolkit for implementing fault-tolerant distributed systems, developed at Cornell and now available commercially

2. A dialect of JOSS.

[Sammet 1969, p. 217].

IS-IS

Intermediate System-Intermediate System

ISL

Interface Specification Language. Xerox PARC. Interface description language used by the ILU (Inter-Language Unification) system. Includes descriptions of multiple inheritance, exceptions and garbage collection.

E-mail: Bill Janssen <[email protected]>.

ISLisp

International Standard Lisp.

An object-oriented Lisp intended as an international replacement for Common Lisp, EuLisp, Le-Lisp and Scheme. The standard's goals are object orientation, extensibility, efficiency, and suitability for non-academic use.

The standard is defined in ISO WG 16, draft Dec 1992.

ftp://ma2s2.mathematik.uni-karlsruhe.de/pub/lisp/islisp/.

Last updated: 1995-02-14

ISMAP

(web) An attribute of the HTML tag <IMG> (inline image) which specifies that if the image is selected, the browser will generate a request indicating the coordinates of the point which was clicked. This request is then interpreted by the server by mapping certain regions of the image to certain actions.

Documentation.

Last updated: 1995-02-14

ISO

International Organization for Standardization

ISO 10646

Universal Character Set

ISO 3166

country code

ISO 639-1

language code

ISO 639-2

language code

ISO 8072

transport layer

ISO 8073

transport layer

ISO 8208

X.25

ISO 8326

session layer

ISO 8327

session layer

ISO 8485

A Programming Language

ISO 8613

Open Document Architecture

ISO 8649

Association Control Service Element

ISO 8650

Association Control Service Element

ISO 8805

GKS-3D

ISO 8807

LOTOS

ISO 8822

presentation layer

ISO 8823

presentation layer

ISO 8825

Basic Encoding Rules

ISO 8859

<standard, character>

ISO/IEC's set of 8-bit coded graphic character sets for European languages.

Part 1 (full name: "ISO 8859-1:1987 Information processing -- 8-bit single-byte coded graphic character sets -- Part 1: Latin alphabet No. 1") is a common extension of, and replacement for, ASCII.

ISO shop.

Last updated: 2001-12-28

ISO 8859-1

ISO 8859

ISO 8879

<standard, character>

The ISO standard defining SGML.

Last updated: 1995-05-03

ISO 9000

A set of international standards for both quality management and quality assurance that has been adopted by over 90 countries worldwide. The ISO 9000 standards apply to all types of organisations, large and small, and in many industries.

The standards require: standard language for documenting quality processes; system to manage evidence that these practices are instituted throughout an organisation; and third-party auditing to review, certify, and maintain certification of organisations. The ISO 9000 series classifies products into generic product categories: hardware, software, processed materials, and services.

Documentation is at the core of ISO 9000 conformance. In fact, the standards have been paraphrased as:

"Say what you do. Do what you say. Write it down."

In Britain it is associated with BS5750 which may become obsolete.

["The ISO 9000 Guide," c. 1993 Interleaf, Inc].

Last updated: 1995-01-30

ISO 9072

Remote Operations Service Element

ISO 9660

<standard, storage>

The ISO standard file system for CD-ROMs, later extended by the Joliet standard to allow Unicode characters.

Last updated: 2006-09-25

ISO 9735

<standard, protocol>

(Or "EDIFACT") ISO's 1988 standard for Electronic data interchange for administration, commerce and transport. It defines application layer syntax. It was amended and reprinted in 1990.

http://iso.ch/cate/d17592.html.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

ISOC

Internet Society

ISO C

ANSI C

isochronous

ISO Development Environment

/i:-sok'rn-*s/ A form of multiplexing that guarantees to provide a certain minimum data rate, as required for time-dependent data such as video or audio.

Isochronous transmission transmits asynchronous data over a synchronous data link so that individual characters are only separated by a whole number of bit-length intervals. This is in contrast to asynchronous transmission, in which the characters may be separated by arbitrary intervals, and with synchronous transmission [which does what?].

An isochronous message protocol assigns each data source a fixed amount of time to transmit (its "slot") within each cycle through the sources. That guarantees that each source will have regular opportunities to transmit the latest information. If a source has no more data to transmit, then the rest of its time slot is wasted. If it has more to send than will fit in its slot, it has to either store the excess data and transmit it in its next slot, or discard it.

Note that whether messages are isochronous or asynchronous is independent of whether the transmision of individual bits is synchronous or asynchronous.

Isochronous communication suits applications where a steady data stream is more important than completeness and accuracy, e.g. video conferencing.

Asynchronous Transfer Mode and High Performance Serial Bus can provide isochronous service.

Compare: plesiochronous.

[ANIXTER, LAN Magazine 7.93]

Last updated: 2006-06-13

isochronous transfer

isochronous

ISODE

(ISODE) /eye-so-dee-eee/ Software that implements a set of OSI upper-layer services. It supports OSI applications on top of OSI and TCP/IP networks.

Last updated: 1994-12-15

ISO/IEC 10646-1

Universal Character Set

ISO/IEC 26300

OpenDocument

isolated

compact

ISO Latin 1

ISO 8859

isometric joystick

<hardware>

Any kind of joystick where the input depends on the force exerted rather than the position of the control, e.g. TrackPoint.

Last updated: 2003-06-26

isometry

A mapping of a metric space onto another or onto itself so that the distance between any two points in the original space is the same as the distance between their images in the second space. For example, any combination of rotation and translation is an isometry of the plane.

Last updated: 1997-12-13

isomorphic

Two mathematical objects are isomorphic if they have the same structure, i.e. if there is an isomorphism between them. For every component of one there is a corresponding component of the other.

Last updated: 1995-03-25

isomorphism

A bijective map between two objects which preserves, in both directions, any structure under consideration. Thus a `group isomorphism' preserves group structure; an order isomorphism (between posets) preserves the order relation, and so on. Usually it is clear from context what sort of isomorphism is intended.

Last updated: 1995-03-25

isomorphism class

Open Systems Interconnect

A collection of all the objects isomorphic to a given object. Talking about the isomorphism class (of a poset, say) ensures that we will only consider its properties as a poset, and will not consider other incidental properties it happens to have.

Last updated: 1995-03-25

ISO Pascal

A Lex scanner and Yacc parser are in the comp.sources.unix volume 13 archive.

[More detail?]

ISO seven layer model

ISP

1. Internet Service Provider.

2. Instruction Set Processor.

ISPBX

Integrated Services Digital Network PBX.

ISPF

Interactive System Productivity Facility

ISPL

Instruction Set Processor Language. The original ISP language, written in BLISS ca 1971.

["Computer Structures: Readings and Examples", D.P. Siewiorek et al, McGraw-Hill 1982].

ISPS

Instruction Set Processor Specifications. Operational hardware specification language. Successor to ISPL.

["Instruction Set Processor Specifications", M.R. Barbacci et al, IEEE Trans Computers, C-30(1):24-80 (Jan 1981)].

[Bell, Newell, Siewiorek, Barbacci 1982?]

IST

<company>

Imperial Software Technology.

Last updated: 1995-10-12

ISTAR

<programming, tool>

An experimental IPSE from Imperial Software Technology.

Last updated: 1995-10-12

ISTM

<chat>

It seems to me.

Last updated: 2000-07-06

ISV

Independent Software Vendor (not a hardware manufacturer).

ISWIM

<language>

(If You See What I Mean) An influential but unimplemented computer programming language described in the article by Peter J. Landin cited below. Landin attempted to capture all known programming language concepts, including assignment and control operators such as goto and coroutines, within a single lambda calculus based framework.

ISWIM is an imperative language with a functional core, consisting of sugared lambda calculus plus mutable variables and assignment. A powerful control mechanism, Landin's J operator, enables capture of the current continuation (the call/cc operator of Scheme is a simplified version). Being based on lambda calculus ISWIM had higher order functions and lexically scoped variables.

The operational semantics of ISWIM are defined using Landin's SECD machine and use call-by-value (eager evaluation). To make ISWIM look more like mathematical notation, Landin replaced ALGOL's semicolons and begin end blocks with the off-side rule and scoping based on indentation.

An ISWIM program is a single expression qualified by "where" clauses (auxiliary definitions including equations among variables), conditional expressions and function definitions. With CPL, ISWIM was one of the first programming languages to use "where" clauses.

New data types could be defined as a (possibly recursive) sum of products like the algebraic data types found in modern functional languages. ISWIM variables were probably dynamically typed but Landin may have planned some form of type inference.

Concepts from ISWIM appear in Art Evan's PAL and John Reynold's Gedanken, Milner's ML and purely functional languages with lazy evaluation like SASL, Miranda and Haskell.

["The Next 700 Programming Languages", P.J. Landin, CACM 9(3):157-166, Mar 1966].

Last updated: 2007-03-20

IT

<business, jargon>

1. Information Technology.

<language, mathematics, history>

2. Internal Translator.

Last updated: 2000-10-02

it

International Traffic in Arms Regulation

The country code for Italy.

Last updated: 1999-01-27

ITAR

Iterated Function System

<graphics>

(IFS) A class of fractals that yield natural-looking forms like ferns or snowflakes. Iterated Function Systems use a very easy transformation that is done recursively.

Last updated: 1998-04-04

iteration

Repetition of a sequence of instructions. A fundamental part of many algorithms. Iteration is characterised by a set of initial conditions, an iterative step and a termination condition.

A well known example of iteration in mathematics is Newton-Raphson iteration. Iteration in programs is expressed using a loop, e.g. in C:

 new_x = n/2;
 do
 {
   x = new_x;
   new_x = 0.5 * (x + n/x);
 } while (abs(new_x-x) > epsilon);

Iteration can be expressed in functional languages using recursion:

 solve x n = if abs(new_x-x) > epsilon
 	    then solve new_x n
 	    else new_x
 	    where new_x = 0.5 * (x + n/x)

        solve n/2 n

Last updated: 1998-04-04

iterative deepening

<algorithm>

A graph search algorithm that will find the shortest path with some given property, even when the graph contains cycles. When searching for a path through a graph, starting at a given initial node, where the path (or its end node) has some desired property, a depth-first search may never find a solution if it enters a cycle in the graph. Rather than avoiding cycles (i.e. never extend a path with a node it already contains), iterative deepening explores all paths up to length (or "depth") N, starting from N=0 and increasing N until a solution is found.

Last updated: 2004-01-26

iterator