Univac
A brand of computer.
There is a historical placard in the United States Census Bureau that has the following, "The Bureau of the Census dedicated the world's first electronic general purpose data processing computer, UNIVAC I, on June 14, 1951. Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation". The Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation designed and built Univac. Over the years, rights to the Univac name changed hands several times. Circa 1987, Sperry Univac merged with the Burroughs Corporation to form Unisys Corporation.Last updated: 1994-11-22
Universal algebra
<logic>
The model theory of first-order equational logic.
Last updated: 1997-02-25
Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
(UART) An integrated circuit used for serial communications, containing a transmitter (parallel-to-serial converter) and a receiver (serial-to-parallel converter), each clocked separately.
The parallel side of a UART is usually connected to the bus of a computer. When the computer writes a byte to the UART's transmit data register (TDR), the UART will start to transmit it on the serial line. The UART's status register contains a flag bit which the computer can read to see if the UART is ready to transmit another byte. Another status register bit says whether the UART has received a byte from the serial line, in which case the computer should read it from the receive data register (RDR). If another byte is received before the previous one is read, the UART will signal an "overrun" error via another status bit. The UART may be set up to interrupt the computer when data is received or when ready to transmit more data. The UART's serial connections usually go via separate line driver and line receiver integrated circuits which provide the power and voltages required to drive the serial line and give some protection against noise on the line. Data on the serial line is formatted by the UART according to the setting of the UART's control register. This may also determine the transmit and receive baud rates if the UART contains its own clock circuits or "baud rate generators". If incorrectly formated data is received the UART may signal a "framing error" or "parity error". Often the clock will run at 16 times the baud rate (bits per second) to allow the receiver to do centre sampling - i.e. to read each bit in the middle of its allotted time period. This makes the UART more tolerant to variations in the clock rate ("jitter") of the incoming data. An example of a late 1980s UART was the Intel 8450. In the 1990s, newer UARTs were developed with on-chip buffers. This allowed higher transmission speed without data loss and without requiring such frequent attention from the computer. For example, the Intel 16550 has a 16 byte FIFO. Variants include the 16C550, 16C650, 16C750, and 16C850. The term "Serial Communications Interface" (SCI) was first used at Motorola around 1975 to refer to their start-stop asyncronous serial interface device, which others were calling a UART. See also bit bang. [Is this the same as an ACIA?]Last updated: 2003-07-13
Universal Character Set
(UCS, ISO/IEC 10646) A 1993 ISO and IEC standard character set, also known as "Universal Multiple-Octet Coded Character Set".
UCS comes in a 16-bit variant called UCS-2 and a 32-bit variant called UCS-4, which is composed of 16-bit UCS-2 "planes". So far only one 16-bit plane has been defined, which is known as the Basic Multilingual Plane. The implementation of UCS is still in its infancy, though some moves, such as the Java language defining a character to be 16 bits, are suggestive. [Relationship with Unicode?]Last updated: 1997-07-04
Universal Communications X
(UCX) A software implementation of the ubiquitous TCP/IP suite of communications protocols for Digital Equipment Corporation's OpenVMS operating system.
Users of the UCX product can connect to heterogeneous networks to access and download files, send electronic mail, run and develop applications, and monitor activity. "Software Product Description, DIGITAL TCP/IP Services for OpenVMS, Version 4.2",.Last updated: 2000-12-15
Universal Computer Protocol
An earlier form of External Machine Interface (EMI).
Last updated: 2007-09-10
Universal Debugger
(udb) KSR's interactive source level debugger for serial and parallel programs written in KSR, Fortran, KSR C and KSR1 assembly language.
Udb is a source level debugger for testing and debugging serial and parallel programs; it is compatible with GDB and dbx. The user can direct udb either by typing commands or graphically through an X-based window interface; the latter provides simultaneous display of source code, I/O and instructions. For parallel programs, operations can be carried out per-thread. Home.Last updated: 1995-05-07
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration
(UDDI) The service discovery protocol for Web Services through which companies can find one another to conduct business. This standard was unveiled by Ariba, IBM, Microsoft, and 33 other companies in September 2000.
Last updated: 2002-06-28
Universal Disk Format
(UDF) A CD-ROM file system standard that is required for DVD ROMs. UDF is the OSTA's replacement for the ISO 9660 file system used on CD-ROMs, but will be mostly used on DVD. DVD multimedia disks use UDF to contain MPEG audio and video streams.
To read DVDs you need a DVD drive, the kernel driver for the drive, MPEG video support, and a UDF driver. DVDs containing both UDF filesystems and ISO 9660 filesystems can be read without UDF support. UDF can also be used by CD-R and CD-RW recorders in packet writing mode.Last updated: 1999-09-01
Universal Naming Convention
(UNC) The type of file system path used in Microsoft Windows networking to completely specify a directory on a file server.
The basic format is:\\servername\sharenamewhere "servername" is the hostname or IP address of a network file server, and "sharename" is the name of a shared directory on the server. This is related to the conventional MS-DOS "C:\windows" style of directory name. E.g.
\\server1\davemight be set up to point to
C:\users\homedirs\daveon a server called "server1". It is possible to execute a program using this convention without having to specifically link a drive, by running: \\server\share\directory\program.exe The undocumented DOS command, TRUENAME can be used to find out the UNC name of a file or directory on a network drive. Even Microsoft don't know whether UNC stands for "Universal Naming Convention" or "Uniform Naming Convention", both appear on their website, sometimes withing the same document, but with a preference for "Universal".
Last updated: 2008-12-09
universal quantifier
quantifierUniversal Resource Identifier
<web>
(URI, originally "UDI" in some WWW documents) The generic set of all names and addresses which are short strings which refer to objects (typically on the Internet). The most common kinds of URI are URLs and relative URLs.
URIs are defined in RFC 1630. W3 specification.Last updated: 1997-07-16
Universal Resource Locator
Uniform Resource LocatorUniversal Serial Bus
(USB) An external peripheral interface standard for communication between a computer and external peripherals over an inexpensive cable using biserial transmission.
USB is intended to replace existing serial ports, parallel ports, keyboard, and monitor connectors and be used with keyboards, mice, monitors, printers, and possibly some low-speed scanners and removable hard drives. For faster devices existing IDE, SCSI, or emerging FC-AL or FireWire interfaces can be used. USB works at 12 Mbps with specific consideration for low cost peripherals. It supports up to 127 devices and both isochronous and asynchronous data transfers. Cables can be up to five metres long and it includes built-in power distribution for low power devices. It supports daisy chaining through a tiered star multidrop topology. A USB cable has a rectangular "Type A" plug at the computer end and a square "Type B" plug at the peripheral end. Before March 1996 Intel started to integrate the necessary logic into PC chip sets and encourage other manufacturers to do likewise. It was widely available by 1997. Later versions of Windows 95 included support for it. It was standard on Macintosh computers in 1999. The USB 2.0 specification was released in 2000 to allow USB to compete with Firewire etc. USB 2.0 is backward compatible with USB 1.1 but works at 480 Mbps. usb.org.Last updated: 2004-01-31
universal thunk
<programming, operating system>
A software mechanism allowing a Windows 3.1 application to call a 32-bit dynamically linked library (DLL) under Win32s.
The Windows 3.1 application which wants to call an entry in a 32-bit DLL instead calls a corresponding entry in a 16-bit DLL. The programmer must also include code to detect whether the 32-bit DLL is loaded. A 32-bit EXE loads the 32-bit DLL. See also Generic Thunk, Flat Thunk. ["Calling a Win32 DLL from a Windows 3.1 Application", Win32 SDK Knowledge Base, Article ID Q97785]. [Better explanation?]Last updated: 1997-10-11
Universal Time
(UT) The mean solar time along the prime meridian (0 longitude) that runs through the Greenwich Observatory outside of London, UK, where the current system originated. UT is tied to the rotation of the Earth in respect to the fictitious "mean Sun".
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was measured from Greenwich mean midday until 1925 when the reference point was changed from noon to midnight and the name changed to "Universal Time". There are three separate definitions, UT0, UT1, and UT2, depending on which corrections have been applied to the Earth's motion. Coordinated Universal Time is kept within 0.9 seconds of UT1, by addition of leap seconds to International Atomic Time.Last updated: 2001-08-02
Universal Time Coordinated
An incorrect term for Coordinated Universal Time.
Last updated: 2001-08-01
universe of discourse
In ontology, the set of all entities that can be represented in some declarative language or other formal system.
Each entity is represented by a name and may have some human-readable description of its meaning. Formal axioms constrain the interpretation and well-formed use of these names.Last updated: 2005-07-29
University of Arizona
The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. Today, the University is one of the top 20 research universities in the nation, with a student enrollment of more than 35,000, a faculty and staff of 12,500, and a 345-acre campus.
http://arizona.edu/. Address: Tucson, Arizona, USA.University of California at Berkeley
(UCB)
See also Berzerkley, BSD. http://berkeley.edu/. Note to British and Commonwealth readers: that's /berk'lee/, not /bark'lee/ as in British Received Pronunciation.Last updated: 1994-11-29
University of Durham
A busy research and teaching community in the historic cathedral city of Durham, UK (population 61000). Its work covers key branches of science and technology and traditional areas of scholarship. Durham graduates are in great demand among employers and the University helps to attract investment into the region. It provides training, short courses, and expertise for industry. Through its cultural events, conferences, tourist business and as a major employer, the University contributes in a wide social and economic sense to the community.
Founded in 1832, the University developed in Durham and Newcastle until 1963 when the independent University of Newcastle upon Tyne came into being. Durham is a collegiate body, with 14 Colleges or Societies which are a social and domestic focus for students. In 1992, the Universities of Durham and Teesside launched University College, Stockton-on-Tees, which has 190 students in the first year. http://dur.ac.uk/.Last updated: 1995-03-17
University of East London
(UEL) A UK University with six academic Faculties: Design and The Built Environment, East London Business School, Institute Of Health and Rehabilitation, Faculty Of Science, Social Sciences and Technology.
http://uel.ac.uk/.Last updated: 1994-11-29
University of Edinburgh
A university in the centre of Scotland's capital. The University of Edinburgh has been promoting and setting standards in education for over 400 years. Granted its Royal Charter in 1582 by James VI, the son of Mary Queen of Scots, the University was founded the following year by the Town Council of Edinburgh, making it the first post-Reformation university in Scotland, and the first civic university to be established in the British Isles.
Known in its early years as King James College, or the Tounis (Town's) College, the University soon established itself internationally, and by the 18th century Edinburgh was a leading centre of the European Enlightenment and one of the continent's principal universities. The University's close relationship with the city in which it is based, coupled with a forward-looking, international perspective, has kept Edinburgh at the forefront of new research and teaching developments whilst enabling it to retain a uniquely Scottish character. Edinburgh's academics are at the forefront of developments in the study and application of languages, medicine, micro-electronics, biotechnology, computer-based disciplines and many other subjects. Edinburgh's standing as a world centre for research is further enhanced by the presence on and around University precincts of many independently-funded, but closely linked, national research institutes http://ed.ac.uk/. Address: Old College, South Bridge, Edinburgh, Scotland EH8 9YL, UK. Telephone: +44 (131) 650 1000. See also ABSET, ABSYS, Alice, ASL+, Baroque, C++Linda, Cogent Prolog, COWSEL, Echidna, Edinburgh Prolog, Edinburgh SML, EdML, ELLIS, ELSIE, ESLPDPRO, Extended ML, Hope, IMP, LCF, Lisp-Linda, Marseille Prolog, metalanguage, MIKE, ML, ML Kit, ML-Linda, Multipop-68, Nuprl, Oblog, paraML, Pascal-Linda, POP-1, POP-2, POPLER, Prolog, Prolog-2, Prolog-Linda, Scheme-Linda, Skel-ML, Standard ML, Sticks&Stones, supercombinators, SWI-Prolog, tail recursion modulo cons, WPOP.Last updated: 1995-12-29
University of Hawaii
A University spread over 10 campuses on 4 islands throughout the state.
http://hawaii.edu/uhinfo.html. See also Aloha, Aloha Net.Last updated: 1995-12-10
University of Iceland
The Home of Fjolnir.
http://rhi.hi.is/.Last updated: 1995-03-17
University of London Computing Centre
(ULCC) One of the UK's national high performance computing centres. It provides networking services and large-scale computing facilities which are used by researchers from all over the UK.
ULCC was founded in 1968 to provide a service for education and research. It has been at the forefront of advanced research computing since its foundation, initially providing large-scale CDC-based facilities, then from 1982 to 1991 a national Cray vector supercomputing service. Its high performance computing facilities are now centred on a 6 processor, 4 Gbyte Convex C3860 supercomputer (Neptune) with a Convex C3200 front-end (Pluto). ULCC is the main site for national and international network connections in the UK. They run the Network Operations and Service Centre for the JANET Internet Protocol Service (JIPS), the largest of the JANET NOCs and various international links and relays on behalf of UKERNA. ULCC's pilot National Data Repository service provides a network-accessible digital archive and filestore, based on a robotic tape system with 6 terabytes of storage. Although the data is stored on tape, you can access it very quickly, as if it were on-line. It is made available to you via high-speed links to the JANET and SuperJANET networks. http://ulcc.ac.uk/.Last updated: 1994-11-29
University of Michigan
A large cosmopolitan university in the Midwest USA. Over 50000 students are enrolled at the University of Michigan's three campuses. The students come from 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. 70% of the University's students graduated in the top 10% of their high school class. 90% rank in the top 20% of their high school class. 60% of the students receive financial aid.
The main Ann Arbor Campus lies in the Huron River valley, 40 miles west of Detroit. The campus boasts 2700 acres with 200 buildings, six million volumes in 23 libraries, nine museums, seven hospitals, hundreds of laboratories and institutes, and over 18000 microcomputers. http://umich.edu/.Last updated: 1995-02-23
University of Michigan Digital Library Project
<project>
(UMDL) The University of Michigan's part of the Digital Library Initiative.
University of Minnesota
The home of Gopher.
http://umn.edu/. Address: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.Last updated: 1995-01-30
University of Nijmegen
Katholieke University of Nijmegen (KUN), Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
KUN's Computing Science Institute. is known for the Clean, Comma, Communicating Functional Processes, and GLASS projects. http://kun.nl/.Last updated: 1995-11-07
University of Pennsylvania
The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli.
http://upenn.edu/. Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. [More info?]Last updated: 1995-02-21
University of Tasmania
ftp://ftp.utas.edu.au/.
Last updated: 1995-01-25
University of Twente
A university in the east of The Netherlands for technical and social sciences. It was founded in 1961, making it one of the youngest universities in The Netherlands. It has 7000 students studying Applied Educational Science; Applied Mathematics; Applied Physics; Chemical Technology; Computer Science; Electrical Engineering; Mechanical Engineering; Philosophy of science, Technology and Society; Educational Technology.
http://nic.utwente.nl/uthomuk.htm.Last updated: 1995-04-16
Nearby terms:
UNITY ♦ Univac ♦ Universal algebra ♦ Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
Try this search on Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Google, OneLook.