Compute from FOLDOC

COMpute ParallEL

<language>

(Compel) The first single-assignment language.

["A Language Design for Concurrent Processes", L.G. Tesler et al, Proc SJCC 32:403-408, AFIPS (Spring 1968)].

Last updated: 1995-01-19

Computer

<publication>

A journal of the IEEE Computer Society.

Last updated: 1995-03-10

computer

<computer>

A machine that can be programmed to manipulate symbols. Computers can perform complex and repetitive procedures quickly, precisely and reliably and can store and retrieve large amounts of data. Most computers in use today are electronic digital computers (as opposed to analogue computers).

The physical components from which a computer is constructed are known as hardware, which can be of four types: CPU, memory, input devices and output devices.

The CPU (central processing unit) executes software programs which tell the computer what to do. Input and output (I/O) devices allow the computer to communicate with the user and the outside world. There are many kinds of memory or storage - fast, expensive, short term memory (e.g. RAM) to hold intermediate results, and slower, cheaper, long-term memory (e.g. magnetic disk and magnetic tape) to hold programs and data that are not being used immediately.

Computers today are often connected to a network (which may be part of the Internet). This allows them to be accessed from elsewhere and to exchange data with other computers.

Last updated: 2018-06-25

Computer Aided Design

<application>

(CAD) The part of CAE concerning the drawing or physical layout steps of engineering design. Often found in the phrase "CAD/CAM" for ".. manufacturing".

Last updated: 1994-11-30

Computer Aided Detector Design

<project, standard>

(CADD) A project to standardise HEP detector designer.

Last updated: 2011-02-18

Computer Aided Engineering

<application>

(CAE) The use of software to help with all phases of engineering design work. Like computer aided design, but also involving the conceptual and analytical design steps and extending into Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM).

Last updated: 1994-10-28

Computer-Aided Instruction

<application, education>

(CAI, or "- assisted", "- learning", CAL, Computer-Based Training CBT, "e-learning") The use of computers for education and training.

The programs and data used in CAI, known as "courseware", may be supplied on media such as CD-ROM or delivered via a network which also enables centralised logging of student progress. CAI may constitute the whole or part of a course, may be done individually or in groups ("Computer Supported Collaborative Learning", CSCL), with or without human guidance.

Last updated: 2011-11-25

Computer-Aided Learning

Computer-Aided Instruction

Computer Aided Software Engineering

<programming>

(CASE, or "- assisted -") A technique for using computers to help with one or more phases of the software life-cycle, including the systematic analysis, design, implementation and maintenance of software. Adopting the CASE approach to building and maintaining systems involves software tools and training for the developers who will use them.

Last updated: 1996-05-10

Computer-Aided Software Testing

<programming>

(CAST) Automated software testing in one or more phases of the software life-cycle.

Last updated: 1996-05-10

Computer Aided Test Engineering

<testing, electronics>

(CATE) CASE methods applied to electronics testing and linked to CAE.

Last updated: 2007-05-03

Computer Animation Movie Language

<language>

A programming language for generating animation.

["A Computer Animation Movie Language for Educational Motion Pictures", D.D. Weiner et al, Proc FJCC 33(2), AFIPS, Fall 1968].

Last updated: 2012-01-30

Computer-Assisted Learning

Computer-Aided Instruction

Computer-Assisted Software Engineering

Computer-Aided Software Engineering

Computer Associates International, Inc.

<company>

(CA) A US software development company, founded in 1976. CA have purchased many other software companies, including Spectrum Software, Inc., Cheyenne Software, Platinum Technology, Inc., ASK Corporation. They produce a number of popular software packages, including Unicenter TNG and Ingres.

They had an Initial Public Offering in 1981 valued at more than US$3.2M, had more than US$6B in revenue in 2000, and employ more than 17,000 people.

http://ca.com/.

(20002-04-20)

Computer-Based Training

Computer-Aided Instruction

computer bus

bus

Computer Compiler

<language>

1. A proposed language for compiler design.

[Sammet 1969, p. 695].

2. A discussion of various applications of computers to the design and production of computers.

ACM.

["A proposal for a computer compiler", Gernot Metze (University of Illinois), Sundaram Seshu (University of Illinois), AFIPS '66 (Spring) Proceedings of the 1966-04-26 - 28, Spring joint computer conference].

Last updated: 2007-02-13

computer confetti

<jargon>

(Or "chad") A common term for punched-card chad, which, however, does not make good confetti, as the pieces are stiff and have sharp corners that could injure the eyes.

GLS reports that he once attended a wedding at MIT during which he and a few other guests enthusiastically threw chad instead of rice. The groom later grumbled that he and his bride had spent most of the evening trying to get the stuff out of their hair.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 2001-06-22

Computer Conservation Society

<body>

(CCS) A British group that aims to promote the conservation and study of historic computers, past and future. The CCS is a co-operative venture between the British Computer Society, the Science Museum of London and the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. The CCS was constituted in September 1989 as a Specialist Group of the BCS.

A number of active projects and working groups focus on specific computer restorations, early computer technologies and software. Membership is open to anyone interested.

Home.

computer cookie

HTTP cookie

computer crime

<legal>

Breaking the criminal law by use of a computer.

Computer Design Language

<language>

An ALGOL-like language for computer design.

["An ALGOL-like Computer Design Language", Y. Chu, CACM 8(10) (Oct 1965)].

Last updated: 1994-11-17

computer dictionary

Free On-line Dictionary of Computing

Computer Emergency Response Team

<security, body>

(CERT) An organisation formed by DARPA in November 1988 in response to the Internet worm incident. The CERT charter is to work with the Internet community to help it responf to computer security events involving Internet hosts, to raise awareness of computer security issues and to conduct research targeted at improving the security of existing systems. CERT products and services include 24-hour technical assistance for responding to computer security incidents, product vulnerability assistance, technical documents and tutorials.

CERT Home.

E-mail: <[email protected]> (incident reports).

Telephone +1 (412) 268 7090 (24-hour hotline).

Last updated: 2012-05-18

computer ethics

<philosophy>

Ethics is the field of study that is concerned with questions of value, that is, judgments about what human behaviour is "good" or "bad". Ethical judgments are no different in the area of computing from those in any other area. Computers raise problems of privacy, ownership, theft, and power, to name but a few.

Computer ethics can be grounded in one of four basic world-views: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, or Existentialism. Idealists believe that reality is basically ideas and that ethics therefore involves conforming to ideals. Realists believe that reality is basically nature and that ethics therefore involves acting according to what is natural. Pragmatists believe that reality is not fixed but is in process and that ethics therefore is practical (that is, concerned with what will produce socially-desired results). Existentialists believe reality is self-defined and that ethics therefore is individual (that is, concerned only with one's own conscience). Idealism and Realism can be considered ABSOLUTIST worldviews because they are based on something fixed (that is, ideas or nature, respectively). Pragmatism and Existentialism can be considered RELATIVIST worldviews because they are based or something relational (that is, society or the individual, respectively).

Thus ethical judgments will vary, depending on the judge's world-view. Some examples:

First consider theft. Suppose a university's computer is used for sending an e-mail message to a friend or for conducting a full-blown private business (billing, payroll, inventory, etc.). The absolutist would say that both activities are unethical (while recognising a difference in the amount of wrong being done). A relativist might say that the latter activities were wrong because they tied up too much memory and slowed down the machine, but the e-mail message wasn't wrong because it had no significant effect on operations.

Next consider privacy. An instructor uses her account to acquire the cumulative grade point average of a student who is in a class which she instructs. She obtained the password for this restricted information from someone in the Records Office who erroneously thought that she was the student's advisor. The absolutist would probably say that the instructor acted wrongly, since the only person who is entitled to this information is the student and his or her advisor. The relativist would probably ask why the instructor wanted the information. If she replied that she wanted it to be sure that her grading of the student was consistent with the student's overall academic performance record, the relativist might agree that such use was acceptable.

Finally, consider power. At a particular university, if a professor wants a computer account, all she or he need do is request one but a student must obtain faculty sponsorship in order to receive an account. An absolutist (because of a proclivity for hierarchical thinking) might not have a problem with this divergence in procedure. A relativist, on the other hand, might question what makes the two situations essentially different (e.g. are faculty assumed to have more need for computers than students? Are students more likely to cause problems than faculty? Is this a hold-over from the days of "in loco parentis"?).

"Philosophical Bases of Computer Ethics", Professor Robert N. Barger.

Usenet newsgroups: bit.listserv.ethics-l, alt.soc.ethics.

Last updated: 1995-10-25

computer file

file

computer geek

<jargon>

(Or "turbo nerd", "turbo geek") One who eats (computer) bugs for a living. One who fulfils all the dreariest negative stereotypes about hackers: an asocial, malodourous, pasty-faced monomaniac with all the personality of a cheese grater. The term cannot be used by outsiders without implied insult to all hackers; compare black-on-black usage of "nigger". A computer geek may be either a fundamentally clueless individual or a proto-hacker in larval stage.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1997-06-26

computer-generated imagery

<graphics>

(CGI) Animatied graphics produced by computer and used in film or television.

Last updated: 1998-10-13

Computer Generation Incorporated

<company>

(CGI) A US software development company and systems integrator.

http://compgen.com/.

E-mail: Paul G. Smith <[email protected]>

Telephone: +1 (404) 705 2800

Address: Bldg. G, 4th Floor, 5775 Peachtree-Dunwoody Rd., Atlanta, GA 30342, USA.

Last updated: 1997-02-11

Computer Graphics Metafile

<graphics, file format>

(CGM) A standard file format for storage and communication of graphical information, widely used on personal computers and accepted by desktop publishing and technical illustration systems.

MIME type: image/cgm.

ANSI/ISO 8632-1987. Worked on by the ISO/IEC group JTC1/SC24.

CGM Open Consortium.

Computer Integrated Manufacturing

<application>

(CIM) Use of computers to control multiple aspects of a production process in a factory. A CIM system may control and/or monitor areas such as design, analysis, planning, purchasing, cost accounting, inventory control, distribution, materials handling and management.

Last updated: 2003-06-07

computer language

programming language

Computer Language for AeronauticS and Programming

<language>

(CLASP) A real-time language from NASA, focussing on fixed-point mathematics. CLASP is a near subset of SPL, with some ideas from PL/I.

["Flight Computer and Language Processor Study", Raymond J. Rubey, Management Information Services, Detroit, 1971].

Last updated: 1994-10-13

computer law

<legal>

Legal aspects of the production, sale and use of computers; including areas such as software law, copyright, patents, sale of goods, communication law and general media issues such as free speech.

Last updated: 2012-08-30

computer literacy

<education>

Basic skill in use of computers, from the perspective of such skill being a necessary societal skill.

The term was coined by Andrew Molnar, while director of the Office of Computing Activities at the National Science Foundation.

"We started computer literacy in '72 [...] We coined that phrase. It's sort of ironic. Nobody knows what computer literacy is. Nobody can define it. And the reason we selected [it] was because nobody could define it, and [...] it was a broad enough term that you could get all of these programs together under one roof" (cited in Aspray, W., (September 25, 1991) "Interview with Andrew Molnar," OH 234. Center for the History of Information Processing, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota).

The term, as a coinage, is similar to earlier coinages, such as "visual literacy", which Merriam-Webster dates to 1971, and the more recent "media literacy".

A more useful definition from http://www.computerliteracyusa.com/ is:

Computer literacy is an understanding of the concepts, terminology and operations that relate to general computer use. It is the essential knowledge needed to function independently with a computer. This functionality includes being able to solve and avoid problems, adapt to new situations, keep information organized and communicate effectively with other computer literate people.

Last updated: 2007-03-23

Computer Management Group of Australia

<body>

(CMGA) An Australian group that organises conferences, exhibitions, meetings and seminars about IT management for its corporate and individual members.

CMGA Home.

Last updated: 2012-10-25

Computer Mediated Communication

<messaging>

(CMC) Communication that takes place through, or is facilitated by, computers. Examples include e-mail, the web, real-time chat tools like IRC, Windows Live Messenger and video conferencing.

Last updated: 2012-10-25

computer nerd

computer geek

computer network

network

Computer Output on Microfilm

Enterprise Report Management

Computer Output to Laser Disc

Enterprise Report Management

Computer Output to Laser Disk

Enterprise Report Management

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility

<body>

(CPSR) A non-profit organisation whose mission is to provide the public and policymakers with realistic assessments of the power, promise and problems of Information Technology and the effects of computers on society.

CPSR was founded in the USA in 1981 but has spread to many other countries. CPSR is supported by its membership. CPSR sponsors conferences such as their Annual Meeting, Directions and Implications in Advanced Computing (DIAC), the Participatory Design Conference (PDC) and the Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP) conference.

CPSR Home.

Last updated: 2012-11-04

computer program

software

computer programming language

<spelling>

A somewhat redundant term for programming language.

Last updated: 2014-10-18

Computer + Science NETwork

<body>

(CSNET) The networking organisation which combined with BITNET to form CREN.

Last updated: 1994-11-30

computer security

security

computer sex

<jargon>

Two computers interfaced with each other.

Last updated: 1996-02-22

Computer Software Configuration Item

<jargon, software>

(CSCI) A configuration item consisting of software.

Last updated: 2012-11-07

Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning

<education>

(CSCL) Any form of Computer-Aided Instruction that emphasises group learning as opposed to working alone.

Last updated: 2011-11-25

Computer Supported Cooperative Work

<tool>

(CSCW) (Or "groupware") Software tools and technology to support groups of people working together on a project, often at different sites.

Computer Telephone Integration

<communications>

(CTI or "- Telephony -") Enabling computers to know about and control telephony functions such as making and receiving voice, fax and data calls, telephone directory services and caller identification.

CTI is used in call centres to link incoming calls to computer software functions such as database look-up of the caller's number, supported by services such as Automatic Number Identification and Dialled Number Identification Service.

Application software (middleware) can link personal computers and servers with telephones and/or a PBX. Telephony and software vendors such as AT&T, British Telecom, IBM, Novell, Microsoft and Intel have developed CTI services.

The main CTI functions are integrating messaging with databases, word processors etc.; controlling voice, fax, and e-mail messaging systems from a single application program; graphical call control - using a graphical user interface to perform functions such as making and receiving calls, forwarding and conferencing; call and data association - provision of information about the caller from databases or other applications automatically before the call is answered or transferred; speech synthesis and speech recognition; automatic logging of call related information for invoicing purposes or callback.

CTI can improve customer service, increase productivity, reduce costs and enhance workflow automation.

IBM were one of the first with workable CTI, now sold as "CallPath". Callware's Phonetastic is another middleware product.

CTI came out of the 1980s call centre boom, where it linked central servers and IVRs with PBXes to provide call transfer and screen popping. In the 1990s, efforts were made by several vendors, such as IBM, Novell TSAPI and Microsoft TAPI, to provide a version for desktop computers that would allow control of a desktop telephone and assist in hot desking.

Last updated: 2012-11-18

Computer Telephony

Computer Telephone Integration

Computer Telephony Integration

Computer Telephone Integration

computer virus

virus

computer vision

<application>

A branch of artificial intelligence and image processing concerned with computer processing of images from the real world. Computer vision typically requires a combination of low level image processing to enhance the image quality (e.g. remove noise, increase contrast), pattern recognition to recognise features such as lines, areas and colours and image understanding to translate these features into knowledge about the objects in the scene.

Usenet newsgroup: comp.ai.vision.

Last updated: 2012-12-25

compute server

<computer, parallel>

A kind of parallel processor where the parallel processors have no I/O except via a bus or other connection to a front-end processor which handles all I/O to disks, terminals and network.

In some antiquated IBM mainframes, a second CPU was provided that could not access I/O devices, known as the slave or attached processor, while the CPU having access to all devices was known as the master processor.

Last updated: 1995-03-19

Nearby terms:

computational molecular biology ♦ COMpute ParallEL ♦ Computer ♦ computer

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