Multi-BinProlog
<language>
A multi-threaded Linda-style parallel extension to BinProlog for Solaris 2.3.
Version: 3.30.Last updated: 1995-04-04
multiboot
dual bootmultiC
<language>
A data-parallel version of C from Wavetracer.
Last updated: 1995-04-04
MultiCal System
E-mail: Richard Snodgrass <[email protected]>. ftp://ftp.cs.arizona.edu/tsql/multical. [What is it?]Last updated: 1994-11-11
multicast addressing
Ethernet addressing scheme used to send packets to devices of a certain type or for broadcasting to all nodes. The least significant bit of the most significant byte of a multi-cast address is one.multicast backbone
(MBONE) A virtual network on top of the Internet which supports routing of IP multicast packets, intended for multimedia transmission. MBONE gives public access desktop video communications. The quality is poor with only 3-5 frames per second instead of the 30 frames per second of commercial television. Its advantage is that it avoids all telecommunications costs normally associated with teleconferencing. An interesting innovation is the use of MBONE for audio communications and an electronic "whiteboard" where the computer screen becomes a shared workspace where two physically remote parties can draw on and edit shared documents in real-time.Last updated: 1994-10-27
Multi-channel Memorandum Distribution Facility
(MMDF) An electronic mail system for Unix(?) which is much easier to configure than sendmail. The source is available.
MMDF is a versatile and configurable mail routing system (MTA) which also includes user interface programs (MUA). It can be set up to route mail to different domains and hosts over different channels (e.g. SMTP, UUCP). On UNIX systems, its configuration begins with the /usr/mmdf/mmdftailor file, which defines the machine and domain names, various other configuration tables (alias, domain, channel) and other configuration information. [Home?]Last updated: 1997-01-14
multician
/muhl-ti'shn/ A term coined at Honeywell, ca. 1970 for a competent user of Multics. Perhaps oddly, no one has ever promoted the analogous "Unician".
[Jargon File]Last updated: 1996-08-24
Multi-Color Graphics Array
(MCGA) One of IBM's less popular hardware video display standards for use in the IBM PS/2. MCGA can display 80*25 text in monochrome, 40*25 text in 256 colours or 320*200 pixel graphics in 256 colors. It is now obsolete.
Last updated: 2011-03-20
Multics
/muhl'tiks/ MULTiplexed Information and Computing Service. A time-sharing operating system co-designed by a consortium including MIT, GE and Bell Laboratories as a successor to MIT's CTSS. The system design was presented in a special session of the 1965 Fall Joint Computer Conference and was planned to be operational in two years. It was finally made available in 1969, and took several more years to achieve respectable performance and stability.
Multics was very innovative for its time - among other things, it was the first major OS to run on a symmetric multiprocessor; provided a hierarchical file system with access control on individual files; mapped files into a paged, segmented virtual memory; was written in a high-level language (PL/I); and provided dynamic inter-procedure linkage and memory (file) sharing as the default mode of operation. Multics was the only general-purpose system to be awarded a B2 security rating by the NSA. Bell Labs left the development effort in 1969. Honeywell commercialised Multics in 1972 after buying out GE's computer group, but it was never very successful: at its peak in the 1980s, there were between 75 and 100 Multics sites, each a multi-million dollar mainframe. One of the former Multics developers from Bell Labs was Ken Thompson, a circumstance which led directly to the birth of Unix. For this and other reasons, aspects of the Multics design remain a topic of occasional debate among hackers. See also brain-damaged and GCOS. MIT ended its development association with Multics in 1977. Honeywell sold its computer business to Bull in the mid 1980s, and development on Multics was stopped in 1988 when Bull scrapped a Boston proposal to port Multics to a platform derived from the DPS-6. A few Multics sites are still in use as late as 1996. The last Multics system running, the Canadian Department of National Defence Multics site in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, shut down on 2000-10-30 at 17:08 UTC. The Jargon file 3.0.0 claims that on some versions of Multics one was required to enter a password to log out but James J. Lippard <[email protected]>, who was a Multics developer in Phoenix, believes this to be an urban legend. He never heard of a version of Multics which required a password to logout. Tom Van Vleck <[email protected]> agrees. He suggests that some user may have implemented a 'terminal locking' program that required a password before one could type anything, including logout. http://multicians.org/. Usenet newsgroup: alt.os.multics. [Jargon File]Last updated: 2002-04-12
Multics Relational Data Store
<database>
(MRDS) The first commercial relational database, implemented as part of Multics by Jim Weeldreyer and Oris Friesen of Honeywell Phoenix in about 1977. MRDS included a report writer called LINUS written by Jim Falksen.
Last updated: 1997-01-29
Multiflow Computer
<company>
A now-defunct computer company, best known for its work in Very Long Instruction Word processors.
Address: New Haven, Conn. USA.Last updated: 1995-03-01
Multi-Garnet
A better constraint system for Garnet. Version 2.1 by Michael Sannella <[email protected]>. ftp://a.gp.cs.cmu.edu/usr/garnet/alpha/src/contrib/multi-garnet.Last updated: 1992-09-21
multihomed host
A host which has more than one connection to a network. The host may send and receive data over any of the links but will not route traffic for other nodes.multilayer perceptron
A network composed of more than one layer of neurons, with some or all of the outputs of each layer connected to one or more of the inputs of another layer. The first layer is called the input layer, the last one is the output layer, and in between there may be one or more hidden layers.MultiLisp
<language>
A parallel extension of Scheme with explicit concurrency. The form (future X) immediately returns a "future", and creates a task to evaluate X. When the evaluation is complete, the future is resolved to be the value.
["MultiLisp: A Language for Concurrent Symbolic Computation", R. Halstead, TOPLAS pp.501-538 (Oct 1985)]. [Did MultiLisp use PVM as its intermediate language?]Last updated: 1998-02-10
multimedia
Any collection of data including text, graphics, images, audio and video, or any system for processing or interacting with such data. Often also includes concepts from hypertext.
This term was once almost synonymous with CD-ROM in the personal computer world because the large amounts of data involved were best supplied on CD-ROM. DVDs and broadband Internet connections have now largely replaced CDs as the means of delivery. A "multimedia PC" typically includes software for playing DVD video, 5.1 audio hardware and can display video on a television. It may also include a television receiver and software to record broadcast television to disk and play it back. The Multimedia Personal Computer (MPC) standard was an attempt to improve compatibility between such systems. Usenet newsgroup: comp.multimedia.Last updated: 1994-12-02
Multimedia and Hypermedia information coding Expert Group
(MHEG) is an ISO standard encoding for multimedia and hypermedia information, designed to facilitate use and interchange of such information in varied domains such as games, electronic publishing and medical applications.
MHEG Home.Last updated: 2002-12-30
MultiMedia Compact Disc
<storage>
(MMCD) A CD-ROM standard for storing 4.7 GB of data including video. MMCD is being developed by a large numer of computer manufacturers and is expected to be shipped in late 1996 or early 1997. Initially it will be aimed at the consumer market, then perhaps in CD-ROM format for computers, and maybe later on erasble CD.
Last updated: 1995-11-23
MultiMedia Extension
Matrix Math eXtensionsMultimedia Integrated Conferencing for European Researchers
(MICE) A project which aims to create a pilot (virtual) network between European researchers, and also to connect them to sites in the US. The MICE system currently allows multimedia conferencing (audio, video and shared workspace) between conference rooms and workstation-based facilities, hardware and software, packet-switched networks and ISDN, using both unicast (point-to-point) and multicast (multi-point) protocols.
http://www-mice.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mice.Last updated: 1997-12-18
Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions
Called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions in the RFC. [Is this an old name for it?]Multimedia Messaging Services
(MMS) A feature of some mobile telephones that allows them to send messages including text, sound, images and video.
Last updated: 2007-06-25
Multimedia PC
multimediaMultimedia Personal Computer
(MPC) A specification published by the Multimedia PC Marketing Council in 1990 to encourage the adoption of a standard multimedia computing platform. In May 1993, the MPC Marketing Council published a new specification called MPC Level 2 Specification as an enhanced multimedia computer standard. The original MPC specification, now also known as the MPC Level 1 Specification, continues in full effect.
The appearance of the MPC or MPC2 certification mark on a computer system or upgrade kit indicates that the hardware meets the corresponding (Level 1 or Level 2) MPC Marketing Council specification. Software bearing the Multimedia PC mark has been designed to work on Multimedia PC licensed hardware. By establishing a standard platform, certifying hardware compliance and providing inter-operability between software and hardware for the consumer, the MPC Marketing Council is encouraging widespread use of multimedia applications and hardware.Last updated: 1997-01-19
multimedia system
multimediamulti-part key
compound keyMulti-Pascal
An extension of Pascal-S with multiprocessing features. Used in "The Art of Parallel Programming", Bruce P. Lester, P-H 1993.multiple access
multiplexingMultiple Access with Colision Avoidance
(MACA) A protocol used as a basis for the IEEE 802.11 wireless LAN standards.
[Details?]Last updated: 2004-01-14
multiple boot
dual bootMultiple Document Interface
(MDI) The ability of an application program to show windows giving views of more than one document at a time.
The opposite is Single Document Interface (SDI).Last updated: 1999-03-30
multiple inheritance
In object-oriented programming, the possibility that a class may have more than one direct superclass in the class hierarchy.
The opposite is single inheritance.Last updated: 2014-09-06
Multiple Instruction Multiple Data
Multiple Instruction/Multiple DataMultiple Instruction/Multiple Data
(MIMD) The classification under Flynn's taxonomy of a parallel processor where many functional units perform different operations on different data. Examples would be a network of workstations or transputers. Compare SIMD.Last updated: 1994-11-08
Multiple Master
(Or "Multiple Master Font") A font that is a mixture of two or more other fonts.
A Multiple Master font is a single font containing from two to sixteen master designs (the current implementation limit). A weight factor specifies the contribution of each master design for the creation of a multiple master font instance. A Multiple Master instance is a single interpolation of a multiple master font as created by a user or application. ATM Glossary. Useable fonts.Last updated: 1998-05-31
multiple perspective software development
A decentralised approach to software development which, instead of adopting a monolithic representation and centralised control, models development in terms of collaboration between autonomous partial systems.
Software development usually involves people with different goals, expertise, and backgrounds, and the use of a wide range of formalisms, tools, and environments. As information is exchanged between participants, dependencies may be established between information created by them. Multiple perspective software development may be mapped into the transaction model which can be used to prevent uncoordinated access to interdependent information causing inconsistency. [Fox Wai-Leung Poon]Last updated: 1995-12-14
multiple value
<database>
(MU) A one-to-many relationship between entries in a database, for example a person may have an address field which spanned multiple records (with different indexes). Multiple values are a non-relational technique.
MUs have recently been made available in DB2, despite the product being so heavily influenced by Codd's Laws of relational databases. [Confirm, clarify?]Last updated: 1995-10-30
Multiple Virtual Storage
(MVS) Release 2 of OS/VS2, called MVS because it had multiple 16 MB virtual address spaces, in contrast to SVS. MVS ran on the IBM 390 series mainframes. It became MVS/SP, then MVS/XA (with 31-bit addressing) and then MVS/ESA.
MVS/Open Edition (MVS/OE), aimed at the growing open systems market, added TCP/IP and Unix support in an MVS address space, allowing users to run IBM, CICS-type applications, batch applications and Unix. MVS/ESA was repackaged as OS/390 as a marketing exercise but it's basically the same thing. Version: 5.1. [Features? Dates?]Last updated: 1999-01-20
multiplexer
multiplexormultiplexing
1. (Or "multiple access") Combining several signals for transmission on some shared medium (e.g. a telephone wire). The signals are combined at the transmitter by a multiplexor (a "mux") and split up at the receiver by a demultiplexor. The communications channel may be shared between the independent signals in one of several different ways: time division multiplexing, frequency division multiplexing, or code division multiplexing.
If the inputs take turns to use the output channel (time division multiplexing) then the output bandwidth need be no greater than the maximum bandwidth of any input. If many inputs may be active simultaneously then the output bandwidth must be at least as great as the total bandwidth of all simultaneously active inputs. In this case the multiplexor is also known as a concentrator.Last updated: 1995-03-02
<storage>
2. Writing multiple logical copies of data files. Placing the copies on totally separate paths to mirrored devices greatly reduces the probability of all copies being corrupt. Multiplexing differs from mirroring in that mirroring takes one data file and copies it to many devices, thus making it possible to copy a corrupt file many times. Multiplexing writes the data files to many places simultaneously; there is no "original" data file.
Last updated: 2001-05-10
multiplexor
multiplexingMultiplexor Channel
(MPX) mainframe terminology for a slow peripheral device connection, e.g. for a printer, operator console, or card reader.Last updated: 1997-06-30
multiplex printer
<hardware>
A duplex circuit using time-division multiplexing to provide multiple duplex channels over one wire.
For example, channels A, B, C, and D could be used for simultaneous transmission in both directions.Last updated: 2000-04-02
Multipop-68
An early time-sharing operating system developed in Edinburgh by Robin Popplestone and others. It was inspired by MIT' Project MAC, via a "MiniMac" project which was aborted when it became obvious that Elliot Brothers Ltd. could not supply the necessary disk storage. Multipop was highly efficient in its use of machine resources to support symbolic programming, and effective - e.g. in supporting the development of the Boyer-Moore theorem prover and of Burstall and Darlington's transformation work.
It was not good at supporting the user programs which were then the standard fare of computing, e.g. matrix inversion. This arose from the fact that while the POP-2 compiler generated good code for function call (which is a lot of what layered systems like operating systems do) it did not generate efficient code for arithmetic or store access, because there was no way to police the generation of illegal objects statically. (Hindley-Milner type checking did not exist). Indeed, since many OS features like file-access were performed by function-call (of a closure) rather than an OS call requiring a context switch, POP-2 actually gained performance. Multipop68 was efficient primarily because the one language, POP-2 served all purposes: it was the command language for the operating system as well as being the only available programming language. Thus there was no need to swap in compilers etc. All store management was accomplished uniformly by the garbage collector, as opposed to having store management for the OS and store management for each application. There was a substantial amount of assembly language in Multipop68. This was primarily for interrupt handling, and it is difficult to handle this without a real-time garbage-collector. [Edited from a posting by Robin Popplestone].Last updated: 1995-03-15
multiprocessing
parallel processingmultiprocessor
parallel processingmultiprogramming
multitaskingMultiprotocol Label Switching
(MPLS) A packet switching protocol developed by the IETF. Initially developed to improve switching speed, other benefits are now seen as being more important.
MPLS adds a 32-bit label to each packet to improve network efficiency and to enable routers to direct packets along predefined routes in accordance with the required quality of service. The label is added when the packet enters the MPLS network, and is based on an analysis of the packet header. The label contains information on the route along which the packet may travel, and the forwarding equivalence class (FEC) of the packet. Packets with the same FEC are routed through the network in the same way. Routers make forwarding decisions based purely on the contents of the label. This simplifies the work done by the router, leading to an increase in speed. At each router, the label is replaced with a new label, which tells the next router how to forward the packet. The label is removed when the packet leaves the MPLS network. Modern ASIC-based routers can look up routes fast enough to make the speed increase less important. However, MPLS still has some benefits. The use of FECs allows QoS levels to be guaranteed, and MPLS allows IP tunnels to be created through a network, so that VPNs can be implemented without encryption. MPLS Resource Center. [RFC 3031]Last updated: 2002-04-14
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
(MIME) A standard for multi-part, multimedia electronic mail messages and web hypertext documents on the Internet. MIME provides the ability to transfer non-textual data, such as graphics, audio and fax. It is defined in RFC 2045, RFC 2046, RFC 2047, RFC 2048, RFC 2049, and BCP0013. It uses mimencode to encode binary data into base 64 using a subset of ASCII.
FAQ.Last updated: 1995-04-04
multiscan
<hardware>
A monitor that can synchronise to a variety of horizontal scan rates and refresh rates, allowing it to display images at different resolutions.
Last updated: 1996-02-09
MultiScheme
An implementation of Multilisp built on MIT's C-Scheme, for the BBN Butterfly. ["MultiScheme: A Paralled Processing System Based on MIT Scheme", J. Miller, TR-402, MIT LCS, Sept 1987].Last updated: 1995-04-04
Multistation Access Unit
Media Access Unitmultisync
<hardware>
An NEC trademark term for multiscan. As NEC was the first to manufacture multiscan monitors the term is often used interchangeably with multiscan.
Last updated: 1996-02-09
Multisystem eXtention Interface Bus
<hardware>
(MXIbus) A high performance communication link that interconnects devices using round, flexible cable. MXIbus is used between a GPIB card and a VXI cage.
Last updated: 1999-10-12
multitasking
(Or "multi-tasking", "multiprogramming", "concurrent processing", "concurrency", "process scheduling") A technique used in an operating system for sharing a single processor between several independent jobs. The first multitasking operating systems were designed in the early 1960s.
Under "cooperative multitasking" the running task decides when to give up the CPU and under "pre-emptive multitasking" (probably more common) a system process called the "scheduler" suspends the currently running task after it has run for a fixed period known as a "time-slice". In both cases the scheduler is responsible for selecting the next task to run and (re)starting it. The running task may relinquish control voluntarily even in a pre-emptive system if it is waiting for some external event. In either system a task may be suspended prematurely if a hardware interrupt occurs, especially if a higher priority task was waiting for this event and has therefore become runnable. The scheduling algorithm used by the scheduler determines which task will run next. Some common examples are round-robin scheduling, priority scheduling, shortest job first and guaranteed scheduling. Multitasking introduces overheads because the processor spends some time in choosing the next job to run and in saving and restoring tasks' state, but it reduces the worst-case time from job submission to completion compared with a simple batch system where each job must finish before the next one starts. Multitasking also means that while one task is waiting for some external event, the CPU to do useful work on other tasks. A multitasking operating system should provide some degree of protection of one task from another to prevent tasks from interacting in unexpected ways such as accidentally modifying the contents of each other's memory areas. The jobs in a multitasking system may belong to one or many users. This is distinct from parallel processing where one user runs several tasks on several processors. Time-sharing is almost synonymous but implies that there is more than one user. Multithreading is a kind of multitasking with low overheads and no protection of tasks from each other, all threads share the same memory.Last updated: 1998-04-24
Multi-tasking Program for Microcomputers
(MP/M) An operating system, written by Gary Kildal, very similar to CP/M, also written by Kildal. MP/M allowed virtual terminals, each of which could execute an application while another terminal was called to the screen with a special key combination.
See also Control Program for Microcomputers.Last updated: 1996-09-08
multithreaded
multithreadingmultithreading
<parallel>
Sharing a single CPU between multiple tasks (or "threads") in a way designed to minimise the time required to switch threads. This is accomplished by sharing as much as possible of the program execution environment between the different threads so that very little state needs to be saved and restored when changing thread.
Multithreading differs from multitasking in that threads share more of their environment with each other than do tasks under multitasking. Threads may be distinguished only by the value of their program counters and stack pointers while sharing a single address space and set of global variables. There is thus very little protection of one thread from another, in contrast to multitasking. Multithreading can thus be used for very fine-grain multitasking, at the level of a few instructions, and so can hide latency by keeping the processor busy after one thread issues a long-latency instruction on which subsequent instructions in that thread depend. A light-weight process is somewhere between a thread and a full process. TL0 is an example of a threaded machine language. Dataflow computation (E.g. Id and SISAL) is an extreme form of multithreading.Last updated: 1997-12-23
MultiTOS
(MTOS) A new version of TOS. MultiTOS's main advantage was support for pre-emptive multitasking and memory protection. It also supported the latest (and far superior) versions of GEM. MultiTOS was supplied with the Falcon030 range of computers from Atari.
It is a little known fact that the MultiTOS kernel was based heavily on the freeware OS MinT which was developed long before Atari got MultiTOS working.Last updated: 1997-01-10
multi-user
A term describing an operating system or application program that can be used by several people concurrently; opposite of single-user. Unix is an example of a multi-user operating system, whereas most (but not all) versions of Microsoft Windows are intended to support only one user at a time.
A multi-user system, by definition, supports concurrent processing of multiple tasks (once known as "time-sharing") or true parallel processing if it has multiple CPUs. While batch processing systems often ran jobs for serveral users concurrently, the term "multi-user" typically implies interactive access. Before Ethernet networks were commonplace, multi-user systems were accessed from a terminal (e.g. a vt100) connected via a serial line (typically RS-232). This arrangement was eventually superseded by networked personal computers, perhaps sharing files on a file server. With the wide-spread availability of Internet connections, the idea of sharing centralised resources is becoming trendy again with cloud computing and managed applications, though this time it is the overhead of administering the system that is being shared rather than the cost of the hardware. In gaming, both on PCs and games consoles, the equivalent term is multi-player, though the first multi-player games (e.g. ADVENT) were on multi-user computers.Last updated: 2009-11-23
Multi-User Dimension
<games>
(MUD) (Or Multi-User Domain, originally "Multi-User Dungeon") A class of multi-player interactive game, accessible via the Internet or a modem. A MUD is like a real-time chat forum with structure; it has multiple "locations" like an adventure game and may include combat, traps, puzzles, magic and a simple economic system. A MUD where characters can build more structure onto the database that represents the existing world is sometimes known as a "MUSH". Most MUDs allow you to log in as a guest to look around before you create your own character.
Historically, MUDs (and their more recent progeny with names of MU- form) derive from a hack by Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw on the University of Essex's DEC-10 in 1979. It was a game similar to the classic Colossal Cave adventure, except that it allowed multiple people to play at the same time and interact with each other. Descendants of that game still exist today and are sometimes generically called BartleMUDs. There is a widespread myth that the name MUD was trademarked to the commercial MUD run by Bartle on British Telecom (the motto: "You haven't *lived* 'til you've *died* on MUD!"); however, this is false - Richard Bartle explicitly placed "MUD" in the PD in 1985. BT was upset at this, as they had already printed trademark claims on some maps and posters, which were released and created the myth. Students on the European academic networks quickly improved on the MUD concept, spawning several new MUDs (VAXMUD, AberMUD, LPMUD). Many of these had associated bulletin-board systems for social interaction. Because these had an image as "research" they often survived administrative hostility to BBSs in general. This, together with the fact that Usenet feeds have been spotty and difficult to get in the UK, made the MUDs major foci of hackish social interaction there. AberMUD and other variants crossed the Atlantic around 1988 and quickly gained popularity in the US; they became nuclei for large hacker communities with only loose ties to traditional hackerdom (some observers see parallels with the growth of Usenet in the early 1980s). The second wave of MUDs (TinyMUD and variants) tended to emphasise social interaction, puzzles, and cooperative world-building as opposed to combat and competition. In 1991, over 50% of MUD sites are of a third major variety, LPMUD, which synthesises the combat/puzzle aspects of AberMUD and older systems with the extensibility of TinyMud. The trend toward greater programmability and flexibility will doubtless continue. The state of the art in MUD design is still moving very rapidly, with new simulation designs appearing (seemingly) every month. There is now a move afoot to deprecate the term MUD itself, as newer designs exhibit an exploding variety of names corresponding to the different simulation styles being explored. UMN MUD Gopher page. U Pennsylvania MUD Web page. See also bonk/oif, FOD, link-dead, mudhead, MOO, MUCK, MUG, MUSE, chat. Usenet newsgroups: rec.games.mud.announce, rec.games.mud.admin, rec.games.mud.diku, rec.games.mud.lp, rec.games.mud.misc, rec.games.mud.tiny.Last updated: 1994-08-10
Multi-User Dungeon
Multi-User DimensionMulti-User Shared Hallucination
(MUSH) A user-extendable MUD. A MUSH provides commands which the players can use to construct new rooms or make objects and puzzles for other players to explore.
http://cis.upenn.edu/~lwl/muds.html.Last updated: 1995-03-16
Multi-Version Concurrency Control
<database>
(MVCC) An advanced technique for improving multi-user database performance.
The main difference between multiversion and lock models is that in MVCC locks acquired for querying (reading) data don't conflict with locks acquired for writing data and so reading never blocks writing and writing never blocks reading. This technique is used in the free software database PostgreSQL.Last updated: 1999-06-18
multi-way branch
switch statementNearby terms:
Mule ♦ Mul-T ♦ Multi-BinProlog ♦ multiboot ♦ multiC ♦ MultiCal System
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