aSwing — a graphics library for Java. Swing was the code-name of the project that developed the new graphic components (the successor of AWT). It was named after swing, a style of dance band jazz that was popularized in the 1930s and unexpectedly revived in the 1990s. Although an unofficial name for the components, it gained popular acceptance with the use of the word in the package names for the Swing API, which begin with javax.swing
Tomcat — a web server from the Jakarta Project. Tomcat was the code-name for the JSDK 2. Tomcat started off as a servlet specification implementation by James Duncan Davidson who was a software architect at Sun. Davidson had initially hoped that the project would be made open-source, and since most open-source projects had O’Reilly books on them with an animal on the cover, he wanted to name the project after an animal
troff — a document processing system for Unix. Troff stands for “typesetter roff”, although many people have speculated that it actually means “Times roff” because of the use of the Times font family in troff by default. Troff has its origins from roff, an earlier formatting program, whose name is a contraction of “run off”.
Trojan horse — a malicious program that is disguised as legitimate software. The term is derived from the classical myth of the Trojan Horse. Analogously, a Trojan horse appears innocuous, but in fact is a vehicle for bypassing security.
Tux — The penguin now commonly regarded as the most famous logo of the Linux Kernel and its deviants. The logo was originally created by Larry Ewing in 1996 as an entry in a Linux Logo competition. The creator of Linux, Linus Torvalds was bitten by a little penguin during a visit to Canberra Zoo in 1993, which made the penguin his “favourite” animal. The word Tux apparently comes from “(T)orvalds (U)ni(X)”.
ux — a Debian-based Linux distribution sponsored by Canonical Ltd.
Unix — an operating system. When Bell Labs pulled out of the MULTICS (MULTiplexed Information and Computing System) project, which was originally a joint Bell Labs/GE/MIT project, Ken Thompson of Bell Labs, soon joined by Dennis Ritchie, wrote a simpler version of the operating system for a spare DEC minicomputer, allegedly found in a corridor.
cache A small, fast local memory that transparently buffers access to a larger but slower or more distant/higher latency memory or storage device, organised into cache lines
cache line A small block of memory within a cache; the granularity of allocation,refills,eviction; typically 32-128 bytes in size
cache coherency The process of keeping data in multiple caches synchronised in a multi-processor shared memory system, also required when DMA modifies the underlying memory
cache eviction freeing up data from within a cache to make room for new cache entries to be allocated; controlled by a cache replacement policy. Caused by a cache miss whilst a cache is already full.
cache hit finding data in a local cache, preventing the need to search for that resource in a more distant location (or to repeat a calculation).
cache miss Not finding data in a local cache, requiring use of the cache policy to allocate and fill this data, and possibly performing evicting other data to make room.
cache thrashing A pathological situation where access in a cache cause cyclical cache misses by evicting data that is needed in the near future.
cache ways The number of potential cache lines in an associative cache that a specific physical addresses can be mapped to; higher values reduce potential collisions in allocation
CD-R Compact Disc-Recordable; a variation of the optical compact disc which may be written to once.
COMA Cache-only memory architecture, a multiprocessor memory architecture where an address space is dynamically shifted between processor nodes based on demand.
Compact Disc-ReWritable a variation of the optical compact disc which may be written to many times.
CD-ROM (Compact Disc Read-Only Memory) – a prepressed optical compact disc which contains data or music playback.
chip (or integrated circuit) – a miniaturised electronic circuit that has been manufactured in the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material.
control store the memory that stores the microcode of a CPU
core the portion of a CPU which actually performs arithemetic and logical operations. A CPU may have multiple cores (e.g. “a quad-core processor”).
core memory in modern usage, a synonym for main memory, dating back from the pre-semiconductor-chip times when the dominant main memory technology was magnetic core memory
CPU Central processing unit – the portion of a computer system that executes the instructions of a computer program.
Conventional PCI Conventional Peripheral Component Inter connect- a computer bus for attaching hard ware devices in a computer.
Computer case Computer chassis, cabinet, box, tower, enclosure, housing, system unit or simply case – the enclosure that contains most of the components of a computer.
Computer form factor The name used to denote the dimensions, power supply type, location of mounting holes, number of ports on the back panel, etc.
Chipset (or chip set) – a group of integrated circuits, or chips, that are designed to work together. They are usually marketed as a single product.
Channel I/O a generic term that refers to a high-performance input/output (I/O) architecture that is implemented in various forms on a number of computer architectures, especially on mainframe computers..
data cache D-cache a cache in a CPU or GPU servicing data load and store requests, mirroring main memory (or VRAM for a GPU)
Device memory local memory associated with a hardware device such as an graphics processing unit or OpenCL compute device, distinct from main memory.
DASD (Direct Access Storage Device) A mainframe terminology introduced by IBM denoting secondary storage with random access, typically (arrays of) hard disk drives.
DIMM (dual in-line memory module);A series of dynamic random-access memory integrated circuits. These modules are mounted on a printed circuit board and designed for use in personal computers, workstations and servers.
Display Port Display Port is a digital display interface developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). The interface is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device such as a computer monitor, though it can also be used to transmit audio, USB, and other forms of data
Direct mapped cache a cache where each physical address may only be mapped to one cache line, indexed using the low bits of the address. Simple but highly prone to allocation conflicts
DMA Direct memory access – the ability of a hardware device such as a disk drive or network interface to access main memory without intervention from the CPU, provided by one or more DMA channels in a system.
DVD (Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) – an optical compact disc – of the same dimensions as compact discs (CDs), but store more than six times as much data
DVI Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source to a display device, such as a computer monitor
DRAM (Dynamic random-access memory) – a type of random-access memory that stores each bit of data in a separate capacitor within an integrated circuit and which must be periodically refreshed to retain the stored data
dual issue refers to a superscalar pipeline capable of executing 2 instructions simultaneously.
Firewall A hardware device or software to protect a computer from viruses, malware, trojans etc
firmware fixed programs and data that internally control various electronic devices.
floppy disk a data storage medium that is composed of a disk of thin, flexible (“floppy”) magnetic storage medium encased in a square or rectangular plastic shell.
floppy disk drive a device for reading floppy disks
Flash Memory a type of non volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed.
hard drive a non-volatile storage device that stores data on rapidly rotating rigid (i.e. hard) platters with magnetic surfaces
hardware the physical components of a computer
HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) – a compact interface for transferring encrypted uncompressed digital audio and video data to a device such as a computer monitor, video projector or digital television.
Harvard architecture A memory architecture where program machine code and data are held in separate memories, more commonly seen in microcontrollers and digital signal processors.
input device any peripheral equipment used to provide data and control signals to an information processing system.
input/output the communication between an information processing system (such as a computer), and the outside world.
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