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Term Description 10/100 BaseT 10/100BaseT is the Ethernet standard for baseband LANs using twisted-pair cable carrying 10/100 Mbps. 100BaseT is also called Fast Ethernet. a2b a2b music, an online music delivery company, is owned by AT&T. The service delivers music coded in a proprietary format based on MPEG-2 AAC. The format includes compression and security (copyright protection) technology. AAC MPEG Advanced Audio Coding AAL ATM Adaptation Layer. It has been adopted by the ATM Forum for a class of service called High Speed Data Transfer. AAL is a set of standard protocols which translate user traffic into a size and format that can be contained in the payload of an ATM cell (53 bytes). User traffic is returned to its original form at the destination. This process is called segmentation and reassembly (SAR). All AAL functions occur at the ATM end-station rather than at the switch. Abbreviated Dialing Preprogramming of a caller's phone system or long distance company's switch to recognize a 2- to 4-digit number as an abbreviation for a frequently dialed phone number, and automatically dial the whole number. Synonym: Speed Dialing. Access Charge Money collected by local phone companies for use of their circuits to originate and terminate long distance calls.   Access Line A telephone circuit which connects a customer location to a network switching center.   Access Network Portion of PSTN that connects access nodes to subscribers. Predominantly twisted pair copper wiring. Access Node Points on edge of Access Network that concentrate individual access lines into a smaller number of feeder lines.   Access point (for wireless LANs) A wireless LAN device that transports data between a wireless network and a wired network (infrastructure). It is a transceiver that connects the wired LAN with wireless clients. It may also in many cases connect to a digital (DSL or cable) modem and enables high-speed (broadband) Internet access throughout the home network.   Access Router Interfaces a LAN to a WAN.   Access Time The time a program or device takes to locate a data/information and make it available to the computer for processing. It is the time it takes to get data into and out of a memory device. Accumulator A logic circuit that does successive arithmetic functions like addition or subtraction.   ACL (Bluetooth) Asynchronous ConnectionLess   Active Slave State (Bluetooth) Connected and actively monitoring/participating on a Piconet   Adaptation Protocol (Bluetooth) Adaptation Protocol is a series of software modules that provide backward compatibility and new APIs to the host application. Add-on devices Devices that are traditionally added to the base PC system to increase functionality, such as audio, video, networking, graphics, etc. Add-on devices fall into two categories: devices built onto the system board and devices on expansion cards added to the system through a system board connector such as PCI. Address A number that represents a location in the memory. Usually shown in a hexadecimal value for memory or storage. Adobe PostScript A page description language (PDL) developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated, and used on many high-end printers.   Adobe Type Manager (ATM); a font management and rasterization program which converts Adobe Type 1 and Type 3 fonts to bitmaps for printing or display on a computer screen. ATM is available as a program to run in the Windows environment to allow the display of PostScript fonts by Windows programs, and is built-in to some other graphical user interfaces.   ADPCM Adaptive Differential Pulse Code Modulation. It is a PCM encoding technique by which analog voice samples are encoded into high-quality digital signals. By adapting the quantizing range to the difference between the two samples, it achieves the same voice quality.   ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. DSL is a method for high-speed digital data transmission over regular phone lines. While the wires coming into the subscriber's premises are the same (copper-pair) wires used for regular phone service, an ADSL circuit is much faster than a regular phone connection. This technology supports up to 8 Mbps downstream channel and a narrow upstream band up to 1.5 Mbps, to transmit POTS and data to and from customer location. This powerful technology allows a user to enjoy video-on-demand on their TV, use the Internet for Web, e-mail access on multiple PCs and carry on a telephone conversation on a pair of copper wires installed 50 years ago by using ADSL technology. ADSL is a popular implementation of DSL. The "asymmetric" in ADSL means that it transmits data at faster speeds downstream (from the Internet to the computer) than upstream (from the computer to the Internet). Comes in several forms: G.Lite ADSL & G.dmt.   AFE Analog Front End Agent An Agent is any initiator/target on the PCI bus.   Aggregate Throughput A measure of the theoretical maximum amount of data a network (communications system) can carry within a time frame. It is the total summation of all data rates of all simultaneous transmissions possible at one instance on the system. For example if a system could support 5 simultaneous transmissions of 2 Mbit/sec.   AGP Acronym for Accelerated Graphics Port. An industry I/O standard which provides high-speed transfer of 3D-graphics data between the graphics controller and the system memory.   Aliasing Incorrect sampled data obtained by either not sampling fast enough or not bandlimiting the signal prior to sampling. Can result in artifacts inserted into the image.   Alliance Series Xilinx's Place And Route (PAR) tool that works with other 3rd party EDA tools such as Synopsys, Synplicity, Cadence, Mentor or Exemplar.   AllianceCore Intellectual Property (IP) developed by 3rd party developers. Xilinx works closely with these developers to certify and ensure they meet quality and reusability standards.   ALLSTAR Acronym for ALLiance STARter package. A 3rd party evaluation software package included within the Foundation ISE software. (see Sales Partner Web or software marketing for latest information)   ALU Acronym for Arithmetic Logic Unit. A logic function that performs arithmetic computations, such as addition, multiplication, and comparison operations. The ALU is one component of the CPU (central processing unit).   AM Amplitude Modulation. A technique in which the amplitude (voltage level) of a carrier is varied in order to transmit digital or analog information.   AMA (Bluetooth) Active Member Address   AMR Automated Meter Reading   Analog A method of signal representation by an infinitely smooth universe of numeric values (continuous waveforms). The world, as we have experienced it, is an analog world. Any kind of information, e.g. Sound Speech, Pictures, is transmitted in continuous wave forms which the human senses are able to receive and interpret. Measurements that are characterized as analog include readings of voltage and current.   Analog Transmission Signal transmission over wires or wireless medium in which information is conveyed through the variation of some combination of signal amplitude, frequency and phase.   ANSI American National Standards Institute. Voluntary organization composed of corporate, government, and other members that coordinates standards-related activities, approves U.S. national standards, and develops positions for the United States in international standards organizations. ANSI also accredits and implements standards developed by other organizations for among other things, computer, communications and networking. ANSI is a member of the IEC and the ISO.   Antenna The part of a radio communications system intended to radiate and/or collect radio frequency (RF) energy.   API Application Programming Interface. It is a software interface provided between a specialized communications program and an end-user application. It is a set of building blocks - routines, protocols and tools for building software applications and enable application developers to take advantage of various wireless networks.   Application Services for applications   Application Layer The layer of the OSI model concerned with application programs such as electronic mail, database managers, and file server software. The Application Layer is where the user applications software lies. The Application Layer serves as the window for the application process to access the networking environment. This layer represents the services that directly support users and application tasks. The Application Layer handles issues such as: File access and transfer, Virtual terminal emulation, Inter process communication, Electronic Mail, and Network Management.   Architecture The term architecture can refer to either hardware or software, or to a combination of hardware and software. The architecture of a system always defines its broad outlines, and may define precise mechanisms as well. In general terms it describes the design and look of a electronic component; either in hardware or software.   ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest   Artifact Any strange or undesired feature of a rendered image.   ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit. A semi custom integrated circuit made to do a specific function or application.   Assembly Language A programming language that is once removed from a computer's machine language. Machine languages consist entirely of numbers and are almost impossible for humans to read and write. Assembly languages have the same structure and set of commands as machine languages, but they enable a programmer to use names instead of numbers.   Association Service enables establishment of wireless links between wireless clients & APs in Infrastructure Networks.   ASSP Application-Specific Standard Product. Type of high-integration chip or chipset ASIC that is designed for a common yet specific application.   Asynchronous A mode of data transmission in which the time occurrence of the bits within each character (or block of characters) relates to a fixed time frame, but the start of each character (or block of characters) is not related to this fixed time frame. Hence the logic changes independent of the clock, and the output can change at any time an input changes.   Asynchronous data transfer Asynchronous data transfer puts the emphasis on guaranteed delivery of data, with less emphasis on guaranteed timing. Asynchronous transfers are targeted to a specific node with an explicit address. They are not guaranteed a specific amount of bandwidth on the bus. They are guaranteed a fair shot at gaining access to the bus when asynchronous transfers are permitted. Asynchronous transfers are acknowledged and responded to . This allows error-checking and retransmission mechanisms to take place.   Asynchronous Logic Logic that changes independently of clock.   ATM Automatic Teller Machine   ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode. A high-speed/high bandwidth, low-delay, connection-oriented, packet-like switching and multiplexing technique requiring -byte fixed sized cells. This technology uses 53-byte cells (5-byte header, 48-byte payload) to transmit different types of simultaneous data, voice and video traffic.   ATM Networks Asynchronous Transfer Mode Networks   ATSC Advanced Television System Committee   Attenuation The loss or weakening in signal amplitude or signal power through a transmission line, transmission component, or signal path over distance refers to attenuation. This is typically measured in decibels (dB). As an example, phonelines are suitable for home networking because there's adequate signal strength between jacks in different rooms or on different floors.   ATU-C (ATU-R) ADSL Transmission Unit, Central (or Remote). Device directly connected to ADSL line. The Central unit is typically housed with many others at the CO. The Remote unit is at the customer, and can be a modem, NIC, or router. ATU-C DSL Termination at the CO (central office); also known as "DSLAM."   ATU-R DSL Termination at the user side; also known as "DSL modem."   ATV Advanced television (high-definition television).   Authentication Process of proving client identity Automatic Power Down Mode The device can be brought into this mode by selectively controlling the features of a design which consume large amounts of power. The reduction in power is obtained without clearing the registers. As a result, the register data is retained. The inputs and outputs are not disabled and as a result, the device remains active during this mode. AV Audio video   A  B  C  D E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z