ABR available bit rate
AC alternating current
ACPI Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
A/D analog to digital
ADA Americans with Disabilities Act
ADC analog-to-digital converter
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line
AEC acoustic echo cancellation
AGP Accelerated Graphics Port
ANSI American National Standards Institute
API application programming interface
APIC Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
APM Advanced Power Management
APS analog protection system
ARC advanced RISC computing
ASCII American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ATA AT Attachment
ATAPI ATA Packet Interface
ATM Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATSC Advanced Television Systems Committee
AT#UD Unimodem diagnostics command
AUI Attachment Unit Interface
A/V audio/video
AVGA Advanced VGA
BAR base address register
BDA BIOS Data Area
BIOS basic I/O system
BNC Bayonet Nut Connector. (Also British Naval Connector or Bayonet Neil Consulman)
BPB BIOS Parameter Blocks
bpp bits per pixel
bps bits per second
CAD computer-aided design
CBR constant bit rate
CDMA code division multiplexed access
CDPD cellular digital packet data
CHAP Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol
CID CompatibleID
CIS card information structure
CMOS complementary metal-oxide semiconductor
COM (1) Component Object Model;
(2) legacy serial port
CPTWG Copyright Protection Technical Working Group
CPU central processing unit
CRC cyclic redundancy check
CSEL Cable Select
CSN Card Select Number
CSR control and status register
CSS copy scramble system
CT Computer Telephony
D/A digital to analog
DAC digital-to-analog converter
dB decibel
DBC Device Bay Controller
DC direct current
DCE Data Communications Equipment
DDC display data channel
DDC2B DDC Standard, Version 2.0, Level B
DDI device driver interface
DDK Device Driver Kit
DES data encryption standard
DHCP Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DIB device-independent bitmap
DIP dual in-line package
DLL dynamic link library
DLS Downloadable Samples
DMA direct memory access
DMI Desktop Management Interface
DMTF Desktop Management Task Force
DRAM Direct Random Access Memory
DSP digital signal processor
DSS directory synchronization server
DSVD digital simultaneous voice/data
DTMF dual tone multifrequency
DTV digital television
DVB Digital Video Broadcast
DVC Digital Video Compression
DVD Optical disk storage that encompasses audio, video, and computer data
ECC error correction code
ECP extended capabilities port
ECR Engineering Change Request
EDID Extended Display Identification Data
EDT European Deaf Telephone
EGA enhanced graphics adapter
EIA Electronics Industries Association
8-VSB ATSC 8-Vestigial Side Band
EIO Extended I/O
EISA Extended Industry Standard Architecture
EMF enhanced metafile
EMI electromagnetic interference
EPG electronic program guide
EPP enhanced parallel port
ESCD Extended System Configuration Data
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
ExCA Exchangeable Card Architecture
FAT file allocation table
FAQ frequently asked questions
FCC Federal Communications Commission
FDC floppy disk controller
FDDI Fiber Distributed Data Interface
FEC forward error correction
FIFO first in/first out
FM frequency modulation
FP floating point
fps frames per second
FS A See Glossary.
FSIP full-scale input
FSK Frequency Shift Keyed
FSOP full-scale output
FTP file transfer protocol
GART Graphics Address Re-mapping Table
GDI Graphics Device Interface
GIDEI General Input Device Emulation Interface
GSM global system for mobile communications
HCL Hardware Compatibility List
HCT Hardware Compatibility Tests
HDLC high-level data link control
HDTV high-definition television
HEL hardware emulation layer
HFC hybrid fiber-coax
HID Human Interface Device
HRTF Head Related Transfer Function
HSCDS high-speed cable data services
Hz Hertz
IAL Intel Architecture Labs
ICC International Color Consortium
ICM Image Color Matching
ID identifier
IDE Integrated Device Electronics
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF Internet Engineering Task Force
IF Implementers Forum
IHV independent hardware vendor
I/O input/output
IOCTL I/O control
IP Internet Protocol
IPL Initial Program Load
IPX Internetwork Packet Exchange
IR infrared
IrDA Infrared Data Association
IRP I/O request packet
IRQ interrupt request
ISA Industry Standard Architecture
ISDN Integrated Service Digital Network
ISO International Standards Organization
ISO/OSI International Standards Organization Open Systems Interconnection
ISP Internet service provider
ISV independent software vendor
I2O intelligent I/O
ITU International Telecommunication Union
IVR interactive voice response
K kilobyte
Kbps kilobytes per second
Kss kilo-samples per second
L2 Level 2
LAN local area network
LBA logical block addressing
LCD liquid crystal display
LED light-emitting diode
LPCM location PCM
LPT line printer
LSB least significant bit
LUN logical unit number
LVE Live Video Extensions
m meter
MAC Media Access Control
MB megabyte
Mb/s megabits per second
MDK Modem Developers Kit
MEI Matsushita Electronics Incorporated
MESN Media Status Event Notification
MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIP Multimission Interactive Picture
MP@ML Main Profile at Main Level
MPEG Moving Picture Expert Group
ms millisecond
MSB most significant bit
MSCDEX Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions
MSDN Microsoft Developer Network
MUX multiplex
NABTS North American Basic Teletext
NDIS Network Driver Interface Specification
NetBEUI NetBIOS Extended User Interface
Net PC Network PC
NICAM Near-Instantaneously Companded Audio Multiplex
NIDRR National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research
NIUF National ISDN User’s Forum
NMI Nonmaskable Interrupt
nrt non-real time
NTFS Windows NT file system
NT-1 network terminator
NTSC National Television System Committee
OAM operation and maintenance
OEM original equipment manufacturer
OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing
OpenHCI Open Host Controller Interface
OR See Glossary.
OSR OEM service release
PAL Phase Alternation Line
PC personal computer
PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCIC PC Card I/O cards
PCI PM PCI Bus Power Management Specification, Revision 1.0 or higher
PCI 2.1 PCI Local Bus Specification, Revision 2.1
PCM pulse coded modulation
PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PCR peak cell rate
PDA Personal Digital Assistant
PIC programmable interrupt controller
PID program ID
PIO programmed I/O
PIT programmable interrupt timer
PME power management event
POST power-on self-test
POTS plain old (analog) telephone service/system
PPP point-to-point protocol
PRI primary rate interface
PS/2 Personal System/2
PSTN Public Switched Telephone Network
PTT Post, Telephone, and Telegraph
QOS quality of service
RADSL rate adaptive digital subscriber line
RAID redundant array of inexpensive disks
RAM random-access memory
RAMDAC RAM digital-to-analog converter
RF radio frequency
RFC request for comments
RFP request for proposals
RISC reduced instruction set computing
RM resource management
RNA remote network access
ROM read-only memory
RP recommended practice
RSA public-key cipher for encryption/decryption
RSX Intel Realistic Sound eXperience
rt real time
SAP (1) Service Access Protocol;
(2) secondary audio programming
SAR segmentation and re-assembly
SCAM SCSI Configured Automatically
SCART Solent Club for Amateur Radio and Television; also called Peritel
SCID service channel ID
SCL system clock line
SCSI small computer system interface
SDK Software Developers Kit
SFF Small Form Factor
SIG Special Interest Group
SIR Serial IR
SIT Special Information Tone
SMART Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology
SMBus System Management Bus
SMPTE Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol
SNR signal-to-noise ratio
SOHO small office/home office
SPI Service Provider Interface
SPID service profile ID
SPX Sequenced Packet Exchange
SRC sample rate converter
STI Still Image architecture
STS/EN Status and Enable
SVGA Super VGA
TAM telephone answering machine
TAPI Telephony Application Program Interface
TCO total cost of ownership
TCP/IP Transmission Control Protocol/ Internet Protocol
TDD Telephone Device for the Deaf
TDMA time division multiplexed access
telset local telephone instrument
TFTP Trivial File Transfer Protocol
THD+N total harmonic distortion
3-D three-dimensional
TIA Telecommunications Industry Association
TP twisted pair
2-D two dimensional
UART Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter
UBR unspecified bit rate
UDF Universal Disk Format
UHCI Universal Host Controller Interface
UHF ultra-high frequency
unidriver universal printer driver
Unimodem universal modem driver
USB Universal Serial Bus
V volts
VBE VESA BIOS Extension
VBI vertical blanking interval
VBR variable bit rate
VCI virtual channel ID
VCR video cassette recorder
VDD Virtual display driver
VDIF Video Display Information Format
VDS virtual DMA services
VESA Video Electronics Standards Association
VfW Video for Windows
VGA video graphics array
VHF very high frequency
VLB VESA local bus
VPE Video Port Extensions
VPI virtual path ID
VpicD virtual PIC device
Vpp voltage point-to-point
VRML virtual reality modeling language
VRMS volts root-mean-square
VSD vendor specific driver
Vsync vertical synchronization
VxD virtual device driver
WAN wide area network
WBEM Web-Based Enterprise Management
WC write combining
WDL Windows Driver Library
WDM Win32 Driver Model
WfM Wired for Management
WHIIG Windows Hardware Instrumentation Implementation Guidelines, Version 1.0
WHQL Windows Hardware Quality Labs
WinSock Windows Sockets 2.0
WMI Windows Management Instrumentation
WSS Windows Sound System
YUV See Glossary.
ZV Zoomed Video