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Glossary: B
- backbone
- A term applied to a high-speed communications channel that links several LANs or computer installations in an institution like a college.
- bandwidth
- The capacity of a phone line or other communications channel for distributing data -- voice, graphics, text, video -- measured in bits per second.
- BASIC
- A high-level programming language originally designed at Dartmouth for teaching students to program and later regularly distributed with early microcomputers.
- baud rate
- A measure of the speed at which data are transmitted over communications lines by a modem, expressed as bits per second.
- beta software
- A version of a software product released to the public for use and testing with no guarantee from the originators that the program is free of bugs.
- binary coding
- A system for representing information in a computer with two states of electromagnetic phenomena, which can be denoted by the binary digits 1 and 0.
- binary integer
- A whole number, either positive or negative, composed of binary digits 0 and 1 representing powers of 2.
- bit
- An abbreviation for binary digit, which can be either 0 or 1.
- bit map
- A record of every pixel on a computer screen, contained in the frame buffer of a raster graphics display system. A graphic image kept in a bitmap format of pixels can be displayed on a screen or printed by modern printers.
- bit-mapped
- A term used to describe images composed of patterns of dots and displayed on graphics computer screens.
- bits per second (bps)
- The measure expressing the transmission speed of a modem; usually, but not always, synonymous with its baud rate.
- boilerplate
- A block of standard text, such as formulaic parts of a legal document like a will, that are saved and inserted in many documents with a word processor.
- bomb
- A crash of a computer system caused by a virus, which may cause a hard disk or diskette to be erased or permanently damaged.
- Boolean operation
- One of the three logical operations AND, OR, and NOT, first used by George Boole, fundamental to doing searching in databases.
- Braille printer
- A printer that produces Braille output for blind people.
- bridge (gateway)
- A hardware interface for interconnecting similar computer networks.
- browser software
- A computer program like Netscape Navigator which allows users to log onto remote sites on the Internet and retrieve information stored as World Wide Web documents.
- brute force
- Solving a problem like a chess move by using the computer's ability to examine a large number of possible moves quickly in order to assess each for its potential for success or failure.
- buffer memory
- A temporary storage area where the computer stores a set of character-plotting commands in vector graphics before they are transmitted to the screen.
- bug
- A term for a program error, usually in software, that causes it to crash or malfunction.
- bulletin board
- A dial-up computer network site typically offering news and programs that may be downloaded to one's computer.
- byte
- A unit of memory in the computer consisting of eight consecutive bits, often used to store one character of data or information.