Glossary: C

C: A high-level programming language popular with technical programmers because of its many features, including some assembly language functions.
cache: Another design strategy to improve processor performance by placing a small memory directly on a chip so that the processor has rapid access to frequently used instructions, which are stored there.
Caller ID: A telephone service that allows a user with a phone equipped with a digital screen to see the number, and sometimes the name, of the caller. In a commercial setting this service often triggers a computer database to display other information about the caller.
campus backbone: A set of data transmission protocols that translates data from a LAN to a standard format and sends them to another LAN.
cassette tape: An older form of serial memory, common in early personal computers. Inexpensive and portable, it holds a large amount of data for its size.
cathode ray tube (CRT) or visual display terminal (VDT): The most common type of computer screen or monitor.
CD-ROM: A compact disk on which large volumes of information are stored digitally and accessed by laser beam.
CD-ROM drive: Hardware that can access digital data stored on a compact disk by reading it with a laser beam.
cell: The intersection of a row and column in a spreadsheet.
centering of text: A cumbersome practice in typewriting that is standard with word processing.
central processing unit (CPU): The core of a microcomputer system. It contains both the arithmetic/logic unit and the control unit.
chin switch: A hardware device that allows people who cannot move a mouse with their hands to move the cursor on a computer screen by moving their chins.
client/server: A computer environment in which applications on a file server are sent out to client machines as needed. The client machine can access and display information sent out from the server.
closed format: A term applied to an electronic conference available only to those invited to participate.
coaxial cable: A common metallic cable used for hardwired communications channels because it can carry large amounts of data.
COBOL: A older but still very powerful and popular high-level programming language designed for business data processing.
cognitive scientist: A scientist, perhaps trained in computer science, psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, or philosophy, interested in the study of brain/computer analogues.
cold type: Setting type and producing pages on computer screens. The resulting computer typesetting files can be printed by laser and xerographic processes. Older Linotype methods set what was called "hot type."
collation: A process, now often done with computer programs, to compare two versions of the same written text and find all the differences, or variants, between them.
Color Graphics Adapter (CGA): An IBM-compatible video circuit board that provides 320 by 200 pixel resolution and a 16-color palette on a computer screen capable of allowing multiple type fonts and sizes in graphics mode.
combinatorial explosion: The greatly increasing number of possible alternative moves that must be examined in looking forward several moves in games like chess or Go to choose the best move.
Communications Decency Act: A 1996 federal law that makes it a crime to distribute sexually explicit materials over a computer network that might be seen by minors.
communications software: A program that enables a computer to be connected to other computers or that allows a document to be set up in fax format.
compact disk (CD): A common mass storage medium based on the same technology as audio CDs, suitable for storing large amounts of fixed data like encyclopedias or video games.
compatibility: The ability to connect different computer systems or media so that they can work together.
compiler: Software that translates a program written in a high-level language into lower-level language instructions. As an additional benefit, it searches along the way for grammar errors in the program.
compression: A software process of storing a digital file, such as a sound or a video, in a compressed form to save storage space or speed up its transmission time over a network.
computational science: A partnership between computer science and the laboratory sciences. It combines the computer's ability to do massive amounts of mathematical calculations quickly and to represent the results as graphic images to solve problems in the physical and biological sciences.
computer: An electrical machine system capable of accepting data in symbolic form and processing it. The results are normally produced as output in some form.
computer animation: The creation and display of computer graphic images in rapid sequence to produce the effect of animation, exemplified in arcade video games.
computer architecture: A term to describe the design and layout of the electronic components of a computer system.
computer concordance: The use of computers to make indexes of words within their context for classic literary texts, the first literary application of computers, begun in the 1950s.
computer conferencing: Multiple users commenting on an issue of common interest via electronic mail. Individual members of can monitor what others are adding to the conference and contribute over a set period of time.
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1986): A U.S. federal law that makes accessing a federal computer without authorization and causing damage greater than $1000 a felony; aimed at hacker invasions of public computers.
computer generation: A term for a series of computers that are based on the same hardware technology. For instance, personal computers belong to the fourth generation of computers, the age of microprocessors.
computer graphics: The methods and techniques for creating and displaying pictures or images on computer screens or other output devices like printers or plotters.
computer matching: The controversial practice of merging records collected by different government databases to find suspected criminals, such as people who have reneged on alimony.
computer monitoring: Employing a computer system to monitor the vital signs of critically ill patients automatically and to display the results on a computer screen at the nurses' station.
computer phobia: A feeling of unease and helplessness around computers sometimes felt by people unfamiliar with them. Taking a computer literacy course should help to relieve this condition.
computer screen: A device, also called a monitor, similar to a television screen for displaying the output of a computer.
computer video game: Video games designed for use on personal computers, combining graphics and sound effects.
computer virus: Software that invades operating systems or application programs through contact with corrupted files. It may seriously damage computer files if not eradicated.
computer-aided engineering (CAE): The use of an integrated series of computer processes to design, test, and manufacture products, usually starting with computer-aided design (CAD).
computer-aided manufacturing (CAM): The use of a computer system to automate parts of a manufacturing process, such as producing machine parts directly on robotic lathes that receive their instructions from a CAD system. The abbreviation CAD/CAM applies to such integrated computer processes.
computer-aided design (CAD): Using computer graphics software to aid the process of
design, especially in architecture or engineering. computer-assisted instruction (CAI): The use of computers in some form for instruction, such as drill-and-practice in foreign languages.
computerized axial tomography: Using a CAT or CT scanner to combine x-rays with computer graphic imagery techniques to offer fine quality images for medical diagnosis of conditions like brain tumor.
consistency check: A software protection scheme added to a database management system to monitor data integrity. For instance, one should not be able to reserve flights for nonexistent dates like February 30.
control function: One of the five elements of any computer system, handled in hardware by the CPU.
control program (operating system): An internal computer program designed to connect the user to the machine and monitor all activity within the machine, also called an operating system.
copy protection: A software strategy employed by program developers to make it difficult to copy software illegally.
core memory: An older kind of random-access memory (RAM) device that held its magnetic charge even when the power was off. RAM memory chips replaced core memory because core was more expensive to produce, larger in size, and slower to access.
Crime Control Act of 1973: U.S. federal law that allows citizens access to criminal records about them that may be in error in order to correct them.
cursive and graphics recognition software: Software built into a PDA like the Apple Newton that accepts handwritten input with a stylus and recognizes what it stands for, such as a word or a diagram.
cursor: A small blinking arrow, vertical line, or underline on a computer screen to indicate where the next input will be displayed.
cybernetics: The study of how control mechanisms work, both in the nervous system of animals and in automation for machines.
CYC: A well-known project to develop computer understanding of common sense knowledge of the real world, involving encoding millions of facts and relations between them, so that the machine can draw inferences automatically.

Glossary: C

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