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Welcome to Ebuyer's Jargon Buster! Here you will find the computer realted words or phrases explained to help in you your quest to find and understand products on our site. Use the search box to find specific phrases or browse through the Jargon Buster using the alphabetical index |
| 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 |
| Back Up |
| Back UP |
| To save important data in a secondary location as a safety against loss of the primary data. |
| Bandwidth |
| Bandwidth |
| The total maximum capacity of a network or modem connection. The modem bandwidth is generally measured in BPS. The more bandwidth the faster you will be able to receive and/or send information. If bandwidth is being shared you will likely not be able to reach the maximum capacity of the bandwidth when other computers, users or other devices are utilizing the same line. |
| Bar Code |
| Bar Code |
| A bar code (often seen as a single word, barcode) is the small image of lines (bars) and spaces that is affixed to retail store items, identification cards, and postal mail to identify a particular product number, person, or location. The code uses a sequence of vertical bars and spaces to represent numbers and other symbols. A bar code symbol typically consists of five parts: a quiet zone, a start character, data characters (including an optional check character), a stop character, and another quiet zone.
A barcode reader is used to read the code. The reader uses a laser beam that is sensitive to the reflections from the line and space thickness and variation. The reader translates the reflected light into digital data that is transferred to a computer for immediate action or storage. Bar codes and readers are most often seen in supermarkets and retail stores, but a large number of different uses have been found for them. They are also used to take inventory in retail stores; to check out books from a library; to track manufacturing and shipping movement; to sign in on a job; to identify hospital patients; and to tabulate the results of direct mail marketing returns. Very small bar codes have been used to tag honey bees used in research. Readers may be attached to a computer (as they often are in retail store settings) or separate and portable, in which case they store the data they read until it can be fed into a computer. |
| Barebone |
| Barebone |
Term commonly used to describe a computer system that contains only the absolutely required components for the computer to operate keeping the cost low. Below is a list of components commonly found in a barebones computer, these may vary.
Additional components such as a computer monitor, external cables, keyboard, mouse, and other external components are almost never included. Because all computer manufacturers are different this term may also refer to a computer that only has a motherboard or case and nothing else. Tip: When considering buying a barebone computer make sure it lists all the components you believe you are going to need before purchasing it. |
| BASIC |
| Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code |
| A commonly used personal-computer language first developed at Dartmouth during the 1960s and popularized by Microsoft. |
| Battery |
| Battery |
| A battery is an electrochemical cell (or enclosed and protected material) that can be charged electrically to provide a static potential for power or released electrical charge when needed.
A battery generally consists of an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. Common types of commercial batteries and some of their characteristics and advantages are summarized in the following table. Battery types not shown include the Zinc-Air, Flooded Lead Acid, and Alkaline batteries. |
| Baud |
| Baud |
| One analog cycle on a telephone line. In the early days of telephone data transmission, the baud rate was often analogous to bits-per-second. Due to advanced modulation of baud cycles as well as data compression, this is no longer true. |
| Benchmark |
| Benchmark |
| Benchmark: Test used to test the performance of a hardware peripheral, software or the overall computer. These tests can be used to help compare how well a product may do against other products. Generally the higher the benchmark the faster the component, software or overall computer is. |
| BIOS |
| Basic Input/Output System |
| BIOS: Short for Basic Input/Output System, BIOS is a chip located on all computer motherboards that contains instructions and setup for how your system should boot and how it operates. |
| Bit |
| Bit |
| The smallest unit of information in a computer, can either equal 0 or 1. Eight bits equal one byte. |
| Blade Server |
| Blade Server |
| A blade server is a thin, modular electronic circuit board, containing one, two, or more microprocessors and memory, that is intended for a single, dedicated application (such as serving Web pages) and that can be easily inserted into a space-saving rack with many similar servers. One product offering, for example, makes it possible to install up to 280 blade server modules vertically in multiple racks or rows of a single floor-standing cabinet. Blade servers, which share a common high-speed bus, are designed to create less heat and thus save energy costs as well as space. Large data centers and Internet service providers (ISPs) that host Web sites are among companies most likely to buy blade servers. |
| Blu-ray |
| Blu-ray |
| Blu-ray is a new optical disc standard based on the use of a blue laser rather than the red laser of today's DVD players. The standard, developed collaboratively by Hitachi, LG, Matsushita (Panasonic), Pioneer, Philips, Samsung, Sharp, Sony, and Thomson, threatens to make current DVD players obsolete. It is not clear whether new Blu-ray players might include both kinds of lasers in order to be able to read current CD and DVD formats. |
| BMP |
| Bitmap |
| A standard type of graphics file. An uncompressed format, so the files tend to be fairly big. |
| BNC |
| Bayonet Network Connector |
| A connector used for 10Base2 coaxial cable. All BNC connectors have to be locked into place by turning the locking ring 90 degrees. |
| BPS |
| Bits Per Second |
| BPS: A measure of how quickly information is being transferred, usually via a modem or network. Divide by ten to get an approximation of the number of characters per second (cps). See also Kbps, Mbps. |
| Broadband |
| Broadband |
| In general, broadband refers to telecommunication in which a wide band of frequencies is available to transmit information. Because a wide band of frequencies is available, information can be multiplexed and sent on many different frequencies or channels within the band concurrently, allowing more information to be transmitted in a given amount of time (much as more lanes on a highway allow more cars to travel on it at the same time). Related terms are wideband (a synonym), baseband (a one-channel band), and narrowband (sometimes meaning just wide enough to carry voice, or simply "not broadband," and sometimes meaning specifically between 50 cps and 64 Kpbs). |
| BT |
| Bluetooth |
| BT:Bluetooth is a technology that enables communication between two compatible devices through short-range two-way radio. Bluetooth is commonly used for connecting devices, such as PDA’s, cell phones, keyboards, mice and computers. Bluetooth works at up to 30 feet and is capable of transferring data at up to 1 mbit/sec. |
| Buffer |
| Buffer |
| Buffer:When referring to memory a buffer is temporary storage in memory used to temporarily store information while other information is being processed.
Note: The term buffer is commonly used, almost always it refers to a temporary storage or location. |
| Bundle |
| Bundle |
| Bundle: A group of software programs and/or hardware devices grouped together and sold as one. |
| BURN-Proof |
| BURN-Proof |
| BURN-Proof (Buffer Under Run Error Proof) is a technology developed by Sanyo that allows compact disc (CD) recording to automatically stop in the event of an unplanned interruption and then to resume recording. BURN-Proof is a registered trademark of Sanyo.
When a CD is burned (recorded), the data must usually be written onto the CD without any interruption. If an interruption, such as the opening of a new application, does occur, a Buffer Under Run error occurs and the burn is unsuccessful. BURN-Proof technology located on firmware inside the CD-R or CD-RW drive monitors the recording process. If the drive detects a Buffer Under Run error, it suspends recording. When the problem is resolved, the CD-R or CD-RW drive restarts recording data from where it stopped. |
| Bus |
| Bus |
| A series of wires connecting two or more separate electronic devices that enable those devices to communicate. |
| Byte |
| Byte |
| A basic unit of measurement for pieces of information; the space required to store one character. See also Bit, Kilobyte, Megabyte, Gigabyte, Terabyte. |