| ISP Dictionary - ISP Glossary Definitions for 'f' |
| Fab - This is short for fabrication plant. A fab is a factory that takes raw silicon wafers and creates chips with them. Often, fabs are categorized by what... |
| Fabless - This term refers to a company that produces chips but doesn't own a fabrication plant, or fab. These companies are starting to become more and more successful... |
| Fabrication Plant - A fab is a factory that takes raw silicon wafers and creates chips with them. Often, fabs are categorized by what process they use. For example, the Intel... |
| Facsimile - Almost always referred to as fax, this is the term for the electronic transmission of printed documents over a phone line. Usually transmission occurs... |
| Failover - When one device stops working and another device automatically takes its place, typically after a set amount of time has lapsed since the first device... |
| fair use - Fair use is the concept in copyright law that some limited copying of copyrighted material is permissible in certain circumstances. A complete work may... |
| Fan - A device designed to move air by sucking air into one side and pushing it out the other. Fans are a necessary part of most computing devices because microprocessors... |
| FAQ - Acronym for Frequently Asked Questions. FAQ files are collections of common questions and answers for a particular subject area. For example, see the Navigating... |
| Fast SCSI 2 - This version of SCSI transfers data at 10 megabytes per second. The connections all contain 50 pins. See also Fast-Wide SCSI 2. |
| Fast-SCSI - Plain vanilla fast-SCSI never really existed, but was sometimes used as slang for Fast SCSI 2. This version of SCSI transfers data at 10 megabytes per... |
| Fast-Wide SCSI 2 - This version of SCSI upped the pin count to 68, effectively doubling the signal speed of Fast-SCSI 2 to 20 megabytes per second. |
| FAT - This is one way to index the contents of storage media, such as your hard drive. The operating system looks here to know where on the drive files are located.... |
| Fat Client - Today's fast PCs are fat clients. They've got lots of memory and big hard drives. They store information and typically run programs locally off of their... |
| FAT-16 - The original DOS File Allocation system. It uses a table to tell the OS where on a hard drive or other storage media each file is located. Due to the... |
| FAT-32 - An updated FAT standard from Microsoft. It expanded on the aging FAT-16 file system and allowed for much larger partitions. FAT-32 was created as a quick-fix... |
| Favorite - A method of storing and organizing selected URLs in Internet Explorer. See also Bookmark. |
| Fax - short for facsimile |
| Fax machine - This is generally a single purpose device that can send and receive facsimiles. The machine is normally able to scan in a document and transmit it over... |
| FC-AL - A fast, serial-based standard meant to replace the parallel SCSI standard. It is primarily used in high cost server systems, and to connect storage devices... |
| FC-PGA - This is Intel's newer packaging of the Socket 370 design. It features a different electrical setup than Socket 370, but is physically compatible. Thus,... |
| FCC - These are the people in the government who decide what's legal and illegal to broadcast, including what frequencies are allowed to be used by whom. |
| FDD - This commonly refers to a 3.5 inch disk drive that uses 1.44 MB 3.5 inch floppy disks. However, the term can be used to apply to any drive that uses floppy... |
| FDDI - This is a fiber optic interface that allows data to travel extreme distances (many miles/kilometers) without signal loss. It is far superior to copper... |
| FDisk - The program Microsoft operating systems MS-DOS and non-NT versions of Windows use to create partitions on hard drives. Technically, the program is called... |
| Federal Communications Commission - These are the people in the government who decide what's legal and illegal to broadcast, including what frequencies are allowed to be used by whom. |
| Femtosecond - One quadrillionth of a second (1/1,000,000,000,000,000 seconds). See also picosecond. |
| Ferroelectric RAM - Initially developed by Ramtron, this is a type of non-volatile RAM that compares favorably to Flash memory in access/read/write speeds, but is harder to... |
| Fiber Channel-Arbitrated Loop - A fast, serial-based standard meant to replace the parallel SCSI standard. It is primarily used in high cost server systems, and to connect storage devices... |
| Fiber Distributed Data Interface - This is a fiber optic interface that allows data to travel extreme distances (many miles/kilometers) without signal loss. It is far superior to copper... |
| Fiber Optic - A method of physical data transmission that is a newer alternative to sending electrical signals over copper wires. The way it works is by pulsing light... |
| Fibre Channel - The British spelling of "fiber", i.e., "fibre" is used to describe this standard. Fibre Channel uses fiber-optic cable to connect computers or peripherals.... |
| Field Programmable Gate Array - A microchip that can be made with thousands of programmable logic gates. Good features of FPGAs include short development times and low production costs.... |
| FIFO Buffer - An area of memory that holds information in the order in which it was received until the computer has time to use it. |
| File - The base unit data on a hard drive from the perspective of the user viewing the hard drive through an operating system. Computer programs may be one or... |
| File Allocation Table - This is one way to index the contents of storage media, such as your hard drive. The operating system looks here to know where on the drive files are located.... |
| File Extension - DOS, Windows, and, to a lesser extent, UNIX and Linux use the last three characters of a filename, after a period, to signify what type of file a file... |
| File Format - Applications save files in a certain way. They organize the data in a way that makes sense for the information they are saving and to programs that work... |
| File Server - Any computer that allows other computers to access files stored on its hard drive or other storage media. The file server also controls who can and cannot... |
| File Transfer Protocol - A common method of moving files from system to system using TCP/IP. To work properly, it requires an FTP client to contact an FTP server in order to transmit... |
| Finger - A program that goes to a computer running the finger daemon (service) and returns information about a particular user, if available. Part of the information... |
| firewall - Firewall refers to the concept of a security interface or gateway between a closed system or network and the outside Internet that blocks or manages communications... |
| FireWire - A serial connection technology that promises to speed data at 200-800Mbps and up. Digital video camera manufacturers and Apple have embraced this connection... |
| Firmware - The software that is embedded onto a piece of hardware in order to control that hardware. Generally, firmware can be upgraded and is placed on an EEPROM.... |
| First In First Out Buffer - An area of memory that holds information in the order in which it was received until the computer has time to use it. |
| First Person Shooter - This describes a video game that is played from the first person perspective, i.e., looking out of the eyes of the main character. As well, to achieve... |
| flame - To write angry or insulting words about a person. It is most often applied to newsgroups, but it can apply to mailing lists, message boards, and other... |
| flame war - When two or more people exchange insults in a public messaging. It is sometimes done deliberately to disrupt the normal flow of messages. See troll. |
| Flash BIOS - This BIOS contains a flash ROM chip that can be updated under certain conditions, but is otherwise static. |
| Flash Memory - A type of non-volatile memory that holds onto its contents even when an electrical charge is not applied. Contrast this to DRAM, which must continually... |
| Flash ROM - A rewriteable ROM that doesn't lose its info when the power turns off. |
| Flat File - A database that contains a single table and can be easily represented using plain text. This type of database contrasts with a relational database, which... |
| Flat Panel Display - A type of display that has much less depth than a standard CRT-based display. Types of FPDs include gas plasma displays and LCD screens. |
| Flat Screen - This typically refers to a CRT monitor that is made more flat than a standard tube by using more than one electron gun. It is most useful to professionals... |
| Flat Shading - The most basic shading technique, in which the entire object is only one color. This causes the image to appear blocky. |
| Flip Chip-Plastic Grid Array - This is Intel's newer packaging of the Socket 370 design. It features a different electrical setup than Socket 370, but is physically compatible. Thus,... |
| Flip-flop - A simple element of memory made up of an assembly of logic gates. Based on inputs, the state of a flip-flop can be changed back and forth, affecting the... |
| Floating Point - A three-part representation of a number that contains a decimal point. The number is represented first by the sign, then the number itself, then decimal... |
| Floating Point Operation - This describes a single manipulation of a floating point number in a microprocessor. One measure of the speed of a microprocessor is how many FLOPs can... |
| Floating Point Unit - The part of a microprocessor that is designed to handle floating point calculations. Often the efficiency of this part of the processor will decide whether... |
| FLOP - This describes a single manipulation of a floating point number in a microprocessor. One measure of the speed of a microprocessor is how many FLOPs can... |
| Floppy disk - Any type of disk media which is not rigid. Often it's contained in hard cases, which can lead to confusion in identification. Commonly, the term is used... |
| Floppy disk drive - This commonly refers to a 3.5 inch disk drive that uses 1.44 MB 3.5 inch floppy disks. However, the term can be used to apply to any drive that uses floppy... |
| FM synthesis - A method of creating music using frequencies to represent instruments. As you can imagine, this does not create beautiful and complex music, but flat,... |
| Folder - A term coined to be synonymous and more accessible than "directory." Now the terms are basically synonymous, but folder tends to imply a more graphical... |
| Font - As it relates to computers today, a font is a specific style of displaying characters (a typeface), often scalable to a variety of sizes. "Arial" is a... |
| Foo - FooBar is a derivative of the acronym FUBAR, changed for symmetry. FUBAR stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. Sometimes used as a whole by programmers... |
| FooBar - FooBar is a derivative of the acronym FUBAR, changed for symmetry. FUBAR stands for Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition. Sometimes used as a whole by programmers... |
| Footprint - This refers to the general size of something, whether physical or virtual. The footprints of small Internet appliances are compared against those of larger... |
| Form Factor - Typically this refers to the compatibility among PC motherboards, cases, and power supplies. A motherboard, case, and power supply with the same form factor... |
| Format - After partitioning your hard drive, it must be formatted so that it can be used by the operating system. Formatting basically makes your hard disk ready... |
| Fortran - A high-level programming language, a bit more advanced than BASIC but not quite as complex as C. This language refuses to die because it is so huge in... |
| Foundry - A synonym for semiconductor fabrication plant. A foundry is the actual location that produces microprocessors. The term foundry initially referred to a... |
| FPD - A type of display that has much less depth than a standard CRT-based display. Types of FPDs include gas plasma displays and LCD screens. |
| FPGA - A microchip that can be made with thousands of programmable logic gates. Good features of FPGAs include short development times and low production costs.... |
| FPS - see First Person Shooter or Frames Per Second |
| FPU - The part of a microprocessor that is designed to handle floating point calculations. Often the efficiency of this part of the processor will decide whether... |
| Fractional T1 - This term refers to using a theoretical "piece" of a T1 line, such as 128Kbps', 256Kbps', or 512Kbps' worth of the 1.5Mbps T1 line. Many ISPs offer fractional... |
| Fragment - A piece of a file. When a file is written to a hard drive it is sometimes written in multiple fragments because there is no contiguous space available... |
| Fragmentation - This occurs when a hard drive writes a file in multiple segments instead of in a physically contiguous area. A higher level of fragmentation means that... |
| FRAM - Initially developed by Ramtron, this is a type of non-volatile RAM that compares favorably to Flash memory in access/read/write speeds, but is harder to... |
| frame relay - A packet switching standard based on the older X.25 protocol that achieves greater speeds with fast, reliable networks. It lowers overhead by reducing... |
| frames - Frames are a technique used in web pages to divide the page into multiple windows, where each window is called a frame and can contain its own separate... |
| Frames Per Second - This term relates to video or 3D games, and is the amount of single full screen (or full window) pictures (or frames) that are displayed each second to... |
| Free text search - This type of search allows you to give a fragment of a word and have it found in any part of that word. For example, doing a free text search for "the"... |
| FreeBSD - A UNIX-like operating system that runs on the Intel x86 platform and is based on an OS developed at University of California at Berkeley. It is now a no-cost... |
| FreeBSD license - An Open Source license that allows programmers to decide whether or not to provide the source code of their programs with the software. Contrast that to... |
| freeware - Software that is offered for free download. See shareware. |
| Frequency Modulation - A method of sending and distinguishing radio signals by modifying the frequency of the radio wave. See also AM. |
| Frequently Asked Questions - A document that lists the most common questions about something (with the answers, of course). A simple way to find information on a complex topic is to... |
| Front Side Bus - The speed of the bus connecting the microprocessor, its chipset, and connected main memory. In architectures where the processor interacts directly with... |
| Front-end - The part of a program or process that the user interfaces with and controls. See also back-end. |
| FSAA - A method used by 3D graphics cards to provide anti-aliasing to all objects in a 3D environment. This acts to smooth out the jagged appearance of edges... |
| FSB - The speed of the bus connecting the microprocessor, its chipset, and connected main memory. In architectures where the processor interacts directly with... |
| FTP - File Transfer Protocol. The Internet protocol that permits you to transfer files between your system and another system. You can use its command language... |
| FUD - Acronym: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. A common motivational strategy. |
| Full Duplex - Originally this referred to a communication between a modem and a remote system, where characters were sent both ways over the phone line so that they... |
| Full parity - This is synonymous with full duplex, but most often used when describing dial-up modem communications standards. |
| Full Screen Anti-Aliasing - A method used by 3D graphics cards to provide anti-aliasing to all objects in a 3D environment. This acts to smooth out the jagged appearance of edges... |
| Function key - One of the set of 12 keys at the top of a standard computer keyboard. These keys are labelled F1 through F12. The keys are basically general purpose extra... |
| Fuse - A device used to protect devices from excessive electrical current. It contains a conductor that melts and breaks the current flow when too much electricity... |
| Fuzzy Logic - Logic without an absolute true or false. Instead, you have gradients of true and false. This is necessary for solving some problems, especially those involving... |
| FWIW - Acronym for "For What It's Worth" |
