Amiga Auckland Glossary T

Glossary T...

TAGGED IMAGE FILE FORMAT	A compressed graphics format used by MS-DOS and Macintosh computers. Any Images in this format generally have a suffix of ".tif" or ".tiff", and can be read using ADPro and various other Amiga programs. However there is an incredible array of options and variations, many requiring special conversion facilities, although the ADPro Professional Conversion Pack is believed to support virtually all of them. TIFF is a registered trademark of Aldus Corporation.
TARGA	A family of graphics formats defined by TrueVision, Inc in support of the imaging products of the same name used by MS-DOS and Macintosh computers. Images in this format generally have a suffix of ".tga", and can be read using ADPro and various other Amiga programs.
TBC (pronounced "T-B-C")	Acronym for Time Base Corrector.
TCM (pronounced "T-C-M")	Acronym for Trellis Coded Modulation, a method of data transmission.
TCP (pronounced "T-C-P")	Acronym for Transmission Control Protocol.
TCP/IP (pronounced "T-C-P-I-P")	The Internet Protocol Suite, developed by DARPA as an open protocol thatis implemented on nearly every computer platform, for communicating with the Internet. As the name suggests, it consists of two primary parts, the Transmission Control Protocol or TCP, and the Internet Protocol or IP.
TD (pronounced "T-D")	Acronym for Transmit Data.
TEBIBYTE (abbreviation "TiB"	1,099,511,627,776 (2⁴⁰) bytes, and is the unambiguous name for 'Terabyte to denote the true binary value.
TECHNICAL AND OFFICE PROTOCOL (abbreviation "TOP")	A popular standard for Local Area Networks in business office environments, and is based around IEEE 802.2 standards, and works hand in hand with MAP.
TELNET	A program which enables one computer to another computer across a established TCP/IP connection.
TERABYTE (abbreviation "TB"	1,099,511,627,776 (2⁴⁰) bytes to be precise, but frequently used to mean roughly a million million bytes (10¹²), or 1024 Gigabytes. Most commonly used to denote the size of a storage cluster, e.g. a 200 TB storage array. The unambiguous name 'Tebibyte' can be used for the true binary value.
TERMINAL READY	The shortened form of Data Terminal Ready and often shown as an indicator light on modems to indicate your computer is ready to communicate.
TEX (pronounced "teck")	A computer typesetting system, designed by Donald E Knuth, that aims to produce results comparable to "hot metal" typesetting when using a modern raster-image laser typesetter. The system includes many innovative techniques, particularly it's algorithm for breaking paragraphs into lines in an optimal manner. However, it is very low-level, and many users employ higher-level packages such as AMS-TEX and LaTEX. The source code has been released to the public domain, and is available for the Amiga, with many text files for the Amiga being supplied in TEX format.
TEXT ADVENTURE GAMES	Where you play a character you have to identify with, in a world you have to picture in your imagination, and use text commands to travel around in an attempt to solve puzzles and obtain objects, necessary to complete the adventure. Very popular on computers before graphics became available and games such as Zork, but fallen from fashion these days except for the odd PD game.
TEXT EDITOR	A program specifically defined to manipulate text (or words), but without the frills of a word processor. Generally there can only be one font for an entire document with no facilities to handle pictures or artwork. They are usually faster than word processors, often with more powerful options for the manipulation of text blocks. • Amiga: e.g. ED, Edit, Memac or ASDG's Cygnus Ed • Apple: e.g. • PC: e.g. NotePad, WordPad etc • UNIX: e.g. vi, edit, memac
TEXT RUNAROUND	A facility often available in word processing or DTP programs, where text flows around a diagram or picture, often following an irregular shape.
THRESHOLD	When printing in black and white from a colour screen it identifies which colours will print as black, and which will print as white.
THUMBNAIL PRINTING	A reduced version of a page, such that several pages of a document can be printed on a single page of output, often to obtain an impression of the overall layout, or simply as an overview.
TMDS("T-M-D-S")	Acronym for Transition Minimized Differential Signaling.
TILE PRINTING	A document page larger than the paper used for output that is printed on several pages in overlapping segments.
TIME BASE CORRECTOR (abbreviation"TBC")	A special electronic curcuit to smooth out a video signal, and compensate for the fluctuations in record and playback, not unlike the wow of a tape deck when the batteries are going flat. There are two kinds of TBC - the first is known as a "finite TBC", because it stores only a limited number of lines and processes less than a full frame of video, while the second which is more expensive and known as an "infinite TBC", stores an entire frame and can handle greater variances of error. Most units designed for computer-based video systems have infinite windows.
TITLE BAR	The area stretching across the top of the screen or window, which in most cases will allow you to drag the window down. Not all programs provide a title bar, while some even allow you to switch it on and off.
TIFF (pronounced "tiff")	Acronym for Tagged Image File Format.
TOKEN RING	A term used in conjunction with LANs, referring to an access method that manages access to the connecting medium via software. In use, a software token or identifier is passed around a ring-shaped network, and only the device that holds the token can transmit or receive the data.
TOOL	An icon that represents a specific software program.
TOOLTYPES	Customisation parameters for a program, which can be specified within the icon (.info) file, rather than using a config file.
TOP (pronounced "top")	Acronym for Technical and Office Protocol.
TORK	Refers to a style of screw that has a hexagonal star-shaped hole in place of the slot or philips head, and sometimes has a pin protruding from the middle. This type of screw is used on many computers to secure the case and requires a special TORK screwdriver of the correct size. Do not attempt to use an Allen key as this may damage the screw and make removal difficult.
TR (pronounced "T-R")	Acronym for Terminal Ready.
TRACTOR FEEDER	A tractor feeder requires special "lineflo" paper, that has evenly spaced holes on each side of the paper. These holes must engage the sprockets on the feeder mechanism to feed the paper past the print head. Most paper of this type has perforations which enable the strip containing the holes to be easily torn off after printing.
TRANSCODER	The ability to convert one video signal format into another signal format such as converting composite video into Y/C format.
TRANSITION MINIMIZED DIFFERENTIAL SIGNALING (abbreviation "TMDS")	This is the technology behind the DVI and HDMI connections. DVI specifications call for at least one TMDS "link" to transmit data, though there are DVI specifications that have what's called dual links or two TMDS channels. A single link has three data channels (RGB) and one clock control channel, while a dual link has six data channels (RGB) and two clock control channels. Here is a block diagram for a single link connection: A 10-bit TMDS link operates at up to 165 MHz and offers 1.65Gbps of bandwidth. This is enough to operate a digital flat panel display at 1920x1080 resolution refreshed at 60 Hz. This is virtually doubled with a dual link TMDS. Dual offers 2Gbps of bandwidth but must be operated at 100 MHz to match the second link with the primary link. Its possible to get a resolution of 2048x1536 with a dual link TMDS. This ability to achieve high bandwidth and larger resolutions has pushed DVI into the forefront of graphics technology.
TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL (abbreviation "TCP")	A technique for breaking down data packets into smaller chunks, which are numbered in sequence and then placed inside an addressed "envelope". The TCP envelope is then placed inside an IP packet for transfer over the network. At its destination another TCP application will remove the contents of the IP packet and ensure they are reassembled in the correct sequence. This combined operation is known as TCP/IP.
TRANSMIT DATA	May refer to the process of transmitting data, but is more correctly used in reference to pin 2 of the RS-232C interface, which is used to pass the data being transmitted via a modem. The latter may also have an indicator light labelled SD (Send Data) or TXD (Transmit Data) to show when data is being transmitted.
TRANSPUTER	A radically different style of computer chip, that enables multiple chips to work together or in parallel to accomplish a given task. As more chips are added, the processing power increases, such that each chip is capable of delivering almost its full potential. It requires special programming techniques designed to work in a non-Von Neumann architecture.
TRASHCAN	A directory for storing files that you want to discard from a disk, such that you can retrieve them again if you make a mistake. To discard files stored in the trashcan directory, select the Trashcan icon, then choose Empty Trash from the Disk menu for AmigaDOS 1.2/1.3 or Icons menu for 2.0 and above. Once you select Empty Trash, you cannot retrieve them again.
TRI-SYNC MONITOR	A computer monitor that is capable of operating over three horizontal and vertical scanning frequencies, and is therefore cheaper than purchasing a multi-scan monitor. You need either a multi-scan or tri-sync monitor if you want to use a flicker fixer or one of the productivity or VGA modes which are available under Workbench 2 and above.
TRIPOS (pronounced "tri-poss")	An operating system for mini and mainframe computers developed in Bristol England by Metacomco that was to form the basis of the AmigaDOS operating system.
TRUE COLOUR	See 24 Bit Colour.
TWISTED PAIR	Describes a means of connecting electronic devices, and is essentially a simple two wire cable, similar to a telephone wire. It is cheap and easy to install, but is limited as to speed and the number of nodes (devices) that can be connected.
TXD (pronounced "T-X-D")	Acronym for Transmit Data.

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