IT Glossary
Key Terms To Know In The IT Industry
Long Polling
A web application development pattern used to emulate pushing data from server to client.
You will find this term commonly used in Web Development
Long Range (LoRa)
A low-power wide-area network protocol designed for wireless battery-operated things in a regional, national, or global network. LoRa enables long-range transmissions with low power consumption, making it ideal for IoT devices.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, IoT
Long-Polling
A web development technique that allows servers to push information to a client once available, by maintaining an open connection until the response is ready. It's used to create near real-time applications without using WebSockets.
You will find this term commonly used in Web Development
Long-Term Storage
Long-term storage refers to storage solutions designed for the retention of data over extended periods, typically months or years.
You will find this term commonly used in Storage
Longitudinal Data Analysis
The analysis of data collected from the same subjects over a period of time to observe changes. In IT, it's often applied in user behavior studies, system performance monitoring over time, or tracking the evolution of software projects.
You will find this term commonly used in Data Analysis, Research
Longitudinal Study
A research design that involves repeated observations of the same variables (e.g., people) over short or long periods of time. In IT, it can refer to studies observing the long-term effects or trends in technology use or development.
You will find this term commonly used in Research, Data Analysis
Longitudinal Wave
A wave in which the movement of the medium's particles is parallel to the direction of the wave's travel. While more a physics concept, it's relevant in IT for understanding aspects of sound transmission and networking in physical media.
You will find this term commonly used in Physics, Networking
Lookup
A lookup operation involves searching for a specific piece of information, such as a key or value, within a data structure or database.
You will find this term commonly used in Data Management
Lookup Table
A lookup table is a data structure that maps keys to values for efficient retrieval of information.
You will find this term commonly used in Data Structures
Loop (Programming)
A sequence of instruction s that is continually repeated until a certain condition is reached.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Software Development
Loop Control Structure
In programming, constructs that allow for the execution of a block of code multiple times under certain conditions. Common loop control structures include for, while, and do-while loops, each with different use cases and behaviors.
You will find this term commonly used in Programming, Software Development
Loop Device
A virtual device that maps a file onto a block device, allowing the file to be accessed as if it were a physical disk. This can be used for mounting disk images and creating virtual filesystems within a single file.
You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems
Loop Fusion
A compiler optimization technique that combines adjacent loops that have the same loop bounds but operate on different arrays or perform different operations, into a single loop to reduce loop overhead and improve cache performance.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development, Optimization
Loop Optimization
The process of increasing the execution speed and efficiency of loops in programming.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Engineering
Loop Unrolling
An optimization technique that increases a program's speed by reducing the number of instructions executed through the reduction of the loop's control overhead.
You will find this term commonly used in Programming, Compiler Design
Loopback
A communication channel with only one endpoint. In networking, it's used to test network interfaces.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Loopback Address
A loopback address is a special IP address (127.0.0.1 in IPv4) used to test the network interface of a device.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Loopback Interface
A loopback interface is a virtual network interface within a device that allows it to communicate with itself, often used for testing or diagnostic purposes.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Loopback Plug
A hardware device used to test the ports of networking devices by sending signals out through the port and receiving them back through the same port. It's useful for diagnosing networking issues and ensuring port functionality.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Hardware
Loopback Test
A loopback test is a diagnostic procedure used to verify the functionality of a network interface by sending data to itself.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Loss Function
In machine learning and optimization, a function that maps an event or values of one or more variables onto a real number intuitively representing some "cost" associated with the event. It's used to guide the optimization of models.
You will find this term commonly used in Machine Learning
Lossless Compression
Lossless compression is a data compression method that allows the original data to be perfectly reconstructed from the compressed data.
You will find this term commonly used in Data Compression
Lossy Compression
Lossy compression is a data compression method that sacrifices some data to achieve higher compression ratios.
You will find this term commonly used in Data Compression
Low Code Development Platform (LCDP)
A software development platform that enables the creation of applications through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional hand-coded computer programming.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Low Code/No Code Platforms
Development platforms that allow users to build applications with minimal coding, often through graphical user interfaces. They aim to expedite the development process and make it accessible to non-developers.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Internet
Internet service provided through satellites in low Earth orbit. LEO systems offer lower latency compared to geostationary satellites and are being developed to provide high-speed internet access globally, particularly in remote areas.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Satellite Communications
Low Latency
Low latency refers to the minimal delay or lag in data transmission, critical for real-time applications such as gaming or video conferencing.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Low Power Mode
Low power mode is a state in which a device reduces its power consumption to extend battery life or conserve energy.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware
Low-code Development Platform
A software that provides an environment programmers use to create application software through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional hand-coded computer programming.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Low-Code Platform
A development environment that enables the creation of application software through graphical user interfaces and configuration instead of traditional hand-coded computer programming, allowing faster development and delivery of business applications.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) Satellite
Satellites that orbit the Earth at altitudes between 160 to 2,000 kilometers. They are used for telecommunications, including internet connectivity, due to their lower latency compared to geostationary satellites but require more satellites to cover the same area.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, Telecommunications
Low-Level Design (LLD)
Part of the software design process, focusing on how components and functions within components should be implemented. It details the modules and their interfaces, data flow, databases, and error handling, following the high-level design (HLD) phase.
You will find this term commonly used in Software Development
Low-Level Format
Low-level format is the process of initializing a storage device at the lowest level, preparing it for data storage and retrieval.
You will find this term commonly used in Storage
Low-Level Language
A low-level language is a programming language that is closer to machine code and is often used for system-level programming.
You will find this term commonly used in Programming
Low-Level Programming Language
A programming language that provides little or no abstraction from a computer's instruction set architecture—commands or functions in the language map closely to processor instructions.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Software Development
Low-Pass Filter
A low-pass filter is an electronic circuit that allows low-frequency signals to pass through while attenuating higher-frequency signals.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware/Signal Processing
Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN)
A type of wireless telecommunication network designed to allow long-range communications at a low bit rate among things (connected objects), such as sensors operated on a battery. It's used in IoT applications for its efficiency and wide coverage.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking, IoT
LPI (Linux Professional Institute) Certification
Validates the skills and knowledge necessary to work with the Linux operating system.
You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems
LRU (Least Recently Used) Algorithm
A cache replacement policy that discards the least recently used items first. This algorithm is widely used in caching solutions and virtual memory management to improve the efficiency of data access.
You will find this term commonly used in Algorithms, Memory Management
LRU (Least Recently Used) Paging
A page replacement algorithm in virtual memory systems that swaps out pages not recently used. By tracking page usage, the system can free up memory by replacing the least recently used pages, optimizing memory usage for active applications.
You will find this term commonly used in Operating Systems, Memory Management
LRU Cache (Least Recently Used)
A cache eviction algorithm that discards the least recently used items first to make space for new items.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, Hardware
LRU Replacement Policy
A cache replacement policy that removes the least recently used items first. This approach is used in various caching mechanisms, including web browsers, operating systems, and database systems, to manage limited cache space efficiently.
You will find this term commonly used in Algorithms, Cache Management
LSI (Large Scale Integration)
LSI is a type of integrated circuit design that incorporates a large number of transistors on a single chip, typically used in microprocessors.
You will find this term commonly used in Hardware
LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory)
A type of recurrent neural network (RNN) architecture used in deep learning that is capable of learning long-term dependencies. LSTM has been used in applications such as handwriting recognition, speech recognition, and others.
You will find this term commonly used in AI
LTE (Long-Term Evolution)
A standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies.
You will find this term commonly used in Networking
Lua
A lightweight, high-level, multi-paradigm programming language designed primarily for embedded use in applications.
You will find this term commonly used in General IT, AI
Luminance
A measure of the brightness of a color, reflecting the subjective perception of light intensity produced by a source. In IT, it's relevant in image processing, video encoding, and display technology to ensure accurate color representation and contrast.
You will find this term commonly used in Graphics, Image Processing
Luminance Adjustment
In image processing, the process of changing the brightness levels of an image. Adjusting luminance can help in enhancing the visibility of features in an image or in preparing images for further processing or analysis.
You will find this term commonly used in Image Processing, Computer Graphics
Luminance Keying
A technique used in video and image processing where a specific range of luminance values within an image is made transparent, allowing for the compositing of images or videos together based on brightness. It's commonly used in green screen effects.
You will find this term commonly used in Computer Graphics, Video Editing
Luminosity Function
A function that describes the average spectral sensitivity of human visual perception of brightness. It's used in the design of display systems, image processing, and colorimetry to ensure that images and colors are perceived naturally.
You will find this term commonly used in Image Processing, Human-Computer Interaction
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