IT Glossary

The process of removing all data from flash memory, typically involving resetting all bits to a high state (1). Flash memory must be erased before being reprogrammed because flash memory devices can only directly flip bits from 1 to 0.

Commonly used in Hardware, Data Storage

A technique used in solid-state drives (SSD) where extra capacity is allocated to help manage wear leveling and improve the drive’s lifespan and performance.

Commonly used in Storage, Hardware

A technology used to update the firmware of a device wirelessly, without requiring physical access to the device.

Commonly used in Mobile Development, IoT

The process of updating or modifying the firmware of flash-memory devices through a software interface.

Commonly used in Embedded Systems

A type of non-volatile storage that uses flash memory to store data, even without power. It’s faster and more reliable than traditional hard drives.

Commonly used in Hardware, General IT

Software that manages the placement of data in flash memory. It translates between the logical addresses used by the system software and the physical addresses of the flash memory, handling wear leveling, bad block management, and garbage collection.

Commonly used in Hardware, General IT

Storage media that use flash memory for data retention. Flash-based storage devices, such as SSDs (Solid State Drives), USB flash drives, and memory cards, offer faster access times and greater durability compared to traditional magnetic hard drives.

Commonly used in Hardware, Storage

A sudden surge in traffic to a specific website or network, often as a result of an event that prompts a large number of people to access the same digital resources simultaneously.

Commonly used in Networking, Web Development

A simple database system that stores all data in a single file or table. It is called “flat” because it has minimal structure, typically consisting of a row for each record, with fields separated by delimiters.

Commonly used in General IT, Databases

A network design where all nodes communicate with each other without hierarchical routing, often used within data centers.

Commonly used in Networking

A network design approach where all devices are connected to the same network switch or hub, without hierarchical routing, making them equally accessible to one another. It simplifies configuration but can be less scalable and secure than segmented network designs.

Commonly used in Networking

A CSS layout model that allows for the arrangement of elements on a page such that they behave predictably when the page layout must accommodate different screen sizes and display devices.

Commonly used in Web Development

The principle of designing systems, software, or architectures to easily accommodate changes or expansions in functionality without major overhauls.

Commonly used in Software Development, Systems Design

A semiconductor packaging technique where the chip is “flipped” so that the active area is facing down towards the printed circuit board (PCB). This allows for shorter interconnects, improved performance, and reduced size.

Commonly used in Hardware, Electronics

A digital electronic circuit used to store a binary state, being a basic building block of memory and sequential logic circuits. Flip-flops can hold a single bit of data and are used in various applications, including registers, counters, and memory devices.

Commonly used in Hardware, Electronics

Data collected from mobile devices and other non-fixed sources that can be used for dynamic, real-time applications, such as traffic management systems.

Commonly used in AI, Data Analysis

An IP address that can be dynamically reassigned to any node in a network or cloud environment. This flexibility is useful for failover, high availability, and mobile IP scenarios, ensuring services remain accessible even in the event of a node failure.

Commonly used in Networking, Cloud Computing

A software licensing approach where a limited number of licenses for a software application are shared among a larger number of users over time. When an active user closes the application, the license becomes available for another user.

Commonly used in Software Development, Management

A method of representing an approximation of real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. The term is derived from the fact that a number’s decimal point can “float”; that is, it can be placed anywhere relative to the significant digits of the number.

Commonly used in Software Development, General IT

A method of representing real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. The IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic (IEEE 754) is a widely-used standard that defines the format for floating-point numbers, operations, and rounding behavior.

Commonly used in Software Development, Hardware

A specialized part of a computer’s CPU designed to perform operations on floating-point numbers, which are numbers with decimal points.

Commonly used in Computing, Hardware

A measure of computer performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, indicative of the number of floating-point operations that can be performed by a computer in one second.

Commonly used in Hardware, General IT, AI

A measure of a computer’s performance in executing floating-point operations per second, relative to its maximum theoretical performance.

Commonly used in Computing, Performance Analysis

The study of data flows within a system or process, often used in software engineering and information systems to identify the movement of information between components and optimize processes for efficiency and security.

Commonly used in Software Development, Networking

A technique for managing the pace of data transmission between two nodes to prevent a fast sender from overwhelming a slow receiver.

Commonly used in Networking

Techniques used in networking to prevent data congestion by controlling the pace of data transmission between two or more devices.

Commonly used in Networking

A set of rules governing how much data can be sent and how fast it can be sent over a network or communication channel. Flow control protocols prevent data overflow at the receiver by managing the data transmission rate.

Commonly used in Networking, Telecommunications

In computer networking, a technique used in TCP/IP to control the amount of data that can be sent before requiring an acknowledgment, preventing network congestion.

Commonly used in Networking

A technology that is used to analyze the physical and chemical characteristics of particles in a fluid as it passes through at least one laser. While not IT-exclusive, its data analysis applications are significant in bioinformatics.

Commonly used in Bioinformatics

The measurement of the amount of data that passes through a network interface over a given period of time.

Commonly used in Networking, System Monitoring

A programming paradigm that emphasizes the application’s logic as a series of transformations on data streams or “flows,” making it particularly suited for data processing and parallel computing.

Commonly used in Software Development, AI

A programming paradigm that defines applications as networks of “black box” processes, which exchange data across predefined connections by message passing. These processes can be reconnected easily to form different applications without modifying the internal logic.

Commonly used in Software Development

A diagram that represents a workflow or process, showing the steps as boxes of various kinds, and their order by connecting them with arrows. It’s a useful tool in both designing new processes and improving existing ones.

Commonly used in General IT, Software Development

Software used to create flowcharts, which are diagrams that represent a process or algorithm. They are useful for visualizing complex processes and are widely used in business analysis, software engineering, and process documentation.

Commonly used in Software Development

A method of visually representing algorithms, workflows, or processes using symbols and arrows to show the flow of control. Flowcharts are used in software development for planning, documenting, and communicating complex processes in a clear and understandable way.

Commonly used in Software Development

A method of coding that provides more readable code, often used in object-oriented languages to implement method chaining.

Commonly used in General IT, Software Development

The use of computational algorithms to simulate the flow of fluids. It’s not strictly an IT term but is used in computational fluid dynamics software for simulations in engineering.

Commonly used in General IT, Software Development

A web design approach where layout dimensions are specified in relative units (such as percentages), which allows the design to adapt to the viewing environment, providing better accessibility and user experience across different devices.

Commonly used in Software Development

The process of clearing the DNS cache, removing all the information that your computer has stored regarding website names and their corresponding IP addresses.

Commonly used in Networking, Security

An open-source UI software development kit created by Google. It’s used to develop applications for Android, iOS, Linux, Mac, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and the web from a single codebase.

Commonly used in Software Development

The underlying software development kit powering Flutter, Google’s UI toolkit for crafting natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. The Flutter Engine is written primarily in C++ and supports rendering, I/O, and plugin architecture.

Commonly used in Software Development

A popular open-source framework by Google for building natively compiled applications for mobile, web, and desktop from a single codebase. It provides a fast and expressive way for developers to build user interfaces.

Commonly used in Software Development

The core building blocks of the Flutter framework, used to create and manage the user interface in mobile and web applications developed with Flutter.

Commonly used in Software Development, Mobile Development

A software design pattern that minimizes memory use by sharing as much data as possible with related objects; it is particularly useful in the creation of large numbers of objects.

Commonly used in Software Development, Design Patterns

A communications protocol standard for embedding small amounts of digital information in conventional FM radio broadcasts.

Commonly used in Multimedia, Broadcasting

A step-by-step approach for identifying all possible failures in a design, a manufacturing or assembly process, or a product or service. It is used to determine the effect of failures on system reliability and to identify the parts that are most in need of change.

Commonly used in General IT, Quality Assurance

A web crawling technique that uses algorithms to download only web pages that are relevant to a predefined set of topics.

Commonly used in Web Technologies, AI

An architectural extension of cloud computing, which involves the deployment of data handling resources and application services closer to the edge of the network, to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of data that needs to move across the network.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing, Networking

An architectural layer in fog computing that distributes computing, storage, and networking services closer to end devices, along the cloud-to-thing continuum. It is designed to reduce latency, network traffic, and enhance the processing of IoT data.

Commonly used in Cloud Computing, IoT

An architectural extension of cloud computing, which involves bringing computing, storage, and networking services closer to end devices, at the network edge.

Commonly used in Networking, Cloud Computing