I
* I/O Device
* I/O Space
* I2O: Intelligent I/O
* IBM PC
* IC: Integrated Circuit
* ICE: In-Circuit Emulator
* ICR: Intelligent Character Recognition
* IDB: Interface Description Block
* IDF: Intermediate Distribution Frame
* IEEE 1284
* IEEE 1394
* IEEE 488
* ImageWriter
* Impact Printer
* Indeo
* InfiniBand
* Ink-Jet Printer
* Input Device
* I/O: Input/Output
* IOCC: I/O Channel Controller
* Instruction
* Instruction Cycle
* Instruction pipeline
* Instruction Set
* Integrated Peripheral
* Intelligent Terminal
* Interface
* Interface Encapsulation
* Interface Standard
* Inter-IC (I2C) Bus
* Interleaved Memory
* Internal Bus
* Internal Data Bus
* Internal Modem
* IP Router
* IP Switch
* IPC: Instructions Per Clock
* IRMA Board
* IRQ: Interrupt Request Line
* ISA: Industry-Standard Architecture
* ISA Bus: Industry Standard Architecture Bus
* iSCSI: Internet Small Computer System Interface
* Itanium
I/O Device
Input/Output (I/O) Device is for transfering data to or from a computer or a processor. Typical I/O devices include printers, hard disk, keyboard and mouse. Some devices are basically input-only devices (keyboard and mouse); others are primarily output-only devices (CD) and others provide both input and output of data (hard disk, diskette, writeable CD-ROMs).
I/O space
I/O space is a special memory region in some processors reserved for the attachment of I/O devices. Memory locations and registers within a processor's I/O space can only be accessed via special opcodes.
I2O: Intelligent I/O
Intelligent I/O, also known as I2C, is an I/O architecture developed by the I2O special Interest Group (SIG). Intelligent Input/Output (I2O) is a hardware specification that describes a model for offloading I/O processing from the CPU. This has the potential to result in extremely high performance I/O, but it is not a replacement for the PCI architecture. The model is after the style of what has been used in very large mainframes for years.
IBM PC
International Business Machines Personal Computer (IBM PC) is typically a single user personal computer, although they have been adapted into multi-user models for special applications. The predecessor of the current personal computers and progenitor of the IBM PC compatible hardware platform, it was introduced in August 1981. The original model was designated the IBM 5150. The competible models of the IBM PC dominate the personal computer market.
IC: Integrated Circuit
Integrated Circuit (IC), also known as IC chip or chip, is a small electronic device made out of a semiconductor material. One piece of IC contains hundreds of thousands of previously separate (discrete) components. The “computer on a chip” or "system on a chip" is a special purpose and super large scale integrated circuit.
ICE: In-Circuit Emulator
In-Circuit Emulator (ICE) is a hardware device used to debug the software of an embedded system. Embedded systems present special problems for a programmer, because they usually lack keyboards, screens, disk-drives and other helpful user interfaces and storage devices that are present on business computers. The ICE provides the resources needed to access the target microprocessor. An emulator connects to or completely replaces the target CPU via a large cable, which routes all signals to the ICE unit. In-circuit emulators frequently incorporate a special bond-out version of the target processor that brings normally buried signals out of the chip to the ICE's logic circuits.
ICR: Intelligent Character Recognition
Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR) refers to the computer translation of hand written characters. Data is entered from hand-printed forms through a scanner, and the image of the captured data is then analyzed and translated by sophisticated ICR software. ICR is similar to optical character recognition (OCR), which recognizes printed text, but more complicated since it has to recognize handwritten characters.
IDB: Interface Description Block
Interface Description Block (IDB) is a sub-block area of memory that is private to an application. This area stores private information and states variables that an application wants to associate with an IDB or an interface. The application uses the IDB to register a pointer to its sub-block, not to the contents of the sub-block itself.
IDF: Intermediate distribution frame
Intermediate distribution frame (IDF) is a cable rack for managing and interconnecting the telecommunications cable between end user devices and a main distribution frame (MDF). Cables entering a building run through a centralized MDF, then each individual IDF (maybe on each of th floor) and then on to specific workstations.
IEEE 1284
IEEE 1284 is a standard that defines bi-directional parallel communications between computers and other devices. IEEE 1284 is widely used as the interface for the communications between the computer and the printer parallel port.
IEEE 1394
IEEE 1394 is an external bus standard that supports data transfer rates of up to 400Mbps (in 1394a) and 800Mbps (in 1394b). The IEEE 1394 multimedia connection enables simple, low-cost, high-bandwidth real-time data interfacing between computers, peripherals, and consumer electronics products such as camcorders, VCRs, printers, PCs, TVs, and digital cameras. With IEEE 1394-compatible products and systems, users can transfer video or still images from a camera or camcorder to a printer, PC, or television, with no image degradation.
IEEE 488
IEEE-488, now 488.1, is a communication bus standard that allows up to 15 devices to share a single bus by daisy-chaining, with the slowest device participating in the control and data transfer handshakes to determine the speed of the transaction. The maximum data rate is about one megabyte per second. IEEE-488 is based on the Hewlett-Packard Instrument Bus (HP-IB).
ImageWriter
The ImageWriter was a dot matrix printer manufactured by Apple Computer. Originally designed to work with the Apple II and Macintosh computers, it could produce images as well as text, up to a resolution of 144 DPI. The laser printer by Apple is called LaserWriter.
ImageWriter may also means programming semiconductor devices after they are already mounted on a circuit board. The programmer, designed by Data I/O Corporation, has device-specific algorithms for microcontroller or programmable memory devices, and these algorithms are used to serially write a binary image into the programmable array on the device, using serial interfaces such as SPI, I2C, or RS232.
impact printer
Impact priter is a type of printers that work by banging a head or needle against an ink ribbon to make a mark on the paper. This includes dot-matrix printers, daisy-wheel printers, and line printers. In contrast, laser and ink-jet printers are nonimpact printers. Though impact printers are not used much as computer printers but they are still useful in cases where multi-layer forms are printed at the same time.
Indeo
Indeo, developed by Intel, is a computer video codec (compression/decompression) technology. Although it is a software -only codec, Indeo is based on the DVI, which is a hardware -only codec. It is is well-suited to CD-ROM, has fairly high compression times, and plays back on a wide variety of machines. Competing video standards include Cinepak and MPEG.
InfiniBand
InfiniBand, developed by InfiniBand Trade Association (IBTA), is an I/O architecture and a specification for the transmission of data between processors and I/O devices. Instead of sending data in parallel, which is what PCI does, InfiniBand sends data in serial and can carry multiple channels of data at the same time in a multiplexing signal. InfiniBand Technology, replacing PCI, will be used to connect servers with remote storage and networking devices, and other servers. It will also be used inside servers for inter-processor communication (IPC) in parallel clusters.
ink-jet printer
Ink-jet printer, also known as inkjet, is a type of printer that works by spraying ionized ink at a sheet of paper. Most current inkjets work by having a print cartridge with a series of tiny electrically-heated chambers constructed by photolithography. To produce an image, the printer runs a pulse of current through the heating elements. A steam explosion in the chamber forms a bubble, which propels a droplet of ink onto the paper.
input device
Input deveice is an equipment that feeds data into a computer. For example, keyboard, touch screen and mouse are all user input devices. Computer modem and network cards are network input devices. Contrast to output devices such as monitor, printer etc.
I/O: Input/Output
Input/output, or I/O, is a process or operation that transfers data to or from a computer or a processor. It also refers to the interfaces of different computer units or sub-systems to communicate with each other. Inputs are the signals received by the unit, and outputs are the signals sent from it. The term can also be used as part of an action; to "do I/O" is to perform an input or output operation. Typical I/O devices include printers, hard disk, keyboard and mouse. Some devices are basically input-only devices (keyboard and mouse); others are primarily output-only devices (such as CD) while still others provide both input and output of data (hard disk, diskette, writeable CD-ROMs).
IOCC: I/O Channel Controller
I/O Channel Controller is a simple CPU used to handle the task of moving data to and from the memory of a computer.
instruction
In computer technologies, instruction, also known as computer instruction, refers to a basic command at the level of computer's machine language. It is typically a single operation of a processor within a computer architecture.
instruction cycle
The time period during which one instruction is fetched from memory and executed when a computer is given an instruction in machine language. There are typically four stages of an instruction cycle that the CPU carries out: 1) Fetch the instruction from memory. 2) "Decode" the instruction. 3) "Read the effective address" from memory if the instruction has an indirect address. 4) "Execute" the instruction.
Instruction pipeline
An instruction pipeline is a technique used in the design of microprocessors and other digital electronic devices to increase their performance. Pipelining reduces cycle time of a processor and hence increases instruction throughput, the number of instructions that can be executed in a unit of time.
instruction set
Instruction set, also known as command set, is the basic group of commands, or instructions, that a computer and its microprocessor understands and perform certain actions accordingly. Insruction set describes the aspects of a computer architecture visible to a programmer, including the native datatypes, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O (if any).
integrated peripheral
Integrated Peripheral refers to the peripheral device that is housed within the main container of the computer, for example, internal CD-ROM drive.
intelligent terminal
Intelligent terminal, als known as "smart terminal" or "programmable terminal", is a type of monitor and keyboard that contains processing power. Intelligent terminals include memory and a processor to perform special display operations. It also comes with a disk drive and printer. It can perform limited processing tasks when not communicating directly with the central computer. Some can be programmed by the user to perform many basic tasks, including both arithmetic and logic operations. In some cases, when the user enters data, the data will be checked for errors and some type of report will be produced. In addition, the valid data that is entered may be stored on the disk, it will be transmitted over communication lines to the central computer.
Interface
An interface, in computing or networking, is a defined means for a system to communicate with other systems. It is a boundary between a system and its environment providing ways of providing the system inputs and receiving outputs. In Object Oriented programming, class definitions and method signatures provide interfaces. Application program interfaces (APIs) form the interface of a system to applications and often consist of collections of functions or commands in a scripting language. Interfaces may be hidden (available only to the system developer) or exposed (available to others).
Interface Encapsulation
An interface encapsulates refers to an implementation in a system in which the system implementation can be changed without changing the interface. With the interface encapsulation property, the changes in the system will not effect its way to communicate with other systems.
Interface Standard
Interface standard refers to a standard in communications that defines one or more functional and/or physical characteristics necessary to allow the exchange of information between two or more systems or equipments. An interface standard may include operational specifications and acceptable levels of performance.
Inter-IC (I2C) bus
Inter-IC (I2C) bus, designed by Philips Semiconductors, is a bi-directional two-wire serial bus that provides a communication link between integrated circuits (ICs). I2C bus has been used in televisions, VCRs, audio equipment and computer monitors. I2C bus has also become the de facto solution for embedded applications.
interleaved memory
Interleaved Memory refers to the memory in which is divided into a set of banks. An interleaved memory with banks is said to be -way interleaved. One way of allocating virtual addresses to memory modules is to divide the memory space into contiguous blocks. The CPU can access alternate sections immediately, without waiting for memory to catch up (through wait states). Interleaved memory is one technique for compensating for the relatively slow speed of dynamic RAM (DRAM).
internal bus
Internal bus, also known as Internal data bus, memory bus or system bus or front-Side-Bus, connects all the internal components of a computer, such as CPU and memory, to the motherboard. Internal data buses are also referred to as a local bus, because they are intended to connect to local devices. This bus is typically rather quick and is independent of the rest of the computer operations.
internal data bus
Internal data bus, also known as memory bus or system bus or front-Side-Bus, connects all the internal components of a computer, such as CPU and memory, to the motherboard. Internal data buses are also referred to as a local bus, because they are intended to connect to local devices. This bus is typically rather quick and is independent of the rest of the computer operations.
internal modem
Internal modem, also known as on board modem (OBM), is installed on an expansion board inside a computer chase. In contrast, an external modem is a box that attaches to a computer's COM port via cables.
IP router
A IP router is a computer networking device that forwards data packets across an internetwork toward their destinations using the Internet Protocol (IP). Routing occurs at layer 3 (the Network layer) of the OSI seven-layer model and IP is the layer 3 protocol in the TCP/IP protocol suite.
IP Switch
IP Switch is a device that forwards packets based solely upon destination IP addresses. The device does not necessarily speak any IP routing protocol(s) and does not perform routing or routing calculations. It learns the IP addresses of the attached devices by examining the IP source addresses. The goal is to switch IP packets faster than traditional router-based layer 3 forwarding.
IPC: Instructions Per Clock
In computer architecture, Instructions Per Clock(IPC), also known as Instruction Per Cycle, is a term used to describe one aspect of a processor's performance: the average number of individual assembler instructions executed for each clock cycle. It is the multiplicative inverse of Cycles Per Instruction.
IRMA board
IRMA board, an expansion board for PC and Macintosh, enables the personal computers to emulate IBM 3278 and 3279 mainframe terminals. Personal computers with IRMA boards can be used as both stand-alone computers and as terminals connected to a mainframe computer.
IRQ: Interrupt Request Line
Interrupt Request Line (IRQ) is conductor lines on the internal bus over which devices such as a port or disk controller can send interrupt signals to the microprocessor. When you add a new device to a PC, you sometimes need to set its IRQ number by setting a DIP switch. This specifies which interrupt line the device may use. IRQ conflicts used to be a common problem when adding expansion boards, but the Plug-and-Play specification has removed this headache in most cases.
ISA: Industry-Standard Architecture
Industry-Standard Architecture (ISA) is a 16-bit bus technology used for for IBM compatible personal computers (PC). ISA is now mostly succeeded by Intel's 32-bit Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus technology.
ISA bus: Industry Standard Architecture bus
Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus refers to the bus using ISA in the IBM PC and compatibles. It is designed to connect peripheral cards to the motherboard. The protocols also allows for bus mastering although only the first 16 MB of main memory is available for direct access. Starting in the early 90s, ISA began to be replaced by the PCI local bus architecture. Most computers made today include both an AT bus for slower devices and a PCI bus for devices that need better bus performance.
iSCSI: Internet Small Computer System Interface
Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) is a TCP/IP-based protocol for establishing and managing connections between IP-based storage devices, hosts and clients, which is called Storage Area Network (SAN). The SAN makes possible to use the SCSI protocol in network infrastructures for high-speed data transfer at the block level between multiple elements of data storage networks.
Itanium
The Itanium is an IA-64 microprocessor developed jointly by Hewlett-Packard and Intel. Itanium is a 64-bit RISC microprocessor based on the EPIC (Explicitly Parallel Instruction Computing) design philosophy. Itanium is designed to replace Intel's Xeon line of processors. As a proprietary architecture (not derived from x86), AMD would not be able to clone it. Over time, there was even an aspiration it might transition to high end desktops.