Common Information Technology Abbreviations

Acronyms are like abbreviations; in that, they are a shorthand way of expressing an idea. An abbreviation is a short form of a word. While the first letter of each word in a sentence forms an acronym. Below, there is a list of common information technology abbreviations. It also shows what they stand for and s short definition.

ABM – Asynchronous Balanced Mode

ABM is a communication mode of HDLC that manages peer-to-peer communications between nodes at the same level (peers), and two stations, where either party may start the transmission.

ABR – Available Bit Rate

ABR is a type of service in high-speed networks such as ATMs. It enables systems and devices such as routers. ABR takes advantage of the additional capacity while the transmission rates increase.

AC – Alternating Current

AC is a type of electrical current that produces a sinusoidal variation of voltage. Alternating current changes direction in a circuit at regular intervals.

ACF – Advanced Communications Function

ACF is the set of IBM SNA products (Systems Network Architecture), which provide distributed processing and resource sharing, such as VTAM and NCP.

ACK – Acknowledgment

ACK is a brief message to inform the sender that data has arrived at the desired destination. This message may show if the data arrived safely or if it had problems reaching its destination. In data networking, an acknowledgment is a signal passed between communicating processes or computers to signify acknowledgment, or receipt of a response, as part of a communications protocol.

ACPI – Advanced Configuration and Power Interface

ACPI is an industry-standard interface that enables OS-directed configuration, power management, and thermal management of mobile, desktop, and server platforms.

ADSL – Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line

ADSL is a type of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) Internet service. Some homes use it. ADSL uses most of the channels to send data, while a small part receives data. It can distribute ADSL over short distances from the telephone exchange, typically less than 4 kilometers or 2 miles.

ASCII – American Standard Code for Information Interchange

ASCII is a character set that includes letters and symbols used in all computer systems of any country or language. Each code represents English characters as numbers. 128 values ranging from 0 to 127

Windows applications can generate Special ASCII symbols by activating the keyboard NUM LOCK function, pressing the ALT key, and entering some numbers on the numeric keypad (while holding down the ALT key). The ASCII symbol appears after pressing and releasing when the ALT key while entering the ASCII number.

BASIC – Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

BASIC is a computer programming language. John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz created BASIC while at Dartmouth College in the mid-1960s. BASIC has been one of the most popular computer programming languages. BASIS is a simple computer language, an easy step for students to learn before getting into more powerful languages.

People use BASIC in a wide variety of business applications. There is an ANSI standard for the BASIC language. Microsoft Visual Basic is an advanced version of BASIC, which adds visual and object-oriented features.

BBS – Bulletin Board System

BBS is a computer system for data exchange among a group of people sharing the same geographical area. Users exchange files, messages, and other information between them. It was a popular communication system before WWW between the 1980s and 1990s. Old networks used this board system, which disappeared after the Internet became more used.

Bcc – Blind Carbon Copy

Bcc is a function that allows sending electronic mail (e-mail) to several recipients. Unlike the CC function, the recipients’ name does not appear in the header.

The functions to: and CC: (Carbon Copy) allow recipients to view the list of names who receive a copy of the e-mail, which does not happen with the Bcc function that hides recipients’ names.

That is useful if you want to copy a message to many people without each of them seeing who the other recipients are.

Bps – Bits Per Second

Bps or b/s is the measure of data speed for computer modems and transmission carriers. It is equal to the number of bits transmitted or received each second.

CAD – Computer-Aided Design

CAD is software for creating precision drawings, two and three-dimensional. Architects and engineers mainly use it. CAD is used to design products such as electronic circuit boards in computers and other devices.

CAM – Computer-Aided Manufacturing

CAM refers to the use of computers in the industry’s manufacturing processes, such as automatically coordinated operations of conveyor systems, cutting, and forming machines, and riveting and welding machines. Besides materials requirements, modern CAM systems include real-time controls and robotics.

FE – Fast Ethernet

Fast Ethernet or 100Base-T provides transmission speeds up to 100 megabits per second. Fast Ethernet began in the mid-1990s. At that time, the need for higher LAN performance became critical for universities and businesses.

HTTP – HyperText Transmission Protocol

HTTP is a protocol for transferring files or hypertext documents across the network. Web browsers and servers communicate with each other using HTTP as a standard. That enables the transfer of text files, graphics, video, audio, and other multimedia resources.

IBM – International Business Machines

IBM is the world’s largest information technology and IT consulting corporation, with headquarters in Armonk, New York, United States. Its products include hardware and software for a line of business servers, storage products, custom-designed microchips, and application software. IBM has endorsed open standard technologies and developed new revenue lines offering to host website management software and servers, and its version of Web services.

I/O – Input/Output

I/O describes any program or device that transfers data from a computer to a peripheral device or vice versa. The CPU handles all I/O operations. Every transfer is an output from one device and an input to another.

The keyboard and mouse are input devices, while the output devices are the screen and printer. I/O ports are on the outside of a computer, where you can connect input or output devices.

IS – Information System

IS or Information System is a collection of technical and human resources that provide storage, computing, distribution, process data, and information required by an organization. The main components of information systems are computer hardware and software.

IT – Information Technology

IT Information Technology or Management Information Services (MIS) or Information Services (IS) refers to computers and software that manage information. Information Technology is the application of computers and telecommunications equipment to create, store, exchange, retrieve, transmit, and manipulate data. This term includes both telephony and computer technology.

PIXEL – Picture Element

A pixel is the smallest component of an image or picture. A digital image comprises rows and columns of pixels. Resolution is the number of horizontal and vertical pixels.

TCP/IP – Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol

TCP/IP  is a protocol that has two separate protocols: TCP, Transmission Control Protocol, is an IP, Internet Protocol. Both protocols work together. TCP/IP protocol is the basis for the operation of the Internet and intranet.

Y2K – The year 2000

The abbreviation Y2K stands for the Year 2000. The abbreviation combines the letter Y for “year”, and k for the prefix kilo (1000); therefore, 2K signifies 2000. Y2K refers to the Year 2000 Computer Crisis, generated by hardware and software problems that cannot recognize the year with 4 digits.

Y2K refers to a bug in the code of a computer program that occurred when a year used only its last two digits and the program interprets that year as falling between 1900 and 1999 instead of between 2000 and 2099. Until the 1990s, many computer programs abbreviated four-digit years as two digits to save memory space. Other names that Y2K receives are Y2K problem, the Millennium bug, the Y2K bug, or simply Y2K.

ZIF – Zero Insertion Force

ZIF is a socket in the computer motherboard and is used to connect an electrical connector without applying force to the connector. Intel designed this socket and included a small lever to insert and remove the computer processor. The lever allows a user to add or remove a computer processor with no tools. ZIF sockets refer to the insertion of chips that do not require pressure. The ZIF interface was developed through eight variations, each with a differing number of pins and pin layout arrangements.