NAT L INST OF STAND & TECH R.j^C. NIST X3/TR-1—77 PUBLICATIONS -SniDB 517103 1977 SEPTEMBER X3 TECHNICAL REPORT Adopted tor Use by the Federal Government AMERICAN NATIONAL DICTIONARY FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING FIPS 11-1 See Notice on Inside Front Cover M AMERICAN NATIONAL STANDARDS COMMITTEE X3 — COMPUTERS & INFORMATION PROCESSING JKm - ■ PRsA2> tlD II- I iq-n ab( TTTli This DICTIONARY has been adopted for Federal Government use as a basic reference document to promote a common understanding of information processing terminology. Details concerning the specific use of this DICTIONARY are contained in Federal Information Processing Standards Publication 11-1, DICTIONARY FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING For a complete list of publications avail¬ able in the FIPS Series, write to the Office of ADP Standards Management, Institute for Computer Sciences and Technology, National Bureau of Stan¬ dards, Washington, D C 20234 f-^oftH Qvlas vi StzaiiTft DEC 7 1378 X3/TR-1-77 not (\ Cc - ;<£ 1977 September SKI American National Dictionary for Information Processing American National Standards Committee X3 — Computers and Information Processing Secretariat: Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association Published by Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association 1828 L Street NW, Washington DC 20036 202/466-2299 Copyright © 1977 by Computer and Business Equipment Manufacturers Association All rights reserved. Permission is herby granted for quotation, with accreditation to "American National Dictionary for Information Processing, X3/TR-1-77". of up to fifty terms and their definitions. Other than such quotation, no part of this publication may be reproduced in any form, in an electronic retrieval system or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America. AMERICAN NATIONAL DICTIONARY FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING 1 Foreword The communication of facts and ideas de¬ The members of Technical Committee pends upon a mutual understanding of who participated in the development of terminology. This is particularly true in this Dictionary were: the rapidly growing field of information processing, in which there is a continuing M. H. Weik, Jr., Chairman need for a comprehensive source of tech¬ J. R. Wood, Vice-Chairman nical terms and definitions. J. L. Walkowicz, Secretary E. A. Anderson By direction of the American National L. A. Difford Standards Committee on Computers and P. M. Gaynor Information Processing (X3) the Technical C. R. Gethmann Committee on Vocabulary (X3K5) pre¬ Dr. S. Gorn pared this American National Dictionary F. T. Grampp for Information Processing (ANDIP). The R. R. Hegland Dictionary is based on the American Na¬ T. D. C. Kuch tional Standard Vocabulary for Informa¬ T. Leach tion Processing, X3.12-1970, published by R. P. Mullinax the American National Standards Institute. A. J. Neumann The Dictionary was developed not only Dr. G. Patterson (Deceased) by combining existing lexicons, but also R. D. Pngge by studying the use of terms throughout H. E. Thiess the field of computers and information C. K. Vanderhoof processing. Technical Committee X3K5, in consultation with other X3 technical Sequence of Entries committees, used proposed and approved The sequence of entries in this Dictionary American national standards and vocabu¬ is determined on a letter-by-letter basis, in laries submitted by other bodies as the other words, only the letters of the alpha¬ sources of terms and definitions. The bet are used to determine the sequence of Dictionary influenced the development of entries. sections of the International Organization for Standardization Vocabulary of Data Processing, prepared by ISO Technical Organization of an Entry Committee 97, Subcommittee 1 (ISO/TC An entry consists of a term or the ab¬ breviation or acronym for a term followed 97/SC 1), and includes terms and defini¬ by a commentary. When a commentary tions from that vocabulary. includes several different definitions for that term, each definition is a separate Advances in the field of information proc¬ item. When an item is used to refer to essing cause changes in terminology. all the terms having the same last word, Suggestions for changes or additions to it lists all of these terms in natural order this document should be addressed to the and precedes this list with the word Computer and Business Equipment “See”. Manufacturers association, 1828 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. 2 AMERICAN NATIONAL DICTIONARY FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING Selection of Terms disciplines) A term is a word or group of words to (16) International Definitions be defined. In this Dictionary, the singu¬ (17) USA Definition lar form of the noun and the infinitive (18) References form of the verb are the terms most often selected to be defined. If the term can Each item may include an item number, a be abbreviated, the abbreviation is given source label, a usage label, a descriptive in parentheses immediately following the phrase, an annotation, and a reference to term. other terms, in that order. Organization of a Commentary Item Number A commentary consists of one or more Each item in a commentary is numbered items (definitions or references) arranged consecutively starting with item (1). If in the following order: the commentary consists of only one item, the item number is omitted. Noun Form General Definitions Source Label (1) International Definition This label precedes the definition and (2) USA Definition identifies the source of the definition. (3) References Definitions bearing the source label (ISO) are based on material developed by the Specific Definitions (for special International Organization for Standardiza¬ disciplines) tion. All other definitions are based on (4) International Definition sundry authoritative sources. (5) USA Definition (6) References Usage Label Verb Form (if applicable) This label is a word or phrase that indi¬ General Definitions cates the area or manner of usage of the (7) International Definition (8) USA Definition item. For example, the label “In (9) References programming” indicates an area of usage, and the label “Loosely,” indicates a man¬ Specific Definitions (for special ner of usage. The usage label is followed disciplines) by a comma. (10) International Definition (11) USA Definition Descriptive Phrase (12) References This states, or provides an initial state¬ ment of, the definition of the term and Adjective Form (if applicable) may be assumed to be preceded by the General Definitions phrase, “(the term) is defined as.” The (13) International Definition descriptive phrase completes the initial ( 14) USA Definition sentence. The part of speech of the term (15) References being defined is indicated by the introduc¬ tory words in the descriptive phrase, Specific Definitions (for special where the word “to” indicates a verb. AMERICAN NATIONAL DICTIONARY FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING 3 “pertaining to” indicates a modifier, and as described below. The reference sym¬ other words indicate a noun. bols are described in the order in which they would occur within an entry: Annotation This part of the definition consists of any Deprecated term for. Indicates that the number of complete sentences. These term should not be used (because it is sentences follow the descriptive phrase obsolete, misleading, ambiguous, or and provide additional descriptive or ex¬ jargon) and refers to the preferred term. planatory information. Synonymous with. Identifies terms that References have the same meaning as the defined A reference consists of a symbol or term, and which refer to the defined term phrase to direct the user to another item with a “Synonym for” reference symbol. in the same commentary or to another en¬ try or item in the Dictionary. If the term Synonym for. Refers to a defined term being defined is an acronym or abbrevia¬ that has the same meaning. tion, the complete unabbreviated term is given and the term is defined in a sepa¬ Contrast with. Refers to a term that rate entry (except where the abbreviation has an opposite or substantively different or acronym is predominantly used; e.g., FORTRAN.) An italicized term occurring meaning. in a commentary indicates that the term, or a grammatically different form of it, See. Refers to multiple-word terms that has been defined elsewhere in the Dic¬ have the same last word or words. tionary. Also, the reference symbols (De¬ precated term for. Synonymous with. See also. Refers to related terms that Synonym for. Contrast with. See, and See have a similar, but not synonymous, also) explain the nature of the reference meaning. 4 AMERICAN NATIONAL DICTIONARY FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING A abstract symbol (1) (ISO) A symbol whose meaning and use have not been determined by a general agreement but have to be de¬ fined for each application of the sym¬ absolute address bol. (1) (ISO) An address in a computer lan¬ (2) In optical character recognition, a guage that identifies a storage location symbol whose form does not suggest or a device without the use of any in¬ its meaning and use; these should be termediate reference. defined for each specific set of ap¬ (2) An address that is permanently as¬ plications. signed by the machine designer to a storage location. access (3) Synonymous with explicit address, ma¬ See direct access, direct access storage, im¬ chine address, specific address. mediate access storage, random access, remote access, serial access. absolute addressing (ISO) A method of addressing in which access arm the address part of an instruction contains A part of a disk storage unit that is used an absolute address. to hold one or more reading and writing heads. absolute coding Coding that uses computer instructions access mode with absolute addresses. Synonymous A technique that is used to obtain a with specific coding. specific logical record from, or to place a specific logical record into, a file assigned absolute error to a mass storage device. (1) (ISO) The algebraic result of subtract¬ ing a true, specified, or theoretically access time correct value from the value comput¬ (1) (ISO) The time interval between the ed, observed, measured, or achieved.