The rapidly changing pace of information technology leads to acronyms and terms being created and used seemingly overnight. This glossary is a guide to the most commonly used and confused IT terms designed to help managers better communicate with (and understand) their IT staff. | Global Knowledge Expert Reference Series ofWhite Papers Geek-Speak Glossary A Manager s Guide to IT Terminology 1-800-COURSES Geek-Speak Glossary A Manager s Guide to IT Terminology Introduction The rapidly changing pace of information technology leads to acronyms and terms being created and used seemingly overnight. This glossary is a guide to the most commonly used and confused IT terms designed to help managers better communicate with and understand their IT staff. Glossary of Terms 10Base5 10 Mbps baseband 500 meter one of several physical media specified by for use in an Ethernet local area network LAN consists of Thickwire coaxial cable with a maximum segment length of 500 meters 10Base2 10 Mbps baseband 185 meter one of several physical media specified by IEEE for use in an Ethernet local area network LAN consists of Thickwire coaxial cable with a maximum segment length of 185 meters 10BaseT 10 Mbps baseband unshielded twisted-pair one of several physical media specified by IEEE for use in an Ethernet local area network LAN is ordinary telephone twisted pair wire 100BaseT 100 Mbps baseband unshielded twisted-pair one of several physical media specified by IEEE for use in an Ethernet local area network LAN referred to as Fast Ethernet because of its higher transmission speed AAL ATM adaptation layer adapts PDUs passed down from higher layers onto ATM cells Active hub allows multiple devices to be wired to a central location to share the same media and regenerate the signal also referred to as multiport repeaters ADSL asymmetric digital subscriber line typical form of xDSL telephone companies offer to residences AGP accelerated or advanced graphics port a high-speed point-to-point channel for attaching a graphics card to a computer s motherboard primarily to assist in the acceleration of 3D computer graphics ALU arithmetic logic unit a digital circuit that calculates an arithmetic operation . addition .
