Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

593 Pages·2009·8.783 MB·English

by  Harry Henderson

EncyclopEdia of
computEr sciEncE
and tEchnology
Revised edition

haRRy hendeRson
In memory of my brother,
Bruce Henderson,
who gave me my first opportunity to explore
personal computing almost 30 years ago.
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Revised Edition
Copyright © 2009, 2004, 2003 by Harry Henderson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any
information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher.
For information contact:
Facts On File, Inc.
An imprint of Infobase Publishing
132 West 31st Street
New York NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Henderson, Harry, 1951–
Encyclopedia of computer science and technology / Harry Henderson.—Rev. ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8160-6382-6
ISBN-10: 0-8160-6382-6
1. Computer science—Encyclopedias. 2. Computers—Encyclopedias. I. Title.
QA76.15.H43 2008
004.03—dc22 2008029156
Facts On File books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk quantities
for businesses, associations, institutions, or sales promotions. Please call our Special Sales
Department in New York at [phone] or [phone].
You can find Facts On File on the World Wide Web at http://www.factsonfile.com
Text design by Erika K. Arroyo
Cover design by Salvatore Luongo
lllustrations by Sholto Ainslie
Photo research by Tobi Zausner, Ph.D.
Printed in the United States of America
VB Hermitage 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on acid-free paper and contains
30 percent postconsumer recycled content.
c on t E n t s
ACKNOWLEDgmENTS
iv
INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED EDITION
v
A–Z ENTRIES
1
APPENDIx I
Bibliographies and Web Resources
527
APPENDIx II
A Chronology of Computing
529
APPENDIx III
Some Significant Awards
542
APPENDIx IV
Computer-Related Organizations
553
INDEx
555
a c k no w l E d g m E n t s
Iw ish to acknowledge with gratitude the patient and thorough
management of this project by my editor, Frank K. Darmstadt. I can
scarcely count the times he has given me encouragement and nudges
as needed. I also wish to thank Tobi Zausner, Ph.D., for her ability and
efficiency in obtaining many of the photos for this book.
iv
i n t r od u c t ion to t h E
r E v i s E d E d i t i on
Chances are that you use at least one computer or com- The book’s philosophy is that because computer tech-
puter-related device on a daily basis. Some are obvi- nology is now inextricably woven into our everyday lives,
ous: for example, the personal computer on your desk or at anyone seeking to understand its impact must not only
your school, the laptop, the PDA that may be in your brief- know how the bits flow, but also how the industry works
case. Other devices may be a bit less obvious: the “smart” and where it may be going in the years to come.
cell phone, the iPod, a digital camera, and other essentially
specialized computers, communications systems, and data New aNd eNhaNced coverage
storage systems. Finally, there are the “hidden” computers
The need for a revised edition of this encyclopedia becomes
found in so many of today’s consumer products—such as
clear when one considers the new products, technologies,
the ones that provide stability control, braking assistance,
and issues that have appeared in just a few years. (Consider
and navigation in newer cars.
that at the start of the 2000 decade, Ajax was still only a
Computers not only seem to be everywhere, but also
cleaning product and blog was not even a word.)
are part of so many activities of daily life. They bring
The revised edition includes almost 180 new entries,
together willing sellers and buyers on eBay, allow you
including new programming languages (such as C# and
to buy a book with a click on the Amazon.com Web site,
Ruby), software development and Web design technologies
and of course put a vast library of information (of vary-
(such as the aforementioned Ajax, and Web services), and
ing quality) at your fingertips via the World Wide Web.
expanded coverage of Linux and other open-source soft-
Behind the scenes, inventory and payroll systems keep
ware. There are also entries for key companies in software,
businesses running, track shipments, and more problem-
hardware, and Web commerce and services.
atically, keep track of where people go and what they
many other new entries reflect new ways of using infor-
buy. Indeed, the infrastructure of modern society, from
mation technology and important social issues that arise
water treatment plants to power grids to air-traffic con-
from such use, including the following:
trol, depends on complex software and systems.
modern science would be inconceivable without com- • blogging and newer forms of online communication
puters to gather data and run models and simulations. that are influencing journalism and political cam-
Whether bringing back pictures of the surface of mars or paigns
detailed images to guide brain surgeons, computers have
• other ways for users to create and share content, such
greatly extended our knowledge of the world around us and
as file-sharing networks and YouTube
our ability to turn ideas into engineering reality.
The revised edition of the Facts On File Encyclopedia of • new ways to share and access information, such as
Computer Science and Technology provides overviews and the popular Wikipedia
important facts about these and dozens of other applica-
• the ongoing debate over who should pay for Internet
tions of computer technology. There are also many entries
access, and whether service providers or governments
dealing with the fundamental concepts underlying com-
should be able to control the Web’s content
puter design and programming, the Internet, and other
topics such as the economic and social impacts of the infor- • the impact of surveillance and data mining on privacy
mation society. and civil liberties
v
vi    Introduction to the Revised Edition
• threats to data security, ranging from identity thieves This book can also be useful to obtain an overview of
and “phishers” to stalkers and potential “cyberterror- particular areas in computing by reading groups of related
ists” entries. The following listing groups the entries by cat-
egory.
• the benefits and risks of social networking sites (such
as mySpace)
AI and Robotics
• the impact of new technology on women and minori-
artificial intelligence
ties, young people, the disabled, and other groups
artificial life
Other entries feature new or emerging technology, such Bayesian analysis
as Breazeal, Cynthia
Brooks, Rodney
• portable media devices (the iPod and its coming suc-
cellular automata
cessors)
chess and computers
• home media centers and the gradual coming of the cognitive science
long-promised “smart house” computer vision
Dreyfus, Hubert L.
• navigation and mapping systems (and their integra-
Engelberger, Joseph
tion with e-commerce)
expert systems
• how computers are changing the way cars, appliances, Feigenbaum, Edward
and even telephones work fuzzy logic
genetic algorithms
• “Web 2.0”—and beyond
handwriting recognition
Finally, we look at the farther reaches of the imagina- iRobot Corporation
tion, considering such topics as knowledge representation
Kurzweil, Raymond C.
• nanotechnology
Lanier, Jaron
• quantum computing maes, Pattie
mcCarthy, John
• science fiction and computing
minsky, marvin Lee
• philosophical and spiritual aspects of computing mIT media Lab
natural language processing
• the ultimate “technological singularity”
neural interfaces
In addition to the many new entries, all existing entries neural network
have been carefully reviewed and updated to include the
Papert, Seymour
latest facts and trends.
pattern recognition
robotics
gettiNg the Most out of this Book singularity, technological
software agent
This encyclopedia can be used in several ways: for example,
speech recognition and synthesis
you can look up specific entries by referring from topics in
telepresence
the index, or simply by browsing. The nearly 600 entries
Weizenbaum, Joseph
in this book are intended to read like “mini-essays,” giving
not just the bare definition of a topic, but also developing its
Business and E-Commerce Applications
significance for the use of computers and its relationship to
other topics. Related topics are indicated by small capital Amazon.com
letteRs. At the end of each entry is a list of books, articles, America Online (AOL)
and/or Web sites for further exploration of the topic. application service provider (ASP)
Every effort has been made to make the writing acces- application software
sible to a wide range of readers: high school and college application suite
students, computer science students, working computer auctions, online
professionals, and adults who wish to be better informed auditing in data processing
about computer-related topics and issues. banking and computers
The appendices provide further information for refer- Bezos, Jeffrey P.
ence and exploration. They include a chronology of sig- Brin, Sergey
nificant events in computing; a listing of achievements in business applications of computers
computing as recognized in major awards; an additional Craigslist
bibliography to supplement that given with the entries; customer relationship management (CRm)
and finally, brief descriptions and contact information for decision support system
some important organizations in the computer field. desktop publishing (DTP)
Introduction to the Revised Edition    vii
enterprise computing certification of computer professionals
google Cisco Systems
groupware compatibility and portability
home office computer industry
management information system (mIS) Dell, Inc.
middleware education in the computer field
office automation employment in the computer field
Omidyar, Pierre entrepreneurs in computing
online advertising gates, William III (Bill)
online investing grove, Andrew
online job searching and recruiting IBm
optical character recognition (OCR) Intel Corporation
Page, Larry journalism and the computer industry
PDF (Portable Document Format) marketing of software
personal health information management microsoft Corporation
personal information manager (PIm) moore, gordon E.
presentation software motorola Corporation
project management software research laboratories in computing
smart card standards in computing
spreadsheet Sun microsystems
supply chain management Wozniak, Steven
systems analyst
Computer Science Fundamentals
telecommuting
text editor Church, Alonzo
transaction processing computer science
trust and reputation systems computability and complexity
word processing cybernetics
Yahoo! hexadecimal system
information theory
Computer Architecture
mathematics of computing
addressing measurement units used in computing
arithmetic logic unit (ALU) Turing, Alan mathison
bits and bytes von Neumann, John
buffering Wiener, Norbert
bus
Computer Security and Risks
cache
computer engineering authentication
concurrent programming backup and archive systems
cooperative processing biometrics
Cray, Seymour computer crime and security
device driver computer forensics
distributed computing computer virus
embedded system copy protection
grid computing counterterrorism and computers
parallel port cyberstalking and harassment
reduced instruction set computer (RISC) cyberterrorism
serial port Diffie, Bailey Whitfield
supercomputer disaster planning and recovery
USB (Universal Serial Bus) encryption
fault tolerance
Computer Industry
firewall
Adobe Systems hackers and hacking
Advanced micro Devices (AmD) identity theft
Amdahl, gene myron information warfare
Apple Corporation mitnick, Kevin D.
Bell, C. gordon online frauds and scams
Bell Laboratories phishing and spoofing
benchmark RFID (radio frequency identification)
viii    Introduction to the Revised Edition
risks of computing class
Spafford, Eugene H. constants and literals
spam data
spyware and adware data abstraction
Y2K Problem data structures
data types
Databases
enumerations and sets
CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) heap (data structure)
data conversion Knuth, Donald
data dictionary list processing
data mining numeric data
data security operators and expressions
data warehouse sorting and searching
database administration stack
database management system (DBmS) tree
database variable
hashing
Development of Computers
information retrieval
Oracle Corporation Aiken, Howard
SAP analog and digital
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) analog computer
SQL Atanasoff, John Vincent
Babbage, Charles
Data Communications and Networking
calculator
(General) Eckert, J. Presper
bandwidth history of computing
Bluetooth Hollerith, Hermann
broadband mauchly, John William
cable modem mainframe
client-server computing minicomputer
data acquisition Zuse, Konrad
data communications
Future Computing
data compression
DSL (digital subscriber line) bioinformation
error correction Dertouzos, michael
fiber optics Joy, Bill
file server molecular computing
file transfer protocols nanotechnology
FireWire quantum computing
local area network (LAN) trends and emerging technologies
modem ubiquitous computing
network
Games, Graphics, and Media
satellite Internet service
Shannon, Claude E animation, computer
synchronous/asynchronous operation art and the computer
telecommunications bitmapped image
terminal codec
Wifi color in computing
wireless computing computer games
computer graphics
Data Types and Algorithms
digital rights management (DRm)
algorithm DVR (digital video recording)
array Electronic Arts
binding film industry and computing
bitwise operations font
Boolean operators fractals in computing
branching statements game consoles
characters and strings graphics card
Introduction to the Revised Edition    ix
graphics formats domain name system (DNS)
graphics tablet eBay
image processing e-books and digital libraries
media center, home e-commerce
multimedia e-mail
music and video distribution, online file-sharing and P2P networks
music and video players, digital flash and smart mob
music, computer HTmL, DHTmL, and xHTmL
online gambling hypertext and hypermedia
online games Internet
photography, digital Internet applications programming
podcasting Internet cafes and “hot spots”
PostScript Internet organization and governance
RSS (real simple syndication) Internet radio
RTF (Rich Text Format) Internet service provider (ISP)
sound file formats Kleinrock, Leonard
streaming (video or audio) Licklider, J. C. R.
Sutherland, Ivan Edward mashups
video editing, digital Netiquette
YouTube netnews and newsgroups
online research
Hardware Components
online services
CD-ROm and DVD-ROm portal
flash drive Rheingold, Howard
flat-panel display search engine
floppy disk semantic Web
hard disk social networking
keyboard TCP/IP
monitor texting and instant messaging
motherboard user-created content
networked storage videoconferencing
optical computing virtual community
printers Wales, Jimmy
punched cards and paper tape Web 2.0 and beyond
RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) Web browser
scanner Web cam
tape drives Web filter
Webmaster
Internet and World Wide Web Web page design
active server pages (ASP) Web server
Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and xmL) Web services
Andreessen, marc wikis and Wikipedia
Berners-Lee, Tim World Wide Web
blogs and blogging xmL
bulletin board systems (BBS)
Operating Systems
Bush, Vannevar
cascading style sheets (CSS) demon
Cerf, Vinton g. emulation
certificate, digital file
CgI (common gateway interface) input/output (I/O)
chat, online job control language
chatterbots kernel
conferencing systems Linux
content management memory
cookies memory management
Cunningham, Howard (Ward) message passing
cyberspace and cyber culture microsoft windows
digital cash (e-commerce) mS-DOS
digital convergence multiprocessing