Access Network
The network that connects a user's telephone equipment to the telephone exchange.
ADN: Stands for Advanced Digital Network.
ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line)
High-speed technology that enables the transfer of data over existing copper phone lines, allowing more bandwidth downstream than upstream.
Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS)
A term used for analog technologies, the first generation of wireless technologies.
Analog
A form of transmitting information characterized by continuously variable quantities. Digital transmission, on the other hand, is characterized by discrete bits of information in numerical steps. An analog signal responds to changes in light, sound, heat and pressure.
Analog IC
A semiconductor that processes a continuous wave of electrical signals based on real-world analog quantities such as speed, pressure, temperature, light, sound and voltage.
Applets
Small applications that Net browsers can download from the Internet on an as-needed basis. These may be software, accessories (such as spell checkers or calculators), information-packed databases or other items. Applets are object-based.
Appliance
See "Internet Appliance" below.
Application Server
A computer that handles all operations between a company's back-end applications or databases and the users' computers' Web browsers.
Application service provider (ASP)
A company that provides software functionality over the Internet or a private network for a fee.
Application Software
Software applications that are intended for end-users, such as database programs, word processors, and spreadsheets. Application software runs on top of system software.
Archie
This software tool can be used to find files stored on anonymous FTP sites, as long as the user knows the file name or a substring of the file name that is being searched for.
Architecture
The overall design of a system of hardware or software, which includes definitions ranging from precise mechanisms to broad outlines.
ARPANet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network)
The forefather of the Internet, the ARPANet was developed during the latter part of the 1960's by the United States Department of Defense.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The branch of computer science concerned with making computers behave like humans. When computer scientists first developed AI decades ago, they built their systems around logic and rules that attempted to duplicate human knowledge by imitating the logic process. Neural networks, which serve as the backbone of many AI systems in use today, strive toward the same result-the replication of human intelligence. But neural networks are biologically based; they mimic human brain processes by ingesting large amounts of disparate information and using it to make a conclusion instead of basing an answer on a learned set of rules.
ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Exchange)
128 standard ASCII codes exist that represent all Latin letters, numbers and punctuation. Each ASCII code is represented by a seven-digit binary number, such as 0000000 or 0000111. This code is accepted as a standard throughout the world.
ASP (Application Service Provider)
A web site that enables utilization of software and databases that reside permanently on the web site rather than having to be downloaded to the user's computer. Advantages include the fact that multiple remote users may access the same tools over the Internet and the ASP provider is responsible for developing and maintaining the software.
Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
A digital switching and transmission technology based on high speed. ATM allows voice, video and data signals to be sent over a single telephone line at speeds from 25 million to 1 billion bits per second (bps). This digital ATM speed is much faster than traditional analog phone lines, which allow no more than 2 million bps.
Authentication
The process of confirming a user's identity; commonly done through the use of passwords or digital certificates.
