Here you find explanation for computer terms.

Our dictionary is sorted alphabetically so you can easily find the words you are looking for.




PAL
Phase Alternation Line. Television norm in Western Europe, working with a resolution of 625 lines and an automatic, line-by-line colour correction.


Palm
PDA by a company of the same name with it's own operating system (PalmOS). Please read also PDA.


PARC
Palo Alto Research Center. Research center from Xerox, where amongst others Apple-CEO Steve Jobs gained relevant inspirations for the development of the Macs (mouse handling, desktop system).


Partition
A Partition is an independant area on the hard disk. Hard disks can be divided into several partitions, which can be treated like individual drives. Since every partition has it's own file system, more than one operating system can be installed on the same computer such as Linux and Windows.

Most of the time, computers with a pre-installed operating system are already partitioned. This way the operating system is commonly found in the first partition (mostly C: in Windows), data in the second partition. Data can be saved even if there is an error in the windows partition. The program fdisk on a Windows starting floppy disk is able to create and administrate partitions (formatting) on empty hard disks.


Partitioning
The creation of several partitions on the hard disk of a computer. The programm fdisk on a Windows starting floppy disk is able to create and administrate partitions (formatting) on empty hard disks.


Patch
A small program, intended to fix bugs in a software.


Particle System
Procedure used in raytracing programs. It describes functions which integrate a large number of small objects (particles) into the scene in an optimized way, considering memory and computing time, for example for digital snow storms, fireworks or explosions.


PC
In contrast to large powerful servers, Personal Computers are low priced and modularly constructed for the personal use at home. Most of the time they are equipped with Windows or Linux operting system. The first PC was developed by IBM in 1991 and this model defined the PC standard. The largest number of today's computers are PCs (exception: Apple computers).


PCI Interface
PCI is a card interface on the mainboard. A distinction is drawn between card interfaces with the ISA and PCI ports. more...


PCMCIA
PCMCIA is a plug-in card system for notebooks, comparable to PCI slots of desktop computers. more...


PDA
Personal Digital Assistents are small computers in the size of the calculator. They are used to type text, send e-mails, plan dates and make notes on the way. more...


PDF
Please read Acrobat.


Peer-to-peer
(P2P) Network structure without central data memory. This way, every computer is server and client at the same time.


Pentium
Pentium is the notion for a processor by Intel. A distinction is drawn between models (and stage of development) Pentium, PentiumII, PentiumIII und PentiumIV.


Performance
Performance stands for the speed a computer needs to execute certain program commands and operations. Therefore it counts as an indicator for a system's capability.


PGP
Pretty Good Privacy. Software for e-mail ciphering.


Pin
Personal Identification Number, access number or password for online banking.


Pixel
Abbreviation for picture element. Images displayed on a monitor consist of individual pixel. Pixel is commonly abbreviated with "px", for example "800 x 600 px" The higher the number of pixel, the better the quality but also the bigger the filesize. By enlarging a picture with the help of image editing software, individual pixel can be identified and edited.


Pixelmapping
Function offered by expensive digital cameras. Broken deadpixel are recognized and deactivated by the camera. These missing parts of the image are compensated by interpolation of nearby pixel.


Plug-in
Small additional programs for the browser in order to enable multimedia applications (video, music...).


Polygon
Geometric element out of an arbitrary number of connected lines, each of them connecting two points in the shortest way.


POP3
Post Office Protocol. A pop3 server collects the e-mails of the receiver and saves these until the in-box is called up.


POST
Power On Self Test. When starting a computer, this automatic test checks all necessary components on operational reliability. If everything is alright, a short signal resounds. If something is wrong, this is indicated by four short loud signal tones.


PostScript
Programming language for the description of graphical objects and text characters for the transmission from the computer to the printer or laser exposer.


Printserver
A computer within a network allocating incoming data to one or more printers as well as managing incoming print jobs in a wating loop. These jobs are finished one after another by the printers.


Provider
A provider offers access to internet services. Access providers allow the dial-in with modems or DSL, while an e-mail provider offers in-boxes for digital messages.


Process Colours
Colours created in four-colour-printing as combination colours out of the primary colours cyan, magenta, yellow and black.


Processor
The Processor (also called main processor or CPU) is the central calculating unit of the computer; the chip is executing all commands from programs. more...


Proxy Server
A special computer of the provider saves frequently visited webpages. This way, loading time of these pages decreases.


Pulldown Menu
Standard element within graphical user interfaces. On mouse click, the menu opens down in a window providing a list of commands. The desired command is selected on mouse click as well. Example: The computerhilfen quick start navigation.