Dictionary of Acronyms and Technical Abbreviations: for IT, Industrial, and Scientific Applications

720 Pages·1997·16.67 MB·English

by  Jakob Vlietstra (auth.)

Dictionary of Acronyms and
Technical Abbreviations
Springer
London
Berlin
Heidelberg
New York
Barcelona
Budapest
Hong Kong
Milan
Paris
Santa Clara
Singapore
Tokyo
Jakob Vlietstra
Didionary of
Acronyms and
Technical
Abbreviations
for IT, Industrial, and Scientific Applications
, Springer
Jakob Vlietstra
1968 Buckeye Road, Willits, CA 95490, USA
ISBN-13:978-3-S40-761S2-S
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Vlietstra, J. (Jakob), 1932-
Dictionary of acronyms and technical abbreviations : (for
IT, industrial and scientific applications)
I.Technology - Abbreviations - Dictionaries
I.Titie
601.4'8
ISBN -13: 978-3-540-76152-5
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vlietstra, J.
Dictionary of acronyms and technical abbreviations : for IT,
industrial and scientific applications 1 Jakob Vlietstra.
p. cm.
ISBN-13: 978-3-540-76152-5 e-ISBN-13: 978-1-4471-3396-4
DOl: 10.1007/978-1-4471-3396-4
1. Engineering--Acronyms. 2. Engineering--Abbreviations.
3. Science--Acronyms. 4. Science--Abbreviations. 5. Information
technology--Acronyms. 6. Information technology--Abbreviations.
TA11.V55 1997 97-13049
620'.001'48--dc21 elP
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© Springer-Verlag London Limited 1997
The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the
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regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of
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Typeset by Michael Ihming Jones
69/3830-543210 Printed on acid-free paper
DictiOlJ.lry of AcronYllls ,1Ild Tcchnic.ll Abbrn i,ltiollS
I \'
INTRODUCTION
My first encoWlter with acronyms took place when I was ten years
old and growing up in an occupied COWltry during the Second
World War. My father proudly annoWlced one day that, despite
the ban imposed by the occupying administration, he had managed
to get a radio installed and could receive the BBC. (All acronyms
used in this introduction are listed in this dictionary.) To me the
meaning of"BBC" was that we would receive different information
about the war than we got from the usual censored broadcasts.
There was, of course, the well-known acronym associated with the
nT, but at that time I did not realize that it meant more than the
postal service, in those years a deteriorated service.
Gradually the daily use of acronyms grew. Most of the newly
acquired three- and four-letter abbreviations referred to organiza
tions, such as the broadcasting corporations in The Netherlands
and Belgium, and references to coWltries such as the USA, USSR,
and UK. When attending high school (the HBS) after the war, my
knowledge of acronyms grew slowly.
Even during the ten years I spent in the Dutch Merchant
Marine (the GHV), the number of acronyms was limited to ad
vanced equipment that eventually became known as RADAR,
LORAN, and DECCA.
In 1960 I joined Philips Research Laboratories as a novice
programmer and began to Wlderstand that I had entered an
entirely different world of language constructs: a world of
mnemonics, acronyms, codes, abbreviations, identification symbols,
etcetera. The transition into this situation took some time,
especially since I had to abandon the casual "seafarer's" language
that I used.
In my first research reports and official publications, I made it
a habit to list at the end of each report and article the used
acronyms, codes, and abbreviations, and their definitions. During
thirty years working in various capacities in the industrial sectors
of a large electronics firm and a communication giant, I accumu
lated all of this material. After retiring in 1992 I added to a
growing list the acronyms that appeared in books, conference pro
ceedings, articles, manuals, handbooks, procedures, guidelines, and
standards. The result is this book, containing approximately 32000
items. These appear regularly in articles that treat methods,
solutions, case studies, research studies, and applications in
industrial environments where the computer, information, and
communication technologies are part of standard practice and
vi / Vlictstr.l
standard operations.
This dictionary is a collection of acronyms, abbreviations,
symbolic names, identifiers, and initials. These are being used in
IT-related activities in industry, industrial organizations, matlll
facturing firms, consultancy ftrms, standardization institutes,
conference organizers, (research) organizations, and academic
institutions. It is my assessment that in more than 80% of the cases
where acronyms appear, this dictionary will deftne the meaning of
the acronym. The acronyms listed pertain to such areas as:
• Information Technology
• Electronics
• Telecommunications
• Networks (including the Internet and World Wide Web)
• Computer-Aided Applications (CAD, CAE, CAM, CAT, CAL,
etc.)
• Administration and Accounting
• Manufacturing
• Logistics and Planning
• Automatic Control
and other related subjects.
The dictionary also contains symbolic names of organizations
and institutions directly connected to the subjects listed above, as
well as the abbreviated names of conferences, symposia, and work
shops where the mentioned subject areas are treated. In addition,
the dictionary contains the standard two-letter country codes.
These are used here to indicate that the organizations listed are
national organizations operating in the country identifted by its
two-letter code. This reference is omitted where the name of the
country appears in the explanation of the acronym.
The potential readers are those who are constantly confronted
with many acronyms and abbreviations in the current literature
without knowing what they stand for. It is my experience that the
editors of many magazines pay little attention to whether the
acronyms used in their publications are explained properly. At one
time I complained to an editor-in-chief that in one of her public
ations a speciftc article contained more than 40 acronyms without
any deftnitions. She acknowledged my complaint and promised to
remedy this situation. Despite this promise her editorial of the next
issue began with a sentence containing three acronyms without
mention of what these acronyms stood for. I wonder if she knew
the intrinsic meaning of the language constructs she used. Our
language has become so inundated with acronyms and abbrevi
ations that in many cases one acronym or abbreviation may stand
for many different products, methods, notions, etc. There are
DicriOl1.1r\' of Acroll\'llls ,md 1 cchnic.l1 AbblT\ i,uions / vii
already 45 mappings for PC, while ATM can be, amongst others,
Automatic Teller Machine, Asynchronous Transfer Mode, or
Adobe Typeface Manager. Although in many cases the correct
meaning is easily derived from the context in which the acronym
appears, it is easy to construct a sentence that contains all three
meanings of ATM.
This dictionary may serve other users than those who are
struggling with deciphering the text of an article, or worse, an
advertisement that is polluted with incomprehensible two-, three
or more letter words that cannot be found in any dictionary. Devel
opers or sales people who want to identify a new product with a
new acronym may use this dictionary to check whether that
acronym exists. In this case don't be too sure that it has not been
used already. It may be one of the 20% of acronyms or abbrevi
ations that I have been unable to trace so far.
The acronyms are all listed in capital letters, with the exception
of acronyms and abbreviations that reflect a specific type of
measurement like "ips" (inches per second) or "rpm" (revolutions
per minute). Some acronyms may contain small letters but only in
situations where the originators of these acronyms specifically
intended to use them. The sorting has been carried out by using the
acronyms as the ftrst key and the deftnitions as the second key. In
the acronyms and deftnitions, special characters (space, comma,
quotations mark, slash, dash, dot, etc.) have been ignored. Acro
nyms, codes, or abbreviations made up of small letters have pre
cedence in the sorting procedure over capital letters, while numbers
have precedence over letters, with the exception of numbers that
occur in the symbolic identiftcation of standards (as in V.56,
X.20bis, etc.).
California, December 1996.
Diction,]r\' of Acronyms ,1Ild rcchnic.lI ;\bbrc\'i,]tions, I
A-AAT
A Ampere
A Angstrom
AA Absolute Address(ing)
AA Application Architecture
AA Application Association
AA Arithmetic Average
AA Audible Alarm
AA Author's Alteration
AA Auto Answer
AAB All-to-All Broadcast
AAC Advanced Airborne Computer
AAC Automatic Aperture Control
AACS Advanced Automatic Compilation System
AAD Analog Analog Digital
AAD Automatic Answering Device
AADC All Application Digital Computer
AADS Automatic Application Development System
AAE American Association of Engineers
AAE Audible Alarm Equipment
AAEE American Association of Electrical Engineers
AAG Attribute Adjacency Graph
AAGR Average Annual Growth Rate
AAIMS An Analytical Information Management System
AAL Absolute Assembly Language
AAL ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) Adaptation Layer
AALx ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) Adaptation Layer
protocol x (x=l, 2, 3, 4, or 5)
AAM Application Activity Model
AAO Authorized Acquisition Objective
AAOS Automatic Assembly Ordering System
AAP Analyst Assistance Program
AAP Applications Access Point
AAP Associative Array Processor
AAP Attached Application Processor
AAR A-Address Register
AAR Associative Array Register
AAR Automatic Alternate Routing
AARNet Australian Academic Research Network
AARP AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol
AARS Automatic Address Recognition Subsystem
AAS Advanced Administrative System
AAS Advanced Automated System
AAS All-to-All Scatter
AAS Automatic Addressing System
AASP ASCII Asynchronous Support Package
AAT Arbitrated Access Timer
AAT Automatic Assembly Terminal
AAT Average Access Time
J. Vlietstra, Dictionary of Acronyms and Technical Abbreviations
© Springer-Verlag London Limited 1997
2/ Vlictstra
AAU Address Arithmetic Unit
AAUI Apple Attaclunent Unit Interface
AAVD Automatic Alternate Voice Data
AB Abort (session)
AB Address Bus
AB Answer Back
AB Arithmetic Bus
ABA Automatic Blood Analysis
ABAC Association of Business and Administrative Computing
(US)
ABACUS Agents and Brokers Automated Computer Users System
ABATS Automatic Bit Access Test System
ABB Array of Building Blocks
ABBR Abbreviation
ABC Activity Based Costing
ABC Airborne Computer
ABC Approach By Concept
ABC Atanasoff-Berry Computer
ABC Automatic Bandwidth Control
ABC Automatic Binary Computer
ABC Automatic Brightness Control
ABCCIS Airbase Command and Control Information System
ABCS Automatic Base Communication Systems
ABD Abbreviated Dialing
ABD Automatic Block Diagramming
ABDL Automatic Binary Data Link
ABE Aritlunetic Building Element
ABEL Acid Base Electrolyte Disorders
abend abnormal end
ABEND Abnormal End of task
ABET Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology
ABFD Affordable Basic Floppy Disk
ABI Application Binary Interface
ABIC Adaptive Bilevel Image Compression
ABIOS Advanced BIOS
ABIST Automatic Built-In Self-Test
ABL Accepted Batch Listing
ABL Architectural Block diagram Language
ABL Atlas Basic Language
ABL Automatic Bootstrap Loader
ABLB Alternate Binaural Loudness Balance
ABLE Activity Balance Line Evaluation
ABLE Adaptive Battery Life Extender
ABLP Air Bearing Lift Pad
ABM Activity Based Management
ABM Asynchronous Balanced Mode
ABME Asynchronous Balanced Mode Extended
ABMPS Automated Business Mail Processing System
ABMS Automated Batch Manufacturing System
ABO Add-on Box Orders
ABOL Adviser Business Oriented Language
ABP Actual Block Processor
or
Diction.ln' AcronYllls ,mel l'cchnicd AbblT\ i.1tions .3
AAU-ACAMPS
ABP Alternate Bipolar
ABPS Automated Bill Payment System
ABR Automatic Baud Rate
ABR Available Bit Rate
ABRS Automated Book Request System
ABS Absolute
ABS Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene
ABS Anti-lock Braking System
ABS Average Busy Season
ABSLDR Absolute Loader
ABT Abort
ABT Abort Timer
ABT Advanced Board Technology
ABT Answer Back Tone
ABTC Adaptive Block Truncation Coding
ABTS ASCII Block Terminal Services
ABW Advise By Wire
ABWA American Business Women/s Association
AC Accept Command
AC Access Control
AC Accumulator
AC Acoustic Coupler
AC Activity Control
AC Actual Count
AC Adaptive Control
AC Address Check
AC Address Counter
AC Alteration Cancellation
AC Alternate Cancellation
AC Alternating Current
AC Analog Computer
AC Aperture Card
AC Application Context
AC Association Control
AC Atmospheric Compatibility
AC Author's Correction
AC Automatic Calling
AC Automatic Computer
AC Automatic Configuration
AC Automatic Control '
ACA Adjacent Channel Attenuation
ACA Advanced Calculator Attachment
ACA Advanced Computing Attachment
ACA Asynchronous Communications Adapter
ACA Automatic Circuit Assurance
ACAM Augmented Content-Addressed Memory
ACAMPS Automated Communications And Message Processing
System