Intel 4004
<processor> The world's first microprocessor, released in 1971. The 4004
contained 2300 transistors (compared with 5.5 million in the 1996 Pentium Pro)
and was intended for use in a calculator. It processed data in 4 bits, but its
instructions were 8 bits long. Program and Data memory were separate, it had 1
kilobyte of data memory and a 12-bit PC for 4K of program memory (in the form of
a 4 level stack, used for CALL and RET instructions). There were also sixteen
4-bit (or eight 8-bit) general purpose registers. The 4004 had 46 instructions.
(1997-03-30)
Nearby terms:
integration « integration testing « integrity
constraint «
Intel 4004 » Intel 4040 » Intel 486 » Intel
486DX
Intel 4040
<processor> An enhanced version of the Intel 4004, adding 14
instructions, larger (8 level) stack, 8 kbyte program memory and interrupt
abilities (including shadows of the first 8 registers). The 4040 was similar to
the Intel 8008.
(1994-10-31)
Nearby terms:
integration testing « integrity constraint « Intel
4004 «
Intel 4040 » Intel 486 » Intel 486DX » Intel
486SX
Intel 486
<processor> (Or "i486", "iAPX 80486", and "Intel DX4" but usually just
"486"). A range of Intel CISC microprocessors which is part of the Intel 80x86
family of processors.
The 486s are very similar to their immediate predecessor, the Intel 80386DX. The
main differences are that the 486 has an optimised instruction set, has an
on-chip unified instruction and data cache, an optional on-chip floating-point
unit (FPU), and an enhanced bus interface unit. These improvements yield a rough
doubling in performance over an Intel 80386 at the same clock rate.
There are several suffixes and variants including:
Intel 486SX - a 486DX with its FPU disabled (see crippleware).
Intel 486DX - 486SX with a working FPU.
486DX-2 - runs at twice the external clock rate.
486SX-2 - runs at twice the external clock rate.
486SL - 486DX with power conservation circuitry.
486SL-NM - 486SX with power conservation circuitry; SL enhanced suffix, denotes
a 486 with special power conservation circuitry similar to that in the 486SL
processors.
487 - 486DX with a slightly different pinout for use in 486SX systems.
OverDrive - 486DX-2 with a slightly different pinout for use in 486SX systems.
RapidCAD - 486DX in a special package with a companion FPU dummy package for use
in Intel 80386 systems.
Intel DX4, Cyrix Cy486SLC.
External clock rates include 16MHz, 20MHz, 25MHz, 33MHz, 40MHz, although 16Mhz
is rare now, and the 20MHz processors are often clock doubled.
The 486 processor has been licensed or reverse engineered by other companies
such as IBM, AMD, Cyrix, and Chips & Technologies. Some are almost exact
duplicates in specications and performance, some aren't.
The successor to the 486 is the Pentium.
(1995-02-21)
Nearby terms:
integrity constraint « Intel 4004 « Intel 4040 «
Intel 486 » Intel 486DX » Intel 486SX » Intel
487SX
Intel 486DX
<processor> One of Intel's Intel 486 family of microprocessors (one of
the last before the Pentium). The 486DX has a working built-in floating point
unit (FPU). The Intel 486SX is effectively a DX with the FPU disabled. The DX
has a pin to select the external data bus width (16 or 32).
The Intel 487SX is a 486DX with a 486SX pinout.
(1995-05-09)
Nearby terms:
Intel 4004 « Intel 4040 « Intel 486 « Intel 486DX
» Intel 486SX » Intel 487SX » Intel 8008
Intel 486SX
<processor> An Intel 486DX microprocessor with its floating-point unit
disconnected. All 486SX chips were fabricated with FPUs. If testing showed that
the CPU was OK but the FPU was defective, the FPU's power and bus connections
were destroyed with a laser and the chip was sold cheaper as an SX, if the FPU
worked it was sold as a DX.
[Was this true of all 486SX chips?]
Some systems, e.g. Aopen 486SX, allowed a DX to be plugged into an expansion
socket. A board jumper would disable the SX which was hard to remove because it
was surface mounted.
Some SX chips only had a 16-bit wide external data bus. The DX has a pin to
select the data bus width (16 or 32). On the smaller SX, that line is hard-wired
to 16 inside the package. This is similar to the 286 SX, which was a 16-bit
processor with an 8-bit external data bus.
The Jargon File claimed that the SX was deliberately disabled crippleware. The
German computer magazine, "c't", made this same theory the basis of an April
Fools Joke. They claimed that if one drilled a hole of a specified diameter
through the right point on a SX chip, this would brake the circuit that disables
the FPU. Some people actually tried (and then bought themselves new processors).
(1997-02-14)
Nearby terms:
Intel 4040 « Intel 486 « Intel 486DX « Intel
486SX » Intel 487SX » Intel 8008 » Intel 80186
Intel 487SX
<processor> A version of the Intel 486DX microprocessor with an extra
pin, for use in the coprocessor socket of an Intel 486SX system. The 487SX
provides the FPU which is missing in the 486SX.
Although the 486SX is completely disabled when you install a 487SX, the 487SX
design requires that you leave the 486SX in your PC [why?], rather than use it
elsewhere. Intel admits that in some systems you can unplug the 486SX and fit a
487SX in its place but they don't guarantee that it will always work.
See Intel 486.
(1995-05-10)
Nearby terms:
Intel 486 « Intel 486DX « Intel 486SX « Intel
487SX » Intel 8008 » Intel 80186 » Intel 80188
Intel 8008
<processor> A microprocessor intended for use as a terminal controller,
and similar to the Intel 4040. The 8008 had a 14-bit PC and addressing and an
eight level internal stack. It was followed by the Intel 8080.
[Date?]
(1994-10-31)
Nearby terms:
Intel 486DX « Intel 486SX « Intel 487SX « Intel
8008
» Intel 80186 » Intel 80188 » Intel 80286
Intel 80186
<processor> A microprocessor developed by Intel circa 1982. The 80186 was
an improvement on the Intel 8086 and Intel 8088. As with the 8086, it had a
16-bit external bus and was also available as the Intel 80188, with an 8-bit
external data bus. The initial clock rate of the 80186 and 80188 was 6 MHz. They
were not used in many computers, but one notable exception was the Mindset, a
very advanced computer for the time. They were used as embedded processors.
One major function of the 80186/80188 series was to reduce the number of chips
required.
"To satisfy this market, we defined a processor with a significant performance
increase over the 8086 that also included such common peripheral functions as
software-controlled wait state and chip select logic, three timers, priority
interrupt controller, and two channels of DMA (direct memory access). This
processor, the 80186, could replace up to 22 separate VLSI (very large scale
integration) and TTL (transistor-transistor logic) packages and sell for less
than the cost of the parts it replaced."
-- Paul Wells of Intel Corporation writing in Byte (reference below)
New instructions were also introduced as follows:
ENTER Make stcak frame for procedure parameters
LEAVE High-level procedure exit
PUSHA Push all general registers
POPA Pop all general registers
BOUND Check array index against bounds
IMUL Signed (integer) multiply
INS Input from port to string
OUTS Output string to port
["The Evolution of the iAPX 286", Bob Greene, Intel Corporation, PC Tech
Journal, December 1984, page 134].
["The 80286 Microprocessor", Paul Wells, Intel Corporation, Byte, November 1984,
p. 231].
(1999-05-10)
Nearby terms:
Intel 486SX « Intel 487SX « Intel 8008 « Intel
80186
» Intel 80188 » Intel 80286 » Intel 80386
Intel 80188
<processor> A version of the Intel 80186 with an 8 bit external data bus
(instead of 16 bit). This makes it cheaper to connect to peripherals.
(1995-01-13)
Nearby terms:
Intel 487SX « Intel 8008 « Intel 80186 « Intel
80188
» Intel 80286 » Intel 80386 » Intel 80386DX
Intel 80286
<processor> (Or "286", "i286") A microprocessor developed by Intel. THe
80286 processor has a 16-bit data bus and incorporates a memory management unit
that allowed a limited amount of multitasking. The 80286 only has a segmented
MMU while the later processors add a paged MMU "behind" the segmented one.
The 80286 was the processor in the IBM PC AT personal computer.
(1995-02-21)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8008 « Intel 80186 « Intel 80188 « Intel
80286
» Intel 80386 » Intel 80386DX » Intel 80386SX
Intel 80386
<processor> (Commonly abbreviated to "386", trademark "Intel386") The
successor to the Intel 80286 microprocessor. It was the first Intel processor
with 32-bit data and address busses. It can address four gigabytes (2^32 bytes)
of memory; however, 16 megabytes is a typical maximum in IBM PCs. The 386 allows
multiple application programs to run at the same time (when running under
386-specific operating systems) using "protected mode".
The first IBM compatible to use the 386 was the Compaq 386, before IBM used it
in high-end models of their PS/2 series. It is also used in HP's RS series and
many others.
It does not require special EMS memory boards to expand MS-DOS memory limits.
With the 386, the EMS standard can be simulated in normal extended memory, and
many DOS add-ons provide this "Expanded Memory Manager" feature.
See also Intel 80386SX, BSD386.
(1995-02-21)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80186 « Intel 80188 « Intel 80286 « Intel
80386
» Intel 80386DX » Intel 80386SX » Intel 8048
Intel 80386DX
<processor> A version of the Intel 80386 with a 32-bit data bus and
32-bit address bus, a BGA. The 386DX was clocked at 16 to 33 MHz by Intel and up
to 40 MHz by AMD. It comes in a BGA package.
(2003-07-05)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80188 « Intel 80286 « Intel 80386 « Intel
80386DX
» Intel 80386SX » Intel 8048 » Intel 80486
Intel 80386SX
<processor> A lower-speed version of the Intel 80386. It uses a 16-bit
data bus instead of a 32-bit data bus. It has a 24-bit address bus. It is faster
than the 286, and more importantly, like the full-size 386, provides more
flexibility in running existing DOS applications. Intel's version runs at 16
MHz, while AMD's can run at up to 33 MHz. It comes in a PFP package.
(2003-07-05)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80286 « Intel 80386 « Intel 80386DX « Intel
80386SX
» Intel 8048 » Intel 80486 » Intel 8051
Intel 8048
<processor> The microcontroller used in IBM PC keyboards. The 8048 was
inspired by, and similar to, the Fairchild F8 microprocessor but, being a
microcontroller, was designed for low cost and small size. The 8048 has a
modified Harvard architecture, with program ROM on chip and 64 to 256 bytes of
RAM also on chip. I/O is mapped in its own address space.
Though the 8048 was eventually replaced by the very popular but bizarre Intel
8051 and Intel 8052, even in 2000 it is still very popular due to its low cost,
wide availability, and development tools.
[Was it really _the_first_ microcontroller? Are the ROM and RAM both on-chip?]
(2000-06-01)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80386 « Intel 80386DX « Intel 80386SX «
Intel 8048
» Intel 80486 » Intel 8051 » Intel 8080
Intel 80486
Intel 486
Nearby terms:
Intel 80386DX « Intel 80386SX « Intel 8048 «
Intel 80486
» Intel 8051 » Intel 8080 » Intel 8085
Intel 8051
<processor> A microcontroller developed by Intel in 1980 for use in
embedded products and still (1999) one of the most popular microcontrollers.
The 8051/8031 cores are used in over 100 devices from 10 independent
manufacturers such as Dallas and Philips.
[What is the difference between the 8031/8051/8052?]
See also CAS 8051 Assembler, as31 assembler, 51forth.
8051 FAQ.
The 8031/51 series microcontroller.
Intel MCS51 series microcontrollers.
(1999-11-21)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80386SX « Intel 8048 « Intel 80486 « Intel
8051
» Intel 8080 » Intel 8085 » Intel 8086
Intel 8080
<processor> The successor to the Intel 8008. The 8080 had a 16-bit
address bus and an 8-bit data bus. It had seven 8-bit registers (six which could
also be combined as three 16-bit registers), a 16-bit stack pointer to memory
which replaced the 8008's internal stack and a 16-bit program counter. It also
had 256 I/O ports (so I/O devices could be connected without needing to allocate
any addressing space as is required for memory mapped devices) and a signal pin
that allowed the stack to occupy a separate bank of memory.
Shortly after the 8080, the Motorola 6800 was introduced.
[Date?]
(1994-10-31)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8048 « Intel 80486 « Intel 8051 « Intel
8080 » Intel 8085 » Intel 8086 » Intel 8088
Intel 8085
<processor> A microprocessor intended to be an improved Intel 8080, as
was the Zilog Z80.
(1994-10-31)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80486 « Intel 8051 « Intel 8080 « Intel
8085 » Intel 8086 » Intel 8088 » Intel 80x86
Intel 8086
<processor> A sixteen bit microprocessor chip used in early IBM PCs. The
Intel 8088 was a version with an eight-bit external data bus.
The Intel 8086 was based on the design of the Intel 8080 and Intel 8085 (it was
source compatible with the 8080) with a similar register set, but was expanded
to 16 bits. The Bus Interface Unit fed the instruction stream to the Execution
Unit through a 6 byte prefetch queue, so fetch and execution were concurrent - a
primitive form of pipelining (8086 instructions varied from 1 to 4 bytes).
It featured four 16-bit general registers, which could also be accessed as eight
8-bit registers, and four 16-bit index registers (including the stack pointer).
The data registers were often used implicitly by instructions, complicating
register allocation for temporary values. It featured 64K 8-bit I/O (or 32K 16
bit) ports and fixed vectored interrupts. There were also four segment registers
that could be set from index registers.
The segment registers allowed the CPU to access 1 meg of memory in an odd way.
Rather than just supplying missing bytes, as most segmented processors, the 8086
actually shifted the segment registers left 4 bits and added it to the address.
As a result, segments overlapped, and it was possible to have two pointers with
the same value point to two different memory locations, or two pointers with
different values pointing to the same location. Most people consider this a
brain damaged design.
Although this was largely acceptable for assembly language, where control of the
segments was complete (it could even be useful then), in higher level languages
it caused constant confusion (e.g. near/far pointers). Even worse, this made
expanding the address space to more than 1 meg difficult. A later version, the
Intel 80386, expanded the design to 32 bits, and "fixed" the segmentation, but
required extra modes (suppressing the new features) for compatibility, and
retains the awkward architecture. In fact, with the right assembler, code
written for the 8008 can still be run on the most recent Intel 486.
The Intel 80386 added new op codes in a kludgy fashion similar to the Zilog Z80
and Zilog Z280. The Intel 486 added full pipelines, and clock doubling (like the
Zilog Z280).
So why did IBM chose the 8086 series when most of the alternatives were so much
better? Apparently IBM's own engineers wanted to use the Motorola 68000, and it
was used later in the forgotten IBM Instruments 9000 Laboratory Computer, but
IBM already had rights to manufacture the 8086, in exchange for giving Intel the
rights to its bubble memory designs. Apparently IBM was using 8086s in the IBM
Displaywriter word processor.
Other factors were the 8-bit Intel 8088 version, which could use existing Intel
8085-type components, and allowed the computer to be based on a modified 8085
design. 68000 components were not widely available, though it could use Motorola
6800 components to an extent.
Intel bubble memory was on the market for a while, but faded away as better and
cheaper memory technologies arrived.
(1994-12-23)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8051 « Intel 8080 « Intel 8085 « Intel 8086
» Intel 8088 » Intel 80x86 » Intel 8751
Intel 8088
<processor> An Intel 8086 with 16-bit registers and an 8-bit data bus.
The 8088 was the processor used in the original IBM PC.
(1995-02-21)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8080 « Intel 8085 « Intel 8086 « Intel 8088
» Intel 80x86 » Intel 8751 » Intel Comparative
Microprocessor Performance index
Intel 80x86
<processor> (x86) One of the family of Intel microprocessors including
the Intel 80186, Intel 80286, Intel 80386, Intel 486, in a more general sense
also Intel 8086, Pentium, Pentium Pro, and Pentium II.
The abbreviation "x86" also includes compatible processors, e.g. from Cyrix or
AMD.
(2004-02-27)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8085 « Intel 8086 « Intel 8088 « Intel
80x86 » Intel 8751 » Intel Comparative
Microprocessor Performance index » Intel Corporation
Intel 8751
<processor> A microcontroller from Intel including a CPU, two timers. 128
bytes of RAM, 4 kBytes of EEPROM, four eight-bit biderectional I/O ports and an
EIA-232 port.
The 8751 belongs to the Intel i51 Microcontroller family. It was designed by
Intel but is now manufactured by Intel, Philips, Siemens, AMD and others.
Motorola's microcontroller families (68HC05, 68HC08 and 68HC11) are meant to
compete with the i51 family.
(1995-04-22)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8086 « Intel 8088 « Intel 80x86 « Intel
8751 » Intel Comparative Microprocessor
Performance index » Intel Corporation » IntelDX4
Intel Comparative Microprocessor Performance index
<benchmark, unit> (iCOMP) A unit used by Intel to indicate the relative
performance of their 80x86 microprocessors.
http://134.134.214.1/procs/perf/icomp/.
(1997-06-07)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8088 « Intel 80x86 « Intel 8751 « Intel
Comparative Microprocessor Performance index »
Intel Corporation » IntelDX4 » Intel i960
Intel Corporation
<company> A US microelectronics manufacturer. They produced the Intel
4004, Intel 8080, Intel 8086, Intel 80186, Intel 80286, Intel 80386, Intel 486
and Pentium microprocessor families as well as many other integrated circuits
and personal computer networking and communications products.
Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce founded Intel in 1968 to design, manufacture, and
market semiconductor computer memory to replace magnetic core memory, the
dominant computer memory at that time. Dr. Andrew S. Grove joined Intel soon
after its incorporation. Three years later, in 1971, Intel introduced the
world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004.
Intel has design, development, production, and administration facilities
throughout the western US, Europe and Asia. In 1995 nearly 75% of the world's
personal computers use Intel architecture. Annual revenues are rapidly
approaching $10 billion. In March, 1994, "Business Week" named Intel one of the
top ten American companies in terms of profit, one of the top 15 market value
winners, and 16th out of the magazine's top 1,000 companies overall.
Intel invested a record $2.9 billion in capital and R&D in 1993, and expects to
increase combined spending on these activities to $3.5 billion in 1994.
Quarterly sales were $2770M and profits, $640M in Aug 1994.
http://www.intel.com/.
Address: Santa Clara, CA, USA.
(1995-03-01)
Nearby terms:
Intel 80x86 « Intel 8751 « Intel Comparative
Microprocessor Performance index « Intel
Corporation » IntelDX4 » Intel i960 » INTELLECT
IntelDX4
<processor> Essentially an Intel 486DX microprocessor with a 16 kilobyte
on-chip cache.
The DX4 is the fastest member of the Intel 486 family. 75 and 100MHz versions
are available. At an iCOMP index rating of 435, the 100 MHz DX4 performs up to
50% faster than the 66 MHz Intel DX2. The DX4's clock multiplier allows the
processor to run three times faster than the system clock. This performance is
achieved in part by a 16K on-chip cache (double that of the other 486s). The DX4
has an integrated floating point unit.
Like the other 486s, the DX4 achieves performance through a RISC integer core
that executes frequently used instructions in a single clock cycle (the
Pentium's can execute multiple instructions in a single clock cycle).
Low power consumption has been achieved with SL Technology and a 0.6 micron
manufacturing process, giving 1.6 million transistors on a single chip operating
at only 3.3 Volts.
"IntelDX4" is the entire name, the "486" has been dropped and I am assured that
there is no space in the same.
(1995-04-28)
Nearby terms:
Intel 8751 « Intel Comparative Microprocessor
Performance index « Intel Corporation « IntelDX4
» Intel i960 » INTELLECT » intellectual property
Intel i960
<processor> A superscalar 32-bit RISC microprocessor from Intel intended
for embedded applications.
The i960 CA variant can reach 66 native MIPS peak performance with a sustained
execution of two instructions per clock cycle. The i960 CF has an on-chip, four
kilobyte two-way set-associative instruction cache and a one kilobyte data
cache. Both the CA and CF processors have on-chip RAM; a four-channel DMA unit;
and integrated peripherals.
(1996-05-23)
Nearby terms:
Intel Comparative Microprocessor Performance index «
Intel Corporation « IntelDX4 « Intel i960 »
INTELLECT » intellectual property » intelligent
backtracking
INTELLECT
<language> A query language written by Larry Harris in 1977, close to
natural English.
(1995-04-14)
Nearby terms:
Intel Corporation « IntelDX4 « Intel i960 «
INTELLECT
» intellectual property » intelligent backtracking »
intelligent database
intellectual property
<legal> (IP) The ownership of ideas and control over the tangible or
virtual representation of those ideas. Use of another person's intellectual
property may or may not involve royalty payments or permission, but should
always include proper credit to the source.
(1997-03-27)
Nearby terms:
IntelDX4 « Intel i960 « INTELLECT « intellectual
property
» intelligent backtracking » intelligent database »
Intelligent Input/Output
intelligent backtracking
<algorithm> An improved backtracking algorithm for Prolog interpreters,
which records the point at which each logic variable becomes bound and, when a
given set of bindings leads to failure, ignores any choice point which does not
bind any of those variables. No choice from such a choice point can succeed
since it does not change the bindings which caused the failure.
(1996-04-06)
Nearby terms:
Intel i960 « INTELLECT « intellectual property «
intelligent backtracking » intelligent database
» Intelligent Input/Output » Intelligent I/O
intelligent database
<database> A database management system which performs data validation
and processing traditionally done by application programs. Most DBMSs provide
some data validation, e.g. rejecting invalid dates or alphabetic data entered
into money fields, but often most processing is done by application programs.
There is however no limit to the amount of processing that can be done by an
intelligent database as long as the process is a standard function for that
data.
Examples of techniques used to implement intelligent databases are constraints,
triggers and stored procedures.
Moving processing to the database aids data integrity because it is guaranteed
to be consistent across all uses of the data. Mainframe databases have
increasingly become more intelligent and personal computer database systems are
rapidly following.
(1998-10-07)
Nearby terms:
INTELLECT « intellectual property « intelligent
backtracking « intelligent database »
Intelligent Input/Output » Intelligent I/O »
intelligent key
Intelligent Input/Output
<architecture> /i:-too-oh/ (I2O) A specification which aims to provide an
I/O device driver architecture that is independent of both the specific device
being controlled and the host operating system. The Hardware Device Module (HDM)
manages the device and the OS Services Module (OSM) interfaces to the host
operating system. The HDM is portable across multiple operating systems,
processors and busses. The HDM and OSM communicate via a two layer message
passing protocol. A Message Layer sets up a communications session and runs on
top of a Transport Layer which defines how the two parties share information.
I2O is also designed to facilitate intelligent I/O subsystems, with support for
message passing between multiple independent processors. By relieving the host
of interrupt intensive I/O tasks required by the various layers of a driver
architecture, the I2O intelligent I/O architecture greatly improves I/O
performance. I2O systems will be able to more efficiently deliver the I/O
throughput required by a wide range of high bandwidth applications, such as
networked video, groupware and client-server processing. I2O does not restrict
where the layered modules execute, providing support for single processor,
multiprocessor, and clustered systems.
I2O is not intended to replace the driver architectures currently in existence.
Rather, the objective is to provide an open, standards-based approach, which is
complementary to existing drivers, and provides a framework for the rapid
development of a new generation of portable, intelligent I/O.
Home.
(1997-11-04)
Nearby terms:
intellectual property « intelligent backtracking «
intelligent database « Intelligent Input/Output
» Intelligent I/O » intelligent key » intelligent
terminal
Intelligent I/O
Intelligent Input/Output
Nearby terms:
intelligent backtracking « intelligent database «
Intelligent Input/Output « Intelligent I/O »
intelligent key » intelligent terminal »
IntelliMouse
intelligent key
<database> A relational database key which depends wholly on one or more
other columns in the same table. An intelligent key might be identified for
implementation convenience, where there is no good candidate key.
For example, if the three-letter initials of a group of people are known to be
unique but only their full names are recorded, a three letter acronym for their
names (e.g. John Doe Smith -> JDS) would be an intelligent key.
Intelligent keys are a Bad Thing because it is hard to guarantee uniqueness, and
if the value on which an intelligent key depends changes then the key must
either stay the same, creating an inconsistency within the containing table, or
change, requiring changes to all other tables in which it appears as a foreign
key. The correct solution is to use a surrogate key.
(1999-12-07)
Nearby terms:
intelligent database « Intelligent Input/Output «
Intelligent I/O « intelligent key »
intelligent terminal » IntelliMouse » Intel
Literature Sales
intelligent terminal
<hardware> (or "smart terminal", "programmable terminal") A terminal that
often contains not only a keyboard and screen, but also comes with a disk drive
and printer, so it can perform limited processing tasks when not communicating
directly with the central computer. Some can be programmed by the user to
perform many basic tasks, including both arithmetic and logic operations. In
some cases, when the user enters data, the data will be checked for errors and
some type of report will be produced. In addition, the valid data that is
entered may be stored on the disk, it will be transmitted over communication
lines to the central computer.
An intelligent terminal may have enough computing capability to draw graphics or
to offload some kind of front-end processing from the computer it talks to.
The development of workstations and personal computers has made this term and
the product it describes semi-obsolescent, but one may still hear variants of
the phrase "act like a smart terminal" used to describe the behaviour of
workstations or PCs with respect to programs that execute almost entirely out of
a remote server's storage, using said devices as displays.
The term once meant any terminal with an addressable cursor; the opposite of a
glass tty. Today, a terminal with merely an addressable cursor, but with none of
the more-powerful features mentioned above, is called a dumb terminal.
There is a classic quote from Rob Pike (inventor of the blit terminal): "A smart
terminal is not a smart*ass* terminal, but rather a terminal you can educate".
This illustrates a common design problem: The attempt to make peripherals (or
anything else) intelligent sometimes results in finicky, rigid "special
features" that become just so much dead weight if you try to use the device in
any way the designer didn't anticipate. Flexibility and programmability, on the
other hand, are *really* smart.
Compare hook.
(1995-04-14)
Nearby terms:
Intelligent Input/Output « Intelligent I/O «
intelligent key « intelligent terminal »
IntelliMouse » Intel Literature Sales » Intelsat
IntelliMouse
Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer
Nearby terms:
Intelligent I/O « intelligent key « intelligent
terminal «
IntelliMouse » Intel Literature Sales » Intelsat
» Intel x86
Intel Literature Sales
Address: PO Box 58130, Santa Clara, CA 95052, USA.
Telephone: +1 800 548 4725.
(1995-01-12)
Nearby terms:
intelligent key « intelligent terminal «
IntelliMouse «
Intel Literature Sales » Intelsat » Intel x86 »
intensional
Intelsat
<company, communications> A private satellite communications company that
provides telephony, corporate network, video and Internet solutions around the
globe via capacity on 25 geosynchronous satellites.
(2003-05-13)
Nearby terms:
intelligent terminal « IntelliMouse « Intel
Literature Sales « Intelsat » Intel x86 »
intensional » Intent to Package
Intel x86
Intel 80x86
Nearby terms:
IntelliMouse « Intel Literature Sales « Intelsat «
Intel x86 » intensional » Intent to Package »
INTERACTIVE
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