Software Patent ... There is intense debate over the extent to which software patents should be granted, if at all. Important issues concerning software patents include: Where the boundary between patentable and non-patentable software should lie; Whether the inventive step and non-obviousness requirement is applied too loosely to software; and Whether patents covering software discourage, rather than encourage, innovation...
Intel ... Intel was an early developer of SRAM and DRAM memory chips, and this represented the majority of its business until 1981. Although Intel created the world's first commercial microprocessor chip in 1971, it was not until the success of the personal computer (PC) that this became its primary business...
Virtual Reality ... The development of CAD software, graphics hardware acceleration, head mounted displays, database gloves, and miniaturization have helped popularize the notion...
IBM ... The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation through a merger of three companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, and the Computing Scale Corporation. CTR adopted the name International Business Machines in 1924, using a name previously designated to CTR's subsidiary in Canada and later South America...
Disk Mirroring ... In a Disaster Recovery context, mirroring data over long distance is referred to as storage replication. Depending on the technologies used, replication can be performed synchronously, asynchronously, semi-synchronously, or point-in-time...
Software Testing ... Software testing can be stated as the process of validating and verifying that a software program/application/product: meets the requirements that guided its design and development; works as expected; and can be implemented with the same characteristics. Software testing, depending on the testing method employed, can be implemented at any time in the development process...
Artificial Intelligence ... The field was founded on the claim that a central property of humans, intelligence—the sapience of Homo sapiens—can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine. This raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy since antiquity...
System Software ... Device drivers such as computer BIOS and device firmware provide basic functionality to operate and control the hardware connected to or built into the computer...
Subscriber Identity Module ... A SIM is embedded into a removable SIM card, which can be transferred between different mobile devices. SIM cards were first made the same size as a credit card (85.60 mm × 53.98 mm × 0.76 mm)...
History Of Artificial Intelligence ... The seeds of modern AI were planted by classical philosophers who attempted to describe the process of human thinking as the mechanical manipulation of symbols. This work culminated in the invention of the programmable digital computer in the 1940s, a machine based on the abstract essence of mathematical reasoning...
Supercomputer ... Systems with a massive number of processors generally take one of two paths: in one approach, e.g. in grid computing the processing power of a large number of computers in distributed, diverse administrative domains, is opportunistically used whenever a computer is available...
Hardware ... Household hardware is typically sold in hardware stores. Types of tools Cleaning tools Broom Brush Feather duster Floor buffer Hataki Ice resurfacer Mop Mop bucket cart Needlegun scaler Pipe cleaner Pressure washer Sponge Squeegee Steam mop Tawashi Vacuum cleaner Cutting and abrasive tools Blade Bolt cutter Broach Ceramic tile cutter Chisel Coping saw Countersink Diamond blade Diamond tool Draw knife Drill bit Emery cloth File Fretsaw Froe Glass cutter Grater Grinding wheel Hand saw Knife Miter saw Nail clipper Pipecutter Plane Pocket knife Rasp Razor Reamer Sandpaper Saw Scalpel Scissors Steel wool Surform Switchblade Utility knife Water jet cutter Wire brush Wire cutter Wire stripper Garden tools Adze Axe Baling hook Billhook Bow saw Chainsaw Cultivator Earth auger Edger Garden fork Garden hose Gard...
Robotics ... The concept and creation of machines that could operate autonomously dates back to classical times, but research into the functionality and potential uses of robots did not grow substantially until the 20th century. Today, robotics is a rapidly growing field, as we continue to research, design, and build new robots that serve various practical purposes, whether domestically, commercially, or militarily...
Supercomputer Operating Systems ... While in a traditional multi-user computer system job scheduling is in effect a tasking problem for processing and peripheral resources, in a massively parallel system, the job management system needs to manage the allocation of both computational and communication resources, as well as gracefully dealing with inevitable hardware failures when tens of thousands of processors are present...
Computer Network ... Well-known communications protocols are Ethernet, a hardware and Link Layer standard that is ubiquitous in local area networks, and the Internet Protocol Suite, which defines a set of protocols for internetworking, i.e...
Database ... The term database is correctly applied to the data and their supporting data structures, and not to the database management system (DBMS). The database data collection with DBMS is called a database system...
Linux ... Linux was originally developed as a free operating system for Intel x86-based personal computers. It has since been ported to more computer hardware platforms than any other operating system...
Electronic Design Automation ... This article describes EDA specifically with respect to integrated circuits. History Early days Before EDA, integrated circuits were designed by hand, and manually laid out...
Grid Computing ... Grid size can vary by a considerable amount. Grids are a form of distributed computing whereby a “super virtual computer” is composed of many networked loosely coupled computers acting together to perform very large tasks...
History Of Technology ... History of technology By technological eras Neolithic Revolution Renaissance technology British Agricultural Revolution Industrial Revolution Second Industrial Revolution Atomic Age Jet Age Space Age Information Age By historical regions Ancient Egypt Ancient India Ancient China Ancient Greece Ancient Rome Byzantine Empire Medieval Europe Medieval Islamic world By type of technology History of biotechnology History of communication History of computer hardware History of electrical engineering History of materials science History of measurement History of medicine History of nuclear technology History of transport Technology timelines Timeline of historic inventions Complete list Outlines Outline of technology Outline of prehistoric technology Measuring technological progress Many sociologists and anthropologists have created social theories dealing...
Machine Vision ... The imaging device (e.g. camera) can either be separate from the main image processing unit or combined with it in which case the combination is generally called a smart camera or smart sensor...
Linux Adoption ... 2007 Dell announced it would ship select models with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed ZaReason is founded as a Linux only hardware OEM... Never mind that, while Windows 7 is a good operating system, Windows 7 is awful on netbooks." In May 2009, Fedora developer Jef Spaleta estimated on the basis of IP addresses of update downloads and statistics from the voluntary user hardware registration service Smolt that there are 16 million Fedora systems in use... Linux adopters Types of hardware platforms Linux is used on desktop computers, servers and supercomputers, as well as a wide range of devices...
Digital Rights Management ... For devices this means restricting the consumers on what hardware can be used with the device or what software can be run on it...
Software Engineer ... The BLS classifies all other engineering disciplines, including computer hardware engineers, as "engineers"...
Further Reading: Software
Website ... A webpage is a document, typically written in plain text interspersed with formatting instructions of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML, XHTML). A webpage may incorporate elements from other websites with suitable markup anchors...
Software Quality ... Historically, the structure, classification and terminology of attributes and metrics applicable to software quality management have been derived or extracted from the ISO 9126-3 and the subsequent ISO 25000:2005 quality model, also known as SQuaRE... Based on these models, the software structural quality characteristics have been clearly defined by the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ), an independent organization founded by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, and the Object Management Group (OMG)... CISQ has defined 5 major desirable characteristics needed for a piece of software to provide business value: Reliability, Efficiency, Security, Maintainability and (adequate) Size...
Graphics ... Graphics can be functional or artistic. The latter can be a recorded version, such as a photograph, or an interpretation by a scientist to highlight essential features, or an artist, in which case the distinction with imaginary graphics may become blurred...
Information Technology ... A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include data management, networking, engineering computer hardware, database and software design, as well as management and administration of entire systems...
Radio-frequency Identification ... RFID tags are used in many industries. An RFID attached to an automobile during production can be used to track its progress through the assembly line...
Search Engine Technology ... Most mixed search engines are large Web search engines (example: Google) or enterprise search software products (example: Autonomy)...
Film ... It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry. Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them...
Email ... An email message consists of three components, the message envelope, the message header, and the message body. The message header contains control information, including, minimally, an originator's email address and one or more recipient addresses...
Cryptography ... Cryptography prior to the modern age was effectively synonymous with encryption, the conversion of information from a readable state to apparent nonsense. The originator of an encrypted message shared the decoding technique needed to recover the original information only with intended recipients, thereby precluding unwanted persons to do the same...
Electronic Commerce ... 1987: Swreg begins to provide software and shareware authors means to sell their products online through an electronic Merchant account... Business applications Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following: Document automation in supply chain and logistics Domestic and international payment systems Enterprise content management Group buying Automated online assistants Instant messaging Newsgroups Online shopping and order tracking Online banking Online office suites Shopping cart software Teleconferencing Electronic tickets Governmental regulation In the United States, some electronic commerce activities are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC)...
Electronics ... Electronics is distinct from electrical and electro-mechanical science and technology, which deals with the generation, distribution, switching, storage and conversion of electrical energy to and from other energy forms using wires, motors, generators, batteries, switches, relays, transformers, resistors and other passive components. This distinction started around 1906 with the invention by Lee De Forest of the triode, which made electrical amplification of weak radio signals and audio signals possible with a non-mechanical device...
Molecular Nanotechnology ... A roadmap for the development of MNT is an objective of a broadly based technology project led by Battelle (the manager of several U. S. National Laboratories) and the Foresight Institute...
Google ... Google was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998, and its initial public offering followed on August 19, 2004. At that time Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Eric Schmidt agreed to work together at Google for 20 years, until the year 2024...
Engineering ... The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET) has defined "engineering" as: The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.. ...
Web Service ... The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network"...
Business Intelligence ... BI technologies provide historical, current and predictive views of business operations. Common functions of business intelligence technologies are reporting, online analytical processing, analytics, data mining, process mining, complex event processing, business performance management, benchmarking, text mining and predictive analytics...
Blog ... The emergence and growth of blogs in the late 1990s coincided with the advent of web publishing tools that facilitated the posting of content by non-technical users. (Previously a knowledge of such technologies as HTML and FTP had been required to publish content on the Web.) Although not a must, most good quality blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via GUI widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites...