Fairness
As related to Generic Flow Control (GFC), fairness is defined as meeting all the agreed quality of service (QOS) requirements, by controlling the order of service for all active connections.

fast file system (FFS)
The first major revision to the Unix file system, providing faster read access and faster (delayed, asynchronous) write access through a disk cache and better file system layout on disk. See also file system.

FAT
See File Allocation Table (FAT) /.

FATMEN
A distributed file and tape management system for HEP data

FC
Feedback Control: Feedback controls are defined as the set of actions taken by the network and by the end-systems to regulate the traffic submitted on ATM connections according to the state of network elements.

FC
See Fiber Channel (FC) /.

FCS
Frame Check Sequence: Any mathematical formula which derives a numeric value based on the bit pattern of a transmitted block of information and uses that value at the receiving end to determine the existence of any transmission errors.

FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
A network specification that transmits information packets using light produced by a laser or light-emitting diode (LED). FDDI uses fiber-optic cable and equipment to transmit data packets. It has a data rate of up to 100 Mbps and allows very long cable distances.

FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface: A 100 Mbps Local Area Network standard that was developed by ANSI that is designed to work on fiber-optic cables, using techniques similar to token-ring.

FDDI
Fiber Distributed Data Interface: a new ANSI ANSI standard for a 100 megabits/second fibre optic token ring local area network local-area-network

FDDI
See Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) /.

FEA
Finite Element Analysis.

Feature
An attribute or function of a class class in Eiffel Eiffel.

FEBE
Far End Block Error: A maintenance signal transmitted in the PHY overhead that a bit error(s) has been detected at the PHY layer at the far end of the link. This is used to monitor bit error performance of the link.

FEC Forward
Error Correction: A technique for detection and correction of errors in a digital data stream.

FECN
See Forward Explicit Congestion Notification (FECN) /.

Feed-forward
A multilayer perceptron perceptron network in which the outputs from all neurons (see McCulloch-Pitts McCulloch-Pitts) go to following but not preceding layers, so there are no feedback loops.

FFS
See fast file system (FFS) /.

FFT
Fast Fourier Transform

FG
Functional Group: A collection of functions related in such a way that they will be provided by a single logical component. Examples include the Route Server Functional Group (RSFG), the IASG (Internetwork Address Sub-Group), Coordination Functional Group (ICFG), the Edge Device Functional Group (EDFG) and the ATM attached host Behavior Functional Group (AHFG).

Fiber Channel (FC)
A high-speed networking standard for disks whose underlying medium is fiber optics.

Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI)
A high-speed networking standard (RFC 1285 ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1285.txt and RFC 1512 ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1512.txt) whose underlying medium is fiber optics. The topology is dual-attached, counter-rotating Token Ring.

field-replacable unit (FRU)
A hardware component that can be replaced in the field, as opposed to at the factory.

file
A bunch of information stored together with a name. A file can contain text, programs, or data in any format.

File Allocation Table (FAT)
A table that the operating system on a personal computer uses to locate files on a disk. Due to fragmentation, a file may be divided into many sections that are scattered around the disk. The FAT keeps track of all these pieces. See also superblock /s.

file system
A hierarchical structure of data on one or more disks or partitions. The actual structural details depend on the file system type. See Andrew File System (AFS) /a, Common Internet File System (CIFS) /c, distributed file system (DFS) /d, Fast File System (FFS) /f, Hierarchical File System (HFS) /h, Institutional File System (IFS) /i, Network File System (NFS) /n, and Unix File System (UFS) /u.

file system
A set of files stored on a disk or on one partition of a disk. A file system has one root directory that contains files and subdirectories. These subdirectories can in turn contain files and other directories.

file transfer
Copying files from one computer to another.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A TCP /t/IP /i protocol (RFC 959) ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc959.txt specifying the transfer of text or binary files across the network.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
A TCP/IP protocol that permits the transferring of files between computers systems. Because FTP has been implemented on numerous types of computers systems, file transfer can be done between different computer systems (e.g., a personal computer and a minicomputer).

FILE TRANSFER PROTOCOL(FTP)
FTP is a very common method of moving files between two Internet sites. it is a special way to login to another Internet site for the purposes of retrieving and/or sending files. There are many Internet sites that have established publicly accessible repositories of material that can be obtained using FTP, by logging in using the account name 'anonymous'. Thus, these sites are called anonymous FTP servers.

filter
A small Unix program used with input or output redirection. The most commanly used filters are the more and sort commands.

FIMS
Form Interface Management System.

FINGER -
Finger is a program which shows you information about your account or other accounts, not all Internet users have access to finger.

FIPS
Federal Information Processing Standard: U.S. Government standards.

firewall
A logical or physical discontinuity in a network to prevent unauthorized access to data or resources. See also external firewall /e.

FITS
Flexible Image Transport System. The standard data interchange and archive format of the astronomy community - . /SciDataFormats

fixed
disk A disk that used to be broken but that now works.No sorry!See disk.

flag
See option.

FLAME -
A message in which someone is insulted is called a "flame".

Flicker
Lit condition of the display caused by mismatch of phosphor and Vertical refresh when the phosphor begins to decay prior to being refreshed giving the display the appearance of "flashing".

Floppy
A Fortran coding convention checker. The latest version has a feature for generating HTML

floppy disk
A removable disk, also called a diskette.

Flush Protocol
The flush protocol is provided to ensure the correct order of delivery of unicast data frames.

FNAL
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Illinois, USA).

Focus
Sharpness of a pixel or series of pixels on the CRT face plate. Also measured as the spot size.

folder
A file that contains electronic-mail messages you have decided to save.

FOOM
Formal Formal-methods Object Oriented Object-oriented Method.

FOOT
Forum for Object Oriented Technology at CERN

foreground
A program currently able to talk to your terminal.

Foreign Address
An address that does not match any of a given node's summary addresses.

Foresight
A software product from Nu Thena providing graphical modelling tools for high level system design and simulation

fork
When Unix starts a new process, it does so by cloning an existing process. The cloning process is known in Unix-ese as forking. Pronounce it carefully to avoid embarrassment.

Formal methods
Several formal approaches to program specification have been developed, such as those based on VDM VDM or Z. They can be used to develop software with high reliability, for safety-critical or high-volume applications - . /Formal

FORML
Formal Object Role Modeling Language.

FORTH
Greek FOundation for Research and Technology

FORTRAN
FORmula TRANslating system: a programming language widely used for many years in scientific applications.

Forward delta
The delta delta which, when combined with a version version, creates a child version. See change management change-management

Forward engineering
The traditional process of moving from high-level abstractions and logical, implementation-independent designs to the physical implementation of a system.

Forward Explicit Congestion Notification (FECN)
A bit in the Frame Relay / header that is set when the network router has detected congestion in the destination direction (or "foreward," from the packet's point of view). See also Backward Explicit Congestion Notification (BECN) /b.

Forwarding Description
The resolved mapping of an MPOA Target to a set of parameters used to set up an ATM connection on which to forward packets.

FORWISS
Bayerische Forschungszentrum fuer Wissensbasierte Systeme (Bavarian research centre for knowledge-based systems) in Passau - (in German).

FOSI
Formatted Output Specification Instance template for SGML SGML

Fourth generation language
A high-level language, usually non-procedural, to allow users inexperienced in programming to develop database applications.

FPA
Function Point function-point Analysis.

FPM
Function Point function-point Metric.

FQDN
See fully qualified domain name (FQDN) /.

frag
A partial block of data on disk (fragment). Typically there are 8 frags per block. The smallest frag is equal to a sector /s.

fragmentation
Storing files noncontiguously on a disk. Fragmentation increases the time it takes to read a file since the disk has to rotate more and the disk read heads have to seek more.

Frame
A data structure that network hardware devices use to transmit data between computers. Frames consist of the addresses of the sending and receiving computers on a shared media network. See Ethernet, FDDI, Token Ring.

frame relay
A low-level network transport similar to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) /a wherein frames or packets are relayed from one switch /s to another.

FrameMaker
Commercial publishing software available on a wide variety of workstations and addressing technical and scientific needs

framework
(Security.) Describes the interrelationships between different parts of a program or organization.

Framework
In object-oriented object-oriented systems, a set of classes class that embodies an abstract design for solutions to a number of related problems - . /Framework

free list
A list of unallocated blocks and inodes kept in the superblock.

FreeHEP
An organisation offering a repository of software and related information for high energy physics applications - . /FreeHEP

Fresco
An object-oriented object-oriented API API for graphical user interfaces, under development by the X consortium X-consortium as an open, multi-vendor standard.

Friend
Relationship between class classes in the language C++ C++.

FRS
Frame-Relay Service: A connection oriented service that is capable of carrying up to 4096 bytes per frame.

FRTT
Fixed Round-Trip Time: This is the sum of the fixed and propagation delays from the source to the furthest destination and back.

FRU
See field-replacable unit (FRU) /.

FSF
Free Software Foundation (675 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA): dedicated to promoting the development and use of free software, especially the GNU GNU system.

FSM Finite State Machine.

FTAM File Transfer, Access, and Management: an application layer protocol for file transfer and remote manipulation (ISO 8571).

FTP -
A term used to describe a program capable of downloading and uploading files from the internet. It also describes the lower level protocol used by such a program. File Transfer Protocol.

FTP -
File Transfer Protocol. A software method by which files are moved from one computer on the Internet to another.

FTP
A file-transfer program that enables you to log in to another computer and transfer files to or from your computer.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol (based on TCP/IP TCP/IP). Also the name of a utility program available on several operating systems which makes use of this protocol to access and transfer files on remote computers.

FTP
See File Transfer Protocol (FTP) /.

FTP
See File Transfer Protocol.

FTR
Formal Technical Review. A software engineering technique - . /FTR

Full-custom
A technique used for the design of integrated circuits that involves the manipulation of circuit designs at the semiconductor device level.

Full-Duplex
A method of transmitting information over an asynchronous communications channel, in which signals may be sent in both directions simultaneously. This technique makes the best use of line time but substantially increases the amount of logic required in the primary and secondary stations.

fully qualified domain name (FQDN)
A host specification including the entire domain /d structure complete to the top-level domain /t (.com, .edu, .mil, and so on), in host.site.domain.name format.

function
A group of JavaScript statements that can be referred to using a function name and arguments.

Function point
A unit for estimating the functionality of a program - . /Function-point

Functional language
A general purpose, high-level programming language based on the mathematical notion of functions. A functional program consists of a set of (possibly recursive) function definitions. Its execution consists of the evaluation of a function . Programs written in a functional language are generally compact and elegant, but tend to run slowly and consume a lot of memory.

Functional programming
See Functional language Functional-language

FUSE
A DEC software development environment for ULTRIX ULTRIX, offering an integrated toolkit for developing, testing, debugging and maintainance.

Fusion
An object oriented object-oriented analysis and design method developed by Hewlett Packard - . /Fusion

Futurebus
+ A high performance bus system specified by IEEE IEEE Std.896.2

Fuzzy logic
An alternative to traditional logic where truth values range between 0.0 and 1.0, with 0.0 representing absolute Falseness and 1.0 representing absolute Truth - . /Fuzzy

FVWM
A window manager window-manager for the X Window System X-Window-System derived from twm

FWEB
See Literate Programming Literate-Programming

FWF
Free Widget Widget Foundation - . /FWF