M,MB,megabyte
A measure of memory and disk size that is 1,048,576 bytes, or 1K times 1K, or 2 multiplied by itself 20 times.

M1
Management Interface 1: The management of ATM end devices.

M2
Management Interface 2: The management of Private ATM networks or switches.

M3
Management Interface 3: The management of links between public and private networks.

m4
A suite of macro-processing utilities for simplifying administration of system files that are different on different hosts (such as /etc/printcap).

M4
Management Interface 4: The management of public ATM networks.

M5
Management Interface 5: The management of links between two public networks.

MAC Media Access Control:
IEEE specifications for the lower half of the data link layer (layer 2) that defines topology dependent access control protocols for IEEE LAN specifications.

MACAnalyst
An analysis CASE CASE tool for the Mac from Excel Software Inc.

MACDesigner
A design CASE CASE tool for the Mac from Excel Software Inc.

Mach
An operating system kernel under development at Carnegie-Mellon University to support distributed and parallel computation. Mach is designed to support computing environments consisting of networks of uniprocessors and multiprocessors. Mach is the kernel of the OSF/1 OSF/1 system - . ftp://asisftp.cern.ch:/pub/faq/comp-os-mach-faq.

Macintosh
A range of personal computers manufactured by Apple Computer Inc.

MacX
A package allowing the Macintosh to be used as an X server X-server.

Madaline
A structure of many ADALINE ADALINE units.

Magnetic Field Effects
As described in the paragraph "Rotation Control", the Monitor is affected by magnetic fields. If your screen develops wrong colors in areas or the picture becomes distorted you must check what is near to your Monitor. If your Monitor is positioned near a steel cabinet, on a steel desk or bench, or a steel girder imbedded in a wall or ceiling, then all of these things could be magnetized and therefore interfering with the picture tube's Electron Beams. Try moving the Monitor two to three feet away from the suspected source of magnetic field and see if the picture improves. If the picture only looks colored or distorted during certain times check if you have any speakers near the Monitor because these could radiate magnetic fields strong enough to distort the picture when they are powered-up.

mail
A message to one or more users or groups sent over the computer. Mail can include other documents as attachments. Mail can traverse multiple machines and networks. See also attachment /a, Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) /m, NeXTMail /n, Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) /s.

mail address
An RFC 822 ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc822.txt compliant address in one of the following forms:

· Firstname Lastname user@site.domain.name

· user@site.domain.name (Firstname Lastname)

See also RFC /r.

mail alias
An alias used for electronic mail. See alias /a.

mailbox
The file in which the electronic mail system puts your incoming mail.

Mailslots
A connectionless messaging IPC mechanism that Windows NT USES for browse requests and logon authentication.

Maintenance
An important part of the software life-cycle. Maintenance is expensive in manpower and resources, and software engineering techniques aim to reduce its cost.

Make
A popular tool on UNIX UNIX systems to automate the recompilation, linking etc. of programs, taking account of the interdependencies of modules.

Makedoc
A program from Carleton University, Ottawa that generates documentation for Objective C Objective-C programs. It will also generate a class hierarchy diagram. The output format is similar to that used by StepStone StepStone.

Maker Interchange Format (MIF)
An all-ASCII /a representation of a document for FrameMaker. It is possible for scripts to generate MIF format files for importing into FrameMaker. In addition, the MIF format allows documents to be moved to previous versions of the program or to different platforms.

MAN
METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK

MAN
Metropolitan Area Network: A network designed to carry data over an area larger than a campus such as an entire city and its outlying area.

man page
A short file of information about a Unix command. The man command displays manual pages about all Unix commands and a few other topics, although they usually are written in a hopelessly technold style.

managed node
An object that represents a machine; a managed machine interface that is generic across all platforms.

managed resource
A specific instance of a resource type that has a default policy defined in the policy /p region.

Managed System
An entity that is managed by one or more management systems, which can be either Element Management Systems, Subnetwork or Network Management Systems, or any other management systems.

Management Domain
An entity used here to define the scope of naming.

Management Information Base (MIB)
A collection of data objects that can be accessed via a network management protocol such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) /s. General information can be found in RFC 1156 ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1156.txt.

Management Information Base (MIB)
The entire set of objects that any service or protocol uses in SNMP. Because different network-management services are used for different types of devices or for different network-management protocol, each service has its own set of objects.

Management System
An entity that manages a set of managed systems, which can be either NEs, subnetworks or other management systems.

map
A system database, such as the password or hosts maps, in the Network Information Service (NIS) /n.

MAP Manufacturers Automation Protocol,
a set of protocols developed by General Motors based on Token Bus (IEEE IEEE 802.4) and giving predictable response in real time real-time.

Map
To translate one value into another.

Maple
A mathematics package developed by the University of Waterloo and ETH Zurich.

MARC Machine Readable Cataloging:
a record format for bibliographic information interchange based on the ANSI ANSI / NISO NISO Z39.2 standard.

Markowitz
The author of the original Simscript Simscript language.

Markup
In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, or instructions for layout of the text on the page.

MARS
See Multicast Address Resolution Server (MARS) /.

MASCOT
Modular Approach to Software Construction Operation and Test: a method for software design aimed at real-time real-time embedded systems from the Royal Signals and Research Establishment, UK.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The source of a number of widely-used computer programs, including Kerberos /k and the X Window System.

Master Browser
The computer on a network that maintains a list of computers and services available on the network and distributes the list to other browser. The Master Browser may also promote potential browses to be browsers. See Browser, Browsing, Potential Browser.

master
The primary NetInfo server in a domain or subdomain. See NetInfo /n. The primary NIS server in a domain. See Network Information Service (NIS) /n.

Mathematica
A general program for symbolic computing and programming from Wolfram Research - .

MaxCR Maximum Cell Rate:
This is the maximum capacity usable by connections belonging to the specified service category.

maximum transfer unit (MTU)
The largest packet /p size that a network interface is configured to accept.

Maximum Viewing Area
The actual maximum viewing area is dependent upon the size of the plastic or bezel around the CRT. Typically, the maximum possible for a "17-inch monitor" is actually 15.75 inches plus or minus 1/2 inch. In other words plus or minus 0.25 inches at the ends of the diagonal measurement.

MBONE Multicast backbone:
a virtual network on top of the Internet Internet to support routing of IP multicast packets, intended for multimedia transmission - . /MBONE

MBONE
The multicast / network overlaid atop the global Internet /i.

MBS Maximum Burst Size:
In the signaling message, the Burst Tolerance (BT) is conveyed through the MBS which is coded as a number of cells. The BT together with the SCR and the GCRA determine the MBS that may be transmitted at the peak rate and still be in conformance with the GCRA.

McCulloch-Pitts
The McCulloch-Pitts neuron is the basic building block of neural networks. It receives one or more inputs and produces one or more identical outputs, each of which is a simple non-linear function of the sum of the inputs to the neuron. The non-linear function is typically a threshhold or step function which is usually smoothed (i.e. a sigmoid) to facilitate learning.

MCDV Maximum Cell Delay Variance:
This is the maximum two-point CDV objective across a link or node for the specified service category.

MCLR Maximum Cell Loss Ratio:
This is the maximum ratio of the number of cells that do not make it across the link or node to the total number of cells arriving at the link or node.

MCR Minimum Cell Rate:
An ABR service traffic descriptor, in cells/sec, that is the rate at which the source is always allowed to send.

MCS Meta Class System:
a portable object-oriented extension of Common Lisp from GMD GMD. It integrates the functionality of CLOS CLOS and TELOS TELOS.

MCTD
Maximum Cell Transfer Delay: This is the sum of the fixed delay component across the link or node and MCDV.

MDist
See Multiplexed Distribution (MDist) /.

MDL
An early object-oriented object-oriented language from MIT MIT .

Media Access Control (MAC)
Address Hardware address burned into the Network interface cards. Six bytes long, three given to the manufacture from the IEEE, and three bytes designated by the manufacture.

Media Access Control (MAC)
The six-byte address of network either the Ethernet or the ATM /a hardware (interface board). Typically written as six colon-separated hexadecimal numbers.

Mellor
see Schlaer-Mellor Schlaer-Mellor.

Member Function
In C++ C++, the name given to a method method.

memory
The storage area where the computer puts information it is working on right now. This is useful for only short-term storage (like until tomorrow). For long-term storage, computers put information on disks. Also known as main memory or RAM

menu
A list of choices, usually commands, from which you can choose.

MERISE
Methode d'Etude et de Realisation Informatique pour les Systemes d'Enteprise: a Software Engineering method popular in France; many IPSE IPSE s are based on it.

Mesa
An early object-oriented object-oriented programming language developed at the Xerox Palo Alto research centre.

Message
In object-oriented object-oriented programming sending a message to an object (to invoke a method) is equivalent to calling a procedure in traditional programming languages, except that the actual code executed may only be selected at run-time depending on the class of the object. Thus, in response to the message "drawSelf", the method code invoked would be different if the target object were a circle or a square.

Message Switching
A type of network communication that sends an entire message, or block of data, rather a than a simple packet.

meta key
If your keyboard has an Alt key, it is also the Meta key. If not, press the Esc key to achieve the same effect. The effect depends on the program you are running. emacs uses the Meta key for many commands.

MetaCard
A commercial human interface and hypertext system for UNIX UNIX and X-windows X-windows, similar to Hypercard Hypercard.

Meta-CASE tool
A term sometimes used for software packages (like TBK TBK or VSF VSF) which allow users to develop or customise their own CASE tools CASE-tools.

Metaclass
The class class of a class. A metaclass is a class whose instances are themselves classes.

Metadata Data definitions
describing aspects of the actual data items, such as name, format etc.

metadevice
A logical device that encompasses one or more physical devices. See also Disk Suite /d.

Metafile
Typically a file of graphics data for transport between different machines.

metamirror
See mirror /.

Metasignaling
ATM Layer Management (LM) process that manages different types of signaling and possibly semipermanent virtual channels (VCs), including the assignment, removal and checking of VCs.

Metasignaling VCs
The standardized VCs that convey metasignaling information across a User-Network Interface (UNI).

method
A specialized type of function that can be stored in an object an acts on the object’s properties.

method
Code that is executed to perform some service; an implementation-specific procedure which carries out some function; for example, a program, operating system command or shell script. The method performs some work and returns any results or status to the originator of the request.

Method
The name given in Smalltalk Smalltalk (and sometimes in other object-oriented object-oriented languages) to a procedure or routine associated with an object.

Methodology
A term for a codified set of procedures for some phase of software engineering, such as analysis and design.

Metric
see Software Metrics Software-Metrics.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) A collection of local area networks (LANs) that would otherwise be a wide area network (WAN), but which is local to a single metropolitan area (for example, between five different buldings in London). See also Local Area Network (LAN) /l, Wide Area Network (WAN) /w.

Metropolitan Area Network (MAN)
A network spanning a single city or metropolitan area. A MAN is larger than local area networks (LANs), which are normally restricted to single building or neighboring buildings, but smaller than wide area networks (WANs), which can span the entire globe.

MexE:
Mobile Execution Environment is a protocol for the integration of Java onto mobile phones. MexE will extend the capabilities of WAP(Wireless Application Protocol) and offer greater security features.

Meyer
Bertrand Meyer, the author of the Eiffel Eiffel Language and many articles on object-oriented object-oriented software techniques.

MIB
Attribute A single piece of configuration, management, or statistical information which pertains to a specific part of the PNNI protocol operation.

MIB
Instance An incarnation of a MIB object that applies to a specific part, piece, or aspect of the PNNI protocol's operation.

MIB Management Information Base: A definition of management items for some network component that can be accessed by a network manager. A MIB includes the names of objects it contains and the type of information retained.

MIB
Object A collection of attributes that can be used to configure, manage, or analyze an aspect of the PNNI protocol's operation.

MIC
Message Integrity Check.

Microbrowser:
Software that allowesr the user to access the Internet from a mobile device.

Microkernel
An approach to operating systems design which puts emphasis on small modules which implement the basic features of the system and can be flexibly configured .

Microsoft
A vendor of systems and application software for personal computers and similar platforms

MID Message Identifier:
The message identifier is used to associate ATM cells that carry segments from the same higher layer packet.

MID
Metafile for Interactive Documents. A standard sponsored by the DoD DoD.

Midas
A Motif-based toolkit for interactive data analysis by T.Johnson, SLAC. The basis for the Midas-WWW Midas-WWWbrowser.

Midas-WWW
A Motif-based browser browserfor WWW - .

MIDI
Musical Instrument Digital Interface.

MIF
See Maker Interchange Format (MIF) /.

MIFF
Machine Independent File Format. A bitmap format - . /Graphics

MILNET (MILitary NETwork)
Originally part of the ARPANET, MILNET was partitioned in 1984 to make it possible for military installations to have reliable network service, while the ARPANET continued to be used for research.

MIM:
Mobile Instant Messaging is a technology similar to ICQ and will allow mobile users to check for instant availability and communicate instantly with other users on a non-voice basis.

MIMD
Multiple Instruction Multiple Data: a form of parallelism in multiprocessor computing where there are several instruction streams (programs) operating concurrently on several data streams.

MIME
Acronym for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. Although this was primarily used for e-mail, the concepts described by MIME are used to allow browsers to retrieve a wide variety of document types, such as images, sound clips, or movies.

MIME
Multimedia Internet Mail Extensions. A method of processing multi-part, multimedia messages on the Internet Internet. (RFC RFC 1521-1522 etc.) - . /MIME

MIME
See Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME) /.

MINUIT
A Program for Function Minimization and Error Analysis - .

MIPS
A microprocessor vendor .

MIR
Maximum Information Rate: Refer to PCR.

mirror
A collection of one to three submirrors /s which, when modified, causes the modification to be applied to each of its submirrors. A technique of duplicating data on multiple logical disk partitions to reduce the risk of data loss in the event of a hardware failure. See also Disk Suite /d.

MIRROR
Generally speaking, "to mirror" is to maintain an exact copy of something. Probably the most common use of this term on the Internet refers to "mirror sites" which are web sites or FTP sites that maintain exact copies of material originated at another location. This is usually in order to provide more widespread access to the resource. Another common use of the term "mirror" refers to an arrangement where information is written to more than one hard disk simultaneously, so that if one disk fails, the computer keeps on working without losing anything.

MIS
Management Information Systems.

MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

MIT
See Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) /.

ML
A functional language functional-language

MMF
Multimode Fiber optic Cable: Fiber optic cable in which the signal or light propagates in multiple modes or paths. Since these paths may have varying lengths, a transmitted pulse of light may be received at different times and smeared to the point that pulses may interfere with surrounding pulses. This may cause the signal to be difficult or impossible to receive. This pulse dispersion sometimes limits the distance over which a MMF link can operate.

MMM
A WWW browser from INRIA based on the Caml language

MODEM
- A device which translates computer signals into acceptable format and then transmits those signals over a phone line to another computer. Bidirectional, capable of sending and receiving data via the telephone line.

modem
A box that connects your computer or terminal to a phone line. It converts information from your computer to little whistling or hissing noises on the phone line and back again.

Modem
A service used to convert the digital signals produced by a computer into the analog signals required by analog telephone lines, and vice-versa. This process of conversation allows computers to communicate across telephone lines.

MODSIM
A general-purpose modular block-structured language from CACI CACI, which provides support for object-oriented object-orientedprogramming and discrete event simulation. It is intended for building large process-based discrete event simulation models through modular and object-oriented mechanisms similar to those of Modula-2 Modula-2 - . /PTTOOL/Modsim/Tool

Modula-2
A high-level programming language designed by N.Wirth. It is a derivative of Pascal Pascal with well-defined interfaces between modules, and facilities for parallel computation.

Modula-3
A member of the Pascal Pascal family of languages. Designed in the late 1980s at Digital Equipment Corporation and Olivetti, it aims to correct deficiencies of Pascal and Modula-2

Montage
An object-relational database management system from Montage Software: the commercialisation of POSTGRES

MOOD
Material's Object-Oriented Database. An object oriented database object-oriented-database system from Tohoku University - . /MOOD

MOOSE
An object-oriented object-oriented R&D project at CERN - . /OORD/Home_oord

MOSAIC
- The name given to the first web browser ever made available. MOSAIC is free, and available from NCSA. MOSIAC is compliant to the latest releases of the HTML specification.

Mosaic
An X-Window based browser browserfor WWWfrom NCSA - .

MOSES
Methodology for Object-oriented object-oriented Software Engineering of Systems - . /2GOO

MOSPF
See Multicast Open Shortest Path First (MOSPF) /.

motif
A GUI based on the X window system and distributed by the Open software foundation.

Motif
A windowing environment for the X Window System.

Motif
The standard Graphical User Interface and window manager window-manager from OSF OSF, running on theX Window System X-Window-System - . /Motif

mounting directories
Logically attaching the root directory of one file system to some other directory so that you can treat all the files in the file system as though they were subdirectories.Mounts can be local or remote.

mouse
A pointing device that lets you move the cursor on-screen. Mice (not "mouses") are used in conjunction with GUIs.

MPEG
Motion Picture Experts Group: An ISO Standards group dealing with video and audio compression techniques and mechanisms for multiplexing and synchronizing various media streams.

MPEG
Moving Pictures Experts Group of ISO ISO that generates standards for digital video (sequences of images in time) and audio compression compression.

MPOA Client
A device which implements the client side of one or more of the MPOA protocols, (i.e., is a SCP client and/or an RDP client. An MPOA Client is either an Edge Device Functional Group (EDFG) or a Host Behavior Functional Group (HBFG).

MPOA
Multiprotocol over ATM: An effort taking place in the ATM Forum to standardize protocols for the purpose of running multiple network layer protocols over ATM.

MPOA
Server An MPOA Server is any one of an ICFG or RSFG.

MPOA Service Area
The collection of server functions and their clients. A collection of physical devices consisting of an MPOA server plus the set of clients served by that server.

MPOA Target
A set of protocol address, path attributes, (e.g., internetwork layer QoS, other information derivable from received packet) describing the intended destination and its path attributes that MPOA devices may use as lookup keys.

MPRII
The Swedish National Board for Measurement and Testing (SWEDAC) require that products sold in Sweden comply with a set of safety standards known as MPRII, that covers the levels of magnetic and electrical fields in both the VLF and ELF ranges. It is worth noting that there are no scientific studies that conclude that measurements above MPRII levels are hazardous. To measure emissions, a sophisticated testing area that screens out background radiation needs to be in place. Since distance to the CRT and orientation of the measuring device effects measurement, precise placement of the measuring device is essential and difficult to repeat. For the MPR standards, 48 different locations around the monitor need to be measured. In addition, the actual image displayed can have an impact on emissions so that a given set of measurements may not predict the emissions a user would actual encounter.

MPV
Extension of the VRTX VRTX real-time real-time operating system to support multi-processing.

Mrm
An ABR service parameter that controls allocation of bandwidth between forward RM-cells, backward RM-cells, and data cells.

mrouter
A multicast / router. See router /r.

MSB
Most Significant Bit: The highest order bit in the binary representation of a numerical value.

MS-DOS
An operating system developed by MicroSoft Corporation for computers using the Intel 16 and 32-bit family of processors.

MS-DOS
See Disk Operating System (DOS) /d.

MSISDN:
Mobile Station International Subcriber directory number, commonly known as a phone number.

MT Message Type:
Message type is the field containing the bit flags of a RM-cell. These flags are as follows: DIR = 0 for forward RM-cells = 1 for backward; RM-cells BN = 1 for Non-Source Generated (BECN), RM-cells = 0 for Source Generated RM-cells CI = 1 to indicate congestion = 0 otherwise NI = 1 to indicate no additive increase allowed = 0 otherwise RA -- Not used for ATM Forum ABR.

MTBF
Mean Time Between Faults

MTP
Message Transfer Part: Level 1 through 3 protocols of the SS7 protocol stack. MTP 3 (Level 3) is used to support BISUP.

MTU
See maximum transmission unit (MTU) /.

Multibus
A bus standard for microprocessor-based systems, specified by IEEE IEEE Std.796

Multicast Address Resolution Server (MARS)
Tracks the multicast-capable hosts and any existing groups for adding and removing multicast routers from a conference.

multicast
One host multicasts when it wants multiple machines (typically on a WAN) to receive the packet or information. See also anycast /a, broadcast /b, unicast /u.

Multicast Open Shortest Path First (MOSPF)
A multicast version of the Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) /o routing protocol. This multicast routing protocol ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc1585.txt scales much better than DVMRP /d.

Multicasting
The transmit operation of a single PDU by a source interface where the PDU reaches a group of one or more destinations.

Multihomed HostComputer
connected to more than one physical data link. The data links may or may not be attached to the same network.

Multilink
A capability of RAS to combine multiple data stream in to one network connection for the purpose of using more than one modem or ISDN channel in single connection. This feature is new to Windows NT 4.0.

Multimedia
Human computer interaction involving text, graphics, voice, video etc - . /Multimedia

Multi-media
See Multimedia Multimedia.

Multiple Inheritance
In object-oriented object-oriented programming, the possibility that a sub-class may be derived from multiple parents which are themselves not derived one from the other.

multiplex, demultiplex
To combine multiple signals from possibly disparate sources, in order to transmit them over a single path. At the destination, the data stream is demultiplexed (or demuxed) back into its separate channels.

Multiplexed Distribution (MDist)
A central service that is built on top of the TMP that distributes large amounts of data, such as the distribution of configuration data in Tivoli's profile-based applications and the distribution of Tivoli/Courier file packages.

Multiplexing
A function within a layer that interleaves the information from multiple connections into one connection.

Multipoint
Access User access in which more than one terminal equipment (TE) is supported by a single network termination.

Multipoint-to-Multipoint Connection
A Multipoint-to-Multipoint Connection is a collection of associated ATM VC or VP links, and their associated nodes, with the following properties:

1. All Nodes in the connection, called endpoints, serve as a Root Node in a Point-to-Multipoint connection to all of the (N-1) remaining endpoints.

2. Each of the endpoints on the connection can send information directly to any other endpoint, but the receiving endpoint cannot distinguish which of the endpoints is sending information without additional (e.g., higher layer) information.

Multipoint-to-Point Connection
A Point-to-Multipoint Connection may have zero bandwidth from the Root node to the Leaf Nodes, and non-zero return bandwidth from the Leaf Nodes to the Root Node. Such a connection is also known as a Multipoint-to-Point Connection. Note that UNI 4.0 does not support this connection type.

Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions (MIME)
An open-ended standard ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2045.txt for including attachments in electronic mail messages. See also attachment /a, mail /, NeXTMail /n.

Muse
An electronic journal project at Johns Hopkins

mux
See multiplex /.

MVC
Model View Controller architecture for interactive software - . /MVC

MVE
Modular Visualisation Environment. A type of application builder for scientific and other visualisation systems (such as AVS, IBM Data Explorer , IRIS Explorer Khoros).

MX
record See DNS record types, MX record