Glossary of Terms
- RAM
A random-access device allows stored data to be
accessed in any random order directly, as well as other data storage media
such as hard disks, CDs, DVDs and magnetic tape, and also early primary
memory types such as drum memory, read and write data only in a predetermined
order, consecutively, because of mechanical design limitations. The
time to access a given data location varies significantly depending on its
physical location.
- CPU
A central processing unit is the hardware within a
computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing
the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. All
modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning contained on a single chip.
- Graphics Processor
A graphics processing unit is a specialized
electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to
accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a
display.
- Video Display/Output ( LCD, Monochrome, Colour)
LCD - liquid-crystal display is a flat panel
display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light
modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light
directly.
Monochrome - For an image, the term monochrome is
usually taken to mean the same as black and white but may also be used to refer
to other combinations containing only tones of a single color, such as
green-and-white or green-and-black.
Colour – a display using colours via a graphics
card
- Sound/Audio
Audio signal processing, sometimes referred to as
audio processing, is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound,
often through an audio effect or effects unit. As audio signals may be
electronically represented in either digital or analogue format, signal
processing may occur in either domain. Analogue processors operate directly on
the electrical signal, while digital processors operate mathematically on the
digital representation of that signal.
- Storage Media
A data storage device is a device for recording
(storing) information (data). Recording can be done using virtually any form of
energy, spanning from manual muscle power in handwriting, to acoustic
vibrations in phonographic recording, to electromagnetic energy modulating
magnetic tape and optical discs.
- Power Supply
he AC adapter, AC/DC adapter or AC/DC converter is
a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC
plug. Other names include plug pack, plug-in adapter, adapter block, domestic
mains adapter, line power adapter, wall wart, or power adapter; adapters for
battery-powered equipment may be described as chargers.
- Software Kernel (operating system)
n computing, the kernel is a computer program that
manages input/output requests from software and translates them into data
processing instructions for the central processing unit and other electronic
components of a computer. The kernel is a fundamental part of a modern
computer's operating system.
- HCI
Because human–computer interaction studies a human
and a machine in conjunction, it draws from supporting knowledge on both the
machine and the human side. On the machine side, techniques in computer
graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development
environments are relevant. On the human side, communication theory, graphic and
industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive
psychology, and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant.
Engineering and design methods are also relevant.
This can be used to made menus and similar thing on
consoles and games.
- LAN
A local area network is a computer network that
user interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer
laboratory, or office building using network media. The defining
characteristics of LANs, in contrast to wide area networks, WANs, include their
smaller geographic area, and non-inclusion of leased telecommunication lines
This can be used for local multiplayer gaming.
- GPRS
General packet radio service is a packet oriented
mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global
system for mobile communications, GSM. GPRS was originally standardized by
European Telecommunications Standards Institute, ETSI, in response to the
earlier CDPD and i-mode packet-switched cellular technologies. It is now
maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project
This can allow connection to the console via mobile
phone.
- WAP
Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a technical
standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP
browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the
protocol.
- Cache
A cache is a component that transparently stores
data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that
is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or
duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is
contained in the cache (cache hit), this request can be served by simply
reading the cache, which is comparatively faster. Otherwise (cache miss), the
data has to be recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is
comparatively slower. Hence, the greater the number of requests that can be
served from the cache, the faster the overall system performance becomes.
- MCP (Media Communications Processor)
is the equivalent of a regular chipset South Bridge,
it does much more than simply bringing in the PCI and IDE support to the
motherboard.
- Subscription TV
Subscription TV, premium television, or premium
channels refer to subscription-based television services, usually provided by
both analog and digital cable and satellite television, but also increasingly
via digital terrestrial and internet television. Subscription television began
in the multi-channel transition and transitioned into the post-network era.
Some parts of the world, notably in France and the United States, have also
offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription.
Subscription TV has also been used by companies
like Microsoft for the Xbox.
- ETV (Enhanced Television)
Enhanced TV is one
example of interactive TV. It is used in particular in reference to Two-Screen
Solutions TV + PC services. Generally users of these ETV services have their TV
and computer in the same room, and navigate their web browser to a particular
program-specific Web site that is synchronized to the live program by the
broadcast TV network. Alternatively, some computers have TV tuner cards, or
some television receivers, for example those with Google TV, offer web
browsers.
- API (Graphical and Sound)
An application
programming interface specifies how some software components should interact
with each other.
As well as being able to
access databases or computer hardware, such as hard disk drives or video cards,
an API can be used to ease the work of programming graphical user interface
components. In practice, many times an API comes in the form of a library that
includes specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and
variables. In some other cases, notably for SOAP and REST services, an API
comes as just a specification of remote calls exposed to the API consumers.
- Interpreted programming languages for games
Interpreted programming language executes
instructions directly, without previously compiling a program into
machine-language instructions. The interpreter executes the program directly,
translating each statement into a sequence of one or more subroutines already
compiled into machine code. Compiled language programs, on the other hand, must
explicitly be entirely translated ("compiled") into a sequence of
machine language instructions before they can be executed.
- Compiled programming languages for games
A compiled language is a programming language whose
implementations are typically compilers (translators which generate machine
code from source code), and not interpreters (step-by-step executors of source
code, where no pre-runtime translation takes place).
o Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming
paradigm that represents concepts as "objects" that have data fields
(attributes that describe the object) and associated procedures known as
methods. Objects, which are usually instances of classes, are used to interact
with one another to design applications and computer programs. C++,
Objective-C, Smalltalk, Java, C#, Perl, Python, Ruby and PHP are examples of
object-oriented programming languages.
o
Scripting languages for games
Many games use scripting languages for animation and game
play logic. This has the advantage of quick prototyping, and better
organization of code. Almost every non-trivial game engine uses some scripting
language.
There are many scripting languages suited to such a task.
Lua is perhaps the most popular game scripting language. Other choices include:
AngelScript, GameMonkey, Io, Pawn, Squirrel, and Scheme. Sometimes heavy-weight
languages are also used, like Python or Ruby. These languages are usually quite
a bit harder to embed, and aren’t known for their speed.
Glossary of terms
- RAM
A random-access device allows stored data to be
accessed directly in any random order. In contrast, other data storage media
such as hard disks, CDs, DVDs and magnetic tape, as well as early primary
memory types such as drum memory, read and write data only in a predetermined
order, consecutively, because of mechanical design limitations. Therefore, the
time to access a given data location varies significantly depending on its
physical location.
- CPU
A central processing unit is the hardware within a
computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing
the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. All
modern CPUs are microprocessors, meaning contained on a single chip.
- Graphics Processor
A graphics processing unit is a specialized
electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to
accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a
display.
- Video Display/Output ( LCD, Monochrome, Colour)
LCD - liquid-crystal display is a flat panel
display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light
modulating properties of liquid crystals. Liquid crystals do not emit light
directly.
Monochrome - For an image, the term monochrome is
usually taken to mean the same as black and white but may also be used to refer
to other combinations containing only tones of a single color, such as
green-and-white or green-and-black.
Colour – a display using colours via a graphics
car.
- Sound/Audio
Audio processing is the intentional alteration of auditory signals, or sound,
often through an audio effect or effects unit. Audio signals can be
electronically represented in either digital or analogue format, so signal
processing may occur in either domain. Analogue processors operate directly on
the electrical signal, while digital processors operate mathematically on the
digital representation of that signal.
- Storage Media
A data storage device is a device for storing data. Storing can be done using virtually any form of
energy, spanning from handwriting to acoustic
vibrations in phonographic recording, and also to electromagnetic energy modulating
magnetic tape and optical discs.
- Power Supply
he AC adapter, AC/DC adapter or AC/DC converter is
a type of external power supply, often enclosed in a case similar to an AC
plug. Other names include plug pack, plug-in adapter, adapter block, domestic
mains adapter, line power adapter, wall wart, or power adapter; adapters for
battery-powered equipment may be described as chargers.
- Software Kernel (operating system)
n computing, the kernel is a computer program that
manages input/output requests from software and translates them into data
processing instructions for the central processing unit and other electronic
components of a computer. The kernel is a fundamental part of a modern
computer's operating system.
- HCI
Human–computer interaction studies a human
and a machine in conjunction, so it draws from supporting knowledge on both the
machine and the human side. For machines; techniques in computer
graphics, operating systems, programming languages, and development
environments are relevant. For humans; communication theory, graphic and
industrial design disciplines, linguistics, social sciences, cognitive
psychology, and human factors such as computer user satisfaction are relevant.
Engineering and design methods are also relevant. This can be used to make menus and similar thing on
consoles and games.
- LAN
A local area network is a computer network that allows a
user interconnect computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer
laboratory, or office building using network media. The defining
characteristics of LANs include their
smaller geographic area and that they don't include leased telecommunication lines. This can be used for local multiplayer gaming.
- GPRS
General packet radio service is a packet oriented
mobile data service on the 2G and 3G cellular communication system's global
system for mobile communications. GPRS was originally standardized by
European Telecommunications Standards Institute in response to the
earlier CDPD and i-mode packet-switched cellular technologies. It is now
maintained by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project. This can allow connection to the console via mobile
phone.
- WAP
Wireless Application Protocol is a technical
standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network. A WAP
browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that use the
protocol.
- Cache
A cache is a component that transparently stores
data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. The data that
is stored within a cache might be values that have been computed earlier or
duplicates of original values that are stored elsewhere. If requested data is
contained in the cache, this request can be served by simply
reading the cache, which is comparatively faster. If not, the
data has to be recomputed or fetched from its original storage location, which is
comparatively slower. This means that the overall system performance becomes faster as the number of requests that the cache can serve increases.
- MCP (Media Communications Processor)
A media communications processor is the equivalent of a regular chip set South Bridge and does much more than simply bringing in the PCI and IDE support to the
motherboard.
- Subscription TV
Subscription TV, premium television, or premium
channels refer to subscription-based television services, usually provided by
both analog and digital cable and satellite television, but also increasingly
via digital terrestrial and internet television. Subscription television began
in the multi-channel transition and transitioned into the post-network era.
Some parts of the world, notably in France and the United States, have also
offered encrypted analog terrestrial signals available for subscription. Subscription TV has also been used by companies
like Microsoft for the Xbox.
- ETV (Enhanced Television)
Enhanced TV is an
example of interactive TV, it is used in reference to Two-Screen
Solutions TV and PC services. Users of these ETV services usually have their TV
and PC in the same room, navigating their web browser to a particular
program-specific web site that is synchronized to the live program by the
broadcast TV network. Some computers have TV tuner cards, or
some television receivers, such as those with Google TV, who offer web
browsers.
- API (Graphical and Sound)
An application
programming interface specifies how some software components should interact
with each other.
An API can be used to ease the work of programming graphical user interface
components, as well as being able to
access databases or computer hardware, like hard disk drives or video cards. In practice, an API usually comes in the form of a library that
includes specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and
variables. In some other cases, notably for SOAP and REST services, an API
comes as just a specification of remote calls exposed to the API consumers.
- Interpreted programming languages for games
Interpreted programming language executes
instructions directly without previously compiling a program into
machine-language instructions. It executes the program directly,
translating each statement into a sequence of one or more subroutines already
compiled into machine code.
- Compiled programming languages for games
A compiled programming language is a programming language whose
implementations are typically compilers, translators which generate machine
code from source code. These are not interpreters , which are step-by-step executors of source
code where no pre-runtime translation takes place.
o Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming
paradigm that represents concepts as "objects" that have data fields , these are attributes that describe the object, and associated procedures known as
methods. Objects, which are usually instances of classes, are used to interact
with one another to design applications and computer programs. C++,
Objective-C, Smalltalk, Java, C# and Perl are examples of
object-oriented programming languages.
o
Scripting languages for games
Many games use scripting languages for animation and game
play logic. Scripting languages have the advantage of quick prototyping and better
organization of code. Almost every non-trivial game engine uses some scripting
language.
There are many scripting languages suited to such a task.
Lua is perhaps the most popular game scripting language. There are other choices such as:
AngelScript, GameMonkey, Io, Pawn, Squirrel, and Scheme. Sometimes heavy-weight
languages are also used, like Python or Ruby. These languages are usually quite
a bit harder to embed, and aren’t known for their speed.
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