Technology terms starting with P

1,398 terms

101. Pancake Altitude Altitude at which the trailing edge of a chaff puff/cloud effectively catches up to the leading edge because of atmospheric slowdown.
102. pane A separate area in a split window. A window can be split into two or more panes.
103. panic (PA-nik) Sudden extreme anxiety or fear that may cause irrational thoughts or actions.
104. Panning An applied material, usually metal, that covers the front (exterior) surface of an existing window frame or mullion
105. PAP An enzyme produced by the prostate. It may be found in increased amounts in men who have prostate cancer. Also called prostatic acid phosphatase.
106. paperwork management Collectively, the techniques of managing the creation, maintenance and disposition of records. Also agency programs incorporating such techniques.
107. PAR Performance and Accountability Report -- see Annual Reports for more
108. par meter Abbreviation for peak-to-average ratio meter. A meter used to measure, calculate, and display the ratio of the peak power level to the time-averaged power…
109. para-virtualization A virtualization approach that exports a modified hardware abstraction which requires operating systems to be explicitly modified and ported to run.
110. parabolic antenna An antenna consisting of a parabolic reflector and a radiating or receiving element at or near its focus.
111. parabolic profile In an optical fiber, a power-law index profile with the profile parameter, g, equal to 2. Synonym quadratic profile.
112. Parallel Transmission of all the bits (e.g. in a character) at the same time. If the character has eight bits, there are eight wires.
113. parallel computer A computer that has multiple arithmetic units or logic units that are used to accomplish parallel operations or parallel processing.
114. parallel port A port through which two or more data bits are passed simultaneously, such as all the bits of an 8-bit byte, and that requires as many input channels as…
115. Parallel Processing In parallel processing multiple processors (CPUs) divide up a large task into smaller ones and each CPU acts on the subdivided task simultaneously so that…
116. parallel programming A style of programming in which statements are not necessarily executed in an ordered sequence but in parallel.
117. Parallel Technology An interface that allows a hard drive to receive multiple bits of information at the same time through short, wide cables carrying multiple signals.
118. parallel transmission The simultaneous transmission of the signal elements of a character or other data item. 2.
119. parallel-to-serial conversion Conversion of a stream of multiple data elements, received simultaneously, into a stream of data elements transmitted in time sequence, i.e.
120. parallelism When speaking about GridFTP transfers, parallelism refers to having multiple TCP connections between a single pair of network endpoints.
121. parameter A value or measurement that varies with circumstances, and is used as a reference to quantify a situation or a process.
122. parameter entity An entity that consists of DTD specifications, as distinct from a general entity.
123. parametric amplifier (paramp) An amplifier that (a) has a very low noise level, (b) has a main oscillator that is tuned to the received frequency, (c) has another pumping oscillator of…
124. Parametric Cost Estimate A cost estimating methodology using statistical relationships between historical costs and other program variables such as system physical or performance…
125. Parametric search Parametric searching allows people to find items of interest based on an individual item's parameters, or particular characteristics.
126. parasitic element Of an antenna, a directive element that is not connected to a radio transmitter or receiver either directly or via a feeder, but is coupled to the driven…
127. parasitic emission In a communications system in which one or more electromagnetic sources are used, electromagnetic radiation--such as lightwaves, radio waves, microwaves…
128. paravirtualization Para-virtualization uses a special kernel, sometimes referred to as the xen kernel or kernel-xen to virtualized another environment while using the hosts…
129. paravirtualized drivers Para-virtualized drivers are device drivers that operate on fully virtualized linux guests.
130. paraxial ray In optical systems, a ray that is close to and nearly parallel with the optical axis.
131. parcel data Data representing the geographic limits of property ownership as defined by some legal instrument.
132. Parcel Lot Land often not residing within a square, most of which were created in 1905 by Act of Congress.
133. PARCS Perimeter Acquisition Radar and Attack Characterization System.
134. parent class See "base class".
135. parent document A document whose values are inherited by another document (the child document).
136. Parent Object An object in which another object resides. For example, a folder is a parent object in which a file, or child object, resides.
137. Parent Organization The organization that is applying for the Personal Identity Verification card on behalf of an applicant.
138. parent partition The partition that manages the virtual machines.
139. Parent-child trust relationship The two-way, transitive trust relationship that is established when you add a domain to an Active Directory tree.
140. Parity A form of data protection used by RAID level 5 to recreate the data of a failed drive in a disk array.
141. parity bit An extra bit that can be added to a group of "0" bits and "1" bits to make the parity of the group odd or even.
142. parity check A test that determines whether the number of ones or zeros in an array of binary digits is odd or even.
143. parity checking A method of data verification. Parity information is used to reconstruct data.
144. parity disk Disk on which parity information is stored for a RAID group.
145. parking party Representative of the served user who parks a call via "call park."
146. PARPRO Peacetime Application of Reconnaissance Programs.
147. PARS Abbreviation for paging and radiotelephone service. A radio service in which common carriers are authorized to offer and provide paging and radiotelephone…
148. parse tree See "syntax tree".
149. parsed entity A general entity that contains XML and therefore is parsed when inserted into the XML document, as opposed to an unparsed entity.
150. parser A module that reads in XML data from an input source and breaks it into chunks so that your program knows when it is working with a tag, an attribute, or…
151. parsing Usually applied to the action of a compiler in analyzing a program source file for syntax errors.
152. part In a multipart upload request, each part is a contiguous portion of the object's data.
153. part 68 The section of Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations governing (a) the direct connection of telecommunications equipment and customer premises…
154. Partial Mission Capable Material condition of an aircraft or training device indicating that it can perform at least one, but not all, of its missions. Also called PMC.
155. partial-dial condition A condition in which outpulsing has commenced, insufficient information has been received by the customer installation (CI) to process the call and no…
156. Participating Service A military Service that supports the lead Service in the development of a joint acquisition program by its contribution of personnel and/or funds.
157. Particle Beam (PB) High-energy beam made up of atomic/sub-atomic particles (electrons, protons, or neutrons) accelerated to near the speed of light.
158. Particle Beam Weapon (PBW) A weapon that relies on the technology of particle accelerators (atom-smashers) to emit beams of charged or neutral particles, which travel near the speed…
159. Partition A partition is an individual section of computer storage media such as a hard drive.
160. Partition Table The partition table indicates each logical volume contained on a disc and its location.
161. partitioned A characteristic of virtualization which refers to the independent nature of the virtual machines allowing them to run different operating systems on the…
162. partitioned security mode [An] information-system (IS) security mode of operation wherein all personnel have the clearance, but not necessarily formal access approval and…
163. partitioning A software technology able to create multiple instances of the same host OS, called partitions, instead of reproducing multiple different physical…
164. partner A member of a clustered pair. From the point of view of the local filer, the other filer in the cluster is the partner. See also "takeover partner."
165. partner mode The method used to communicate through the command-line interface with the failed filer in a cluster during a takeover.
166. party ID 1. The served user's (or controller's) reference to a particular party within the context of a call.
167. party line In telephone systems, an arrangement in which two or more user end instruments, usually telephones, are connected to the same loop.
168. PASS A working trip or passage of an excavating, grading, or compaction machine. See compaction.
169. passband The portion of spectrum, between limiting frequencies (or, in the optical regime, limiting wavelengths), that is transmitted with minimum relative loss or…
170. Passivation A chemical reaction that eliminates the detrimental effect of electrically reactive atoms on a photovoltaic cell's surface.
171. Passive In surveillance, an adjective applied to actions or equipment, which emit no energy capable of being detected. 219
172. Passive Air Defense All measures, other than active air defense, taken to minimize the effectiveness of hostile air action.
173. Passive Attack An attack against an authentication protocol where the attacker intercepts data traveling along the network between the claimant and verifier, but does…
174. passive client A Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) browser, which is capable of broadly supported HTTP, that can use cookies.
175. Passive Communications Security Threats Threats to electronic systems posed by a capability to obtain intelligence through intercepting and evaluating intentional and inadvertent electromagnetic…
176. Passive Defense (1) Measures taken to reduce the probability of and to minimize the effects of damage caused by hostile action without the intention of taking the…
177. passive device A device that does not require a source of energy for its operation. Note: Examples of passive devices are electrical resistors, electrical capacitors…
178. passive element Synonym parasitic element.
179. passive satellite In a satellite communications system, a satellite that only reflects signals from one Earth station to another, or from several Earth stations to several…
180. Passive Sensor A sensor that detects naturally occurring emissions from a target for tracking and/or identification purposes.
181. passive star See star coupler.
182. passive station On a multipoint connection or a point-to-point connection using basic mode link control, any tributary station waiting to be polled or selected.
183. passive threat 1. Of a data or information processing system, a threat of disclosure of information without changing the state of the system.
184. passphrase [A] sequence of characters, longer than the acceptable length of a password, that is transformed by a password system into a virtual password of…
185. passthru server An intermediary server that lets a client access a target server to which the client is not connected.
186. Password A secret code utilized, usually along with a user ID, in order to log on or gain access to a PC, network or other secure system, site or application.
187. password history With respect to a given information system (IS) asset, a log of expired passwords, used primarily for automatic comparison with proposed new passwords.
188. password length equation An equation that determines an appropriate password length, M, which provides an acceptable probability, P, that a password will be guessed in its…
189. password length parameter A basic parameter affecting the password length needed to provide a given degree of security.
190. Password Protected The ability to protect a file using a password access control, protecting the data contents from being viewed with the appropriate viewer unless the…
191. Password Replication Policy A set of access control lists (ACLs) that determine what credentials can or cannot be replicated on a read-only domain controller (RODC).
192. Password Settings Container An object class in the Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) schema that is created by default under the System container in the domain.
193. Password Settings object An Active Directory object that is stored in the Password Settings Container. The Password Settings object holds the attributes of a certain fine-grained…
194. PAT In blackjack, an unbusted hand worth at least 17 points. In draw poker, a hand that does not need any more hands.
195. PAT&E Production Acceptance Test and Evaluation.
196. patch A downloadable update that fixes bugs, improves stability and introduces new features to a program.
197. patch and test facility (PTF) A facility in which supporting functions, such as (a) quality control checking and testing of equipment, links, and circuits, (b) troubleshooting, (c)…
198. patch bay An assembly of hardware so arranged that a number of circuits, usually of the same or similar type, appear on jacks for monitoring, interconnecting, and…
199. patch panel One segment of a patch bay.
200. path The hierarchical description of where a directory, folder, or file is located on a computer or network.