TLAs from CAA through CZZ

CAD

Computer Aided Design
This is design of something where the computer does the drawing for you. the computer can also do calculations to aid the design (these are the more sophisticated programs).

CAM

Computer Aided Manufacturing
A manufacturing process where the computer takes over the production work.

CAT

Computerized Axial Tomography
A way to look at peoples inside.

CCD

Charge Coupled Device
A chip that has capacitors that are coupled by switches. Most common use is in video cameras as inline and array CCD. CCDs are also used in digital and analog delay-lines.

CDY

Computer Designed Yogurt
A Dutch company (Mona) designed software to create computer aided yogurt recipes. It seems that the sky is the limit for what technology is concerned. That tast can probably be classified as 1 or 0.

CIE

Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage
The commission that made a definition (in 1931) for three standard color primaries X, Y and Z for the replacement of red, green and blue because it is very difficult to properly match colors with an RGB representation.

CFF

Critical Fusion Frequency
The frequency of a blinking light that cannot be seen any more. Central vision has a CFF of approx. 20Hz and peripheral vision between 100 and 150 Hz. Visual acuity and age are important factors how well blinking lights are recognized. Computer displays (CRTs) are operated at 50 to 120Hz where 50Hz can be annoying and 120Hz results in a very stable image.

CGM

Computer Graphics Metafile
A metafile containing graphics instructions (and there is an ISO and an ANSI standard for this...).

CMY

Cyan Magenta Yellow
A color system used in printing techniques using the secondary colors cyan, magenta and yellow. Other representations are RGB, YIQ, HSV and HLS. See also CIE and ACE.

COP

Center Of Projection
A vanishing point in 3D projection of object onto a 2D computer display. See also DOP.

CPS

Characters Per Second
Transfer-rate specification of a communication line. See also BPS.

CPU

Central Processing Unit

Central Processor Unit
The chip inside your computer that does the real work. Nowadays, the CPU is assisted by a FPU and a DPU. MPU is (in most cases) a synonym for CPU.

CRC

Cyclic Redundancy Check
A method for data integrity checking using a cyclic modulo 2 addition (XOR function). CRCs can be calculated in any polynomial length required but are mostly performed with 8, 16 or 32 bit polynomials. Several commonly used CRC polynomials are: CRC-12 (x¹² + x¹¹ + x³ + x+1), CRC-16 (x¹⁶ + x¹⁵ + x² + 1), CRC-CCITT (x¹⁶ + x¹² + x⁵ + 1) and AUTODIN-II (x³² + x²⁶ + x²³ + x²² + x¹⁶ + x¹² + x¹¹ + x¹⁰ + x⁸ + x⁷ + x⁵ + x⁴ + x² + x + 1). Although many bit errors can be caught with this kind of check, multiple bit errors are not always detected. Most network protocols use a 16-bit CRC check. A great advantage of CRC is that it can be implemented in hardware without many problems.

CRT

Cathode Ray Tube
The display unit you are probably looking at right now, a.k.a. a television tube (unless you have a pocket or laptop computer that uses a LCD or plasma display). It is a device that enables the visualization of an image by fluorescence of a substance irradiated with an electron beam.

CUJ

C/C++ Users Journal
Read all about it at their address.