TLA Dictionary
TLAs from DAA through DZZ

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z

DAC
Digital to Analog Convertor
An interface chip that converts the digital numbers from the computer to a analog current or voltage. The opposite of DAC is ADC.
DEC
Digital Equipment Corporation
The company (a.k.a. Digital) that sells VAX and VMS.
DES
Data Encription Standard
A standard how to encript data. DES was thought to be safe until a few scientists cracked the code. I wonder whether hackers ever had a problem with DES?
DDJ
Doctor Dobb's Journal
Find out all about it at the ddj www-site.
DFT
Discrete Fourier Transform
A Fourier transformation that is performed on sampled data and in in general implemented with the FFT algorithm.
DLL
Dynamic Link Library
A peice of code (and data) that is linked at runtime instead of compile time. Greatest advantage is that DLLs are concurent accassible (if the DLL allows it) by other/multiple programs.
DMA
Direct Memory Access
A specialized (coprocessor) chip or controller that handles memory-memory and io-memory transfers (semi-) parallel to the CPU. A DMA controller sometimes also takes care of refreshing dynamic RAM chips.
DNS
Dynamic Name Server
A computer/server converting internet names to their IP numbers. The same server also serves as a gateway in many cases.
DOP
Direction Of Projection
A term used in projection of 3D objects onto a 2D computer display to denote the direction of projection (this is important for the clipping of objects that are in front or in the back). See also COP.
DOS
Disk Operating System
A piece of software that takes care of interfacing with floppy and/or harddiscs. A few known disc operating systems are: MS-DOS, PC-DOS, UNIX and CP/M.
DPU
Display Processing Unit
Display Processor Unit
A specialized processor (or processing unit) for drawing lines, filling rectangles/polygons and other complicated drawing and rendering tasks. A DPU speeds up the displaying of complex drawings by an order of magnitude. See also CPU, MPU and FPU.
DTD
Document Type Descriptor
A HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) entity to describe the document type you are looking at right now. It is usual in the following format (for details see HTML documentation like obtainable at: http://www-uk.hpl.hp.co.uk/people /dsr/):
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML 2.0 Level 1 //EN">

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