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29-letter words containing a, m, t

  • distributed logic programming — (language)   (DLP) A logic programming language similar to Prolog, combined with parallel object orientation similar to POOL. DLP supports distributed backtracking over the results of a rendezvous between objects. Multi-threaded objects have autonomous activity and may simultaneously evaluate method calls.
  • drink someone under the table — If someone drinks you under the table, they drink more alcohol than you are able to on a particular occasion.
  • edinburgh multi access system — (operating system)   (EMAS) One of the first operating systems written in a high-level language (IMProved Mercury autocode), apparently predating Unix.
  • electromagnetic compatibility — (hardware, testing)   (EMC) The extent to which a piece of hardware will tolerate electrical interference from other equipment, and will interfere with other equipment. There are strict legal EMC requirements for the sale of any electrical or electronic hardware in most countries, although the actual standards differ. See, for example, EMCNet. See also Electrostatic Discharge, Radio Frequency Interference.
  • employee stock ownership plan — a programme offered to employees that enables them to buy stocks in the company and thus play a role in its management
  • enhanced small disk interface — (storage, hardware)   (ESDI) An obsolete hard disk controller standard, first introduced by Maxtor in 1983, and intended to be the successor to the original ST-506/ST-412. ESDI was faster and more reliable, but still could not compete with IDE and SCSI. EDSI used two cables: a 20-pin data cable to each drive and a single 34-pin control cable daisy chain with the controller at one end and a terminator at the other. In PCs, it supported up to two drives at 1-2MB/s with drives up to 2GB.
  • esoteric programming language — (language, humour)   (esolang) An intentionally unconventional computer programming language designed not for practical use but, rather, to experiment with weird ideas, to be hard to program in or as a joke.
  • expanded memory specification — (storage)   (EMS) An IBM PC memory paging scheme enabling access to memory other than conventional memory in real mode. In 8086 or 8088 based systems this is the only way to use memory beyond conventional memory. In systems based on 80286 or later, XMS and HMA provide alternative methods. EMS was developed jointly by Lotus, Intel, and Microsoft prior to 1988. Accordingly, this specification is sometimes referred to as LIM EMS. A complete discussion of EMS and programming examples can be found in ["PC System Programming for developers", 1989, ISBN 1-55755-035-2 (Book only) and ISBN 1-55755-036-0 (Book and diskette)]. See also upper memory block.
  • extended memory specification — (storage)   (XMS) The specification describing the use of IBM PC extended memory in real mode for storing data (but not executable code). Memory is made available by extended memory manager (XMM) software. The XMM functions are accessible through interrupt 2FH.
  • extensible firmware interface — (specification)   (EFI) A specification originating from Intel Corporation, defining the interface between an operating system and platform firmware, and aiming to reduce OS dependence on details of the firmware implementation.
  • extraordinary general meeting — a meeting specially called to discuss a particular item of a company's business, usually one of some importance. The meeting may be called by a group of shareholders or by the directors
  • familial hypercholesterolemia — an inherited metabolic disorder caused by a lack or malfunction of receptors for the low-density lipoproteins that activate removal of cholesterol from the blood. Abbreviation: FH.
  • field-programmable gate array — (hardware)   (FPGA) A gate array where the logic network can be programmed into the device after its manufacture. An FPGA consists of an array of logic elements, either gates or lookup table RAMs, flip-flops and programmable interconnect wiring. Most FPGAs are reprogrammable, since their logic functions and interconnect are defined by RAM cells. The Xilinx LCA, Altera FLEX and AT&T ORCA devices are examples. Others can only be programmed once, by closing "antifuses". These retain their programming permanently. The Actel FPGAs are the leading example of such devices. Atmel FPGAs are currently (July 1997) the only ones in which part of the array can be reprogrammed while other parts are active. As of 1994, FPGAs have logic capacity up to 10K to 20K 2-input-NAND-equivalent gates, up to about 200 I/O pins and can run at clock rates of 50 MHz or more. FPGA designs must be prepared using CAD software tools, usually provided by the chip vendor, to do technology mapping, partitioning and placement, routing, and binary output. The resulting binary can be programmed into a ROM connected to the FPGA or downloaded to the FPGA from a connected computer. In addition to ordinary logic applications, FPGAs have enabled the development of logic emulators. There is also research on using FPGAs as computing devices, taking direct advantage of their reconfigurability into problem-specific hardware processors.
  • filesystem hierarchy standard — (storage, standard)   (FHS) A standard designed to be used by Unix distribution developers, package developers, and system implementors. FHS consists of a set of requirements and guidelines for file and directory placement under UNIX-like operating systems. The guidelines are intended to support interoperability of applications, system administration tools, development tools, and scripts. These systems should also be supported with greater documentation uniformity. The standard is primarily intended to be a reference and is not a tutorial on how to manage a Unix filesystem or directory hierarchy.
  • genetically modified organism — genetically modified organism: an organism or microorganism whose genetic material has been altered by means of genetic engineering.
  • geographic information system — (application)   (GIS) A computer system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analysing and displaying data related to positions on the Earth's surface. Typically, a GIS is used for handling maps of one kind or another. These might be represented as several different layers where each layer holds data about a particular kind of feature (e.g. roads). Each feature is linked to a position on the graphical image of a map. Layers of data are organised to be studied and to perform statistical analysis (i.e. a layer of customer locations could include fields for Name, Address, Contact, Number, Area). Uses are primarily government related, town planning, local authority and public utility management, environmental, resource management, engineering, business, marketing, and distribution.
  • get a jump on/get the jump on — If you get a jump on something or someone or get the jump on them, you gain an advantage over them.
  • gorno-altai autonomous region — an autonomous region in the Russian Federation, in the Altai territory bordering China and Mongolia. 92,000; 35,753 sq. mi. (92,600 sq. km). Capital: Gorno–Altaisk.
  • hand, foot, and mouth disease — a usually mild disease, mainly affecting children under seven, in which the sufferers develop mouth ulcers accompanied by blisters or rashes on their hands and feet. Caused by the Coxsackie virus A16, it has no known cure
  • hang it (or them or 'em) up — to retire or quit
  • have mixed feelings about sth — If you have mixed feelings about something or someone, you feel uncertain about them because you can see both good and bad points about them.
  • hawaii-aleutian standard time — a standard time used in the zone which includes Hawaii and the western Aleutian Islands, corresponding to the mean solar time of the 150th meridian west of Greenwich, England: it is ten hours behind Greenwich time
  • in a majority/in the majority — If a group is in a majority or in the majority, they form more than half of a larger group.
  • incremental constraint solver — A system in which a constraint solver is given constraints one at a time by an inference engine (as is found in Prolog). The solver adds the new constraint to an initially empty set of solved constraints. If the new constraint is consistent with the solved constraints it will be added to the set. If it was inconsistent, the inference engine backtracks. This is the basis of Constraint Logic Programming.
  • individual retirement account — a savings plan that offers tax advantages to an individual depositor to set aside money for retirement. Abbreviation: IRA.
  • information management system — (database)   (IMS, IMS/VS, IMS/ESA) A database system from IBM consisting of IMS/Data Base and IMS/Data Communications.
  • integrated systems laboratory — (company)   A joint project of Control Data Corporation and NCR Corporation, established in 1973 and dissolved in 1976. Integrated Systems Laboratory developed Software Writer's Language. Address: Escondidio, California, USA.
  • intermedia interchange format — A Standard Hypertext Interchange format from IRIS.
  • international system of units — an internationally accepted coherent system of physical units, derived from the MKSA (meter-kilogram-second-ampere) system, using the meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela as the basic units (SI units) respectively of the fundamental quantities of length, mass, time, electric current, temperature, amount of substance, and luminous intensity. Abbreviation: SI.
  • juvenile rheumatoid arthritis — rheumatoid arthritis that begins before puberty, often preceded by such symptoms as fever, patchy rash, and weight loss.
  • keep something/someone at bay — If you keep something or someone at bay, or hold them at bay, you prevent them from reaching, attacking, or affecting you.
  • law of independent assortment — the principle, originated by Gregor Mendel, stating that when two or more characteristics are inherited, individual hereditary factors assort independently during gamete production, giving different traits an equal opportunity of occurring together.
  • like taking candy from a baby — very easy to accomplish
  • lotus development corporation — (company)   A software company who produced Lotus 1-2-3, the Symphony spreadsheet and Lotus Notes for the IBM PC. Disliked by the League for Programming Freedom on account of their lawsuits. Quarterly sales $224M, profits $10M (Aug 1994). Telephone: +1 (617) 225 1284.
  • make a pitch/make one's pitch — If someone makes a pitch for something, they try to persuade people to do or buy it.
  • make an exhibition of oneself — to behave so foolishly in public that one excites notice or ridicule
  • make hay while the sun shines — grass, clover, alfalfa, etc., cut and dried for use as forage.
  • man that corrupted hadleyburg — a short story (1900) by Mark Twain.
  • management information system — a computerized information-processing system designed to support the activities and functions of company management. Abbreviation: MIS.
  • mark-sweep garbage collection — Each cell has a bit reserved for marking which is clear initially. During garbage collection all active cells are traced from the root and marked. Then all cells are examined. Unmarked cells are freed.
  • maximum likelihood estimation — a method of estimating population characteristics from a sample by choosing the values of the parameters that will maximize the probability of getting the particular sample actually obtained from the population.
  • mechanical equivalent of heat — (in any system of physical units) the number of units of work or energy equal to one unit of heat, as 4.1858 joules, which equals one small calorie.
  • mecklenburg-western pomerania — a state in NE Germany. 8842 sq. mi. (22,900 sq. km). Capital: Schwerin.
  • metadata information partners — The Metadata Company
  • methylenedioxymethamphetamine — The psychoactive drug MDMA or Ecstasy, an amphetamine that produces entactogenic, psychedelic, and stimulant effects.
  • microelectromechanical system — (hardware)   (MEMS) The integration of mechanical structures (moving parts) with microelectronics. MEMS devices are "custom" designed for a purpose which requires a mechanical action to be controlled by a computer. Applications include sensors, medical devices, process controls. See also nanotechnology.
  • modified frequency modulation — (storage)   (MFM, Modified FM, or sometimes "Multiple Frequency Modulation") A modification to the original frequency modulation scheme for encoding data on magnetic disks. MFM allows more than 1 symbol per flux transition (up to 3), giving greater density of data. It is used with a data rate of between 250-500 kbit/s on industry standard 3.5" and 5.25" low and high density diskettes, and up to 5 Mbit/s on ST-506 hard disks. Except for 1.44 MB floppy disks, this encoding is obsolete. Other data encoding schemes include GCR, FM, RLL. See also: PRML.
  • monday-morning quarterbacking — wisdom after the event, esp by spectators
  • monobasic potassium phosphate — potassium diphosphate. See under potassium phosphate.
  • mordovian autonomous republic — an autonomous republic in the Russian Federation in Europe. 9843 sq. mi. (25,493 sq. km). Capital: Saransk.
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