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31-letter words containing h, o, l, e

  • put someone in his or her place — to humble someone who is arrogant, conceited, forward, etc
  • queued sequential access method — Physical Sequential
  • scalable processor architecture — (computer)   (SPARC) An instruction set architecture designed by Sun Microsystems for their own use in 1985. Sun was a maker of 680x0-based Unix workstations. Research versions of RISC processors had promised a major step forward in speed but existing manufacturers were slow to introduce a RISC type processor, so Sun went ahead and developed its own, based on the University of California at Berkley's RISC I and RISC II 1980-2. In keeping with their open philosophy, they licenced it to other companies, rather than manufacture it themselves. The evolution and standardisation of SPARC is now directed by the non-profit consortium SPARC International, Inc. SPARC was not the first RISC processor. The AMD 29000 came before it, as did the MIPS R2000 (based on Stanford's design) and Hewlett-Packard Precision Architecture CPU, among others. The SPARC design was radical at the time, even omitting multiple cycle multiply and divide instructions (like a few others), while most RISC CPUs are more conventional. SPARC implementations usually contain 128 or 144 registers, (CISC designs typically had 16 or less). At each time 32 registers are available - 8 are global, the rest are allocated in a "window" from a stack of registers. The window is moved 16 registers down the stack during a function call, so that the upper and lower 8 registers are shared between functions, to pass and return values, and 8 are local. The window is moved up on return, so registers are loaded or saved only at the top or bottom of the register stack. This allows functions to be called in as little as 1 cycle. Like some other RISC processors, reading global register zero always returns zero and writing it has no effect. SPARC is pipelined for performance, and like previous processors, a dedicated condition code register holds comparison results. SPARC is "scalable" mainly because the register stack can be expanded (up to 512, or 32 windows), to reduce loads and saves between functions, or scaled down to reduce interrupt or context switch time, when the entire register set has to be saved. Function calls are usually much more frequent, so the large register set is usually a plus. SPARC is not a chip, but a specification, and so there are various implementations of it. It has undergone revisions, and now has multiply and divide instructions. Most versions are 32 bits, but there are designs for 64-bit and superscalar versions. SPARC was submitted to the IEEE society to be considered for the P1754 microprocessor standard. SPARC(R) is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc. in the United States and other countries.
  • secondary sexual characteristic — any of various features distinguishing individuals of different sex but not directly concerned in reproduction. Examples are the antlers of a stag and the beard of a man
  • see the handwriting on the wall — to foresee impending disaster or misfortune: Dan. 5:5-28
  • shoot the breeze/shoot the bull — If you shoot the breeze or shoot the bull with someone, you talk to them about things which are not very serious or important.
  • software publishing certificate — (security)   (SPC) A public key certification standard (PKCS) #7 signed data object containing X.509 certificates. SPCs are used for digital signatures as applicable to computer software.
  • software publishing corporation — (company)   (SPC) The company that produces Harvard Graphics.
  • supplementary ideographic plane — (text, standard)   (SIP) The third plane (plane 2) defined in Unicode/ISO 10646, designed to hold all the ideographs descended from Chinese writing (mainly found in Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese and Chinese) that aren't found in the Basic Multilingual Plane. The BMP was supposed to hold all ideographs in modern use; unfortunately, many Chinese dialects (like Cantonese and Hong Kong Chinese) were overlooked; to write these, characters from the SIP are necessary. This is one reason even non-academic software must support characters outside the BMP.
  • take sb captive/hold sb captive — If you take someone captive or hold someone captive, you take or keep them as a prisoner.
  • take sb hostage/hold sb hostage — If someone is taken hostage or is held hostage, they are captured and kept as a hostage.
  • telocator alphanumeric protocol — (communications, protocol)   (TAP, or "IXO", "PET") A protocol for submitting requests to a pager service. IXO/TAP is an ASCII-based, half-duplex protocol that allows the submission of a numeric or alphanumeric message. See also RFC 1568.
  • the charge of the light brigade — a poem (1854) by Tennyson, celebrating the British cavalry attack on the Russian position at Balaklava during the Crimean War.
  • the early bird catches the worm — If you say that the early bird catches the worm, you mean that the person who arrives first in a place is most likely to get what they want.
  • the internal security committee — a committee of the US House of Representatives that was abolished in 1975. Prior to its renaming in 1969, it was known as the House Un-American Activities Committee, and was notorious for its anti-Communist investigations in the late 1940s and 1950s
  • the national assembly for wales — the elected assembly for Wales, based in Cardiff, that has certain powers devolved from the UK government
  • to be living proof of something — to exemplify something
  • to burn the candle at both ends — If you burn the candle at both ends, you try to do too many things in too short a period of time so that you have to stay up very late at night and get up very early in the morning to get them done.
  • to call something into question — If you say that there is some question about something, you mean that there is doubt or uncertainty about it. If something is in question or has been called into question, doubt or uncertainty has been expressed about it.
  • to close your eyes to something — If you close your eyes to something bad or if you shut your eyes to it, you ignore it.
  • to feel something in your bones — If you say that you feel or know something in your bones, you are indicating that you are certain about it, although you cannot explain why.
  • to give someone the green light — If someone in authority gives you a green light, they give you permission to do something.
  • to pour cold water on something — If you pour cold water on an idea or suggestion, you show that you have a low opinion of it.
  • voters telecommunications watch — (body)   (VTW) A non-profit organisation based in New York, founded by Shabbir J. Safdar to protect the rights of Internet users. The VTW has actively opposed regulation of encryption and restrictions on Internet free speech. VTW created the animated "Free Speech" fireworks icon that has been displayed on many web pages since June 12, 1996, the day that a three-judge panel in Philadelphia ruled the CDA unconstitutional.
  • with the best will in the world — even with the best of intentions
  • worcester polytechnic institute — (WPI) A well-regarded, small engineering college. Address: Worcester, MA, USA.
  • you could have heard a pin drop — You can say you could have heard a pin drop when a place is extremely quiet, especially because everyone is waiting for someone to speak or when someone has made a shocking remark.
  • zenithal equidistant projection — azimuthal equidistant projection.
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