0%

14-letter words containing t, e, m, p

  • processor time — (software)   The amount of time a process takes to run, given that it has exclusive and uninterrupted use of the CPU. Note that in a modern computer, this would be very unusual, and so the processor time calculation for most processes involves adding up all the small amounts of time the CPU actually spends on the process. Some systems break processor time down into user time and system time. Compare wall clock time.
  • progametangium — Mycology. the hyphal tip of certain fungi that produces the gametangium and subsequent gamete.
  • programme note — A programme note is an article written in a programme for a play or concert, which gives information about the performance or production.
  • proletarianism — the practices, attitudes, or social status of a proletarian.
  • promenade tile — a machine-made, unglazed, ceramic floor tile.
  • promethea moth — a silkworm moth, Callosamia promethea, having reddish-brown wings, each with a border of white or yellow, the larvae of which feed on spicebush and other lauraceous plants.
  • prominent moth — any moth of the family Notodontidae characterized by tufts of scales on the back edge of the forewing that stand up prominently at rest and give the group its name. It includes the puss moth and buff-tip as well as those with prominent in the name
  • pronunciamento — a proclamation; manifesto; edict.
  • proportionment — the act of proportioning.
  • protected mode — An operating mode of Intel 80x86 processors. The opposite of real mode. The Intel 8088, Intel 8086, Intel 80188 and Intel 80186 had only real mode, processors beginning with the Intel 80286 feature a second mode called protected mode. In real mode, addresses are generated by adding an address offset to the value of a segment register shifted left four bits. As the segment register and address offset are 16 bits long this results in a 20-bit address. This is the origin of the one megabyte (2^20) limit in real mode. There are 4 segment registers on processors before the Intel 80386. The 80386 introduced two more segment registers. Which segment register is used depends on the instruction, on the addressing mode and of an optional instruction prefix which selects the segment register explicitly. In protected mode, the segment registers contain an index into a table of segment descriptors. Each segment descriptor contains the start address of the segment, to which the offset is added to generate the address. In addition, the segment descriptor contains memory protection information. This includes an offset limit and bits for write and read permission. This allows the processor to prevent memory accesses to certain data. The operating system can use this to protect different processes' memory from each other, hence the name "protected mode". While the standard register set belongs to the CPU, the segment registers lie "at the boundary" between the CPU and MMU. Each time a new value is loaded into a segment register while in protected mode, the corresponding descriptor is loaded into a descriptor cache in the (Segment-)MMU. On processors before the Pentium this takes longer than just loading the segment register in real mode. Addresses generated by the CPU (which are segment offsets) are passed to the MMU to be checked against the limit in the segment descriptor and are there added to the segment base address in the descriptor to form a linear address. On a 80386 or later, the linear address is further processed by the paged MMU before the result (the physical address) appears on the chip's address pins. The 80286 doesn't have a paged MMU so the linear address is output directly as the physical address. The paged MMU allows for arbitrary remapping of four klilobyte memory blocks (pages) through a translation table stored in memory. A few entries of this table are cached in the MMU's Translation Lookaside Buffer to avoid excessive memory accesses. After processor reset, all processors start in real mode. Protected mode has to be enabled by software. On the 80286 there exists no documented way back to real mode apart from resetting the processor. Later processors allow switching back to real mode by software. Software which has been written or compiled to run in protected mode must only use segment register values given to it by the operating system. Unfortunately, most application code for MS-DOS, written before the 286, will fail in protected mode because it assumes real mode addressing and writes arbitrary values to segment registers, e.g. in order to perform address calculations. Such use of segment registers is only really necessary with data structures that are larger than 64 kilobytes and thus don't fit into a single segment. This is usually dealt with by the huge memory model in compilers. In this model, compilers generate address arithmetic involving segment registers. A solution which is portable to protected mode with almost the same efficiency would involve using a table of segments instead of calculating new segment register values ad hoc. To ease the transition to protected mode, Intel 80386 and later processors provide "virtual 86 mode".
  • proto-germanic — the unattested prehistoric parent language of the Germanic languages; Germanic.
  • protogeometric — pertaining to or designating a style of vase painting developed in Greece chiefly during the 10th century b.c. and characterized by use of abstract geometrical motifs.
  • proximity fuse — an electronically triggered device designed to detonate an explosive charge in a missile, etc, at a predetermined distance from the target
  • proximity fuze — a design for detonating a charge, as in a projectile, within a predesignated radius of a target.
  • pseudosymmetry — an apparent symmetry different from that appropriate to a crystal of a given mineral.
  • pulmonary tree — the trachea, bronchi, and bronchioles of the lungs, which together resemble an upside-down tree.
  • pumice country — volcanic farmland in the North Island
  • pump attendant — a person who works in a garage or petrol station and who fills customers' cars with petrol
  • pumped storage — a system for generating hydroelectric power for peak periods by pumping water from a lower to a higher reservoir during low-demand periods and then releasing it during peak periods.
  • put money into — to invest money in
  • put on the map — a representation, usually on a flat surface, as of the features of an area of the earth or a portion of the heavens, showing them in their respective forms, sizes, and relationships according to some convention of representation: a map of Canada.
  • put someone on — to connect (a person) by telephone
  • put the arm on — the upper limb of the human body, especially the part extending from the shoulder to the wrist.
  • put the moz on — to jinx
  • pygmy marmoset — a related form, Cebuella pygmaea: the smallest monkey, inhabiting tropical forests of the Amazon
  • pyjama cricket — one-day cricket, in which the players wear colourful clothing rather than the traditional whites used in longer forms of the game
  • pyramid letter — chain letter.
  • pyrenomycetous — of or relating to the former class Pyrenomycetes of fungi
  • pyrometallurgy — the process or technique of refining ores with heat so as to accelerate chemical reactions or to melt the metallic or nonmetallic content.
  • pyrophotometer — a form of pyrometer that measures temperature by optical or photometric means.
  • pythagoreanism — the doctrines of Pythagoras and his followers, especially the belief that the universe is the manifestation of various combinations of mathematical ratios.
  • quadruple time — a measure consisting of four beats or pulses with accent on the first and third.
  • quasi-complete — having all parts or elements; lacking nothing; whole; entire; full: a complete set of Mark Twain's writings.
  • quick-tempered — easily angered.
  • quoted company — a company whose shares are quoted on a stock exchange
  • radio spectrum — the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that includes radio waves.
  • radium therapy — treatment of disease by means of radium.
  • raman-spectrum — the change in wavelength of light scattered while passing through a transparent medium, the collection of new wavelengths (Raman spectrum) being characteristic of the scattering medium and differing from the fluorescent spectrum in being much less intense and in being unrelated to an absorption band of the medium.
  • reappraisement — an act or the process of appraising someone or something again
  • reception room — a room for receiving visitors, clients, patients, etc.
  • recompensatory — serving to compensate, as for loss, lack, or injury.
  • reimplantation — the surgical restoration of a tooth, organ, limb, or other structure to its original site.
  • report a claim — If you report a claim, you inform an insurer that an insured event has occurred and that you intend to ask the insurer for financial payment.
  • repromulgation — to make known by open declaration; publish; proclaim formally or put into operation (a law, decree of a court, etc.).
  • rescue attempt — an attempt to bring a person or people out of danger, harm, attack, etc
  • retirement pay — a pension; the pay a retired person gets
  • retrocomputing — /ret'-roh-k*m-pyoo'ting/ Refers to emulations of way-behind-the-state-of-the-art hardware or software, or implementations of never-was-state-of-the-art; especially if such implementations are elaborate practical jokes and/or parodies, written mostly for hack value, of more "serious" designs. Perhaps the most widely distributed retrocomputing utility was the "pnch(6)" or "bcd(6)" program on V7 and other early Unix versions, which would accept up to 80 characters of text argument and display the corresponding pattern in punched card code. Other well-known retrocomputing hacks have included the programming language INTERCAL, a JCL-emulating shell for Unix, the card-punch-emulating editor named 029, and various elaborate PDP-11 hardware emulators and RT-11 OS emulators written just to keep an old, sourceless Zork binary running.
  • roman alphabet — Latin alphabet.
  • rumbledethumps — a Scottish dish of butter and mashed potatoes, sometimes mixed with cabbage or turnips
  • rummelgumption — commonsense
Was this page helpful?
Yes No
Thank you for your feedback! Tell your friends about this page
Tell us why?