Acrobat is actually a set of products. The latest version, Acrobat 3.0, includes a "toolkit" that lets you scan in or otherwise capture documents created with Word, Pagemaker, and other desktop publishing products. The resulting PDF files can then be available for viewing either directly with the Reader or they can be viewed as embedded files within the Netscape Navigator browser. Acrobat 3.0 comes in versions for Windows 3.1, 95, and NT; for the MAC, and for UNIX platforms.

   If you have a Windows operating system on your personal computer, you may notice a number of Windows files with the "OCX" file name suffix. OCX stands for "Object Linking and Embedding control." Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) was Microsoft's program technology for supporting compound documents such as the Windows desktop. The Component Object Model now takes in OLE as part of a larger concept. Microsoft now uses the term "ActiveX control" instead of "OCX" for the component object.

   One of the main advantages of a component is that it can be re-used by many applications (referred to as component containers). A COM component object (ActiveX control) can be created using one of several languages or development tools, including C++ and Visual Basic, or PowerBuilder, or with scripting tools such as VBScript.

   An ActiveX control can be created in any programming language that recognizes Microsoft's Component Object Model (COM). An ActiveX control is a component or self-contained program package that can be created and reused by many applications in the same computer or in a distributed network. The distributed support for COM is called the Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM). In implementation, an ActiveX control is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) module. An ActiveX control runs in what is known as a container, an application program that uses the Component Object Model program interfaces. This reuseable component approach to application development reduces development time and improves program capability and quality. Windows 95 and NT application development programs such as Powerbuilder and Microsoft Access take advantage of ActiveX controls.

Intel, which has taken the lead in developing its specifications, has built AGP into a chipset for its Pentium II microprocessor. The newer, faster Pentium IIs are designed to work with the AGP chipset. Intel says the advanced floating point unit and faster cache algorithm of the Pentium II are better adapted for 3-dimensional applications.

1) In some computer operating systems and programming languages, an alias is an alternative and usually easier-to-understand or more significant name for a defined data object. The data object can be defined once and later a programmer can define one or more equivalent aliases that will also refer to the data object. In some languages, this is known as an "equate" instruction.

2) In Macintosh operating systems, an alias is a desktop icon for a particular program or data object.

   Typically, the ALU has direct input and output access to the processor controller, main memory (random access memory or RAM in a personal computer), and input/output devices. Inputs and outputs flow along an electronic path that is called a bus. The input consists of an instruction word (sometimes called a machine instruction word) that contains an operation code (sometimes called an "op code"), one or more operands, and sometimes a format code. The operation code tells the ALU what operation to perform and the operands are used in the operation. (For example, two operands might be added together or compared logically.) The format may be combined with the op code and tells, for example, whether this is a fixed-point or a floating-point instruction. The output consists of a result that is placed in a storage register and settings that indicate whether the operation was performed successfully. (If it isn't, some sort of status will be stored in a permanent place that is sometimes called the machine status word.)

   In general, the ALU includes storage places for input operands, operands that are being added, the accumulated result (stored in an accumulator), and shifted results. The flow of bits and the operations performed on them in the subunits of the ALU is controlled by gated circuits. The gates in these circuits are controlled by a sequence logic unit that uses a particular algorithm or sequence for each operation code. In the arithmetic unit, multiplication and division are done by a series of adding or subtracting and shifting operations. There are several ways to represent negative numbers. In the logic unit, one of 16 possible logic operations can be performed - such as comparing two operands and identifying where bits don't match.

   The design of the ALU is obviously a critical part of the processor and new approaches to speeding up instruction handling are continually being developed.

   Founded in1969, AMD along with Cyrix has often offered computer manufacturers a lower-cost alternative to the microprocessors from Intel. AMD develops and manufactures its processors and other products in facilities in Sunnyvale, California, and Austin,Texas. A new fabrication facility for the AMD-K6 will be opened in Dresden, Germany, in 1999.

   The low cost of AMD's K6 microprocessor was a contributor to lower PC prices in 1998. Reviewers generally rated it equivalent to or slightly better than the comparable Pentium microprocessor from Intel. AMD says that, in addition to offering "the first mainstream 200 MHz system bus," the forthcoming K7 chip will include a superscalar pipelined floating point unit, a programmable L2 cache, and operate at clock speeds faster than 500 MHz. The K7 will use AMD's existing 0.25 micron technology.

Here are AMD's other major product areas:

Flash Memory

Flash memory retains data when you turn a computer device off. AMD makes flash memory units that require little power ("low-voltage, zero-power") and can be used in battery-operated hand-held devices (including wireless communications for cellular phones), network devices, set-top boxes, automotive engine control, and embedded control storage for scientific instrumentation and medical devices. Features in AMD's flash memory include embedded algorithms, guaranteed minimum 100,000 program/erase cycle endurance, sector architecture, and a single-power-supply. AMD is a partner with Fujitsu in making flash memory.

Integrated Circuits for Network Devices

AMD makes linecard integrated circuits for telephone switches, devices for wireless local loops, digital cordless telephone circuitry, and Ethernet controllers.

Programmable Logic Devices

AMD makes microprocessor and memory devices that can be programmed for individual applications and embedded in devices. Its E86 line of embedded processors are compatible with its x86 microprocessors and can be programmed to control smart telephones, industrial machines, cameras, and other applications.

Saffo's analog computers also go by the names of MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) and smart matter.

Here are three of the most popular anti-virus programs. You can download free-trial copies from their sites.

Dr. Solomon's Software

MacAfee Virus Scan

Norton Anti-Virus

1. A first-tier, front-end, Web browser-based graphical user interface, usually at a personal computer or workstation
2. A middle-tier business logic application or set of applications, possibly on a local area network or intranet server
3. A third-tier, back-end, database and transaction server, sometimes on a mainframe or large server

   Older, legacy databases and transaction management applications are part of the back end or third tier. The application server is the middleman between browser-based front-ends and back-end databases and legacy systems.

   In many usages, the application server combines or works with a Web (HTTP) server and is called a Web application server. The Web browser supports an easy-to-create HTML-based front-end for the user. The Web server provides several different ways to forward a request to an application server and to forward back a modified or new Web page to the user. These approaches include the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), FastCGI, Microsoft's Active Server Page (ASP), and the Java Server Page (JSP). In some cases, the Web application servers also support request "brokering" interfaces such as CORBA's Internet Inter-ORB Protocol (IIOP).

   The AS/400, one of IBM's greatest success stories, is widely installed in large enterprises at the department level, in small corporations, in government agencies, and in almost every industry segment. It succeeded another highly popular product, the System/36 and was itself based on a later, more sophisticated product, the System/38. AS/400 customers can choose from thousands of applications that have already been written. IBM says that 3,000 of these applications have been "Web-enabled." and 5,000 applications will be available by the end of 1998.

Here are some important uses that IBM sees for the AS/400e:

• Data warehousing: With up to 20 gigabytes of RAM and up to a terabyte of hard disk space, the AS/400e could be a repository for large amounts of company data to which data mining could be applied.
• Java application development: With its closely integrated Java virtual machine and new tools designed by IBM for building commercial applications with Java, the AS/400e could be used as a development system.
• Web and e-commerce serving: Equipped with a Web server and applications designed to support e-commerce (taking orders, tracking orders, providing service to customers, working with partners and suppliers) and with firewall capabilities, the AS/400e could handle Internet serving for a moderate-size company.
• Corporate groupware services: With Domino and Notes "built-in" to the AS/400e, it's designed to quickly provide a corporation with sophisticated e-mail, project file sharing, whiteboards, and electronic collaboration.

Zona Research sees the AS/400e as a potential "super-NT", already scaled to a level of capability, security, and performance that the Windows NT only aspires to. With a solid base of existing customers, Zona and others see the AS/400e as a contender with NT for the predominant role as ubiquitous enterprise server.

   UNIX and DOS-based operating systems (except for Windows NT) use ASCII for text files. Windows NT uses a newer code, Unicode. IBM's System 390 servers use a proprietary 8-bit code called EBCDIC. Conversion programs allow different operating systems to change a file from one code to another.

ASCII was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

   ASP is a feature of the Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS), but, since the server-side script is just building a regular HTML page, it can be delivered to almost any browser. You can create an ASP file by including a script written in VBScript or JScript in an HTML file and then renaming it with the ".asp" file suffix. Microsoft recommends the use of the server-side ASP rather than a client-side script, where there is actually a choice, because the server-side script will result in an easily displayable HTML page. Client-side scripts (for example, with JavaScript) may not work as intended on older browsers.

Here's how it works:

• Most computers come with a specified set of very basic "instructions" that correspond to the basic machine operations that the computer can perform. For example, a "Load" instruction causes the processor to move a string of bits from a location in the processor's memory to a special holding place called a "register." Assuming the processor has at least eight registers, each numbered, the following instruction would move the value (string of bits of a certain length) at memory location 3000 into the holding place called register 8:

        L        8,3000
  

  The programmer can write a program using a sequence of these assembler instructions. 

• This sequence of assembler instructions, known as the "source code" or "source" program, is then specified to the assembler program when that program is started.
• The assembler program takes each program statement in the source program and generates a corresponding bit stream or pattern (a series of 0's and 1's of a given length).
• The output of the assembler program is called the "object program" (or "object module") relative to the input "source program." The sequence of 0's and 1's that constitute the object program is sometimes called "machine code."
• The object program can then be run (or "executed") whenever desired.

   In the earliest computers, programmers actually wrote programs in machine code, but assembler languages or instruction sets were soon developed to speed up programming. Today, assembler programming is used only where very efficient control over processor operations is needed. It requires knowledge of a particular computer's instruction set, however. Historically, most programs have been written in "higher-level" languages such as COBOL, FORTRAN, PL/I, and C. These languages are easier to learn and faster to write programs with than assembler language. The program that processes the source code written in these languages is called a compiler. Like the assembler, a compiler takes higher-level language statements and reduces them to machine code.

   A newer idea in program preparation and portability is the concept of a "virtual machine." For example, using the Java programming language, the output, called "byte code," is compiled for a theoretical computer. The byte code can then be sent to any computer platform that has previously downloaded or built in the Java virtual machine. The virtual machine is aware of the specific instruction lengths and other particularities of the platform and can execute the Java byte code.

ATAPI is part of the Enhanced IDE (EIDE) interface (also known as ATA-2).

   ATX improves the motherboard design by taking the small AT motherboard that has been an industry standard and rotating by 90 degrees the layout of the microprocessor and expansion slots. This allows space for more full-length add-in cards. A double-height aperture is specified for the rear of the chassis, allowing more possible I/O arrangements for a variety of devices such as TV input and output, LAN connection, and so forth. The new layout is also intended to be less costly to manufacture. Fewer cables will be needed. The power supply has a side-mounted fan, allowing direct cooling of the processor and cards, making a secondary fan unnecessary. Version 2.0 incorporates improvements suggested by chassis and power supply vendors.

   Almost all major computer manufacturers, including IBM, Compaq, and Apple are building desktops with ATX motherboards. IBM is using ATX in both Intel and PowerPC platforms.

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