Industry Terminology

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | XYZ

I2O – Intelligent Input/Output. Designed to facilitate the introduction of new I/O devices while offloading most I/O processing to intelligent I/O processors. Provides superior I/O performance by limiting the main CPU’s need to process basic input/output service requests and provides a consistent I/O layer so only one device driver version is needed across multiple operating systems.

IEEE – Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. A worldwide professional association for electrical and electronics engineers, which sets standards for telecommunications and computing applications.

Independent Trading Exchange (ITE) – Often used synonymously with b-to-b, e-marketplace, or Virtual Commerce Network (VCN). Exchange is a more precise term, connoting many-to-many transactions, whereas b-to-b can be one to many.

Information Superhighway – Worldwide high-speed network of networks, including the Internet. More than 150 million users estimated. Provides access to thousands of databases and billions of files. Commercial use is increasing but security issues persist.

Initializing – Formatting. Setting up a disk to receive information.

Interface – Area of connection through which information can be exchanged.

Internet – Collection of government, military, university, research institutions, corporate networks, and individuals that are all connected to, and can communicate with, each other.

Internetwork – A collection of two or more networks that may be dissimilar.

Interoperability - The ability of software and hardware on different machines to communicate with each other.

Intranet – A network that uses common Internet-based technology, but is internal to a specific organizational structure and is secured from or disconnected from the global Internet.

I/O – Input/Output. Transfer of data into a computer and from the computer to the outside world.

IP – Internet Protocol. TCP/IP protocol to track the address of nodes, route outgoing messages, and recognize incoming messages.

IPX – Internet Packet Exchange. Novell NetWare communications protocol used to route messages.

iSCSI – Internet SCSI. A protocol being developed in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that specifies a method for encapsulating SCSI commands in TCP/IP.

ISO – International Standards Organization. Global organization that develops and approves standards for a diverse set of products.

ISP – Internet Service Provider. A company that provides access to the Internet.