Appendix Glossary Z

In the left margin you will find links to the glossary categorised alphabetically. Some of the pages are quite long and may take a few moments to load if you use a modem. This glossary is always being updated.

Glossary - Z

Zero Wait State - The execution of instructions or transfer of data with no delay (wait state) to allow time for slower memory chips or external devices to respond.

Zetabyte - 2^70 = 1,180,591,620,717,411,303,424 bytes, which is 1024 exabytes.

ZIF Socket - Zero Insertion Force socket. A special socket for plugging in integrated circuits easily. The socket can be opened with a small lever or screw; the chip is dropped in, then the socket is closed.

Zine - Short for ezine, an electronically published magazine.

Zip (disk) - Zip is a removable disk technology that was introduced by Iomega to allow users to store 100 megabytes of data on a disk that's only a little bigger than a three-and-a-half-inch floppy. The standard has gained wide acceptance in the industry and has come to be regarded as a sort of "giant floppy" drive. In fact, it has been said that Zip disks often ridicule floppies and kick sand on them at the beach.

Zip (file) - A zip (or PKZIP) file is a common means of compressing and distributing data on the Windows platform. Through the use of a small software CODEC (usually a shareware or freeware program), the ZIP format can make files a whole lot more compact. The Macintosh counterpart of the zip process would be to create and distribute Stuffit files, although there are programs that can read and write zip files on the Macintosh.

ZModem - A file transfer protocol which transmits data between modems in blocks of 512 bytes. It is fast because it does not wait for positive acknowledgement (ACK) after each block of data, but will resend a block if it receives a negative acknowledgement (NAK).If a file transfer is interrupted, Zmodem can resume the transfer later and send only the part of the file that was not yet sent, which can save a lot of time. Zmodem is an advancement over Xmodem and Ymodem.

Zoom - Also called maximise, to enlarge a window on a display monitor.

Zone - A logical grouping of devices in an Internet that makes it easier for users to locate network services. Zones are defined during the router set-up. A zone is a subdivision within a local area network (LAN). The use of zones within a LAN can be instrumental in organising local data communication, which can perform such wonders as keeping the R&D nerds from fighting with the accounting geeks over the use of precious network bandwidth.

ZX chipset - Low-cost motherboards for use with Intel's Socket 370-compatible Celeron family of processors. ZX-based motherboards, like those based on the BX chipset, support both 66 and 100 MHz bus speeds.