# Glossary of Acronyms for PC and Server Technologies



## topgear (Sep 11, 2007)

This page spells out acronyms that are specific to driver development:

*A*
A/V - audio/video 
A2DP - advanced audio distribution profile
AAF - advanced authoring format ACalternating current
AC-3 - Advanced Cluster Computer Consortium
ACCM - asynchronous control character map
ACE - access control entry
ACK - acknowledgment
ACL - access control list
ACM - Audio Compression Manager
ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
ACPM - Active State Power Management
ACR - advanced communication riser
AD - Active Directory
ADC - analog-to-digital converter
ADF - automatic document feeder
ADS - Automated Deployment Services
AEC - acoustic echo cancellation
AES - Advanced Encryption Standard
AGC - automatic gain control
AGP - accelerated graphics port
AHCI - Advanced Host Controller Interface
ALPC - adaptive link power control
AMD - Advanced Micro Devices
AMR - audio modem riser
AP - access point; adjunct processor
APC - asynchronous procedure call
API - application programming interface
APIC - advanced programmable interrupt controller
APS - Advanced Photo System
ARIB - Association of Radio Industries and Businesses
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASL - ACPI source language
AT - Advanced Technology
ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment
ATAPI - ATA Packet Interface
ATC - address translation control
ATIS - Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions
ATM - asynchronous transfer mode
ATSC - Advanced Television Systems Committee
AV/C - audio/video control
AVCTP - Audio/Video Control Transport Protocol
AVDTP - Audio/Video Distribution Transport Protocol

*B*
BAR - base address register
BCB - buffer control block
BCD - binary coded decimal; boot configuration data
BDA - broadcast driver architecture
BE - best effort
BIOS - basic input/output system
BLOB - binary large object
BMC - Baseboard Management Controller 
BOT - bulk-only transport
bpp - bits per pixel
bps - bits per second
BRM - big real mode
BSP - bit-slice processor

*C*
CA - conditional access
CBLID - cable ID

 D
DIFxAPP - Driver Install Framework for Applications 
DIRQL - device interrupt request level
DLL - dynamic link library
DLNA - Digital Living Network Alliance
DLP - digital - direct memory access
DMO - DirectX media object
DNS - Domain Name Service
DO - device object
DOCSIS - Data-over-Cable Service Interface Specification
DOS - denial of service
DPC - deferred procedure call; display position counter
DPI - dots per inch
DPInst - Driver Package Installer 
DPLBASE - DMA position lower base address
DPPE - device power policy engine
DPUBASE - DMA position upper base address
DPWS - Devices Profile for Web Services
DRM - digital rights management
DRS - Driver Reliability Signature
DSCP - differential services control point
DSDT - differentiated system description table
DSF - device simulation framework
DSL - digital subscriber line
DSM - data source manager; device-specific module
DSP - digital signal processor
DSS - digital satellite system
DSTN - double-layer supertwisted nematic
DTE - data terminal equipment
DTM - driver test manager
DTV - digital television
DUN - dial-up networking
DV - digital video 
DVB - digital video broadcasting
DVD - digital video disc
DVI - Digital Video Interface
DVR - digital video recorder
DWA - device wire adapter
DWG - Device Working Group
DXGI - DirectX Graphics Infrastructure
DXVA - DirectX video acceleration

*E*
EAP - Extensible Authentication Protocol
EC - embedded controller
ECC - error correction code
ECMA - European Computer Manufacturers Association
ECN - engineering change notice
ECP - extended capabilities port
ECR - engineering change request
EDD - enhanced disk drive services 
E - DDC - extended display data channel
EDID - extended display identification data
EDR - event data recorder
E - EDID - enhanced extended display identification data
EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface
EHCI - Enhanced Host Controller Interface
EIA - Electronic Industries Association
EMF - enhanced metafile
EPT - extended page table
ESCD - extended system configuration data
ESD - electrostatic discharge
ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute
ETW - event tracing for Windows
EULA - end user license agreement
ExCA - exchangeable card architecture
EXIF - exchangeable image file

*F*
FFACS - firmware ACPI control structure
FADT - fixed ACPI description table
FC - Fibre Channel
FCC - Federal Communications Commission
FC - FS - Fibre Channel Framing and Signaling 
FC - HBA - Common HBA API
FCP - function control protocol
FCP - 2 - Fibre Channel Protocol for SCSI, Version 2 
FDC - floppy disk controller
FDO - functional device object
FIFO - first - in, first - out
FIR - fast infrared
FIS - frame information structure
FM - frequency modulation
FQDN - fully qualified domain name
FS - file system; full scale
FSCTL - file system control 
FUA - force unit access

*G*
GART - graphics address remapping table
GB - gigabyte
GDI - graphics device interface
GDT - global descriptor table
GFX - global effects
GHz - gigahertz
GMO - guest memory operation
GPA - guest physical address
GPADL - guest physical address descriptor list
GPDPT - guest page directory pointer table
GPDT - guest page directory table
GPE - general purpose event
GPIO - general - purpose I/O
GPML4T - guest page map level 4 table
GPO - group policy object
GPRS - general packet radio services
GPT - GUID partition table; guest page table
GPU - graphics processing unit
GQoS - generic quality of service
GRE - generic routing encapsulation
GTF - generalized timing formula
GUI - graphical user interface
GUID - globally unique identifier
GVA - guest virtual address
GXC - GDI - to - XPS conversion

*H*
HAL - hardware abstraction layer
HBA - host bus adapter
HCI - host controller interface
HCL - hardware compatibility list
HCT - hardware compatibility test
HD - high - definition
HDA - High Definition Audio [Intel]
HDC - hard disk controller
HDCP - high - bandwidth digital content protection
HDD - hard disk drive
HDK - hardware development kit
HDLC - high - level data link control
HDMI - high - definition multimedia interface
HDTV - high - definition television
HFS - hardware functionality scan
HID - human interface device
HPC - high - performance computing
HPD - hot plug detect
HPET - high precision event timer
HPNA - home phone network adapter
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language 
HTTP - Hypertext Transfer Protocol
HWA - host wire adapter
Hz – hertz.

*I*
I/O - input/output
I2C - Inter - integrated circuit
I2O - intelligent I/O
IANA - Internet Assigned Numbers Authority 
IA - PC - Intel Architecture personal computer
ICC - International Color Consortium
ICM - image color management
ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol
ID - identifier
IDCT - inverse discrete - cosine transform
IDE - Integrated Device Electronics
IDT - interrupt dispatch table
IE - information element
IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force
IFS - installable file system
IFSC - information field size integrated circuit card
IFSD - information field size device
IGD - Internet gateway device
IGMP - Internet Group Management Protocol
IHV - independent hardware vendor
IID - interface identifier; instance identifier
IKE - Internet key exchange
IM - intermediate 
INCITS - InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards
INI - initialization files
IO/MMIO - I/O or memory - mapped I/O
IOCTL - I/O control 
IP - Internet Protocol
IPMI - Intelligent Platform Management Interface 
IPsec - Internet Protocol security
IPTV - Internet Protocol television
IPv6 - Internet Protocol version 6
IR - infrared
IrDA - Infrared Data Association
IrLAP - Infrared Link Access Protocol
IrLMP - Infrared Link Management Protocol
IRP - I/O request packet
IrPHY - IrDA Serial Infrared Physical Layer Link Specification
IrPnP - IrDA Plug and Play Extensions to IrLMP
IRQ - interrupt request
IRQL - interrupt request level
IrTinyTP - Infrared Tiny Transport Protocol
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
ISC - Interconnect Standard Consortium
iSCSI - Internet small computer system interface
ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
iSNS - Internet Server Name Service
ISO - International Standards Organization 
ISP - Internet service provider
ISR - interrupt service routine
IST - interrupt service thread
ISV - independent software vendor
ITU - International Telecommunications Union
ITU - T - International Telecommunication Union - Telecommunication Standardization
IU - information unit; Internet update
IVMS - interactive virtual machine session

*J*
JEITA - Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group

*K*
K - kilobyte
Kbps - kilobits per second
KCS - Keyboard Controller Style
Kg - kilogram
kHz - kilohertz
KMCL - kernel - mode client library
KMDF - Kernel Mode Driver Framework
KS - kernel streaming
KVM - keyboard, video, and mouse

*L*
LAN - local area network
LAPM - link apcess protocol for modem
LBA - logical block addressing
LBN - logical block number
LCD - liquid crystal display
LCP - Link Control Protocol
LEAP - Lightweight Extensible Authentication Protocol
LFE - low - frequency effects
LFX - local effects
LLD2 - Link Layer Discovery and Diagnostics
LLTD - link layer topology discovery
LLTD - Link Layer Topology Discovery 
LPC - local procedure call
LPD - line printer daemon
LPR - line printer remote
LSB - least significant bit
LSO - large send offload
LU - logical unit
LUN - logical unit number
LUT - look - up table
LVDS - low - voltage differential signaling

*M*
MAC - Media Access Control
MAC - Media Access Control
MADT - multiple APIC description table
Mb - megabit
MB - megabyte; memory block
MBE - memory block entry
MBP - memory block page
Mbps - megabits per second 
MCCS - Monitor Control Command Set 
MCI - Multimedia Control Interface 
MCX - Media Center Extender
MD4 - Message Direct 4
MDF - Microsoft Meta - Data Framework
MDK - Modem Developers Kit
MDL - memory descriptor list
MF - multifunction
MFP - multifunction printer
MFT - master file table
MHz - megahertz
MIB - management information base
MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface 
MIMO - multiple - input multiple - output
MIPS - millions of instructions per second
mm - millimeter
MMC - multimedia card; Microsoft Management Console
MMIO - memory - mapped I/O
MMU - memory - management unit
MO - magneto - optic
MOF - managed object format
MOM - Microsoft Operations Manager
MPEG - Motion Picture Experts Group
MPIO - Multipath I/O
MR - modem riser
MRL - manual retention latch
ms - millisecond
MSAS - multiple shadow address space
MSB - most - significant bit
MSC - most - significant character 
MSI - message signaled interrupt
MSR - Microsoft reserved partition
MTBF - mean time between failures
MTP - Media Transfer Protocol
MTS - multichannel television sound
MTU - maximum transmission unit
MUI - multilingual user interface
MUX - multiplexer
MXC - media center extender
MXDW - Microsoft XPS Document Writer

*N*
NABTS - North American Basic Teletext Specification
NAK - negative acknowledgment 
NAND - Not AND 
NAP - Network Access Protection
NAS - network - attached storage
NAT - network address translation 
NAVI - D - New Analog Video Interface - Digital 
NAVI - P - New Analog Video Interface - Portable
NAVI - V - New Analog Video Interface – VGA 
NCQ - native command queuing
NDA - non - disclosure agreement
NDIS - Network Driver Interface Specification
NIC - network interface card
NLA - network location awareness
NLB - network load balancing
NS - noise suppression
NTFS - NT file system
NTLDR - Windows NT Loader
NTSC - National Television System Committee
NUMA - nonuniform memory access 
NVRAM - non - volatile random access memory

*O*
OAL - OEM adaptation layer
OCA - Online Crash Analysis
OCUR - OpenCable unidirectional receivers
OEM - original equipment manufacturer
OHCI - Open Host Controller Interface
OID - object identifier
OOBE - out - of - box experience
OPK - open product key
OPM - output protection management
OS - operating system
OSI - open systems interconnection
OSPM - operating system - directed power management
OSTA - Optical Storage Technology Association
OUI - organizationally unique identifier

*P*
P2P - peer - to - peer
PA - physical address
PAE - physical address extension
PAL - phase alternation line; Platform Abstraction Layer
PAN - personal area network
PAP - protected audio path
PATA - parallel ATA
PAWS - protection against wrapping sequence
PC - personal computer
PCB - printed circuit board
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCIe - PCI Express
PCIIO - PCI I/O
PCL - printer control language 
PCM - pulse code modulation
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PD - phase dual
PDA - personal digital assistant
PDB - parallel data base
PDL - page description language
PDO - physical device object
PE - Protected Environment; portable executable
PES - packetized elementary stream
PFD - PREfast for drivers
PHY - Physical layer
PIC - programmable interrupt controller; publisher identity certificate
PID - product identifier
PIM - personal information manager
PIMA - Photographic and Imaging Manufacturers Association
PIN - personal identification number
PIO - programmed input/output
PM - power management
PME - power management event
PMP - protected media path
PNP, PnP - Plug and Play
PnP - X - Plug and Play Extensions 
POS - point of sale
POST - power - on self test
POTS - plain old telephone service
ppi - points per inch
PPM - parent partition mapping
PPP - Point - to - Point Protocol
PRCB - processor control block
PRCS - proactive reporting and correcting safeguard
PS2 - Personal System 2
PSH - push
PSHED - platform - specific hardware error driver
PSK - product service key
PSS - product support services 
PSTN - public switched telephone network
PTE - page table entry
PTEC - page table edit control
PTP - Picture Transfer Protocol
PTS - page table shadowing
PTS - presentation time stamp
PU - partition unit
PUMA - protected user - mode audio
PVP - protected video path
PVR - personal video recorder
PXE - preboot execution environment

*Q*
QAM - quadrature amplitude modulation 
QFE - quick - fix engineering
QIC - quarter - inch cartridge
QoS - quality of service
qWAVE - quality Windows audio/video experience.

*R*
RADIUS - Remote Authentication Dial - in User Service
RAID - redundant array of independent disks
RAM - random access memory
RBC - reduced block command
RCA - Radio Corporation of America
RDMA - remote direct memory access
RDP - Remote Desktop Protocol
RF - radio frequency
RFC - request for comment
RG - residential gateway
RGB - red green blue
RIP - raster image processor
RIRB - response input ring buffer
RIS - remote installation server
RME - real - mode emulator
RMS - Rights Management Services
RNDIS - Remote Network Driver Interface Specification
ROM - read - only memory
RPC - remote procedure call
RSDP - root system description pointer
RSS - receive - side scaling
RSSI - received signal strength indication
RST - reset
RT - real time
RTC - real - time clock
RTCP - Real Time Control Protocol
RTP - Real - Time Transport Protocol
RW - readable/writable.

*S*
s - second
S/PDIF - Sony/Philips Digital Interface Format
S/T - pseudo - ternary
SACL - system access control list
SAL - system abstraction layer
SAM - SCSI architecture mode
SAN - storage area network
SAP - secondary audio programming
SAPIC - streamlined advanced programmable interrupt controller
SAS - serial attached SCSI; shadow address space
SATA - Serial ATA
SBC - SCSI block command
SBP - serial bus protocol
SCI - system control interrupt
SCSI - small computer system interface
SD - secure digital
SDDL - security descriptor definition language
SDIO - secure digital I/O
SDK - Software Development Kit
SDO - serial data out
SDP - Sockets Direct Protocol
SDTV - standard - definition television
SDV - Static Driver Verifier
SECAM - Sequential Color with Memory 
SFF - small form factor
SID - security identifier
SIG - special interest group
SIOM - server I/O module
SIR - serial infrared
SKU - stock keeping unit
SLAM - Software, Languages, Analysis, and Modeling
SLAT - second - level address translation
SMART - self - monitoring, analysis, and reporting technology
SMBIOS - system management BIOS
SMC - SDSI media changer
SMI - system management interrupt
SMM - system management mode
SMP - symmetric multiprocessing
SMPTE - Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers 
SNMP - Simple Network Management Protocol
SNR - signal - to - noise ratio
SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol 
SoC - system on a chip
SoftAP - "Soft" Access Point
SoIP - storage - over - IP
SP - service pack
SPA - system physical address
SPC - SCSI primary commands
SPDPT - shadow page directory pointer table
SPDT - shadow page directory table
SPI - SCSI parallel interface
SPID - service profile identifier
SPML4T - shadow page map level - 4 table
SPP - serial port profile
SPT - shadow page table
SRB - SCSI request block
SRC - sample rate conversion
sRGB - standard red - green - blue
SRTM - static root of trust for measurement
SSDP - Simple Service Discovery Protocol
SSID - service set identifier
SSL - secure sockets layer
STB - set - top box
STI - still image architecture
STP - Spanning Tree Protocol
SUT - system under test
SVID - subsystem vendor ID
SVM - See secure virtual machine

*T*
TC - traffic control
TCG - Trusted Computer Group
TCP - Transmission Control Protocol
TCS - trusted configuration space
TDI - transport driver interface
TIA - Telecommunications Industry Association
TLC - third - level cache
TLV - type length value
TLV - type - length - value
TMF - trace message format
TMM - Transient Multimon Manager
TOE - TCP offload engine
TPL - Trusted Products List
TPM - Trusted Platform Module
TV - television
TVAF - TV Anytime Forum

*U*
UAA - Universal Audio Architecture
UAGP - universal accelerated graphics port
UAP - user account protection
UART - universal asynchronous receiver - transmitter
UDCR - uni - directional cable receiver
UDF - universal disk format
UDMA - ultra - direct memory access
UDP - User Datagram Protocol
UEFI - Unified Extended Firmware Interface
UFD - USB flash drive
UFDA - USB Flash Drive Alliance
UHCI - Universal Host Controller Interface
UI - user interface
UMA - user - mode audio
UMDF - User Mode Driver Fframework
UML - Unified Modeling Language
UMV - User Mode Bus
UNC - universal naming convention
UPnP - universal Plug and Play
URB - universal request block
URI - uniform resource identifier
USB - Universal Serial Bus
USB - IF - USB Implementers Forum
USN - unique service name 
UUID - universally unique identifier
UVC - USB video class
UWB - ultrawide band
UX - user experience.

*V*
VA - video acceleration; virtual address
VBE - VESA BIOS extension
VBI - vertical blanking interval
VBR - variable bit rate
VC - virtual channel
Vcc - Voltage at the common collector (positive [+] electrical connection)
VCP - Virtual Control Program Interface
VCR - video cassette recorder
VDS - virtual disk service
VESA - Video Electronics Standards Association
VFIR - very fast infrared
VGA - video graphics array
VHD - virtual hard disk
VHF - very high frequency 
VID - vendor ID; virtualization infrastructure driver
VLAN - virtual local area network
VM - virtual machine
VMBus - virtual machine bus
VML - virtual machine library
VMR - video mixing renderer
VoIP - voice over IP
VP - virtual processor
VPD - vital product data
VPN - virtual private network
Vrms - volt root mean square
VSB - vestigial side band 
VSC - virtualization service client
VSMM - virtualization stack memory manager 
VSP - virtualization service provider
VSS - volume shadow copy service
VT - [Intel] Virtualization Technology.

*W*
WAN - wide area network
WAP - Wireless Application Protocol
WaveRT - wave real time
WBEM - Web - Based Enterprise Management
WC - write - combined
WCN - Windows Connect Now
WCS - Windows color system
WDDM - Window Display Driver Model 
WDF - Windows Driver Foundation
WDK - Windows Driver Kit 
WDM - Windows Driver Model
WDRT - watchdog resource table
WDT - watchdog timers
WDTF - Windows device testing framework
WEP - wired equivalent privacy
WER - Windows error reporting
WFA - Wi - Fi Alliance
WFP - Windows Filtering Platform
WGF - Windows Graphics Foundation  
WHCI - wireless host controller interface
WHDC - Windows Hardware Developer Central
WHEA - Windows hardware error architecture
WHQL - Windows Hardware Quality Labs
WIA - Windows image acquisition
Wi - Fi - wireless fidelity
Winqual - Windows Quality Online Services
WinSAT - Windows System Assessment Tool 
WiX - Windows Installer XML
WLAN - wireless LAN
WLP - Windows Logo Program
WMA - Windows Media Audio 
WMDM - Windows Media device manager
WMDRM - Windows Media digital rights management
WME - wireless multimedia extension
WMI - Windows Management Instrumentation
WMM - wireless multimedia
WMV - Windows Media video
WMX - Web Services for Management extension
WOL - wake - on LAN
WOW64 - Microsoft Windows - 32 - bit - on - Windows - 64 - bit
WPA - Wi - Fi protected access
WPAN - wireless personal area network
WPD - Windows portable devices
WPF - Windows Presentation Foundation
WPP - Windows software trace preprocessor
WQL - WMI query language
WRE - write cache enable
WSC - Wi - Fi Simple Configuration 
WSD - Web Services for Devices
WSDAPI - Web Services for Devices API
WSK - Winsock kernel
WUSB - wireless USB
WWAN - wireless wide area network
WWN - worldwide name
WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get
WZC - wireless zero configuration.

*X*
XAML - extensible application markup language
XDDM - Windows XP Display Driver Model 
XGC - XPS - to - GDI conversion
XID - transaction ID
XML - extensible markup language
XPDDM - Windows XP Display Driver Model
XPS - XML Paper Specification
XSD - XML schema definition
XSDT - extended system description table
XSP - Extender Session Protocol
XUSB - Xbox 360 Universal Serial Bus

*Source : *www.microsoft.com/whdc/resources/support/glossary.mspx*

For longer explanations, and for other terms related to driver development, see:
*msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms789536.aspx


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## casanova (Sep 11, 2007)

Thanks for this compilation


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## piyush gupta (Sep 11, 2007)

grerat compilations thanx buddy


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## entrana (Sep 11, 2007)

wow, thats huge


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## topgear (Sep 14, 2007)

Thanks Friends


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## cooldev007 (Sep 18, 2007)

Thanks friend


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## Ron (Sep 19, 2007)

gr8


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## techtronic (Sep 29, 2007)

Wonderful


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