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Glossary of Computer Terms
Terms starting with alphabet 'M'
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Mac OS | This is the operating system that runs on Macintosh computers. |
| Machine Language | It is the language in binary code that the CPU/processor understands. Machine languages are the only languages understood by computers but machine languages are almost impossible for humans to use because they consist entirely of numbers. Programmers, therefore, use either a programming language or an assembly language which contains the same instructions as a machine language, but the instructions and variables have names instead of numbers. Programs written in programming languages are translated into assembly language or machine language by a compiler. |
| Macro | A macro is a set of individual commands for use as a group within a program, such as Excel, Word or Access. A macro executes like a batch file. |
| Macintosh | Macintosh is the name of computers made by Apple Computer. The Macintosh was the first personal computer to use a graphical user interface (GUI), which allowed the users to interact with the operating system by using a mouse to click and drag objects. |
| Mainframe | A high-level computer designed for intensive computational tasks and used by large corporations. |
| Malware | Malware is malicious software designed to damage or do other unwanted actions on a computer system. |
| Mbps | Megabits per second. One mbps is equal to one million bits per second. |
| Megabyte | A megabyte is 2 to the 20th power, or 1,048,576 bytes. |
| Megahertz | One megahertz equals one million cycles per second and is used to measure processor clock speed. |
| Megapixel | A megapixel is one million pixels. It is commonly used to describe the resolution of digital cameras. |
| Memory | In computers, the term 'memory' is commonly used to refer to a computer system's random access memory RAM. |
| Menu | A pop-up window that allows to make a choice with the mouse. |
| Menu Bar | A menu bar is a horizontal strip that contains lists of available menus for a certain program. |
| Meta tag | This is an HTML tag which stores information about a Web page but is not displayed in a Web browser. |
| Microprocessor | Please see "Know Your Computer Hardware". |
| MIDI | MIDI is acronym for 'Musical Instrument Digital Interface'. In MIDI audio music notes are recorded digitally. Therefore, recording a track of MIDI music is much easier and accurate than recording a track of audio. |
| Mirror | Mirroring has several forms but is generally considered as safeguard against hardware or software failure. The mirroring can be at server level by using a backup server that duplicates all the processes and transactions of the primary server. If, for any reason, the primary server fails, the backup server can immediately take over without any down time. Another comparatively less expensive technique is to write data on two duplicate disks simultaneously. This way if one of the disk drives fails, the system can instantly switch over to the other disk without any loss of data or service. |
| Modem | Please see "Modem". |
| Monitor | Please see "Monitor" |
| Motherboard | Please see "Motherboard" |
| Mouse | Please see "Mouse" |
| MP3 | MP3 is acronym for "MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3." It is the most popular compressed audio file format. |
| MPEG | acronym for "Moving Picture Experts Group." MPEG refers to a type of multimedia file, which is denoted by the file extension ".mpg" or ".mpeg." These files are compressed movies that can contain both audio and video. |
| Multimedia | Multimedia refers to using computers to present text, graphics, video, animation, and sound in an integrated way. |
| Multiplatform | This refers to softwares/programs designed to work on multiple operating systems. |
| MySQL | "My SQL" or "My Sequel," is an open source relational database management system. It is based on the structure query language (SQL). |