The s

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IC		Integrated Circuit. Also called chip.
icon		A picture on the screen that represents a file (data, application, or command) or a directory. Found only in GUI's. Usually the picture suggests the purpose or identity of the file it represents. For example, the icon for a popular utilities package is an image of a Swiss army knife. Many feel that manipulating icons is easier than entering commands on a command line.
IDE		Integrated Drive Electronics. A disk interface standard based on the IBM PC ISA 16 bit bus but also used on other personal computers. The IDE specification deals with the power and data signal interfaces between the motherboard and the integrated disk controller and drive.
IEEE		(eye-triple E) Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. An organization that sets many computer- related communication standards.
illegal		Input that is not acceptable because it does not fit the intended parameters. For example, a ZIP code field would consider a 6-digit number illegal. Compare invalid.
indicator		A light that lights or blinks to show the state of something. For example, most monitors have a light that shows when the monitor is turned on.
infrared		Technology that uses infrared light to wirelessly connect computers to peripherals, LANs and other computers, allowing for bidirectional data exchange at lengths of up to one meter and speeds of up to 4 Mbps.
inline plug-in		An application that, when inserted into a browser that supports it (through an installation procedure), allows greater functionality and flexibility of the browser to view multimedia that would otherwise require an outside application.
install		To load software or hardware into a computer system. Many programs use a program called INSTALL.EXE to install themselves. See setup.
instruction		Any command sent to a microprocessor, especially assembly language instructions.
integer		Refers to computations done without decimals. Compare floating point.
integrated circuit		A (usually complex) circuit consisting of a large number of electronic components placed on a single silicon chip by a photolithographic process. The individual components are microscopic, or nearly so.
intelligent		Anything that has function-enhancing microcircuitry in it, especially if traditionally it has not had this circuitry.
Microsoft^® IntelliMouse		Microsoft mouse with a scrollable "wheel" in between the buttons allowing for more functionality in various Microsoft products.
interface		The place where, or means by which, any two things connect so they can communicate. Can be as concrete as a plug or as abstract as a set of rules.
interlaced		Refers to monitors whose electron beam scans every other line each time it scans the screen. Each time it scans the screen, it scans the lines it didn't scan the last time.
interleave		The storing of data in non-consecutive sectors on a hard disk. This gives slow computers time to absorb data before the next stream of data is available. See interleave ratio.
interleave ratio		A ratio representing the number of sectors skipped on an interleaved hard disk. For example, a 1:3 interleave means data is written on every third sector.
interleaved memory		An option on some system boards that increases processing speed by assigning memory locations on an alternating basis to two banks of RAM. The computer has to wait one cycle between accesses to a single bank of memory, but it can access a different bank without having to wait.
internal		Located inside, a part of.
Internet		A large network of computers connected to a backbone network. The Internet spans a variety of protocols and many different physical networks around the world.
interpolate		To estimate values that lie between known values.
interrupt		A signal from part of a system asking to use the CPU. Interrupts are hierarchical, which prevents interrupts from interrupting each other. (Whichever interrupt has higher priority makes the other interrupt wait.) When the CPU receives an interrupt signal, it saves what it is doing, processes the routine associated with the interrupt, then returns to what it was doing.
intranet		A network within an organization which provides similar services to the Internet but is not necessarily connected to it.
invalid		Output that is meaningless because of an error in logic or processing. A database program that made 6-digit ZIP codes would produce invalid addresses. Compare illegal.
I/O address		Input-Output address. How the CPU sees an I/O port. It puts data into this address or reads the data in it. The device at the other end of the I/O port gets the data from that address or puts the data there, respectively.
I/O port		Input-Output port. A connector that allows you to connect peripherals to a computer system. The two most common types of I/O ports are serial and parallel.
IRQ		Interrupt Request. A signal, that when received by the CPU, makes it stop what it is doing to do something else.
ISA		(eye-sah) Industry Standard Architecture. The bus architecture used in most MS-DOS microcomputers. Also called the AT bus.
ISDN		Integrated Services Digital Network. A digital standard for telephony that enables, among other things, telephone, television, and computer signals on the same lines. This system may someday replace our existing telephone lines.
isochronous		A form of data transmission in which individual characters are only separated by a whole number of bit-length intervals.
ISP		Internet Service Provider. A company that provides access to the Internet. Many companies also provide space on their Web servers for personal or corporate home pages.

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