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American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII): A set of binary codes that
represent the most commonly used letters, numbers and symbols. The
standard ASCII set consists of 128 codes (for 7-bit characters). Most PCs use
an extended set of 256 codes (for 8-bit characters). See also binary.
analog: A continuous electrical signal that can vary in frequency and amplitude. In video,
frequency corresponds to resolution and amplitude to brightness. In sound,
frequency is a measure of pitch and amplitude and represents volume. Analog
data must be converted to digital data for input to computers.
animation: A technique of imparting motion to items, either drawings or inert objects.
application: A computer program that you use to perform tasks of a specific type.
Applications include word processors, spreadsheets and database
management systems. See also program.
array: 1) A table of values that a program treats as a single unit. 2) A set of hard disk
drives that are linked together to provide a very large amount of data storage.
asynchronous: A type of data transmission in which information is sent at variable time
intervals. To indicate when a transmitted character begins and ends, it is
preceded by a start bit and followed by an optional parity bit and one or two
stop bits. See also synchronous.
audio: Audio (sound) frequencies for multimedia systems range from 15 Hz to 20,000 Hz.
Audio includes voice, music, sound effects, and ambient sound.
audio mixing: Creating a custom audio track from several different sources using a
sound-mixing device.
audio stream: Frames of compressed audio.
authoring: The process of writing, editing, and assembling a multimedia program on a
personal computer using a multimedia authoring program.
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