List of computing and IT abbreviations

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are many abbreviations associated with the computer industry - PC, IT, CPU etc. Add them to this listing, sorted alphabetically by abbreviation. Internet slang gives rise to a number of abbreviations not listed here, as do many common file extensions and file formats.

Contents
0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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[edit] 0–9

/. - Slashdot
1GL - First-Generation Programming Language
10B2 - 10 Base2
10B5 - 10 Base5
10B-F - 10 Base-F
10B-FB - 10 Base-FB
10B-FL - 10 Base-FL
10B-FP - 10 Base-FP
10B-T - 10 Base-T
100B-FX - 100 Base-FX
100B-T - 100 Base-T
100B-TX - 100 Base-TX
100BVG - 100 BaseVG
286 - 80286
2B1Q - 2 Binary 1 Quaternary
2GL - Second-Generation Programming Language
3GL - Third-Generation Programming Language
386 - 80386
486 - 80486
4B5BLF - 4 Byte 5 Byte Local Fiber
4GL - Fourth-Generation Programming Language
5GL - Fifth-Generation Programming Language
8B10BLF - 8 Byte 10 Byte Local Fiber

[edit] A

AA - Anti-Aliasing
AAA - Authentication Authorization, Accounting
AABB - Axis Aligned Bounding Box
AAC - Advanced Audio Coding (audio compression format defined by the MPEG-2 standard)
AAL - ATM Adaptation Layer
AALC - ATM Adaptation Layer Connection
AARP - AppleTalk Address Resolution Protocol
ABI - Application Binary Interface
ABM - Asynchronous Balanced Mode
ABR - Area Border Router
ABR - Auto Baud - Rate Detect
ABR - Available Bit Rate
AC - Alternating Current
AC - Acoustic Coupler
ACID - Atomiticy Consistency Isolation Durability
ACL - Access Control List
ACL - Active Current Loop
ACM - Association for Computing Machinery
ACPI - Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
ACD - Automatic Call Distributor
ACF - Advanced Communications Function
ACF NCP - Advanced Communications Function - Network Control Program
ACK - ACKnowledgement
ACR - Allowed Cell Rate
ACR - Attenuation to Crosstalk Ratio
AD - Active Directory
AD - Administrative Domain
ADC - Analog-To-Digital Converter
ADC - Apple Display Connector (DVI variant)
ADB - Apple Desktop Bus
ADCCP - Advanced Data Communications Control Protocol/Procedures
ADO - ActiveX Data Objects
ADSL - Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (variant of DSL)
AE - Adaptive Equalizer
AES - Advanced Encryption Standard
AF - Anisotropic Filtering
AFP - Apple Filing Protocol
AGP - Accelerated Graphics Port (sometimes used with a suffix indicating the port's bandwidth, like AGP4x)
AH - Active Hub
AI - Artificial Intelligence
AIX - Advanced Interactive Executive
Ajax - Asynchronous JavaScript and XML
AL - Active Link
AL - Access List
ALGOL - Algorithmic Language
ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture
ALU - Arithmetic and Logical Unit
AM - Active Matrix
AM - Access Method
AM - Active Monitor
AM - Amplitude Modulation
AMD - Advanced Micro Devices
AMR - Audio Modem Riser
ANN - Artificial Neural Network
ANSI - American National Standards Institute
ANT - Another Neat Tool
AoE - ATA over Ethernet
AOP - Aspect-Oriented Programming
APCI - Application-Layer Protocol Control Information
API - Application Programming Interface
APIC - Advanced Programmable Interrupt Controller
APIPA - Automatic Private IP Addressing
APL - A Programming Language
APS - Accunet Packet Service
APR - Apache Portable Runtime
ARM - Advanced RISC Machines
ARP - Address Resolution Protocol
ARPA - Address and Routing Parameter Area
ARPA - Advanced Research Projects Agency (see also DARPA)
ARPANET - Advanced Research Projects Agency Network
AS - Access Server
ASCII - American Standard Code for Information Interchange
ASG - Abstract Semantic Graph
ASIC - Application Specific Integrated Circuit
ASMP (computing) - Asymmetric Multiprocessing
ASN.1 - Abstract Syntax Notation 1
ASP - Application Service Provider
ASP (MS ASP) - Active Server Pages
AST - Abstract Syntax Tree
ASSP - Application Specific Standard Product
AT - Advanced Technology
AT - Access Time
AT - Active Terminator
ATA - Advanced Technology Attachment
ATAG - Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
ATAPI - Advanced Technology Attachment Packet Interface
ATM - Asynchronous Transfer Mode
AVC - Advanced Video Coding
AVI - Audio Video Interleaved
AWT - Abstract Windowing Toolkit

[edit] B

B2B - Business-to-Business
B2C - Business-to-Consumer
Bash - Bourne-again shell
BASIC - Beginner's All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code
BBP - Baseband Processor
BBS - Bulletin Board System
BCD - Binary Coded Decimal
BEEP - Blocks Extensible Exchange Protocol
BER - Bit Error Rate
BFD - Binary File Descriptor
BFS - Breadth-First Search
BGP - Border Gateway Protocol
BiDi - Bi-Directional
bin - binary
BINAC - Binary Automatic Computer
BIND - Berkeley Internet Name Daemon
BIOS - Basic Input Output System
BJT - Bipolar Junction Transistor
Blog - Web Log
BMP - Basic Multilingual Plane
BNC - Bayonet Neill-Concelman
BOINC - Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing
BOOTP - Bootstrap Protocol
BPEL - Business Process Execution Language
BPL - Broadband over Power Lines
bps - bits per second
BRR - Business Readiness Rating
BSA - Business Software Alliance
BSD - Berkeley Software Distribution (Unix variant)
BSS - Block Started by Symbol
BT - BitTorrent
BTAM - Basic Telecomunications Acess Method (an IBM OS/360 API)
BTKATC - Between The Keyboard And The Chair; An acronym commonly used in the Technical Support Realm and in other IT instances. An error referring to the source of a linguistic or programming error. Also spelled "BCAK" (Between Chair And Keyboard).
BW - Bandwidth

[edit] C

CA - Certificate Authority
CAD - Computer-Aided Design
CAE - Computer-Aided Engineering
CAID - Computer Aided Industrial Design
CAI - Computer-Aided Instruction
CAM - Computer-Aided Manufacturing
CAPTCHA - Completely Automated Public Turing Test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
CAQ - Computer Aided Quality
CASE - Computer-Aided Software Engineering
cc - C Compiler
CD - Compact Disc
CDE - Common Desktop Environment
CDMA - Code Division Multiple Access
CDP - Continuous Data Protection
CD-R - CD-Recordable
CD-ROM - CD Read-Only Memory
CD-RW - CD-Rewritable
CERT - Computer Emergency Response Team
CFWS - Comment and/or Folding White Space
CES - Consumer Electronics Show
CF - Compact Flash
CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics
CFG - Context-Free Grammar
CFG - Control Flow Graph
CG - Computer Graphics
CGA - Color Graphics Array
CGI - Common Gateway Interface
CGI - Computer-Generated Imagery
CGT - Computational Graph Theory
CHAP - Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol
CHS - Cylinder-Head-Sector
CIFS - Common Internet Filesystem
CIM - Common Information Model
CISC - Complex Instruction Set Computer
CJK - Chinese, Japanese, and Korean
CJKV - Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese
CLI - Command Line Interface
CLR - Common Language Runtime
CM - Configuration Management
CM - Content Management
CMOS - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor
CMS - Content Management System
CN - Canonical Name
CN - Common Name
CNC - Computer Numerical Control
CNR - Communications and Networking Riser
COBOL - Common Business-Oriented Language
COM - Component Object Model
CORBA - Common Object Request Broker Architecture
COTS - Commercial Off-The-Shelf
CPA - Cell Processor Architecture
CPA - Control Panel Applet
CPA - Converged Packet Access
CPAN - Comprehensive Perl Archive Network
CP/M - Control Program/Monitor
cps - characters per second
CPU - Central Processing Unit
CR - Carriage Return
CRAN - Comprehensive R Archive Network
CRC - Cyclic Redundancy Check
CRLF - Carriage Return Line Feed
CRM - Customer Relationship Management
CRT - Cathode Ray Tube
CS - Cable Select
CS - Computer Science
CSE - Computer Science and Engineering
CSRF - Cross-Site Request Forgery
CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
CSS - Content-Scrambling System
CSS - Closed Source Software
CSS - Cross-Site Scripting
CSV - Comma-Separated Values
CT - Computerized Tomography
CTAN - Comprehensive TeX Archive Network
CTCP - Client-To-Client Protocol
CTI - Computer Telephony Integration
CTS - Clear To Send
CTSS - Compatible Time-Sharing System
CUA - Common User Access
CVS - Concurrent Versioning System

[edit] D

DAC - Digital-To-Analog Converter
DAC - Discretionary Access Control
DAO - Data Access Objects
DAO - Disk-At-Once
DAP - Directory Access Protocol
DARPA - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DAT - Digital Audio Tape
DB - Database
DBA - Database Administrator
DBCS - Double Byte Character Set
DBMS - Database Management System
DCC - Direct Client-to-Client
DCCA - Debian Common Core Alliance
DCL - Data Control Language
DCMI - Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
DCOM - Distributed Component Object Model
DD - Double Density
DDE - Dynamic Data Exchange
DDL - Data Definition Language
DDoS - Distributed Denial of Service
DDR - Double Data Rate
DEC - Digital Equipment Corporation
DES - Data Encryption Standard
dev - device
DFA - Deterministic Finite Automaton
DFD - Data Flow Diagram
DFS - Depth-First Search
DHCP - Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
DHTML - Dynamic HTML
DIMM - Dual Inline Memory Module
DIN - Deutsches Institut für Normung
DIP - Dual In-line Package
DIVX - Digital Video Express
DKIM - Domain Keys Identified Mail
DL - Download
DLL - Dynamic Link Library
DLP - Digital Light Processing
DMA - Direct Memory Access
DMCA - Digital Millennium Copyright Act
DML - Data Manipulation Language
DMR - Dennis M. Ritchie
DN - Distinguished Name
DND - Drag-and-Drop
DNS - Domain Name System
DOCSIS - Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification
DOM - Document Object Model
DoS - Denial of Service
DOS - Disk Operating System
DP - Dot Pitch
DPI - Dots Per Inch
DPMI - DOS Protected Mode Interface
DPMS - Display Power Management Signaling
DRAM - Dynamic Random Access Memory
DRI - Direct Rendering Infrastructure
DRM - Digital Rights Management
DRM - Direct Rendering Manager
DSDL - Document Schema Definition Languages
DSDM - Dynamic Systems Development Method
DSL - Digital Subscriber Line
DSL - Domain-Specific Language
DSLAM - Digital subscriber line access multiplexer
DSN - Database Source Name (ODBC)
DSN - Dataset Name? (OS/390)
DSP - Digital Signal Processor
DSSSL - Document Style Semantics and Specification Language
DTD - Document Type Definition
DTE - Data Terminal Equipment
DTP - Desktop Publishing
DTR - Data Terminal Ready
DVD - Digital Versatile Disc
DVD - Digital Video Disc
DVD-R - DVD-Recordable
DVD-ROM - DVD-Read Only Memory
DVD-RW - DVD-Rewritable
DVI - Digital Visual Interface
DVR - Digital Video Recorder (see also PVR)

[edit] E

EAI - Enterprise Application Integration
EAP - Extensible Authentication Protocol
EBCDIC - Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code
EBML - Extensible Binary Meta Language
ECC - Elliptic Curve Cryptography
ECMA - European Computer Manufacturers Association
EDI - Electronic Data Interchange
EDO - Extended Data Out
EDSAC - Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Computer
EDVAC - Electronic Discrete Variable Automatic Computer
EEPROM - Electronically-Eraseable Programmable Read-Only Memory
EFF - Electronic Frontier Foundation
EFI - Extensible Firmware Interface
EFM - Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation
EGA - Enhanced Graphics Array
EGP - Exterior Gateway Protocol
eID - electronic ID card
EIDE - Enhanced IDE
EIGRP - Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
EISA - Extended Industry Standard Architecture
ELF - Extremely Low Frequency
ELF - Executable and Linkable Format
ELM - Electronic Mail
EMACS - Editor Macros
EMS - Expanded Memory Specification
ENIAC - Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer
EOF - End of File
EOL - End of Life
EOL - End of Line
EOM - End of Message
EPROM - Eraseable Programmable Read-Only Memory
ERP - Enterprise Resource Planning
ESCON - Enterprise Systems Connection
ESD - Electrostatic Discharge
ETL - Extract, Transform, Load
ESR - Eric Steven Raymond
EUC - Extended Unix Code
EULA - End User License Agreement

[edit] F

FAP - FORTRAN Assembly Program
FAT - File Allocation Table
FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
FBDIMM - Fully Buffered Dual Inline Memory Module
FCB - File Control Block
FDD - Floppy Disk Drive
FDDI - Fiber Distributed Data Interface
FDMA - Frequency-Division Multiple Access
FEC - Forward Error Correction
FEMB - Front-End Motherboard
FET - Field Effect Transistor
FICON - Fiber Connectivity
FIFO - First In First Out
FHS - Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
FLAC - Free Lossless Audio Codec
FLOPS - FLoating-Point Operations Per Second
FLOSS - Free/Libre/Open Source Software
FOLDOC - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
FOSDEM - Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting
FOSI - Formatted Output Specification Instance
FOSS - Free and Open Source Software
FPGA - Field Programmable Gate Array
FPU - Floating Point Unit
FS - File System
FSB - Front Side Bus
FSF - Free Software Foundation
FSM - Finite State Machine
FTTC - Fiber To The Curb
FTTH - Fiber To The Home
FTTP - Fiber To The Premises
FTP - File Transfer Protocol
FQDN - Fully Qualified Domain Name
FUD - Fear Uncertainty Doubt
FWS - Folding White Space

[edit] G

G11N - Globalization
Gb - Gigabit
GB - Gigabyte
GCC - GNU Compiler Collection (formerly GNU C Compiler)
GCJ - GNU Compiler for Java
GCR - Group Code Recording
GDB - GNU Debugger
GDI - Graphics Device Interface
GFDL - GNU Free Documentation License
GIF - Graphics Interchange Format
GIGO - Garbage In, Garbage Out
GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program
GIMPS - Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search
GIS - Geographic Information System
GLUT - OpenGL Utility Toolkit
GNOME - GNU Network Object Model Environment
GNU - GNU's Not Unix
GOMS - Goals, Operators, Methods, and Selection rules
GPG - GNU Privacy Guard
GPGPU - General-Purpose Computing on Graphics Processing Units
GPIB - General-Purpose Instrumentation Bus
GPL - General Public License
GPL - General-Purpose Language
GPRS - General Packet Radio Service
GPT - GUID Partition Table
GPU - Graphics Processing Unit
GRUB - Grand Unified Boot-Loader
GSM - Global System for Mobile Communications
GTK+ - GIMP Toolkit
GUI - Graphical User Interface
GUID - Globally Unique IDentifier
GWT - Google Web Toolkit

[edit] H

HAL - Hardware Abstraction Layer
HBA - Host Bus Adapter
HCI - Human Computer Interaction
HD - High Density
HDD - Hard Disk Drive
HD-DVD - High Definition DVD
HDL - Hardware Description Language
HF - High Frequency
HHD - Hybrid Hard Drive
HID - Human Interface Device
HIG - Human Interface Guidelines
HIRD - Hurd of Interfaces Representing Depth
HMA - High Memory Area
HP - Hewlett-Packard
HPC - High-Performance Computing
HPFS - High Performance File System
HT - Hyper Threading
HTM - Hierarchical Temporal Memory
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language
HTTP - Hypertext Transport Protocol
HTTPd - Hypertext Transport Protocol Daemon
HURD - Hird of Unix-Replacing Daemons
HVD - Holographic Versatile Disc
Hz - Hertz

[edit] I

I18N - Internationalization
IANA - Internet Assigned Numbers Authority
iBCS - Intel Binary Compatibility Standard
IBM - International Business Machines
IC - Integrated Circuit
ICANN - Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
ICE - In-Circuit Emulator
ICE - Intrusion Countermeasure Electronics
ICMP - Internet Control Message Protocol
ICP - Internet Cache Protocol
ICT - Information and Communication Technology
IDE - Integrated Development Environment
IDE - Integrated Drive Electronics
IDL - Interface Definition Language
IE - Internet Explorer
IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission
IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force
IFL - Integrated Facility for Linux
IGMP - Internet Group Management Protocol
IGRP - Interior Gateway Routing Protocol
IHV - Independent Hardware Vendor
IIOP - Internet Inter-Orb Protocol
IIS - Internet Information Services
IM - Instant Messaging
IMAP - Internet Message Access Protocol
IME - Input Method Editor
INFOSEC - Information Systems Security
I/O - Input/Output
IP - Intellectual Property
IP - Internet Protocol
IPC - Inter-Process Communication
IPL - Initial Program Load
IPP - Internet Printing Protocol
IPsec - Internet Protocol security
IPX - Internetwork Packet Exchange
IRC - Internet Relay Chat
IrDA - Infrared Data Association
IRQ - Interrupt Request
IS - Information Systems
ISA - Industry Standard Architecture
ISAM - Indexed Sequential Access Method
ISDN - Integrated Services Digital Network
ISO - International Organization for Standardization
ISP - Internet Service Provider
ISPF - Interactive System Productivity Facility
ISV - Independent Software Vendor
IT - Information Technology
ITU - International Telecommunication Union

[edit] J

J2CE - Java 2 Cryptographic Edition
J2EE - Java 2 Enterprise Edition
J2ME - Java 2 Micro Edition
J2SE - Java 2 Standard Edition
JAXP - Java API for XML Processing
JBOD - Just a Bunch of Disks
JCL - Job Control Language
JDBC - Java Database Connectivity
JDK - Java Development Kit
JDS - Java Desktop System
JFC - Java Foundation Classes
JFET - Junction Field-Effect Transistor
JFS - Journaling Filesystem
JINI - Jini Is Not Initials
JIT - Just-In-Time
JNI - Java Native Interface
JPEG - Joint Photographic Experts Group
JRE - Java Runtime Environment
JS - JavaScript
JSON - JavaScript Object Notation
JSP - Jackson Structured Programming
JSP - JavaServer Pages
JTAG - Joint Test Action Group
JVM - Java Virtual Machine
jwz - Jamie Zawinski
JMX - Java Management Extentions
JMS - Java Messaging Service
JUG - Java Users Group
JNDI - Java Naming and Directory Interface
JAXB - Java XML Binding
JAX-RPC - Java XML for Remote Procedure Calls
JCP - Java Community Process

[edit] K

K&R - Kernighan and Ritchie
KB - Keyboard
Kb - Kilobit
KB - Kilobyte
KB - Knowledge Base
KDE - K Desktop Environment
kHz - Kilohertz
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid
KVM - Keyboard, Video, Mouse

[edit] L

L10N - Localization
LAMP - Linux Apache MySQL (Perl, PHP, or Python)
LAN - Local Area Network
LBA - Logical Block Addressing
LCD - Liquid Crystal Display
LCOS - Liquid Crystal On Silicon
LDAP - Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
LE - Logical Extents
LED - Light-Emitting Diode
LF - Line Feed
LF - Low Frequency
LFS - Linux From Scratch
lib - library
LIF - Low Insertion Force
LIFO - Last In First Out
LILO - Linux Loader
LKML - Linux Kernel Mailing List
LM - LanManager
LGPL - [GNU] Lesser General Public License
LOC - Lines of Code
LPI - Linux Professional Institute
LSB - Least Significant Bit
LSB - Linux Standard Base
LSI - Large-Scale Integration
LTR - Left-to-Right
LUG - Linux User Group
LUN - Logical Unit Number
LV - Logical Volume
LVM - Logical Volume Management
LZW - Lempel-Ziv-Welch

[edit] M

MAC - Mandatory Access Control
MAC - Media Access Control
MAN - Metropolitan Area Network
MANET - Mobile Ad-Hoc Network
MAPI - Messaging Application Programming Interface
Mb - Megabit
MB - Megabyte
MBCS - Multi Byte Character Set
MBR - Master Boot Record
MCA - Micro Channel Architecture
MCSA - Microsoft Certified System Administrator
MCSD - Microsoft Certified System Developer
MCSE - Microsoft Certified System Engineer
MDA - Mail Delivery Agent
MDA - Model-Driven Architecture
MDA - Monochrome Display Adapter
MDI - Multiple Document Interface
ME - [Windows] Millennium Edition
MF - Medium Frequency
MFC - Microsoft Foundation Classes
MFM - Modified Frequency Modulation
MGPT - Machine Generated Problem Tracking
MHz - Megahertz
MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface
MIMD - Multiple Instruction, Multiple Data
MIPS - Million Instructions Per Second
MIPS - Microprocessor without Interlocked Pipeline Stages
MIS - Management Information Systems
MISD - Multiple Instruction, Single Data
MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIME - Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
MMI - Man Machine Interface.
MMIO - Memory-Mapped I/O
MMORPG - Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
MMU - Memory Management Unit
MMX - Multi-Media Extensions
MNG - Multiple-image Network Graphics
MoBo - Motherboard
MOO - MUD Object Oriented
MOSFET - Metal-Oxide Semiconductor FET
MOTD - Message Of The Day
MPAA - Motion Picture Association of America
MPEG - Motion Pictures (Coding) Experts Group
MPL - Mozilla Public License
MPU - Microprocessor Unit
MS - Memory Stick
MS - Microsoft
MSB - Most Significant Bit
MS-DOS - Microsoft DOS
MT - Machine Translation
MTA - Mail Transfer Agent
MTU - Maximum Transmission Unit
MSA - Mail Submission Agent
MSDN - Microsoft Developer Network
MSI - Medium-Scale Integration
MUA - Mail User Agent
MUD - Multi-User Dungeon
MVC - Model-View-Controller
MVP - Most Valuable Professional
MVS - Multiple Virtual Storage
MX - Mail exchange

[edit] N

NACK - Negative ACKnowedgement
NAK - Negative AcKnowedgement Character
NAS - Network-Attached Storage
NAT - Network Address Translation
NCP - NetWare Core Protocol
NCQ - Native Command Queuing
NCSA - National Center for Supercomputing Applications
NDPS - Novell Distributed Print Services
NDS - Novell Directory Services
NEP - Network Equipment Provider
NEXT - Near-End CrossTalk
NFA - Nondeterministic Finite Automaton
GNSCB - Next-Generation Secure Computing Base
NFS - Network Filesystem
NI - National Instruments
NIC - Network Interface Card
NIM - No Internal Message
NIO - New I/O
NIST - National Institute of Standards and Technology
NLP - Natural Language Processing
NLS - National Language Support
NP - Non-Deterministic Polynomial-Time
NPL - Netscape Public License
NPU - Network Processing Unit
NS - Netscape
NSA - National Security Agency
NSPR - Netscape Portable Runtime
NMI - Non-Maskable Interrupt
NNTP - Network News Transfer Protocol
NOC - Network Operations Center
NOP - No OPeration
NOS - Network Operating System
NSS - Novell Storage Service
NSS - Network Security Services
NSS - Name Service Switch
NT (Windows) - New Technology
NTFS - NT Filesystem
NTLM - NT Lan Manager
NTP - Network Time Protocol
NUMA - Non-Uniform Memory Access
NURBS - Nonuniform Rational B-Spline
NVRAM - Non-Volatile Random Access Memory

[edit] O

OASIS - Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards
ODBC - Open Database Connectivity
OEM - Original Equipment Manufacturer
OFTC - Open and Free Technology Community
OLAP - Online Analytical Processing
OLE - Object Linking and Embedding
OLED - Organic Light Emitting Diode
OLPC - One Laptop per Child
OLTP - Online Transaction Processing
OMG - Object Management Group
OO - Object-Oriented
OO - Open Office
OOo - OpenOffice.org
OOP - Object-Oriented Programming
OPML - Outline Processor Markup Language
ORB - Object Request Broker
OS - Open Source
OS - Operating System
OSCON - O'Reilly Open Source Convention
OSDN - Open Source Developer Network
OSI - Open Source Initiative
OSI - Open Systems Interconnection
OSPF - Open Shortest Path First
OSS - Open Sound System
OSS - Open-Source Software
OSS - Operational Support Systems
OSTG - Open Source Technology Group (formerly OSDN)
OUI - Organizationally Unique Identifier

[edit] P

P2P - Peer-To-Peer
PAN - Personal Area Network
PAP - Password Authentication Protocol
PARC - Palo Alto Research Center
PATA - Parallel ATA
PC - Personal Computer
PCB - Printed Circuit Board
PCB - Process Control Block
PCI - Peripheral Component Interconnect
PCIe - PCI Express
PCMCIA - Personal Computer Memory Card International Association
PCM - Pulse-Code Modulation
PCRE - Perl Compatible Regular Expressions
PD - Public Domain
PDA - Personal Digital Assistant
PDF - Portable Document Format
PDP - Programmed Data Processor
PE - Physical Extents
PEBKAC - "Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair"
PERL - Practical Extraction and Reporting Language
PGA - Pin Grid Array
PGP - Pretty Good Privacy
PHP - PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
PIC - Peripheral Interface Controller
PID - Proportional-Integral-Derivative
PID - Process ID
PIM - Personal Information Manager
PINE - Program for Internet News & Email
PIO - Programmed Input/Output
PKCS - Public Key Cryptography Standards
PKI - Public Key Infrastructure
PLC - Power Line Communication
PLC - Programmable Logic Controller
PLD - Programmable Logic Device
PL/I - Programming Language One
PL/M - Programming Language for Microcomputers
PL/P - Programming Language for Prime
PLT - Power Line Telecoms
PMM - Personal Memory Manager
PMM - POST Memory Manager
PNG - Portable Network Graphics
PnP - Plug-and-Play
PoE - Power over Ethernet
POP - Point of Presence
POP3 - Post Office Protocol v3
POSIX - Portable Operating System Interface
POST - Power-On Self Test
PPC - PowerPC
PPI - Pixels Per Inch
PPP - Point-to-Point Protocol
PPPoA - PPP over ATM
PPPoE - PPP over Ethernet
PPTP - Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol
PS - PostScript
PS/2 - Personal System/2
PSU - Power Supply Unit
PSVI - Post-Schema-Validation Infoset
PV - Physical Volume
PVG - Physical Volume Group
PVR - Personal Video Recorder
PXE - Pre Execution Environment
PXI - PCI Extensions for Instrumentation

[edit] Q

QDR - Quad Data Rate
QA - Quality Assurance
QFP - Quoted For Permanence.
QoS - Quality of Service
QOTD - Quote of the Day
Qt - Quasar Toolkit
QTAM - Queued Telecomunications Acess Method (an IBM OS/360 API)

[edit] R

RACF - Resource Access Control Facility
RAD - Rapid Application Development
RADIUS - Remote Authentication Dial In User Service
RAID - Redundant Array of Independent Disks
RAID - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
RAR - Type of archive file run on WinRAR
RDM - Relations Database Management
RDS - Relations Database System
RAIT - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Tapes
RAM - Random Access Memory
RARP - Reverse Address Resolution Protocol
RC - Release Candidate
RC - Run Commands
RC - Runtime Configuration
RCS - Revision Control System
RDBMS - Relational Database Management System
RDF - Resource Description Framework
REFAL - REcursive Functions Algorithmic Language
REST - Representational State Transfer
regex - Regular Expression
RF - Radio Frequency
RFC - Request For Comments
RFE - Request For Enhancement
RFI - Radio Frequency Interference
RFID - Radio Frequency Identification
RGB - Red, Green, Blue
RGBA - Red, Green, Blue, Alpha
RHL - Red Hat Linux
RHEL - Red Hat Enterprise Linux
RIA - Rich Internet Application
RIAA - Recording Industry Association of America
RIP - Raster Image Processor
RIP - Routing Information Protocol
RISC - Reduced Instruction Set Computer
RLE - Run-Length Encoding
RLL - Run Length Limited
RMI - Remote Method Invocation
RMS - Richard Matthew Stallman
ROM - Read Only Memory
ROMB - Read-Out Motherboard
RPC - Remote Procedure Call
RPM - RPM Package Manager
RSA - Rivest Shamir Adleman
RSI - Repetitive Strain Injury
RSS - Rich Site Summary, RDF Site Summary, or Really Simple Syndication
RTC - Real-Time Clock
RTFM - Read The Fucking Manual. (Can also be interpreted as the less offensive "Read the Friendly Manual".) Common answer to basic and often repeated questions, that could be avoided in the first place just by looking at the manual.
RTL - Right-to-Left
RTOS - Real Time Operating System
RTS - Ready To Send