I 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| Numerical Listing| I-CASE (Integrated Computer-Aided Software Engineering) Refers to the integration of lower CASE tools with upper CASE tools. (Upper CASE tools are used in the analysis and design phases of a system’s life cycle. Lower CASE tools take the information contained in the upper CASE tools and rapidly generate whole, or parts of an application.) I-CASE creates a bidirectional link that transfers information back and forth. I/O (Input/Output) The activity of sending information to or from peripheral devices, terminals, DASDs (direct access storage devices), tape drives and printers. Physical I/O performance lags that of memory and logical technologies. IBM 3270 Pass-Through A facility that enables attached terminals or PCs to connect to an IBM mainframe system through the midrange system and appear to the IBM system as 3278-type terminals. Icon A symbol or pictorial representation of an object or idea in graphic interfaces, used to represent the different functions or applications available to the user. A mouse is typically used to select the desired operation by pointing to one of the icons on the screen. ICR (Intelligent Character Recognition) A technology that employs either software only or software and hardware to automatically recognize and translate raster images into structured data. IDAPI (Integrated Database Application Programming Interface) An API for data integration first promoted by Borland, IBM, Novell and WordPerfect in November 1992 to counter Microsoft’s Open Database Connectivity. IDMS (Integrated Database Management System) The database management system introduced by Cullinet in 1973, based on technology acquired from BF Goodrich. Computer Associates acquired Cullinet and maintained the product line since 1989. TOP OF PAGE IDRC (Improved Data Recording Capability) IDRC is the 3480 feature announced in 1989 that improves the effective capacity of the cartridge. IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) An organization of engineers, scientists and students involved in electrical, electronics and related fields. IEEE also functions as a publishing house and standards body. IEEE 802 An Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers standard for interconnection of local-area networking equipment dealing with the physical and link layers of the International Standards Organization model for Open Systems Interconnection. IEEE 802.3 The physical and medium access control standards for CSMA/CD (carrier sense multiple access with collision detection) local-area networks such as Ethernet. IEEE 802.4 The physical and medium access control standard for token-bus local-area networks. IEEE 802.5 The physical and medium access control standard for token-ring local-area networks. IEEE 802.6 The physical and medium access control standard for metropolitan-area networking. IEEE 802.11 The physical and medium access control standard for wireless LANs. IEF (Information Engineering Facility) A life-cycle management computer-aided software engineering product offered by Texas Instruments that focuses on CICS/DB2 (Customer Information and Control System/Database-2) applications. TOP OF PAGE IEW (Information Engineering Workbench) KnowledgeWare’s upper-CASE (computer-aided software engineering) product that includes planning, analysis and design functions. IGES (Initial Graphics Exchange Specification) A standard for the exchange of computer-aided design geometry. IGES is largely superseded by STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data) and PDES (Product Design Exchange using STEP). A vendor-neutral method of representing parts geometrics and product dimensions used as an intermediate system for transfer between specific computer-aided design products. ImagePlus A document image package, introduced by IBM in 1988, that represents the commercial versions of image systems developed jointly by IBM’s System Integration Division and two customer "partners," USAA and Citibank. ImagePlus provides generic application software for using document images in common user environments. Image Support Hardware (scanner, workstation, printer) and software support for image as a system-recognized information type. Typically, although not necessarily, support for optical storage devices is included. Implode Compression of detailed data into a summary level record or report. IMS (Information Management System) IMS is the name for two IBM Multiple Virtual Storage products, a database management system (IMS/DB) and a transaction processing monitor (IMS/TM), that is capable of accessing either DB2 or IMS/DB (or both). IMS applications run in what are called message-processing regions, each in its own address space. They communicate as needed with the IMS control region, which can be located in a separate MVS address space. IMS is IBM’s strategic subsystem for very high-speed Database Manager/Database Communications applications. DB2 is the vehicle chosen for normal database management system requirements. IMS involves customer-written application programs in response to transactions entered at teleprocessing terminals, and provides the services needed by those applications to retrieve and update data in DL/1 databases and respond to the terminal that invoked the data. Applications communicate as needed with the IMS control region, which is located in a separate Multiple Virtual Storage address space. This splitting of the program product into many components, called granularity, is one way IMS exploits the 3090 architecture more fully than does Customer Information and Control System. IMS/DB (IMS/Database Manager) A Multiple Virtual Storage database management system that supports the hierarchical data model (with optional extensions for some network data model features). IMS/DB may be used with either IMS/TM or CICS to provide on-line access to the database, or it may be used without a monitor for batch processing. TOP OF PAGE IMS/DC (Information Management System/Data Communication) IMS/DC is the part of IMS that is needed for the implementation of on-line transaction processing applications. Roughly speaking, IMS/DC is functionally equivalent to CICS/VS (Customer Information and Control System/Virtual Storage), but is rarely used except in conjunction with IMS/DB. IMS/DC has a multiaddress space architecture and is quite fast — which explains why IBM tends to run its DB2 benchmarks with IMS/DC rather than CICS. IMS/ESA DM (Information Management System/Enterprise Systems Architecture Database Manager) IMS/ESA may be used with either IMS/DC (Information Management System/Data Communication) or CICS/VS (Customer Information and Control System/Virtual Storage) to provide on-line access to the database. IMS/ESA TM (Information Management System/Enterprise Systems Architecture Transaction Manager) The part of IMS needed to create on-line transaction processing applications. Until the announcement of IMS/ESA (Enterprise Systems Architecture), IMS/TM was a feature of IMS, not a product separate from IMS/DB (Database Manager). IMS/TM, once called IMS/DC (for data communications), has a multiaddress-space architecture. It is quite fast, which is why IBM runs its DB2 benchmarks with IMS/DC rather than CICS (Customer Information and Control System). IMS/FP (Information Management System/FastPath) A functional extension to IBM’s IMS that improves performance for specific transactions, and features high data availability and specialized facilities for very large databases. It was introduced as a separately priced feature of IMS v. 1.1.4. With IMS v.1.1.3, FastPath became part of IMS/DC (Database Communication). In-Band Signaling The method for telephone switches to communicate with one another by sending in-band (i.e., over each line connection) dial pulses or tones denoting the calling and called number. Signaling is generally performed this way in networks between the telephone instrument of private branch exchange and the serving central office, among central offices in the same geographical area and throughout the local loop. TOP OF PAGE Industrial Computer A personal or process control computer that is designed to withstand the rigors of the factory floor. Some industrial computers are configured so that maintenance and cold start-up are relatively simple. These devices are used for applications such as data collection, monitoring and programming. Information Engineering A methodology for developing an integrated information system based on the sharing of common data, with emphasis on decision-support needs as well as transaction processing requirements. It assumes logical data representations are relatively stable, as opposed to the frequently changing processes that use the data. Therefore, the logical data model, which reflects an organization’s rules and policies, should be the basis for systems development. Information Repository Holds all the information needed to create, modify and evolve a software system, including information on problem to be solved, problem domain, emerging solution, software process being used, project resources and history, and organizational context. Inquire/Text Content-based retrieval/document management product for IBM Multiple Virtual Storage and Virtual Machine environments from Infodata of Falls Church, Va. Integrated E-mail A facility that enables Macintosh users to create, send, receive, read, forward and file mail through the midrange system mail system directly from a Macintosh desk accessory or application, without terminal emulation logon or other consideration for the midrange system. In the PC world, a facility that enables MS-DOS PC users to create, send, receive, read, forward and file mail through the midrange system mail system directly from a PC-resident menu system, without terminal emulation logon or other consideration for the midrange system. Integrity An operating system’s ability to assure that only authorized users can enter a privileged state (supervisor mode, protect key zero, superuser or root). Integrity is a prerequisite for security in an operating system. In Multiple Virtual Storage, it is the ability to ensure that only authorized users can enter a privileged state (e.g., protect key zero). The term is not synonymous with security, but security requires it. TOP OF PAGE Internet The Internet is a global mesh of networks originally designed to provide redundancy and ubiquitous access to a broad range of information. This basic network capability has been supplemented by the WWW, a set of Internet-based or derived tools and software. Intranet A network that utilizes common Internet-based technology, but is internal to a specific organizational structure and is secured from or disconnected from the global Internet. IOCA (Image Object Content Architecture) A standard definition for the representation of images for interchange between environments. An element of MO:DCA, IOCA is used in ImagePlus and OS/2 Image Support. IOS (Integrated Office System) The label applied to second-generation office information systems originating from the tight integration between the bundled applications, usually word processing, filing, E-Mail, calendars, scheduling and basic decision support. IP (Internet Protocol) TCP/IP protocol to track the address of nodes, route outgoing messages, and recognize incoming messages. Current networks consist of several protocols, including IP, IPX, DECnet, AppleTalk, OSI and LLC2. This wide diversity of protocols results from application suites that assume their own particular protocols. Collapse from this wide variety is inevitable, but users will only be able to reduce this diversity, not eliminate it. Most users will collapse networks into two main protocols: IP and IPX. Installed-base applications and the pain of change will prevent a total reduction to a single backbone protocol. IPDS (Intelligent Printer Data Stream) IBM format for sending files to a laser printer. It provides an interface to all-points-addressable printers that make possible the presentation of pages containing a mix of different types of data, such as high-quality text, raster image, vector graphics, and bar code. In addition, IPDS provides commands for the management of printing resources such as fonts and overlays; for the control of device functions such as paper sourcing and stacking; for the comprehensive handling of exception functions; and for a complete acknowledgment protocol at the data stream level. IBM has positioned IPDS as the ubiquitous enterprise data stream. IPX (Internet Packet Exchange) Novell NetWare communications protocol used to route messages. From a user perspective, an IPX implementation allows concurrent dual access to both an application server and a native NetWare file server without imposing memory overhead on client workstations. TOP OF PAGE IRDS (Information Resource Dictionary System) A standard data dictionary specification from the American National Standards Institute X3H4 Committee. ISA (Industry Standard Architecture) Bus architecture originally developed and evolved by IBM for its PC, XT, and AT lines. It comes in an 8-bit and 16-bit version; many machines with ISA compatibility have both 8- and 16-bit connectors on the motherboard. ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) Disk access method that stores data sequentially, maintaining an index of key fields to all the records in the file. ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) As a technical standard and design philosophy for digital networks, ISDN provides high-speed, high-bandwidth channels to every subscriber on the network, achieving end-to-end digital functions with standard equipment interface devices. ISDN networks enable a variety of mixed digital transmission services to be accommodated at a single interface (including voice and circuit- and packet-switched data). Access channels under definition include basic (144 Kbps, or 2B+D) and primary (1.544 Mbps or 23B+D in North America, and 30B+D, or 2.048 Mbps in Europe) interface rates. Signaling System 7 (SS7), an out-of-band signaling scheme, is key to current ISDN implementation. ISO (International Standards Organization) A voluntary, nontreaty organization established in 1949 to promote international standards. ISO/OSI Model (International Standards Organization/Open System Interconnection Model) A standard, modular approach to network design that divides the required set of complex functions into manageable, self-contained, functional layers. These layers, from the innermost, are: 1. Physical Layer — concerned with the mechanical and electrical means by which devices are physically connected and data is transmitted. 2. Link Layer — concerned with how to move data reliably across the physical data link. 3. Network Layer — provides the means to establish, maintain and terminate connections between systems. Concerned with switching and routing information. 4. Transport Layer — concerned with end-to-end data integrity and quality of service. 5. Session Layer — standardizes the task of setting up a session and terminating it. Coordinates the interaction between end application processes. 6. Presentation Layer — relates to the character set and data code that is used, and to the way data is displayed on a screen or printer. 7. Application Layer — concerned with the higher-level functions that support application or system activities. TOP OF PAGE Isochronous A transmission technique characterized by synchronization of the transmitter and receiver, so that packets are delivered to the destination at regular intervals, such as that required by voice or video. ISV (Independent Software Vendor) A software producer that is not owned or controlled by a hardware manufacturer; a company whose primary function is to distribute software. Hardware manufacturers that distribute software, (such as IBM and Unisys) are not ISVs, nor are users (such as banks) that may also sell software products. IT (Information Technology) Infrastructure The underlying technological components that comprise an organization’s systems architecture. The seven components of IT infrastructure are hardware, operating system, network, database, development environment, user interface and application. Item Master File Typically, this computer file contains identifying and descriptive data, control values (e.g., dead time and lot sizes) and may contain data on inventory status, requirements and planned orders. There is normally one record in this file for each stock-keeping unit. Item master records are linked together by product structure records, thus defining the bill of material. IWS (Intelligent Workstation) A term synonymous with programmable workstation (e.g., a personal computer). TOP OF PAGE IXC (Interexchange Carrier) A long-distance telephone company in the United States that provides service between local access and transport areas (LATAs). Comments? Questions? Entire contents Copyright © 1997, 1998 by Gartner Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. Please read the guidelines for customer use of GartnerGroup intellecual property.