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I-Terms
VOICE response system: A form of speech synthesis in which sentences are formed by concatenating pre-recorded words from a database. Unlike a TTS system, which uses speech synthesis to form spontaneous sentences and/or phrases based on human phonetics, a voice response system operates with a limited vocabulary in situations where the sentences and/or phrases that are formed follow a strict predetermined pattern. For example, a train station may use a voice response system to notify passengers of schedule information or a train’s status. The synthesized speech is created from a pool of words that are strung together based on the input of a human operator, and the pool only contains a limited number of words as there are a limited number of combinations of words that are necessary for the train station’s purpose; financial institutions also use voice response systems to aid customers in getting account information over the telephone. The same principle applies here — since the financial institution only needs to provide the caller with a limited amount of information, it does not need to be able to generate spontaneous sentences in response to customer inquiries.
Speech synthesis: Refers to a computer’s ability to produce sound that resembles human speech. Although they can’t imitate the full spectrum of human cadences and intonations, speech synthesis systems can read text files and output them in a very intelligible, if somewhat dull, voice. Many systems even allow the user to choose the type of voice — for example, male or female.
Multiplex: To combine multiple signals (analog or digital) for transmission over a single line or media. A common type of multiplexing combines several low-speed signals for transmission over a single high-speed connection. The following are examples of different multiplexing methods:
Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM): each signal is assigned a different frequency
Time Division Multiplexing (TDM): each signal is assigned a fixed time slot in a fixed rotation
Statistical Time Division Multiplexing (STDM): Time slots are assigned to signals dynamically to make better use of bandwidth
Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM): Each signal is assigned a particular wavelength; used on optical fibre.
Slipstream: To add enhancements to or fix bugs in software without creating a new version number to identify the changes. This term also refers to a fix or enhancement that was made to software without creating a new version number to identify the changes. The term is used, for example, to refer to a slipstream repair or a slipstream fix.
TTS: Short for text-to-speech, a form of speech synthesis that converts text into spoken voice output. TTS systems were first developed to aid the visually impaired by offering a computer-generated spoken voice that would “read” text to the user. TTS should not be confused with voice response systems. Voice response systems synthesize speech by concatenating sentences from a database of pre-recorded words and are used for different purposes than TTS systems, which form sentences and/or phrases based on a language’s graphemes and phonemes.
InfiniBand: Both an I/O architecture and a specification for the transmission of data between processors and I/O devices that has been gradually replacing the PCI bus in high-end servers and PCs. Instead of sending data in parallel, which is what PCI does, InfiniBand sends data in serial and can carry multiple channels of data at the same time in a multiplexing signal.
The principles of InfiniBand mirror those of mainframe computer systems that are inherently channel-based systems. InfiniBand channels are created by attaching host channel adapters (HCAs) and target channel adapters (TCAs) through InfiniBand switches. HCAs are I/O engines located within a server. TCAs enable remote storage and network connectivity into the InfiniBand interconnect infrastructure, called a fabric. InfiniBand architecure is capable of supporting tens of thousands of nodes in a single subnet.
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