Technical Corner > The PC Glossary - Definitions of Computer and Internet Terms

Computer Terms Beginning with "G"

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MysteRy:
Source : PC.net


Gamma Correction

Example: "The photographer applied gamma correction to his display to enhance the contrast of his photos."

Gamma correction is used to alter the output levels of a display. Since the standard input signal (or voltage level) is not high enough to create a bright picture, gamma correction is used to boost the brightness and contrast of the display. PCs typically use a gamma setting of 2.2, while Macs have a default gamma setting of 1.8. Some systems include a display utility that can be used to apply custom gamma settings.

MysteRy:
Gateway

A gateway is either hardware or software that acts as a bridge between two networks so that data can be transferred between a number of computers. For example, when you send an e-mail to a friend or when you log in to a Web site, there is a gateway that allows the connection take place. Often, your connection to a Web site will involve many smaller connections to other servers along the way. In these cases, a number of gateways are used.

In a completely unrelated story, Gateway is also the name of a popular direct-order PC manufacturer.

MysteRy:
Gibibyte

A gibibyte is a unit of data storage that equals 2 to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 bytes.

While a gigabyte can be estimated as 10^9 or 1,000,000,000 bytes, a gibibyte is defined as exactly 1,073,741,824 bytes. This helps avoid the ambiguity associated with the size of gigabytes. A gibibyte is 1,024 mebibytes and precedes the tebibyte unit of measurement.

MysteRy:
GIF

The letters "GIF" actually stand for "Graphics Interchange Format," but you don't need to remember that. What you should know is that a GIF is a compressed image file format. GIF images use a compression formula originally developed by CompuServe (which is why you see the term "CompuServe GIF" in Photoshop, for those of you that care). GIFs are based on indexed colors, which is a palette of at most 256 colors. This helps greatly reduce their file size. These compressed image files can be quickly transmitted over a network or the Internet, which is why you often see them on Web pages. GIF files are great for small icons and animated images, but they lack the color range to be used for high-quality photos.

MysteRy:
Gigabyte

A gigabyte is 2 to the 30th power, or 1,073,741,824 bytes.

It can be estimated as 10 to the 9th power, or one billion (1,000,000,000) bytes. A gigabyte is 1,024 megabytes and precedes the terabyte unit of measurement. Hard drive sizes are typically measured in gigabytes, such as a 160GB or 250GB drive. The term gigabyte is often often abbreviated as simply a "gig" in speech. For example, if you have a 250GB hard drive, you could say, "I have 250 gigs of disk space." The prefix "giga" comes from the Greek word "gigas," meaning giant.

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