GLOSSARY

Addressability refers to the ability of any device or program to access some random access memory.

Aggregation Collection if things.

Aligned is the way data are arranged and accessed in a computer memory. A modern computer reads from or writes to a memory address in word-sized chunks (typically 4-bytes). If the data are stored at a memory offset equal to some multiple of this word size, it increases the system's performance due to the nature of CPU–memory interface. In case of cached memories, it would be beneficial to allocate memory aligned to cache lines. If an array is partitioned for more than one thread to operate on, having the sub-array boundaries unaligned to cache lines could lead to performance degradation.

Cdecl calling convention is used by many C systems for the x86 architecture. Function parameters are pushed on the stack in a right-to-left order. Function return values are returned in the EAX register (except for floating-point values, which are returned in the x87 register ST0). Registers EAX, ECX and EDX are available for use in the function. On Linux, gcc sets the de-facto standard for calling conventions. This is usually the default calling convention for x86 C compilers, although many compilers provide options to automatically change the calling conventions used.

Diagnostic Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything. Diagnostic program is a program written for the purpose of examining the state, or locating problems with the hardware or Operating System.

Immutable Not changeable.

Lazy Executed as late as logically valid.

Permissions Access rights.

Prototype A representative form or pattern.

Reachability It refers to property of being able to go from one vertex in a directed graph to some other vertex. In case of undirected graphs it is sufficient simply to find the connected components in the graph.

Run-time is the period of time during execution of a program and/or environment provided during that time.

Searchable Information is organized so that it can be searched by some query.

Setuid (short for “set user ID upon execution”) are Unix access rights flags that allow users to run an executable with the permissions of the executable's owner. They are often used to allow users on a computer system to run programs with privileges set temporarily higher in order to perform a specific task.

Streaming media is multimedia that is constantly received by and presented to an end-user while being delivered by a streaming provider.

Supercomputer is a computer that is at the fore front of state-of-the-art processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. The main difference between a supercomputer and a mainframe is that a supercomputer employs all its power into executing a few programs as fast as possible, whereas a mainframe uses its power to execute many programs concurrently.

Time-slice is a small duration of time (typically 10 millisec) allowed to processes being executed in round-Robbins fashion in a multi-tasking operating system.

Trampoline is a device consisting of a piece of taut, strong fabric stretched over a steel frame using many coiled springs. People bounce on trampolines. Here the meaning is generally associated with code jumps. In the GCC compiler, trampoline refers to a technique for implementing pointers to nested functions. The trampoline is a small piece of code which is constructed on the fly on the stack when the address of a nested function is taken. The trampoline sets up the static link pointer, which allows the nested function to access local variables of the enclosing functions. The function pointer is then simply the address of the trampoline.

Visualization A presentation to the mind in the form of an idea or image.