Letter S

Safari The main web browser for MacOS and IOS. It uses the WebKit engine.

SAM Coupe An 8 bit Z80 based computer, Spectrum compatible by MGT Technology.

SAN Storage Area Network. A large disk storage array which is accessible
by other computers over a fibre channel network.

SATA Serial ATA device. New hard disks now have smaller and faster serial
connections to the hard disk.

SCART Special video and audio connection used widely on television
and video equipment. Also, appears on Commodore 1084(S) monitors.

SCCM System Centre Configuration Management. Microsoft's central system to collect information of computers in a domain,
deploy software and updates etc.

SCP Secure copy protocol (see SFTP). Highly secure file transfer protocol based
on SSH (Secure Shell) over a network.

Screen The display device is which text and graphics are displayed.

Script A file containing a series of DOS commands that can be
'executed' either from a batch (BAT) or command (CMD) file.

SCSI Small Computer System Interface. Expansion system for adding
hard disks, CD ROM drives, tape drives and scanners to computers.

SDK Software Development Kit. Software provided to develop applications
for a given Operating System or other system.

SDRAM Synchronous Direct RAM. New memory type which mainly uses DIMMS.
They can run very fast at 0.8GB/sec.

Serial Serial Port, used for simple communications, can be used for slow
devices such as mice or a modem.

Server A Server is a PC designed to serve data or information with special
programs. They are can be used to Authenticate users onto a network,
deliver web pages via a Web Server e.g. IIS, share files and printers,
provide data via a Database server (SQL) and so on. A Server needs to
run either Windows Server, Linux or Solaris versions for Unix servers.

Settings The program which is used to change user or computer settings such as screen size, font,
wallpaper, screen saver, network, memory, applicaitons. Also known as preferences, control
panel etc.

SFTP SSH file transfer protocol. Secure file tranfers over internet using SSH v2 extensions.

SGRAM Synchronous Graphics RAM used on many video/graphics cards.

SHA Secure Hash Algorthm. A cryptographic hash function which converts data to a message digest.
SHA-1 is short, insecure and no longer used, SHA-2 or SHA-256 is longer and more secure.

Shell A console windows which AmigaDOS/Unix commands can be entered.

Shockwave A multimedia web plugin from Macromedia/Adobe for games and entertainment.

Silverlight A multimedia web plugin from Microsoft similar to Adobe's Flash player.

SIMD Single instruction, multiple data. A class of computers with multiple
processing elements that perform same operation on multiple data points.

SIMM Single In line Memory Module. Type of memory board used widely
on Amigas and other computers. Can be 16 or 32 bit, usually has
72 pins (older simms have 30 pins) and run at 70, 60 or even 50ns.

Skype A voice over TCP/IP technology to allow free telephones calls over
the internet to another Skype user. Also allows text communication
and sharing of files etc. Needs a Skype client.

Skype for Business A communication system for chat, telehpone and video over network.
Replaces Microsoft Lync. This not the same as normal Skype (above).

SLI Scalable Link Interface. Developed by Nvidea to combine two graphics
cards into one output to provide twice the power.

SLIP A type of Serial Line Interface Protocol used for Dial Up
networking via serial port.

Slot 1 Slot technology used by Intel Pentium IIs and IIIs.

Slot A Slot technology used by AMD Athlon chips. Now replaced by Socket A.

SMART Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology. Feature
used to monitor and analyse hard disks for data loss and
drive failure.

SmartMedia A type of solid-state memory to save data and keeps it even when
power is removed. Widely used with digital cameras.

SmartTags New feature of Office XP that provides new links (underlined
in purple) to point to another page about that subject.

SMP Symmetric Multiple Processors. Technology that allows more
than one processor to be used at once in the same computer.
OS' that support SMP include Windows NT/2000 and Linux.

S/MIME Secure Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. The standard for public key
encryption and signing of MIME data.

SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. Protocol used to send/receive
Electronic Mail.

SNES Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Games console by Nintendo with
Allwinner R16 SOC (4x ARM Cortex A-7), ARM Mail 400 MP2 GPU, 256MB DDR3 memory.

SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol. Manage and monitor devices and their functions.

SOAP Simple Object Access Protocol for data access on the web.

Socket 370 Type of socket used by Intel Celeron chips.

Socket 478 Type of socket for Pentium 4 processor chips.

Socket 7 Type of processor slot used for Pentium MMX, AMD K6-2/3, Cyrix,
and IDT Winchip processors.

Socket A Processor slot used for AMD Athlon processor chips.

SOCKS Short for Sockets, a Proxy Protocol which allows users to access
other hosts via a Socks Server (a Firewall) for extra security.

Software Another name for applications or apps stored digitally on computers.

Solaris A Unix operating system developed by Sun Microsystems, now owned by Oracle.

Southbridge Motherboard chip that deals with slower computer components such
as PCI slots, USB, Parallel, Serial ports etc. See also
Northbridge.

SPAM Unsolicited E-Mail send to people on mass to advertise products
or promote some quick rich schemes and so on. Spam can be blocked using
a combination of blacklists, rules, word/phrase filter lists and complex
machine learning routines.

Sparc High end processor used for Unix systems on Sun Microsystem
computers. Fully 64 bit for UltraSparc.

S/PDIF Sony/Philips Digital Interface used for Video/Audio transfers.

Spectrum The Sinclair ZX Spectrum, a popular Z80 based home computer.

Spotlight The main search engine used on MacOS.

Sprite A hardware driven image run independantly of whats on the screen.
Example systems that support sprites: C64, TI-99/4a, Amiga.

SPX Sequenced Packed eXchange (see IPX) used primarily on Netware
networks. Versions include Ethernet_802.2, 802.3 and II.

Spyware Programs used to gather private information for advertisers
and fraudsters. Usually attach themselves to Browsers such as IE.

SQL Structured Query Language. Special query language to enquire,
create a modify large databases shared between multiple users.
Examples, include Microsoft SQL, Oracle, MySQL, mSQL etc.

SRAM Static or Synchronous RAM. Very fast ram used in small amounts
such as Cache RAM.

SRT Secure Reliable Transport. A streaming protocol by Haivision used
by members of the SRT Alliance in the technology and telecomms space.
It is Secure, Compatible with most devices and has Low Latency.

SSE Streaming Single Instruction Multiple Data Extensions. A slight
improvement on Intel's MMX media extensions for Pentium processors.
SSE3 on the P4 is best example.

SSH Secure Shell. Telnet sessions are in plain text and can be read
by any hacker, SSH encrypts such sessions to prevent snooping.

SSL Secure Socket Layers. An older method of encryption ceated by
Netscape Comms Corp to secure web sessions. Replaced with TLS.

SSPD Simple Service Discovery Protocol. The basis of Universal Plug n play.

Static IP Uses a fixed Internet number for access to the network. Usually
provided by the Internet Provider.

Steam Steam Powered games company that provides games on an internet store
for well known and smaller developers.

Sun Sun Microsystems. Developer for Solaris unix OS, Sparc based
computers and the Java language.

SUSE A variant of the Linux operating system. Used for Enterprise solutions.

SVGA Super Video Graphics Adapter. Video mode which supports 256 colours
or more and higher screen resolutions at 800 x 600. See VGA, XGA.

SVN Subversion control which allows multiple users allow access to a
given project and control consistency and prevents file corruption.

Switch High speed hub which gives full bandwidth per port and can switch data
between ports for extra performance.

SXVGA Super XGA resolution at 1280 x 1024 (see VGA, SVGA, XGA).