278application: A computer program that you use to perform tasks of a specific type.Applications include word processors, spreadsheets and databasemanagement systems. See also program.array: 1) A table of values that a program treats as a single unit. 2) A set of hard diskdrives that are linked together to provide a very large amount of data storage.asynchronous: A type of data transmission in which information is sent at variable timeintervals. To indicate when a transmitted character begins and ends, it ispreceded by a start bit and followed by an optional parity bit and one or twostop bits. See also synchronous.audio: Audio (sound) frequencies for multimedia systems range from 15 Hz to 20,000 Hz.Audio includes voice, music, sound effects, and ambient sound.audio mixing: Creating a custom audio track from several different sources using asound-mixing device.audio stream: Frames of compressed audio.authoring: The process of writing, editing, and assembling a multimedia program on apersonal computer using a multimedia authoring program.authoring program: A software development environment used to create multimediaapplications that reduce complex instructions to simple user tasks such asmenu selection, mouse manipulation or typing. Such programs enablecommunicators to develop interactive courseware or presentations onpersonal computers without extensive programming knowledge.AUTOEXEC.BAT: A batch file containing MS-DOS commands that the computerperforms every time you start or restart it. For example, it contains commandsthat load the Windows operating system. See also batch file.AVI (Audio Video Interleaved): Microsoft Corporation’s trade name for synchronizationand digital compression of video and audio signals.
