face recognition
A biometric technique that uses the geometry of a person's face to authenticate identity. Limited deployments, such as those for check cashing, are in place.

facilities management
An arrangement in which a service supplier manages internal enterprise facilities such as telecommunications or data-processing services. Unlike outsourcing, it does not involve the transfer of ownership of these facilities to the service provider. Facilities management relationships are particularly common in the government IT service market. See outsourcing.

fading
A phenomenon, generally of microwave or radio transmission, where atmospheric, electromagnetic or gravitational influences cause a signal to be deflected or diverted away from the target receiver.

failsafe
Internal circuitry that monitors a system and shuts it down or alerts the operator in the event of a problem.

failure
A serious system problem that results in the termination or serious degradation of a software or hardware session. The term also refers to the system-related failure of a mission-critical business process, or incorrect output caused by an erroneous calculation.

FAQ (frequently asked questions)
A type of reference document that contains answers to common questions. FAQs are often posted on Internet.

FAS (fabric-attached storage)
An umbrella term used by Gartner to encompass emerging storage area network (SAN) and network-attached storage (NAS) architectures. Gartner believes that FAS will continue to gain share because, unlike direct-attached storage (DAS), its architectures permit many servers and clients to share common storage assets, improve storage utilization efficiency, and expand client access to mission-critical data, while reducing total cost of ownership. See DAS, NAS and SAN.

FAST (Federation Against Software Theft)
A European vendor organization concerned with preventing piracy and other forms of unauthorized software usage.

Fast Ethernet
An extension of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE's) 802.3 standard — IEEE 802.3u — supporting 100-Mbps data rates instead of 10 Mbps, and using 100Base-T or 100Base-F families of cabling standards. See Ethernet, 802.3 and 802.3u.

fast-packet switching
A generic term for improved packet-switching technologies such as frame relay and cell relay. Fast-packet techniques feature less functionality than traditional X.25 packet-switching, but offer higher packet-switching speeds and lower processing costs.

Fast Track
A negotiation process developed by Gartner to address situations where an enterprise needs to perform a thorough analysis of competing provider options, but does not have the time to undergo a formal request for proposal (RFP) process. The Fast Track selection and negotiation process takes about half the time of the RFP process. This approach retains competition by selecting two provider candidates at the outset, based on enterprise requirements, industry research and a market scan. See RFP.

FAT (file allocation table)
An index for mapping logical files to physical locations on a disk storage device.

fat client
In client/server computing, a client is said to be "fat" (or "thick") when it handles a high amount of the application logic and data management tasks, rather than having these tasks executed remotely on the server. See client/server and thin client.

fault detection
Online diagnostics that detect faults in real time, prevent contamination into other areas and attempt to retry operations.

fault tolerance
A system's ability to enable continuity to be maintained in a user session when a system process fails. Once the process fails on the server, another process is launched to resume the user session from where it left off, with little to no loss in productivity.

fault-tolerant
The adjective form of fault tolerance, used to describe a system that exhibits this quality (see fault tolerance).

fax (facsimile)
The system or equipment used for the transmission of images, usually over the public telephone network. The image is scanned at the transmitter, reconstructed at the receiving station, and duplicated on some form of paper.

FC-AL (Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop)
A subset of the Fibre Channel standard that was defined to support network storage. FC-AL is an inexpensive technology that supports the configuration of up to 126 devices in a Fibre Channel ring network. Only one pair of devices can talk at one time on the loop, so device access is arbitrated. Each port on the loop sees all messages and ignores those not intended for it.

FCC (Federal Communications Commission)
The U.S. federal agency responsible for regulating interstate telecommunications, as well as international telecommunications, aspects of cellular communications and broadcasting. The FCC was established by the Communications Act of 1934.

FCIF (Full Common Intermediate Format)
A video resolution format, providing a picture resolution of 344x288. FCIF is one version of the Common Intermediate Format (CIF) defined in the H.261 worldwide video code standard. See CIF.

FCS (first customer shipment)
The stage at which a product is released from development, and ready for beta testing.

FCS (frame check sequence)
A checking code used to provide error control information in data communications.

FDC (First Data Corp.)
An electronic funds transfer and payment services firm based in Denver, Colorado. Its subsidiaries include Western Union.

FDD (flexible disk drive)
A low-cost, low-capacity (usually 1.4 megabytes) removable disk storage device. See floppy disk.

FDDI (Fiber Distributed Data Interface)
An American National Standards Institute specification for fiber-optic local-area networks, supporting speeds of up to 100 megabits per second. FDDI incorporates token processing and supports circuit-switched voice and packetized data.

FDM (frequency division multiplexing)
The division of a transmission frequency range into narrower bands to create two or more channels, enabling each data source to have its own channel. In FDM, the multichannel transmission must emanate from a single location — unlike frequency division multiple access (FDMA), which enables the source data signals to emanate from multiple transmitters in different locations. See FDMA.

FDMA (frequency division multiple access)
Communicating devices at different locations sharing a multipoint or broadcast channel by means of a technique that allocates different frequencies to different users.

FDR (Fast Dump Restore)
A storage management product from Innovation Data Solutions (Little Falls, New Jersey).

FDRSOS (Fast Dump Restore Safeguard Open Storage)
Innovation Data Solutions' backup/recovery product for EMC Symmetrix storage systems.

FE (field engineer)
An engineer who works on-site (i.e., "in the field").

feature code
Similar to a product code, this is a number that some technology vendors use to identify product features that may be ordered separately by the customer.

FEC (forward error correction)
A technique for correcting errors incurred in transmission over a communications channel. With FEC, errors are corrected at the receiving end of the channel, thereby reducing the amount of data that must be retransmitted due to errors.

FECN (forward explicit congestion notification)
Part of the explicit congestion notification (ECN) technique used in frame relay networks. The FECN portion of the address field of a transmitted frame is the area reserved for data alerting the frame relay assembler/disassembler (FRAD) on the receiving end that there is congestion on the line. A one-bit field that is set to "1" to indicate that the frame has been delivered through a congested network, alerting the FRAD that network resources are insufficient to support transmission at the current rate. See ECN and FRAD.

FEDI (financial electronic data interchange)
A standard format for the transmission of integrated and structured payment and remittance data through banks. High implementation costs and complexity of electronic data interchange (EDI) connectivity have limited its use to large corporations that bill and pay each other regularly. FEDI has not been commonly used by a wide range of banks. See EDI.

FEP (front-end processor)
A dedicated communications system that intercepts and handles activity for the host. It may perform line control, message handling, code conversion, error control, and such application functions as control and operation of special-purpose terminals. See communication controller.

FEPI (Front-End Programming Interface)
A programming-interface component of IBM's Customer Information Control System (CICS). See CICS.

FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)
An independent agency within the U.S. Department of Energy that regulates the transmission and sale of energy utilities, such as oil and electricity.

ferrule
The tip of a fiber-optic connector.

FET (field-effect transistor)
A-type of transistor commonly used in integrated circuitry.

FHSS (frequency-hopping spread spectrum)
A form of spread-spectrum technology used in radio transmissions, which enables simultaneous transmission of multiple signals over a single radio frequency band. With FHSS, a radio signal "hops" between frequencies within the band. Originally developed by the U.S. military to prevent eavesdropping and radio jamming, FHSS now commonly used in wireless local-area networks (WLANs). Another common WLAN option is direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). See DSSS and WLAN.

fiber optics
A high-bandwidth transmission technology that uses light to carry digital information. One fiber-optic cable carries hundreds of thousands of voice or data circuits. These cables, or light guides, replace conventional coaxial cables and wire pairs. Fiber transmission facilities occupy far less physical volume for an equivalent transmission capacity. Optical fiber is also immune to electrical interference.

Fibre Channel
A high-speed serial communication technology developed by IBM and other vendors, and now being standardized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) within ANSI Technical Committee X3T11. It is usually used for storage network data transmission over fiber-optic or copper cabling. Fibre Channel is a higher-speed alternative to Small Computer System Interface (see SCSI), a technology with which it is compatible.

FICON (Fibre Channel Connectivity)
An IBM channel architecture introduced in 1998.

FIFO (first in, first out)
A network queuing method, wherein data packets are dealt with in a simple queue on a first-come, first-served basis. No packets are given preferential treatment; all are queued in the order in which they are received.

file
A collection of bytes containing data, text or other information, or software that is stored and accessed as a coherent unit. Examples include data tables, spreadsheets, text documents, programs, and electronic sounds and images.

file server
A computer containing files available to all users connected to a local-area network (LAN). In some LANs, a PC is designated as the file server, while in others it is a larger computer with a high storage capacity and specialized software. Some file servers offer additional resources, such as gateways and protocol conversion.

financial engineering
A practice whereby a vendor prices its contracted services at a level that falls below its costs in the early years of a multiyear contract, but that offers substantial profits in later years of the contract term. The practice sacrifices near-term profitability for the promise of future rewards.

fingerprint recognition
A technology by which a user places his or her finger on a small glass plate at which point the system captures a high-resolution optical image of the fingerprint, typically using a charge-coupled-device camera. No ink is involved. The system then converts the image into a template containing a mathematical representation based on features of the image such as the minutiae (i.e., the points at which the ridges branch or end). The technology typically takes three to four samples of a fingerprint to make a template for enrollment into the system. For user verification, the system takes a live scan of the fingerprint, which it then compares to the stored template for the user. If the match is close enough (determined by an application-defined threshold), verification is successful.

FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standard)
A set of specifications produced by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the U.S. federal government. FIPS specifications address communications, encryption, interoperability, hardware and other technical areas.

firewall
An application or an entire computer (e.g., an Internet gateway server) that controls access to a network and monitors the flow of network traffic. A firewall can screen and keep out unwanted network traffic and ward off outside intrusion into a private network. This is particularly important when a local network connects to the Internet. Firewalls have become critical applications as use of the Internet has increased.

FireWire
Also known as Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 1394, this is a high-speed serial bus similar to Universal Serial Bus (USB), but much faster and more expensive to implement (see USB). Its primary supporters are Apple Computer and consumer electronics firms such as Fuji, Sony, Hitachi and Nintendo. These firms are using FireWire as the input/output bus for next-generation digital products, such as camcorders, VCRs, TVs, digital cameras and game players.

firmware
A category of memory chips that hold their content without electrical power. They include read-only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM) and electronically erasable PROM (EEPROM) technologies. Firmware becomes "hard software" when holding program code. The contents are generally permanent or semipermanent control coding implemented at a microinstruction level for an application program, instruction set, operating routine or similar user-oriented function. See ROM and EEPROM.

FIRST (Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams)
A nonprofit volunteer group whose goal is to foster cooperation and coordination in incident prevention across diverse sectors, and prompt rapid reaction to incidents. Through an annual conference and its Web site at www.first.org, the group promotes information sharing among its members and the incident response community at large.

first-generation office systems
An early class of office information systems dominated by dedicated word processors, such as Digital Equipment's DECmate and IBM's DisplayWriter. The period began with the introduction of the first word processors in the late 1970s and lasted until the advent of integrated office systems in 1983.

FIX (Financial Information Exchange)
A messaging standard for the electronic exchange of securities transactions. FIX is a public-domain specification owned and maintained by FIX Protocol, Ltd.

FIXML (Financial Information Exchange Markup Language)
A structured grammar — derived from Extensible Markup Language (XML) — that is encapsulated within standard messaging defined by the Financial Information Exchange (FIX) protocol. See FIX and XML.

flag
A data bit or group of bits that can be set to "on" or "off" to signal the status of a system or process.

FLAG (Fiber Link Around the Globe)
An undersea fiber-optic cable network connecting Europe to the Asia/Pacific region. It became operational in 1997.

flame
An electronically communicated insult or inflammatory comment that sets off a flood of outraged responses in e-mail messages, message board postings or any similar online forum. Flaming is considered rude and inconsiderate, but it frequently occurs in newsgroups and e-mail.

flash memory
A nonvolatile storage chip that enables easy electrical erasability and reprogramming, often used to remotely update routers or modems with new versions of software.

flat file
An end-to-end concatenation of all record values in a database, without any of the values being labeled.

flat-file database
A database composed of a single, concatenated file, or several such files, without any attendant, application-independent server logic. Flat-file databases can be used by multiple concurrent users if hosted on a shared file server.

floppy disk
A reusable, portable storage device that generally holds 1.4 megabytes of data. Floppy disks, sometimes called flexible disks or diskettes, were the primary method of software and data distribution beginning in the 1970s. They were originally eight inches wide and enclosed in a flexible envelope; a 5.25-inch version was later introduced, and finally a 3.5-inch floppy disk encased in rigid plastic became the standard. CD-ROMs have become a popular alternative to floppy disks, especially for larger software and multimedia files, given their higher storage capacity. As network speeds have increased and Internet access has expanded, more software and data are now transmitted directly rather than stored.

FLOPS (floating-point operations per second)
A metric used to measure system performance.

flow control
A communications term that refers to the control the flow of data over a communications link. Flow control is one of the network-processing functions defined in the transport layer (Layer 4) of the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model (see OSI).

flow manufacturing
A manufacturing term that describes a model for continuous throughput within selected operations. It requires a reallocation of work steps, direct management of the time required for these work steps, and a redesign of typical material requirements planning floor operations to reduce production costs, work in progress and time to market. Flow manufacturing is synonymous with flexible, lean and synchronous manufacturing and is similar to continuous-flow operations.

FM (frequency modulation)
A means of modulating a sine wave signal to make it carry information. With FM, the carrier wave's frequency is modified in accordance with the information to be transmitted. See AM.

FMA99 (Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999)
Signed into U.S. law in November 1999, this legislation — also known as the "Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act," after the senators who sponsored it — allowed many financial institutions to engage in a broader spectrum of activities, but also placed additional restrictions on many of their practices, notably those related to privacy. The act established an "affirmative and continuing obligation" for FSPs to respect their customers' privacy, and to protect the confidentiality of their information — an aspect of the legislation that had a major impact on FSPs' customer information management practices and strategies.

FMS (financial management system)
A collection of integrated applications and technologies designed to provide a financial solution specific to organizational requirements.

FMV (fair market value)
A measure of equipment value often used in leasing arrangements. FMV is meant to reflect the price a willing buyer would pay to a willing seller under no compulsion to sell or buy.

formal standard
A specification approved by a vendor-independent standards body, such as the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST). The term is used to distinguish such standards from informal or "de facto" ones, which are not accredited by standards bodies but achieve a commensurate status through market forces or vendor influence.

formatting
The preparation of a storage medium with guidance information, synchronization information, and a structure for keeping or collecting information for a directory; this collection of material placed on the disk before user data is written is called a "format," and frequently also includes room for error correction check sums and rewriting of bad or updated sectors.

formatting code
Rudimentary text markup that applications convert to presentation characteristics (such as boldface, italics, font or point size).

form factor
A standard size and shape used for hardware products, devices or components. For example, most 3.5-inch floppy disk drives have the same dimension so that they can fit interchangeably into computer cabinets.

FORTRAN (Formula Translator)
A programming language developed primarily for numeric computations and chiefly used in mathematics, science and engineering. It was introduced in the 1950s as the first high-level language (i.e., closer to natural language than to machine language).

forward channel
The communications path carrying voice or data from the call initiator to the called party.

FP (function point)
Function points measure the size of an application system based on the functional view of the system. The size is determined by counting the number of inputs, outputs, queries, internal files and external files in the system and adjusting that total for the functional complexity of the system. Function point analysis, originally developed at IBM, has as an advantage its focus on measuring software produced in terms of functionality delivered to the end user, rather than in terms of development deliverables, which have no direct bearing on the end user.

FPD (flat-panel display)
A core component for notebooks, FPDs are finding increasingly broad applications in desktop and other systems. Several FPD technologies are available, including liquid crystal display (LCD), gas plasma, electroluminescent, field emission display and digital micromirror devices. The most mature FPD technology is LCD, which includes active-matrix and passive-matrix varieties. See LCD.

FPGA (field-programmable gate array)
A type of programmable logic device (PLD) — an integrated circuit that can be customized after assembly. Specifically, an FPGA is a programmable type of gate array, which is an integrated circuit that contains a configuration of uncommitted elements in a prefabricated base wafer. See PLD.

FpML (Financial Products Markup Language)
A programming language — based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) — introduced by J.P. Morgan and PricewaterhouseCoopers in June 1999. See XML.

FPS (frames per second)
A video transmission metric.

FPU (floating-point unit)
A processor specially designed to manipulate floating-point values rather than integer values.

fractional T1
Telecommunications service providing permanent leased lines operating at a bit rate between 64 kilobits per second and 1.544 megabits per second. See T1.

FRAD (frame relay assembler/disassembler)
A communications device that converts an asynchronous, outgoing data stream into the format required by a frame relay network, and performs the same function in reverse for an incoming data stream. Similar to the packet assembler/disassemblers (PADs) used in a packet-switched networks, FRADs enable asynchronous devices such as PCs to communicate over frame relay networks. See frame relay and PAD.

FRAM (ferroelectric random-access memory)
A type of random-access memory (RAM) that consists of tiny ferrite rings, which can be magnetized by electric pulses to indicate a binary "1" bit. See RAM.

frame
In data transmission, a sequence of contiguous bits that is bracketed by beginning and ending flag sequences, and that includes addressing and control information.

frame relay
A network technology that transmits data packets at high speeds across a digital network encapsulated in a transmission unit called a frame. It requires a dedicated connection during the transmission period. It is used on wide area networks and also in private network environments with leased lines over T1 lines. Frame relay is faster than traditional networks, because it was designed for today's reliable circuits and performs less rigorous error detection. When circuits are less reliable, a great deal of network traffic is dedicated solely to correcting errors.

framing
Separating a data string into "frames" in preparation for transmission. See frame.

FRASI (Frame Relay to ATM Service Interworking)
An MCI service that enables frame relay traffic to be mapped to asynchronous transfer mode (ATM). This enables customers to have frame relay access services in some locations and ATM in others, while still permitting intercommunication between them.

Free Software Foundation
A foundation established in 1983 by Richard Stallman, the founder and driving force behind the "GNU's Not Unix" (GNU) operating-system project. See GNU.

frequency
An expression of how frequently a periodic wave form or signal repeats itself at a given amplitude. It can be expressed in hertz (Hz), kilohertz (kHz), megahertz (MHz) or gigahertz (GHz). See Hz, kHz, MHz and GHz.

frequency coordination
International procedures to prevent interference between new and incumbent radio communications services.

front office
A general term for the category of applications that support customer service, sales, marketing and similar enterprise functions.

front-office suite
A set of integrated applications, employing a common architecture and referencing a common database, that facilitate customer service, sales and marketing functions.

FrontPage
A Web-authoring tool from Microsoft.

FRU (field-replaceable unit)
A computer part or other technological component that can be readily replaced in the field if it fails or otherwise proves defective.

FS/D (field service/dispatch)
A customer service and support (CSS) function. FS/D refers to the process of managing field service resources, and dispatching these resources to address customer problems. See CSS.

FSK (frequency shift keying)
A method of modulation that uses two different frequencies to distinguish between a mark (digital 1) and a space (digital 0) when transmitting on an analog line. FSK is used in modems operating at 1,200 bits per second or slower.

FSP (financial-services provider)
A company that belongs to the broad industry category that includes as banking, brokerage and investment firms.

FTAM (File Transfer, Access and Management)
The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol for file transfer (the communication of an entire file between systems), access (remote access to one or more records in a file) and management (including the ability to create, delete and rename files). See OSI.

FTE (full-time equivalent)
A staffing metric. An FTE is a unit of labor resources equivalent to one full-time employee, even if some or all of the staff comprising these resources work part-time.

FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
A Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) standard used to log onto a network, list directories and copy files. FTP authenticates users and allows them to transfer files, list directories, delete and rename files on a remote host, and perform wild-card transfers. See TCP/IP.

FTTB (fiber to the building)
Fiber-optic access supplied to an individual building for telephony, data communication, Internet or other network services. FTTB access typically terminates in a building basement, from which access for multiple end users is implemented through an in-building network.

FTTC (fiber to the curb)
Fiber-optic distribution of phone, Internet or media services (such as cable television) to a point outside the customer's premises.

FTTH (fiber to the home)
Fiber-optic access to users' homes for phone, Internet or media services, wherein each home has a direct fiber connection.

full duplex
Refers to a communications system or equipment capable of transmitting simultaneously in both directions. See half duplex.

full-text index
An index containing every word (with the possible exception of stop words) in a collection of documents, for use by a full-text search engine. See "search engine," "search index" and "stop word."

functional test
A test carried out under normal working conditions to verify that a circuit or other electronic component functions correctly.

fuzzy logic
A reasoning paradigm that deals with approximate or imprecise information. Fuzzy logic enables variables to be described (often linguistically) and acted on in terms of their degree of membership in predetermined sets. Control systems in consumer electronics equipment products and other embedded control systems are among the most common applications.

FVC (frequency-to-voltage converter)
A circuit that converts frequency variations to amplitude variations.