Software

/ˈbaɪɔs/ or /'baɪoʊs/

History of BIOS: Bootstrapping the Computer

The Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) is a critical component of a computer's firmware that initializes hardware components during the boot process. The history of BIOS dates back to the early days of personal computing in the 1970s when it was first developed for the IBM PC. Originally, BIOS was stored on a ROM (Read-Only Memory) chip, ensuring its availability and functionality every time the computer powered on.

/bā-tə/ or (Commonwealth) /bē-tə/

n. 1. In the Real World, software often goes through two stages of testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house?). Software is said to be 'in beta'.

2. Anything that is new and experimental is in beta. "His girlfriend is in beta" means that he is still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment.

3. Beta software is notoriously buggy, so 'in beta' connotes flakiness.

/B-Q-S/

adj. (often abbreviated 'BQS') Term used in a pejorative sense to refer to software that was apparently created by rather spaced-out hackers late at night to solve some unique problem. It usually has nonexistent, incomplete, or incorrect documentation, has been tested on at least two examples, and core dumps when anyone else attempts to use it. This term was frequently applied to early versions of the 'dbx(1)' debugger.

See also Berzerkeley.

/bee-cee/

bc, for basic calculator (often referred to as bench calculator), is "an arbitrary-precision calculator language" with syntax similar to the C programming language.

bc is typically used as either a mathematical scripting language or as an interactive mathematical shell. bc. Developer(s)

bc is also a command for DOS. The bc command is an interactive process that provides arbitrary-precision arithmetic. The bc command first reads any input files specified by the File parameter and then reads the standard input.

/ˈbæk.ʌp/

n., v.

A backup refers to the process of copying and archiving data from a primary location to a secondary storage location to protect against data loss. It can also refer to the copy of the data itself. The main purpose of a backup is to ensure that, in case of failure (such as hardware malfunction, cyber-attacks, accidental deletion, or natural disasters), the data can be restored or recovered to its original state.

/bæk-end/

The back end refers to parts of a computer application or a program's code that allow it to operate and that cannot be accessed by a user. Most data and operating syntax are stored and accessed in the back end of a computer system. Typically the code is comprised of one or more programming languages.

/əˈkyo͞om(y)əˌlādər/

n. 1. Archaic term for a register. On-line use of it as a synonym for register is a fairly reliable indication that the user has been around for quite a while and/or that the architecture under discussion is quite old. The term in full is almost never used of microprocessor registers, for example, though symbolic names for arithmetic registers beginning in A derive from historical use of the term accumulator (and not, actually, from arithmetic).