National foreword

This British Standard reproduces verbatim ISO/IEC 2382‑1:1993 and implements it as the UK national standard.

This standard supersedes BS ISO 2382‑1:1984 which is withdrawn.

This British Standard is published under the direction of the Information Systems Technology Standards Policy Committee which has the responsibility to:

aid enquirers to understand the text;
present to the responsible international committee any enquiries on interpretation, or proposals for change, and keep UK interests informed;
monitor related international and European developments and promulgate them in the UK.

NOTE International and European Standards, as well as overseas standards, are available from Customer Services, Publications, BSI, Linford Wood, Milton Keynes, MK14 6LE.

A British Standard does not purport to include all the necessary provisions of a contract. Users of British Standards are responsible for their correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard does not of itself confer immunity from legal obligations.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the international Electrotechnical Commission) together form a system for worldwide standardization as a whole. National bodies that are members of ISO and IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organizations to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and nongovernmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.

In the field of information technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee, ISO/IEC JTC 1. Draft International Standards adopted by the joint technical committee are circulated to national bodies for approval before their acceptance as International Standards. They are approved in accordance with procedures requiring at least 75% approval by the national bodies voting.

International Standard ISO/IEC 2382‑1 was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee SC 1, Vocabulary.

ISO/IEC 2382 will consist of some 30 parts, under the general title Information technology — Vocabulary.

This third edition cancels and replaces the second edition (ISO 2382‑1:1984), of which it constitutes a technical revision.

Introduction

Information technology gives rise to numerous international exchanges of both an intellectual and a material nature. These exchanges often become difficult, either because of the great variety of terms used in various fields or languages to express the same concept, or because of the absence or imprecision of the definitions of useful concepts.

To avoid misunderstandings and to facilitate such exchanges it is essential to clarify the concepts, to select terms to be used in various languages or in various countries to express the same concept, and to establish definitions providing satisfactory equivalents for the various terms in different languages.

ISO 2382 was initially based mainly on the usage to be found in the Vocabulary of Information Processing which was established and published by the International Federation for Information Processing and the International Computation Centre, and in the American National Dictionary for Information Processing Systems and its earlier editions published by the American National Standards Institute (formerly known as the American Standards Association). Published and Draft International Standards relating to information technology of other International organizations (such as the International Telecommunication Union and the International Electrotechnical Commission) as well as published and draft national standards have also been considered.

The purpose of ISO/IEC 2382 is to provide definitions that are rigorous, uncomplicated and which can be understood by all concerned. The scope of each concept defined has been chosen to provide a definition that is suitable for general application. In those circumstances where a restricted application is concerned, the definition may need to be more specific.

However, while it is possible to maintain the self-consistency of individual parts, the reader is warned that the dynamics of language and the problems associated with the standardization and maintenance of vocabularies may introduce duplications and inconsistencies among parts.

Committees responsible for this British Standard

This British Standard was prepared by the Information Systems Technology Standards Policy Committee (IST/-), upon which the following bodies were represented:

Association for Payment Clearing Services
BNR Europe Ltd.
British Broadcasting Corporation
British Computer Society
British Telecommunications plc
Bull HN Information Systems Ltd.
BUPA
Carnaud Metalbox Technology plc
CCTA (the Government Centre for Information Systems)
Computer Graphics Suppliers’ Association
Department of Trade and Industry [IT Standards Unit (ITD6A)]
Department of Trade and Industry (National Engineering Laboratory)
Digital Equipment Co. Ltd.
EEA (the Association of Electronics, Telecommunications and Business Equipment Industries)
Electrical Contractors’ Association
Electricity Association
IBM United Kingdom Ltd.
ICI Imagedata
Information Systems Committee of the Universities Funding Council
Institute of Administrative Management
Institution of Electrical Engineers
Level 7 Ltd.
Library Association
Logica UK Ltd.
Ministry of Defence
National Computer Users’ Forum
National Computing Centre Ltd.
National Health Services
National Transcommunications Ltd.
NCR Ltd.
Nine Tiles Computer Systems Ltd.
Oracle Corporation (UK) Ltd.
Philips Research Laboratories
PICON
Pioneer Digital Design Centre Ltd.
PIRA International
PSC International Ltd.
Rank Xerox Ltd.
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
Salford Software Services (3-5)
SEMA Group Systems Ltd.
Sieger Ltd.
Simpler Trade Producers Board
Thorn EMI
Unisys Ltd.
X Open Company Ltd.
Coopted members

Section 1 General

1.1 Scope

This part of ISO/IEC 2382 is intended to facilitate international communication in information technology. It presents, in two languages, terms and definitions of selected concepts relevant to the field of information technology and identifies relationships among the entries.

In order to facilitate their translation into other languages, the definitions are drafted so as to avoid, as far as possible, any peculiarity attached to a language.

This part of ISO/IEC 2382 deals with the most important concepts on which are based the further specialized sections in various technical fields, as well as the essential terms which should be used by nonspecialist users in communication with specialists in information processing.

1.2 Normative references

1.3 Principles and rules followed

Section 2 Terms and definitions

01 Fundamental terms

BS ISO/IEC 2382-1:1993

Information technology. Vocabulary - Fundamental terms

Current

Published:

15 Feb 1994