BECKE, Axel Dieter (<i>born</i> 1953), Killam Professor of Computational Science, Dalhousie University, since 2006
in Who's Who
P ublished online November 2015 .
Reference Entry. Subjects: History of Science and Technology; Chemistry; History of Engineering and Technology; Computing; Social and Cultural History; Education; Organization and Management of Education. 101 words.
cycle
Overview page. Subjects: Chemistry — Computing.
Used for time: for example, ‘I could not find enough cycles today to finish my posting.’ It is derived from the cycle that represents the heartbeat of computer.
decoding
Overview page. Subjects: Computing — Chemistry.
The process of reconverting a coded message to the message from which it was encoded. See code.
exhaustive search
Overview page. Subjects: Chemistry — Computing.
A mechanical search algorithm that systematically examines all the nodes in a search tree, an example being a breadth-first search. Although usually very simple to program and requiring no...
flip-flop
Overview page. Subjects: Computing — Chemistry.
An electronic circuit that has two stable states. It is switched from one stable state to the other by means of a triggering pulse. They are extensively used as logic circuits in computers.
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index
Overview page. Subjects: Computing — Chemistry.
A list of values of some particular data item contained in a record, enabling it to be retrieved more rapidly than by simple serial search. For example, a subscript indexes a particular...
light pen
Overview page. Subjects: Computing — Chemistry.
An obsolete penlike input device that was used with a cathode-ray tube display to point at items on the screen or to draw new items or modify existing ones. The light pen had a photosensor...
Linux
Overview page. Subjects: Chemistry — Computing.
An operating system based on UNIX and written originally by Linus Torvalds. The system is freely available and the source code is open. Linux has been developed by a large number of...
markup language
Overview page. Subjects: Computing — Chemistry.
A notation for defining the structure and formatting of a document by using ordinary characters embedded in the text. This system of tags identifies the logical components of the document...
normalize
Overview page. Subjects: Chemistry — Computing.
