A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

macro	A series of commands and procedures that are carried out in response to a single command or keystroke, or identified by a single name.
mass storage	Any device used to store large amounts of data. Usually refers to hard disks and tape backup units.
MB	Megabyte. 220 or 1,048,576 bytes. Informally, a million bytes. A unit of memory and data storage size. Two Scientific American magazines total about a megabyte.
Megahertz (MHz)	Measurement of speed of a device.
memory chip	A chip that stores data
menu	A list of choices on a computer screen. Usually the user picks a choice by typing the desired item number or by highlighting the desired item and pressing Enter.
MFLOPS	(megaflops) Million Floating Point Operations Per Second. Used to measure of the speed of a CPU or computer.
MHz	MegaHertz. Millions of cycles per second. The unit of frequency used to measure the clock rate microprocessors.
microprocessor	The main logic chip in a microcomputer. The CPU.
Microprocessor	The basic arithmetic, logic and control elements required for processing (generally contained on one integrated circuit chip). Microprocessors are widely used as the control devices for microcomputers, household appliances, business machines, calculating devices, toys, video game machines and thousands of other devices.
MIPS	(mips) Million Instructions Per Second. A measure of processor speed.
MMX	Multimedia Extensions. An enhancement in processor architecture that enhanced multimedia and communications. This technology processes multiple data elements in parallel, speeding up such things as image processing, motion video, speech synthesis, telephony, and 3D graphics.
modem	Short for modulator-demodulator. A device that enables a computer to communicate with other computers over telephone lines.
monitor	The part of a computer that looks like a TV. The video display of a computer.
Motherboard	An interconnecting assembly into which printed circuit cards, boards or modules are connected. The main circuit board of a personal computer. Also called a system board.
mouse	A hand-held device for moving the cursor or pointer on the screen. Movements of the mouse produce analogous movements of the pointer.
multimedia	Combining static media (such as text and pictures) with dynamic media (such as sound, video, and animation) on the same system.
multi-tasking	The ability of a computer, operating system, or application to perform more than one task or operation at the same time. For example, a multitasking operating system might let you simultaneously use your computer system to download information from a remote computer with a modem, print out a word processing file, and sort a data base.