G G See giga. G.707/709 ITU-TSS standard for broadband ISDN and Sonet. G.711 CCITT recommendation detailing a 64K bps 7 kilohertz bandwidth audio coding algorithm. G.711 ITU-TSS recommendation detailing a 64K bps 7 kilohertz bandwidth audio coding algorithm. G.722 CCITT recommendation detailing a 32K bps 3.4 kilohertz bandwidth audio coding algorithm. G.722 ITU-TSS recommendation detailing a 32K bps 3. G.732 ITU-TSS standard for the characteristics of PCM multiplexer equipment operating at 2.048M bps. G.733 ITU-TSS standard for the characteristics of PCM multiplexer equipment operating at 1.544M bps. G.761 ITU-TSS standard for the characteristics of 60 channel transcoder equipment. G.821 ITU-TSS standard for ISDN error performance. GaAs FETs Gallium Arsenide Field Effect Transistors. gain A measure of the relative signal strength of an output signal to an input signal expressed as a ratio. GAM Graphic Access Method (IBM). gate assignments In ACD terminology, gates are groups of telephone answerers (attendants or operators). Gate assignments determine which attendants manage which gates (i.e., for service or sales). Also called splits or functional splits. gateway The access point (port) in a network through which incoming and outgoing signals from and to other networks are converted from one form to another in terms of speed, protocols, and interchange codes for interconnecting dissimilar networks. gateway server Station on the LAN that makes the connection to the host available to one or more network users. See also bridge and link. GB Gigabyte (billion bytes). GCOS General Comprehensive Operating Supervisor (Bull HN). GCS General Communications Subsystem (Unisys). GDDM Graphical Data Display Manager (IBM). geographic reuse Frees and re-allocates channels as re-users travel across cell sites, making channels available for other users and allowing channels to be accessed by more users. geostationary satellite A stationary satellite having the earth as its parent body. The satellite, not really standing still, orbits around the earth so that it takes almost 24 hours for a complete revolution and seems to remain 35,780 Km vertically above the same point on the earth's surface. geosynchronous orbit The orbit of a satellite in which the speed and path are precisely timed to position it over a fixed location within a narrow equatorial band of the planet around which it revolves (i.e., synchronized to the planet's geometry). gesture recognition An OCR's ability to read check marks and certain other symbols. Better known as "mark sense." GFLOPS Billion (giga) floating-point operations per second. GHz See gigahertz. GIF See graphical interchange format. giga (G) A prefix for one billion times a specific unit. gigabyte One billion bytes. gigahertz One billion cycles per second. GIGO Garbage In/Garbage Out (DP colloquialism). GIOP General-purpose Input/Output Processor. GIRLS Generalized Information Retrieval Language and System (Pick). GKS Graphical Kernel System; ANSI and ISO accepted graphicsstandard for developing and porting graphics applications. glare Glare occurs when both ends of a telephone line or trunk are seized at the same time for different purposes or by different users. glass terminal A keyboard and screen that carrys data generated by the user directly to a computer or network without storing or acting upon the data, and also returns data from the computer to the user unchanged. GMAP General Macro Assembly Program (Bull HN). GML Generalized Mark-up Language tag. GNMP Government Network Management Profile. gopher An Internet communications protocol that allows access to data stored on gopher servers across the Internet. GOSIP Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile; program and technical specifications that prescribe the OSI protocol profile that system vendors must support. grab To capture a video image or frame from a video or graphics source. grade of service The probability of a call being blocked by busy trunks, expressed as a decimal fraction, and usually meaning the busy-hour probability. graphical interchange format A commonly used graphics file format for image files on the internet. Graphics Ability of a terminal to display and manipulate individual dots (pixels) to form graphic images. The graphics resolution of a terminal is often expressed as the number of points that can be plotted horizontally and vertically (e.g., 640 X 480 dots or pixels). graphics based The display of text and pictures as graphics images; typically bitmapped images. graphics coprocessor A programmable chip that speeds video performance by carrying out graphics processing independently of the computer's CPU. Among the coprocessor's common abilities are drawing graphics primitives and converting vectors to bitmaps. graphics overlay To combine computer-generated text or graphics and place "on top" of live video. gray scale A series of shades from black to white. Greenwich mean time (GMT) Worldwide reference time. GMT is five hours ahead of New York (EST) and nine hours behind Tokyo. GRO Graphics Reporting Option. ground To connect equipment so that energy is eventually released in the earth, thus discharging potentially harmful electric current that might cause damage to electrical and electronic circuits. ground start A signaling method given to a central office when one station detects that a circuit is grounded at the other end indicating an off-hook condition. ground station See earth station. group 12 circuits processed as a unit in a carrier system. group address See address, group. Group I ITU-TSS standard for analog facsimile devices that transmit or receive a page in 4 to 6 minutes. Group II ITU-TSS standard for analog devices that typically operate at 3-minute speeds and offer some degree of data compression. Group III ITU-TSS standard for digital facsimile devices operating at speeds of one minute or less. Group IV ITU-TSS standard for digital devices with operating speeds of five seconds or less. These units interface with public data networks through packet-switching nodes. groupware Network-oriented, production/management software designed to expedite office automation which typically integrates suchfeatures as electronic mail, scheduling, task and appointment reminders, document sharing, project tracking, maintenance of group calendars, and shared to-do lists. groupware Software that automates a single task among multiple workers. GRTS Remote Terminal Supervisor (Bull HN). guard band The portions of two adjacent frequency bands that remain unused and provide a mutual interference safety margin. GUARDIAN Operating system (Tandem). GUI Graphical User Interface. An operating system or environment that displays options on the screen as picture symbols or, icons. Invented in the 1970s at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.