We’ve compiled a full list of commonly encountered IT terminology that will help you better understand the industry and how it works. By familiarizing yourself with basic computer terms and definitions, you’ll allow yourself to understand manuals, descriptions, and everyday jargon necessary to fully grasp IT products and services.
You’ll find our tech glossary is conveniently laid out below in alphabetical order with an easy navigation interface so you can quickly reference words related to technology.
In addition to our tech terms, you can also find other resources to help you learn more about the role of technology in modern industry, including blogs, whitepapers, and case studies. Though our list of IT terms to know is expansive, if you have any further questions regarding things to know about technology, please contact us.
XML Schema Definition (XSD) is a way to describe the structure and validate the contents of an XML document. XSD defines the elements, attributes, data types, and relationships that can appear in an XML document, ensuring that it adheres to a specific format or standard. By providing a schema, XSD enables developers and systems to validate XML data integrity, facilitating data interchange, and ensuring consistency across different applications and services that process XML documents.
Xamarin is an open-source platform for building modern and performant applications for iOS, Android, and Windows with .NET. It allows developers to use a shared codebase written in C#, enabling cross-platform app development with native performance and user interfaces. Xamarin integrates with Visual Studio, providing tools and libraries to simplify the development process, reduce time-to-market, and maintain consistent functionality across different platforms.
Intel Xeon is a brand of x86 microprocessors designed, manufactured, and marketed by Intel, targeted primarily at the server, workstation, and embedded system markets. Xeon processors are known for their performance, reliability, and scalability, supporting features like multiple CPU configurations, large cache sizes, advanced virtualization, and error-correcting code memory. They are widely used in data centers, enterprise servers, and high-performance computing applications where robust processing power and stability are required.
Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. It encompasses a series of video game consoles, applications, streaming services, and an online service known as Xbox Network. While primarily a consumer entertainment product, the Xbox platform incorporates advanced computing technologies, networking capabilities, and integrates with other Microsoft services. It showcases innovations in graphics processing, cloud computing (with Xbox Cloud Gaming), and interactive media.
The X Window System, often referred to as X11 or simply X, is a windowing system for bitmap displays common on UNIX-like operating systems. It provides the basic framework for building graphical user interfaces (GUIs), including drawing and moving windows on the screen and interacting with a mouse and keyboard. X is network-transparent, allowing applications to run on one machine while displaying on another, facilitating remote graphical sessions and flexible computing environments.
XSLT is a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents or different formats such as HTML, plain text, or other markup languages. It uses XPath to navigate and match parts of an XML document and defines rules on how to handle each node. XSLT is essential for data presentation and manipulation, allowing the separation of content from presentation and enabling the reuse of XML data across different applications and platforms.
XPath is a query language used for selecting nodes from an XML document. It allows developers to navigate through elements and attributes in XML documents by specifying paths and conditions. XPath is widely used in conjunction with XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) for transforming XML documents, as well as in XML parsing, validation, and manipulation tasks. It provides a powerful and flexible way to access and analyze XML data structures.
X.509 Certificates are a standard format for public key certificates, which are used in various internet protocols, including SSL/TLS, for secure communication. An X.509 certificate binds a public key to an entity (such as a person, organization, or device) and is issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). These certificates authenticate the identity of entities and establish encrypted communication channels, playing a crucial role in internet security by enabling trust and confidentiality in digital transactions.
Xcode is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Apple Inc. for macOS. It is used for developing software for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS. Xcode provides developers with a suite of tools, including a source editor, graphical user interface editor, debugging tools, and performance analyzers. It supports programming languages like Swift and Objective-C, enabling developers to build, test, and deploy applications across Apple’s ecosystem efficiently.
X86 Architecture refers to a family of instruction set architectures based on the Intel 8086 CPU. It is the standard architecture for most personal computers, laptops, and servers. The x86 architecture supports complex instruction sets, enabling high performance and compatibility across various software applications. It has evolved over time to include 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x86-64 or x64) processing capabilities, remaining a dominant architecture in computing due to its widespread adoption and ongoing enhancements.