P()

fn. Dijkstra s name for the semaphore acquisition primitive. P is short for proberen, which is the Dutch word for test.

p-p

(pee-to-pee) abbr. See peak-to-peak.

package

1. n. The plastic, metal, or ceramic container that encloses an IC. Packages protect the chip and bring the leads from the outside world to the chip.

2. n. In Java, a collection of classes.

Example: java.awt.*, java.io.*, and java.math.* are packages in the standard class libraries.

3. n. In UML, a model element that contains other model elements.

A variety of chip packages.

packet

n. The unit of data transfer on a network. For example, each TCP/IP packet on the Internet contains information coming from a sending node and destined for one or more receiving nodes. There is generally some upper limit, such as the MTU, on the size of a packet.

pad

n. A copper-ringed hole in a printed circuit board into which one of the pins of an IC will be inserted. For surface mount components, the pad consists only of a contact point.

page fault

n. An exception that s taken when a virtual memory page is off on disk, and not in main memory. The operating system captures the fault and reads the appropriate page in from disk. See also virtual memory.

pair programming

n. One of the 12 practices of eXtreme Programming that has two programmers working together at a single workstation. Pair programming s promise is that two sets of eyes...