C- A programming language available for most modern systems. Due to the ease of portability, it has established itself as the standard that many software houses program in. However, it is not as optimised as software programmed in assembler.

C++- An extension on the "C" language mentioned above. It includes a greater number of features.

 CACHE MEMORY- An area of memory used to store information to increase the system speed.

 CAD- computer Aided Design. A process of storing images mathematically, as used in technical drawing.

 CBM- Commodore Business Machines

 CDI- A computer system developed by Sony, Philips and Matsushita to bridge the gap between computer and video.

CD-ROM-Compact Disc read Only Memory. This means that it is on CD and it cannot be written to. One CD can store the equivalent of 640 Amiga 880K disks.

CDTV- Stands for Commodore Dynamic Total Vision. It was basically an A500 with CD-ROM drive instead of a disk drive and an infrared controller.

CENTRAL PROCESSOR- The CPU on an Amiga is one of the 680x0 family. The A500 has a 68000 processor, whilst PCs use the 80x86 family and the Pentium.

CGA- Colour Graphics Adapter. An old PC graphics card standard capable of displaying 4 colours out of a possible 8 in up to 320x200 pixels.

CHIP RAM- This is also known as graphics memory as it is used to display whatever is on the screen, such as an image. It is memory allocated to the custom chips. At present, it is limited to 2mb as seen in the A1200 and A4000.

CHROMA KEY- With one of these you can replace a colour on a TV/video with a computer image, such as a weather map.

CHRP - The Common Hardware Reference Platform is a standard agreed by Apple, IBM, and Motorola to provide compatibility across all PowerPC systems.  The main features of CHRP are its basis on the PowerPC architecture and the hardware bus independence.In theory, all CHRP systems should be able to run MacOS, OS/2-PPC, Windows NT, AIX, Solaris, Novell Netware, and possibly other operating systems. This means that, like the Intel platform, operating systems designed by one company, should be able to run on all PowerPC based systems.

CHUNKY PIXEL- A graphics mode where all of the information relating to a particular area, such as a colour are stored together. This allows them to be calculated and accessed faster. Used by the PC, Mac, and Amigas with graphic cards. Examples of chunky graphics are 3D games such as Quake.

CISC- Complex Instruction Set Chips. As used by the Motorola 680x0 and Intel 80x86 family.

CLI- Command Line Interface. A program that allows you to type in commands for the system to process.

CLIPBOARD- A number of files stored in RAM or on the hard drive that contains information that is being transferred between programs.

COLD REBOOT- The process of turning of the Amiga by the switch and then switching it on again.

COMMAND- An instruction to tell the Amiga to do something. These can be entered into the AmigaShell (CLI). E.g. LIST DF0:

COMPOSITE VIDEO- The combination of black and white video and colour into one signal.

COMPUGRAPHIC- One of the most popular formats for scaleable fonts on the Amiga, used in programs such as WordWorth.

COMMAND HISTORY- Allows the user to display text previously typed in the Shell, by pressing the ARROW UP key.

COMMODITIES- A standard utility framework that allows the programmer to produce system hacks, known as "Commodities" that alter the behaviour and look of the AmigaOS.

COMPILER- A program that translates code into an executable program.

CONVENTIONAL MEMORY- Even Windows 95 is held back by the limitations of conventional memory. It is a left over from the 8088/80286 processors to retain compatibility. Like chip ram, it is stuck at a certain amount, in this case 640K.

COPPER- A coprocessor that handles the Amiga display. This is controlled by the "Copper List" that includes information on the screens open.

 COPROCESSOR- A separate processor that performs operations on the display, freeing the CPU. Its speciality is raster synchronisation. Also known as the copper.

CPS- Characters Per Second. A measurement of the speed of data output.

CPU- Central Processing Unit. The "brain" of the computer.

CRASH- An unrecoverable software failure. Also an old Spectrum magazine.

CROSSDOS- The last remains of a software emulator for the Amiga called Cross-PC. It enables you to read and write to disks formatted on other machines, such as the PC, MAC, and ST. More information

CUSTOM CHIPS- These are the Amiga's coprocessors that handled various sections of the machine, such as sound. These are called Agnus, Denise, Paula, and Gary.

CYCLE GADGET- A gadget that allows the user to choose between certain options.