HFC Network

Hybrid fiber-coax network. HFC networks combine both optical-fiber and coaxial cable lines. Optical fiber runs from the cable head end to neighborhoods of 500 to 2,000 subscribers. Coaxial cable runs from the optical-fiber feeders to each subscriber. Hybrid networks provide many of fiber's reliability and bandwidth benefits at a lower cost than a pure fiber network. As of late 1996, about 7 percent of cable systems had been upgraded to HFC.

MMX

Multimedia extensions were built into some x86 CPUs to provide better performance for certain operations, most notably graphics and sound. It is similar to AltiVec on the PowerPC CPUs. Like AltiVec, it requires special software for full performance benefits to be realized.

Apple

The reason this term is in the glossary is because way too many people confuse "Apple" with "Macintosh". Apple is the company that makes Macintosh computers -- not the other way around. Apple's product line includes Power Macs, PowerBooks, iMacs, iBooks, and the popular hard drive-based MP3 player, the iPod. Apple also develops a large number of software programs, such as iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, and iDVD.