TRN Glossary C

Chaotic Systems: Systems whose behavior cannot be predicted by mathematical models; any system whose initial condition cannot be known with absolute precision.

Chemical Computing: The experimental field of computing that aims to chemically produce molecule-scale switches and wires for computer chips. Alternatively used for applied computing for chemistry.

Compiler: Software tool that translates code generated using programming languages into the binary machine language that computers execute. Each type of computer processor has its own binary machine language.

Computer Chip: See Integrated Circuit.

Computer Learning: See Machine Learning.

Computer Vision: The way computers gather and interpret visual information about the physical world, usually accomplished with digital cameras and pattern recognition software.

Cryptography: Using mathematically generated, highly complicated algorithms to scramble information in order to keep it secret. Information that has been scrambled using cryptography is "encrypted." Ideally, encrypted data can only be read by people who possess the code or "key" that unscrambles or "decrypts" the data. However for weaker encryption algorithms, like those used in common software programs, computers can be used to try every possible number until the key is found. Stronger encryption algorithms, like the U.S. government's 56-bit Data Encryption Standard (DES), can only be broken or "cracked" by supercomputers. Encryption algorithms that use 128-bit keys have yet to be broken.