THE REFERENCE DESK / GLOSSARY
Clearer words.
Better questions.
Twenty-four working definitions for the AI economy. Each ends with a question that puts the term to use.
24 terms
- Accelerator
Specialized hardware used to speed up selected computing workloads, including AI operations.
Ask: Does this hardware fit the actual workload?
Explore infrastructure ↗- API
An interface through which one software system requests a service from another.
Ask: What permissions, limits and costs apply to each request?
Explore practical ai ↗- Billable utilization
The share of a defined capacity unit that produces billable delivery under a stated contract.
Ask: What exactly counts as billable?
Explore economics ↗- CAPEX
Capital expenditure: spending on assets expected to support operations over time.
Ask: What must be paid before the service can generate cash?
Explore economics ↗- Cloud compute
Access to computing resources supplied as a service.
Ask: Which resources are available under which commitments?
Explore infrastructure ↗- Colocation
A service providing space and supporting facility infrastructure for customer IT equipment.
Ask: Which power, cooling and connectivity services are included?
Explore infrastructure ↗- Connection capacity
Electrical capacity at a specified grid or supply connection boundary.
Ask: Is it proposed, contracted or available now?
Explore energy ↗- Contribution
Revenue less a specified set of delivery costs. Its meaning depends on the stated cost boundary.
Ask: Which costs remain outside this measure?
Explore economics ↗- Data center
A facility that houses computing equipment and the systems needed to support its operation.
Ask: What workload can this particular facility support?
Explore infrastructure ↗- Electrical load factor
Average power draw divided by a specified capacity over a stated period.
Ask: What capacity and time period form the denominator?
Explore energy ↗- Evaluation set
A collection of tasks used to assess a system against defined criteria.
Ask: Does it represent the cases that matter in operation?
Explore practical ai ↗- GPU
Graphics processing unit: a processor used for parallel computation, including many AI workloads.
Ask: Which model, memory and system configuration are required?
Explore infrastructure ↗- Inference
Running a trained model to generate an output from an input.
Ask: What quality, response time and cost does this task require?
Explore practical ai ↗- IT capacity
A stated electrical capacity allocation or design boundary for IT equipment.
Ask: Is the figure an installed, available or proposed capacity?
Explore energy ↗- kW and kWh
A kilowatt measures power; a kilowatt-hour measures energy. One kW used for one hour is one kWh.
Ask: Are we discussing instantaneous demand or consumption over time?
Explore energy ↗- Latency
The time between a request and the relevant response, measured at a specified boundary.
Ask: Which part of the user experience is included?
Explore practical ai ↗- MW
A megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts. It is a unit of power.
Ask: Does this mean grid supply, facility demand or IT capacity?
Explore energy ↗- OPEX
Operating expenditure: costs associated with running a business or service.
Ask: Which costs vary with use and which remain committed?
Explore economics ↗- PUE
Power Usage Effectiveness: total data-center energy divided by IT equipment energy.
Ask: What boundary, period and operating conditions were used?
Explore energy ↗- RAG
Retrieval-augmented generation: a workflow that retrieves information to provide context for model generation.
Ask: Does the system retrieve the right material and use it faithfully?
Explore practical ai ↗- Sovereignty
A context-dependent objective concerning control, access or autonomy across parts of an AI system.
Ask: Which layer and which kind of control are meant?
Explore geopolitics ↗- Token
A unit into which a model system divides text or other input or output representations.
Ask: How does token usage translate into accepted-task cost?
Explore practical ai ↗- Training
The process of adjusting model parameters using data and an optimization procedure.
Ask: Which capability is needed, and is new training necessary?
Explore infrastructure ↗- Unit economics
Revenue and relevant costs expressed per defined commercial unit.
Ask: Is the unit a useful, accepted and paid-for outcome?
Explore economics ↗
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Working editorial definitions, rather than a technical standard or a legal glossary. For the PUE source, see The Green Grid.