Quad-speed drive

CD-ROM drive that spins the disc at four times the speed of a single-speed drive, providing higher data throughput of 600Kbps and shorter seek times, which means you go to where you want more quickly. Quad-speed drives are now standard on most new PCs. In high-performance PCs they have been superseded by six-speed drives.

Quantize

1) To convert an analogue signal into a numerical representation.

2) To process a MIDI file and align all the notes to a regular beat, removing any timing errors.

Query window

1) Window that appears when an error has occurred, asking the user what action you like to take.

2) Window that is displayed with fields you can fill in to search a database.

Qwerty keyboard

English-language keyboard layout for a typewriter or computer, in which the top line of letters are QWERTY. The French use a different layout with the top line reading AZERTY.