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Acronyms and abbreviated terms#

This is the canonical expansion key for the Verifier Standard (VSTD) repository. Every independently readable document and source file must still expand each term at its first reader-facing use; this page is a reference, not a substitute for local clarity. Frozen wire identifiers, code symbols, filenames, and third-party names remain byte-for-byte unchanged.

TRUST, ROT, and RUST are deliberately absent from the expansion table because they are formal semantic names, not acronyms. They mean mechanism-earned forward artifact support, typed time-indexed degradation of current admissibility, and inverse-TRUST diagnostic traversal, respectively. RUST is not the Rust programming language. Their normative definitions are in standard/LADDER.md.

Term	Expansion used in this repository	Scope note
`AI`	artificial intelligence	General field.
`AMD`	Advanced Micro Devices	Vendor name.
`API`	application programming interface	Software interface.
`ASCII`	American Standard Code for Information Interchange	Text encoding.
`ASIC`	application-specific integrated circuit	Purpose-built processor class.
`AST`	abstract syntax tree	Parsed program structure.
`AWS`	Amazon Web Services	Cloud provider.
`CBOR`	Concise Binary Object Representation	Binary data format.
`CCF`	Confidential Consortium Framework	Ledger framework used by one SCITT profile.
`CD`	continuous delivery or deployment	The delivery/deployment half of CI/CD workflow shorthand.
`CI`	continuous integration	Automated repository checks.
`CLI`	command-line interface	Terminal-facing program surface.
`CNF`	conjunctive normal form	Boolean-formula representation.
`COSE`	CBOR Object Signing and Encryption	Signed-message and receipt envelope family.
`CPU`	central processing unit	Processor class.
`CRLF`	carriage return and line feed	Two-character line ending.
`CT`	Certificate Transparency	Public certificate-log system.
`CUDA`	Compute Unified Device Architecture	NVIDIA parallel-computing platform.
`CVE`	Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures	Public vulnerability identifier system.
`CWT`	CBOR Web Token	Claim set used in COSE messages.
`DAG`	directed acyclic graph	Graph with directed edges and no directed cycle.
`DICE`	Device Identifier Composition Engine	Device-attestation architecture.
`DMTF`	DMTF standards organization	Current organizational name; do not invent a modern expansion.
`DOE`	design of experiments	Experimental-design method.
`DOI`	digital object identifier	Publication identifier.
`DPE`	DICE Protection Environment	DICE execution and key-derivation component.
`DPLL`	Davis-Putnam-Logemann-Loveland	Boolean satisfiability algorithm.
`DRAT`	deletion resolution asymmetric tautology	Clausal refutation format.
`EAT`	Entity Attestation Token	Attestation claim format.
`ECN`	Engineering Change Notice	Standards-change document.
`ELF`	Executable and Linkable Format	Binary executable format.
`EU`	European Union	Political and regulatory body.
`FLOP`	floating-point operation	Compute-work unit.
`FRAT`	flexible SAT proof format	Solver-to-elaborator proof format; use the proper format name rather than inventing a letter-by-letter expansion.
`FSM`	finite-state machine	State-transition model.
`GB`	gigabyte	Storage or memory capacity unit.
`GDC`	grounded decision certificate	VSTD-4 certificate family.
`GPG`	GNU Privacy Guard	Signature tool.
`GPU`	graphics processing unit	Accelerator class.
`GRAT`	GRAT proof format	Proper name of a hinted SAT proof format; no documented letter-by-letter expansion is asserted here.
`HMAC`	hash-based message authentication code	Keyed authentication construction.
`HTML`	Hypertext Markup Language	Web-page format.
`HTTP`	Hypertext Transfer Protocol	Web transfer protocol.
`HTTPS`	Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure	HTTP protected by transport security.
`ID`	identifier	Stable name or coordinate.
`IDE`	integrated development environment	Programming application.
`IETF`	Internet Engineering Task Force	Internet standards organization.
`IR`	intermediate representation	Program or proof representation.
`ISO`	International Organization for Standardization	Standards organization.
`JSON`	JavaScript Object Notation	Structured text format.
`JSONL`	JSON Lines	One-JSON-value-per-line format.
`LF`	line feed	Single-character line ending.
`LRAT`	linear resolution asymmetric tautology	Hint-carrying clausal refutation format.
`MIG`	multi-instance GPU	NVIDIA accelerator-partitioning feature.
`ML`	machine learning	General field.
`NIST`	National Institute of Standards and Technology	United States standards agency.
`NP`	nondeterministic polynomial time	Computational-complexity class.
`NPU`	neural processing unit	Machine-learning accelerator class.
`NVML`	NVIDIA Management Library	NVIDIA device-management interface.
`OS`	operating system	Host software environment.
`PCC`	proof-carrying code	Producer-supplied proof checked by a consumer.
`PCI`	Peripheral Component Interconnect	Hardware interconnect family.
`PCI-SIG`	PCI Special Interest Group	PCI standards consortium.
`POPL`	Principles of Programming Languages	Research conference.
`PROV`	World Wide Web Consortium provenance vocabulary	W3C provenance standard family.
`PROV-DM`	PROV data model	W3C provenance data model.
`PS`	Protect the Software	NIST SSDF practice group.
`RAM`	random-access memory	Working memory.
`RAT`	resolution asymmetric tautology	Clausal redundancy property.
`RATS`	Remote Attestation Procedures	IETF attestation architecture.
`RFC`	Request for Comments	IETF publication series.
`RIM`	Reference Integrity Manifest	Trusted reference-measurement set.
`RISC`	reduced instruction set computer	Processor architecture family.
`RISC0`	RISC Zero	Product-name prefix used by RISC Zero tooling.
`RNG`	random number generator	Entropy or pseudorandomness source.
`RUP`	reverse unit propagation	Clausal proof-checking rule.
`SAT`	Boolean satisfiability problem	Decision problem and solver class.
`SCITT`	Supply Chain Integrity, Transparency, and Trust	IETF architecture and working group.
`SCRAPI`	SCITT Reference APIs	SCITT registration and receipt-resolution interface draft.
`SDK`	software development kit	Developer-facing library and tools.
`SHA-256`	Secure Hash Algorithm 256-bit	Cryptographic digest algorithm.
`SLSA`	Supply-chain Levels for Software Artifacts	Software supply-chain framework.
`SMI`	system management interface	Vendor device-management interface.
`SMT`	satisfiability modulo theories	Decision-procedure family.
`SMT-LIB`	SMT library standard	Common language and benchmark format for SMT solvers.
`SPDM`	Security Protocol and Data Model	Device authentication and measurement protocol.
`SPDX`	Software Package Data Exchange	Software-package metadata standard.
`SR-IOV`	single-root input/output virtualization	Hardware virtualization interface.
`SSDF`	Secure Software Development Framework	NIST software-development framework.
`SSH`	Secure Shell	Remote command and transport protocol.
`STARK`	scalable transparent argument of knowledge	Cryptographic proof-system family.
`TCB`	trusted computing base	Components on which a result depends.
`TDISP`	Trusted Device Interface Security Protocol	Device-interface isolation protocol.
`TPU`	tensor processing unit	Machine-learning accelerator class.
`TS`	Transparency Service	SCITT registration and receipt service.
`TUF`	The Update Framework	Software-update security framework.
`UNSAT`	unsatisfiable	Solver result meaning no satisfying assignment exists.
`URI`	uniform resource identifier	Resource name or locator.
`URL`	uniform resource locator	Network resource locator.
`UTC`	Coordinated Universal Time	Time standard.
`UTF-8`	Unicode Transformation Format, 8-bit	Text encoding.
`VDP`	verifiable data structure proof	Proof format for a VDS.
`VDS`	verifiable data structure	Append-only or otherwise provable data structure.
`VM`	virtual machine	Software-defined machine environment.
`VSTD`	Verifier Standard	Repository standard and reference implementation.
`W3C`	World Wide Web Consortium	Web standards organization.
`WG`	working group	Standards-development group.
`WSL2`	Windows Subsystem for Linux 2	Windows-hosted Linux environment.
`YAML`	YAML Ain't Markup Language	Structured data format.
`ZI`	zero-identity	Historical study coordinate; not a trust or conformance class.
`ZIP`	ZIP archive format	Compressed archive format; treat ZIP as the format's proper name.
`ZIZK`	zero-identity/zero-knowledge	Governing VSTD artifact-first architecture; particular privacy and propagation mechanisms have their own maturity.
`ZK`	zero-knowledge	Cryptographic or semantic privacy property, only when explicitly supported.
`zkVM`	zero-knowledge virtual machine	Virtual machine that emits a zero-knowledge proof.