MS-DOS uses a segmented address space, in which a location must be accessed with a segment number and an offset number. See also segmentation. Compare segmented address space. A scanner with a flat transparent surface that holds the image to be scanned, generally a book or other paper document. A scan head below the surface moves across the image.
Some flatbed scanners can also reproduce transparent media, such as slides.
Compare drum scanner, handheld scanner, sheet-fed scanner. A file consisting of records of a single record type in which there is no embedded structure information that governs relationships between records. A database that takes the form of a table, where only one table can be used for each database. A flat-file database can only work with one file at a time. Compare relational database.