LaCie 1.0 user manual LaCie Safe mobile hard drive Glossary User’s Manual

LaCie SAFE mobile hard drive	Glossary
User’s Manual	page 50

RAM (Random Access Memory) – Generally referred to as a computer’s “memory.” An integrated circuit memory chip that allows information to be stored and retrieved by a microprocessor or controller. The information can be stored or accessed in any order, and all storage locations are equally accessible.

Seek Time – The amount of time (in thousandths of a second, or milliseconds) that it takes a hard drive’s read/write head to move to a specific location on the disk. Average seek, then, is the average of a large number of random samplings all over the disk. Seek time is CPU independent, meaning that seek time is the same for a disk drive, whether it is attached to a computer or not.

Sensor – A device, such as a photoelectric cell, that receives and responds to a signal or stimulus.

Software – In a nutshell, software is a set of instructions for the computer. A set of instructions to perform a particular task is called a program. There are two main types of software: system software (an operating system such as Mac OS or Windows) which controls the operation of the computer and application software (programs such as Word or Excel) which enable users to perform tasks such as word processing, spreadsheet creation, graphics, etc.

Storage – In computers, any equipment in which information may be kept. PCs generally use disk units and other external storage media (diskettes, CD-ROMs, magnetic disks, etc.) for permanent storage of information.

Striping – Spreading data evenly over multiple disk drives to enhance performance. Data striping can be performed on a bit, byte or block basis for optimum application performance.

Transfer Rate – The rate at which the drive sends and receives data from the controller. Transfer rates for reading data from the disk drive may not be the same as the transfer rate for writing data to the disk drive. Transfer rates are CPU dependent, meaning that regardless of how great a transfer rate your drive is capable of, the actual transfer rate can only be as fast as the slowest of your hard drive and computer.

USB (Universal Serial Bus) – An external peripheral interface standard used for communication between a computer and external peripherals over an inexpensive cable.

Utility – Software designed to perform maintenance tasks on the system or its components. Examples include backup programs, programs to retrieve files and data on disk, programs for preparing (or formatting) a disk or and resource editors.

Volume – A desktop mountable storage area, may be a partition of a hard drive, a removable disk or a cartridge. Typically measured in Megabytes or Gigabytes.