7. APPENDIX

Device Driver

A device driver is a special set of instructions that allows the computer’s operating system to communicate with devices such as VGA, audio, printer, or modem.

DOS (Disk Operating System)

DOS is the foundation on which all other programs and software applications oper- ate, including Windows. DOS is responsible for allocating system resources such as memory, CPU time, disk space, and access to peripheral devices. For this reason, DOS constitutes the basic interface between you and your computer.

Flash ROM

The flash ROM is designed to be a resident program and can be updated by a specific programming method. Normally, the flash ROM is used for system BIOS which initiates hardware devices and sets up necessary parameters for the OS. Since the contents of flash ROM can be modified, users are able to update the BIOS by themselves.

IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics)

IDE devices integrate the drive control circuitry directly on the drive itself, eliminating the need for a separate adapter card (in the case for SCSI devices). UltraDMA/ 33 IDE devices can achieve up to 33MB/Sec transfer.

LPT Port (Line Printer Port)

Logical device name reserved by DOS for the computer parallel ports. Each LPT port is configured to use a different IRQ and address assignment.

MMX

A set of 57 new instructions based on a technique called Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD), which is built into the new Intel Pentium PP/MT (P55C) and Pentium

II(Klamath) CPU as well as other x86-compatible microprocessors. The MMX in- structions are designed to accelerate multimedia and communications applications, such as 3D video, 3D sound, video conference.

OnNow

The OnNow design initiative is a comprehensive, system-wide approach to system and device power control. OnNow is a term for PC that is always ON but appears OFF and responds immediately to user or other requests. The OnNow design initiative involves changes that will occur in the Microsoft Windows operating system, device drivers, hardware, and applications, and also relies on the changes defined in the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) specification.

PC100

SDRAM is Intel's goal is to ensure that memory subsystems continue to support evolving platform requirements and to assure that memory does not become a bottleneck to system performance. It is especially important to ensure that the PC memory roadmap evolves together with the performance roadmaps for the processors, I/O and graphics.

PCI Bus (Peripheral Component Interconnect Local Bus)

PCI bus is a specification that defines a 32-bit data bus interface. PCI is a standard widely used by expansion card manufacturers.

PCI Bus Master

The PCI Bus Master can perform data transfer without local CPU help and further- more, the CPU can be treated as one of the Bus Masters. PCI 2.1 supports concurrent PCI operation to allow the local CPU and bus master to work simultaneously.

7 . APPENDIX

Glossary

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