Appendix A

System Disk

A system disk contains the core file of an operating system and is used to boot up the operating system.

Twisted-Pair Cable

The cable used to connect the Ethernet card to a host (generally a Hub or Switch) is called a straight- through Twisted Pair Ethernet (TPE). The end connectors are called RJ-45 connectors, which are not compatible with RJ-11 telephone connectors. If connecting two computers together without a hub in between, a crossover twisted-pair is required.

UltraDMA/66 or 100

UltraDMA/66 or 100 are new specifications to improve IDE transfer rates. Unlike traditional PIO mode, which only uses the rising edge of IDE command signal to transfer data, UltraDMA/66 or 100 uses both rising edge and falling edge.

USB (Universal Serial Bus)

A new 4-pin serial peripheral bus that allows plug and play computer peripherals such as keyboard, mouse, joystick, scanner, printer and modem/ISDN to be automatically configured when they are attached physically without having to install drivers or reboot. With USB, the traditional complex cables from back panel of your PC can be eliminated.

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