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

TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol). The communications protocol used by the UNIX system and the Internet. TCP checks for lost packets, puts the data from multiple packets into the correct order, and requests that missing or damaged packets be resent.

USB (Universal Serial Bus). A 4-pin serial cable bus that allows up to 127 Plug-n-Play computer peripherals (such as keyboard, mouse, joystick, scanner, printer, modem, and monitor) to share bandwidth through a host scheduled token-based protocols. This allows attaching or detaching while the host and other peripherals are in operation. Supports synchronous and asynchronous transfer types over the same set of wires up to 12Mbit/ sec. USB 2.0 provides 40 times the transfer rate compared to USB 1.0 and competes with the 1394 standard.

WAN (Wide Area Network). A geographically dispersed network formed by linking several computers or Local Area Networks (LANs) together over long distances. WANs usually use leased long-distance lines to connect systems across towns, in different cities, or in different regions of the world.

G-6

Appendix C: Glossary