Glossary
A
Ampere. A measurement of current in an electrical conductor.
AC
Alternating current. Electricity that reverses its direction at a rate of 60 times per second (50 times per second in some countries). See DC.
Accelerator
A computer component that enhances the processing speed of a particular device, usually by taking over some of the tasks originally assigned by that device. For example, a video accelerator card will take over some of the graphic functions originally assigned to the microprocessor.
ACPI
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. An industry standard developed by Intel®, Microsoft®, and Toshiba for computer power management. The key element of the standard is that the OS controls power management. In previous standards, most of the power management tasks were run by the BIOS, with limited intervention by the OS. In ACPI, the BIOS communicates with hardware components in the computer, but the OS controls power management operations.
AGP
Accelerated graphics port. A
as that in a PCI slot. This also helps to reduce the traffic on the PCI bus.
ANSI
American National Standards Institute. An organization that publishes standards for data alphabets, codes, and signaling schemes. See ISO.
API
Application Program Interface. The interface through which an application program accesses the OS and other services.
APIC
Advanced programmable interrupt controller. Prioritizes and manages IRQs for the various devices in a PC. Without an APIC, the microprocessor must control IRQs.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The basis of character sets used in many
AT
Advanced Technology. An IBM® PC introduced in 1984 that has an Intel 80286 microprocessor,
ATA
Advanced Technology Attachment. A specification for drive interface. See IDE.
Glossar y
255
