16 Dell Precisi on 610 Mini Tower Systems Us er’s Guide
oper ating syste ms in a variety of video
modes.
On some Dell computers, a video adapter
is integr ate d into the system board. Also
available are many video adapter cards
that plug into an expansion-card
connector.
Video adapters often include memory
separate from RAM on the system board.
The am ount of video memory, along with
the adapter’s video drivers, may affect the
number of colors that can be simulta-
neously displayed. Video adapters can
also include their own coprocessor for
faster graphics rendering.
A program tha t allow s graphic s-mode ap-
plication programs and operating systems
to displa y at a chosen resoluti on with the
desired number of colors. A software
package may include some “generic”
video drivers. Any additional video drivers
may need to match the video adapter in-
stalled in the computer.
Most VGA and SVGA video adapters in-
clude memory chips in addition to your
computer’s RAM. The amount of video
memory installed primarily influences the
number of colors that a program can dis-
play (with the appropriate video dr ivers
and monitor capabilities).
Video adapters normally support multiple
text and graphics display modes. Character-
based software displays in text modes that
can be defined as
x
columns by
y
rows of
characters. Graphics-based software dis-
plays in graphics modes that can be defined
as
x
horizontal by
y
vertical pixels by
z
colors.
Video resolution—800 x 600, for exam-
ple—is expressed as the number of pixels
across by the number of pixels up and
down. To d isplay a pro gram at a spe cific
graphics resolution, you must install the
appropriate video drivers and your moni-
tor must support the resolution.
A method for increasing addressable
RAM by us ing th e ha rd-disk d rive. For ex -
ample, in a computer with 16 MB of RAM
and 16 MB of virtual memory set up on
the hard-d isk drive, th e operating s ystem
would mana ge the sy ste m as thou gh it
had 32 MB of physical RAM.
A self-starting program designed to incon-
venienc e you. Virus programs ha ve been
known to corrupt the files stored on a
hard-disk drive or to replicate themselves
until a computer or network runs out of
memory.
The most common way that vi rus pro-
grams move from one comp uter to
another is via “infected” diskettes, from
which they cop y them se lv es to the
hard-disk drive. To guard against virus pro-
grams, you should do the following:
Periodically run a virus-checking util-
ity on your computer’s hard-disk
drive
Always run a virus-checking utility on
any diskettes (including commer-
cially sold software) before using
them
Abbreviation for very-large-scale
integration.
Abbreviatio n for peak-point voltage.
Abbreviation for video random-access
memory. Some video adapters use VRAM
chips (or a combination of VRAM and
DRAM) to improve video performance.
VRAM is dual-ported, allowing the video
adapt er to update th e screen an d receive
new image data at the same time.
Abbreviation for watt(s).
Abbreviation for watt-hour(s).