expansion-card connector — A connector on the system board or riser board for plugging in an expansion card.

F — Fahrenheit.

FAT — File allocation table. The file system structure used by MS-DOS to organize and keep track of file storage. The Microsoft® Windows® operating systems can optionally use a FAT file system structure.

flash memory — A type of EEPROM chip that can be reprogrammed from a utility on diskette while still installed in a system; most EEPROM chips can only be rewritten with special programming equipment.

format — To prepare a hard drive or diskette for storing files. An unconditional format deletes all data stored on the disk.

FSB — Front-side bus. The FSB is the data path and physical interface between the processor and the main memory (RAM).

ft — Feet.

FTP — File transfer protocol.

g — Gram(s).

G — Gravities.

Gb — Gigabit(s); 1024 megabits or 1,073,741,824 bits.

GB — Gigabyte(s); 1024 megabytes or 1,073,741,824 bytes. However, when referring to hard-drive capacity, the term is usually rounded to 1,000,000,000 bytes.

graphics mode — A video mode that can be defined as x horizontal by y vertical pixels by z colors.

group — As it relates to DMI, a group is a data structure that defines common information, or attributes, about a manageable component.

guarding — A type of data redundancy in which a set of physical drives stores data and an additional drive stores parity data. See also mirroring, striping, and RAID.

h — Hexadecimal. A base-16 numbering system, often used in programming to identify addresses in the system’s RAM and I/O memory addresses for devices. In text, hexadecimal numbers are often followed by h.

headless system — A system or device that functions without having a keyboard, mouse, or monitor attached. Normally, headless systems are managed over a network using an Internet browser.

host adapter — A host adapter implements communication between the system’s bus and the controller for a peripheral device. (Hard-drive controller subsystems include integrated host adapter circuitry.) To add a SCSI expansion bus to your system, you must install or connect the appropriate host adapter.

Hz — Hertz.

I/O — Input/output. A keyboard is an input device, and a monitor is an output device. In general, I/O activity can be differentiated from computational activity.

ID — Identification.

IDE — Integrated drive electronics. A standard interface between the system board and storage devices.

integrated mirroring — Provides simultaneous physical mirroring of two drives. Integrated mirroring functionality is provided by the system’s hardware. See also mirroring.

internal processor cache — An instruction and data cache built into the processor.

IP — Internet Protocol.

IPX — Internet package exchange.

IRQ — Interrupt request. A signal that data is about to be sent to or received by a peripheral device travels by an IRQ line to the processor. Each peripheral connection must be assigned an IRQ number. Two devices can share the same IRQ assignment, but you cannot operate both devices simultaneously.

jumper — Small blocks on a circuit board with two or more pins emerging from them. Plastic plugs containing a wire fit down over the pins. The wire connects the pins and creates a circuit, providing a simple and reversible method of changing the circuitry in a board.

K — Kilo-; 1000.

Kb — Kilobit(s); 1024 bits.

KB — Kilobyte(s); 1024 bytes.

Kbps — Kilobit(s) per second.

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