Dell NM176 owner manual 165, Amperes AC Alternating current

Glossary

This section defines or identifies technical terms, abbreviations, and acronyms used in your system documents.

A — Ampere(s).

AC — Alternating current.

ACPI — Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. A standard interface for enabling the operating system to direct configuration and power management.

ambient temperature — The temperature of the area or room where the system is located.

ANSI — American National Standards Institute. The primary organization for developing technology standards in the U.S.

application — Software designed to help you perform a specific task or series of tasks. Applications run from the operating system.

ASCII — American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

asset tag — An individual code assigned to a system, usually by an administrator, for security or tracking purposes.

backup — A copy of a program or data file. As a precaution, back up your system’s hard drive on a regular basis. Before making a change to the configuration of your system, back up important start-up files from your operating system.

backup battery — A battery that maintains system configuration, date, and time information in a special section of memory when the system is turned off.

beep code — A diagnostic message in the form of a pattern of beeps from your system’s speaker. For example, one beep, followed by a second beep, and then a burst of three beeps is beep code 1-1-3.

BIOS — Basic input/output system. Your system’s BIOS contains programs stored on a flash memory chip. The BIOS controls the following:

•Communications between the processor and peripheral devices

•Miscellaneous functions, such as system messages

bit — The smallest unit of information interpreted by your system.

blade — A module that contains a processor, memory, and a hard drive. The modules are mounted into a chassis that includes power supplies and fans.

Glossary

165