58 Glossary
POST
POST, short for Power-On Self-Test is a process
performed before the operating system loads when
the computer is turned on. The POST tests various
system components, such as RAM, the physical disks,
and the keyboard .
R
RAID
Acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks
(originally Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks). It
is an array of multiple independent physical disks
managed together to yield higher reliability and/or
performance exceeding that of a single physical disk.
The virtual disk appears to the operating system as a
single storage unit. I/O is expedited because several
disks can be accessed simultaneously. Redundant
RAID levels provide data protection.
ROM
Read-only memory (ROM), also known as firmware,
is an integrated circuit programmed with specific data
when it is manufactured. ROM chips are used not
only in computers, but in most other electronic items
as well. Data stored in these chips is nonvolatile i.e., it
is not lost when the power is turned off. Data stored
in these chips is either unchangeable or requires a
special operation such as flashing to change.
RPM
RPM, short for "Red Hat Package Manager" is a
package management system primarily intended for
Linux. RPM installs, updates, uninstalls, verifies and
queries software. RPM is the baseline package format
of the Linux Standard Base. Originally developed by
Red Hat for Red Hat Linux, RPM is now used by many
Linux distributions. It has also been ported to some
other operating systems such as NetWare by Novell.
S
SAS
Serial-Attached SCSI, SAS, is a serial, point-to-point,
enterprise-level device interface that leverages the
proven SCSI protocol set. The SAS interface provides
improved performance, simplified cabling, smaller
connectors, lower pin count, and lower power
requirements when compared to parallel SCSI.
SATA
Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, a physical
storage interface standard, is a serial link that provides
point-to-point connections between devices. The
thinner serial cables allow for better airflow within the
system and permit smaller chassis designs.
SCSI
SCSI stands for "Small Computer System Interface,"
a processor-independent standard interface for
system-level interfacing between a computer and
intelligent devices including hard-drives, floppy disks,
CD-ROM, printer, scanners and many more.
SCSIport
SCSIport driver is a Microsoft
®
driver for Windows
®
storage architecture, delivering SCSI commands to
the storage targets. The SCSIport driver works well
with storage using parallel SCSI.
Serial Architecture
Serial architectures have emerged to deliver higher
performance by allowing more bandwidth per device
pathway than their parallel counterparts. Serial
architecture connections consist of a single pair of
transmission signals that contain an embedded clock
for self-clocking, enabling clock speed to be easily
scaled. Serial bus architectures also support a network
of dedicated point-to-point device connections,
versus the multi-drop architectures of parallel buses,
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