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ESVAbbreviation for bits per inch.

%78Abbreviation for bits per second.

EXVAbbreviation for British thermal unit.

An information pathway between the components of a computer. Your comput- er contains an expansion bus that allows the microprocessor to communicate with controllers for all the various peripheral devices connected to the computer. Your computer also contains an address bus and a data bus for communications be- E\WHtween the microprocessor and RAM.

Eight contiguous bits of information, the &basic data unit used by your computer.

FDFKHAbbreviation for Celsius.

A fast storage area that keeps a copy of data or instructions for quicker data re- trieval. For example, your computer’s BIOS may cache ROM code in faster RAM. Or, a disk-cache utility may reserve RAM in which to store frequently access- ed information from your computer’s disk drives; when a program makes a request to a disk drive for data that is in the cache, the disk-cache utility can retrieve the data FDUGfrom ￿RAMHGJHfasterFRQQHFWRUthan from the disk drive.

The metal-contact section on the bottom of an expansion card that plugs into an &'expansion￿520-card connector.

Abbreviation for compact disc read-only memory. CD-ROM drives use optical technology to read data from CDs. CDs are read-only storage devices; you cannot write new data to a CD with standard CD-ROM drives.

FP

&026Abbreviation for centimeter(s).

Acronym for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor. In computers, CMOS memory chips are often used for NVRAM &20storageQ.

The device names for the first through fourth serial ports on your computer are COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4. The default interrupt for COM1 and COM3 is

IQ4, and the default interrupt for COM2 and COM4 is IRQ3. Therefore, you must be careful when configuring software that runs a serial device so that you don’t cre- FRPSRQHQWate an interrupt conflict.

As they relate to DMI, manageable components are operating systems, computer systems, expansion cards, or peripherals that are compatible with DMI. Each component is made up of groups and attributes that are defined as relevant FRQILJto that ￿componentV\VILOH.

The config.sys file (Windows 95 and MS-DOS only) is executed when you boot your computer (before running any commands in the autoexec.bat file). This start-up file contains commands that specify which devices to install and which drivers to use. This file also contains com- mands that determine how the operating FRQWUROOHUsystem uses memory and controls files.

A chip that controls the transfer of data between the microprocessor and memo- ry or between the microprocessor and a peripheral device such as a disk drive or

FRQWUROthe keyboardSDQHO.

The part of the computer that contains in- dicators and controls, such as the power switch, hard-disk drive access indicator, and power indicator.

Glossary 3

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Dell WorkStation 210 manual FRQWUROthe keyboardSDQHO