Glossary 11
3&,
Abbreviation for Peripheral Component
Interconnect. A standard for local-bus
implementation developed by Intel
Corporation.
SHULSKHUDOGHYLFH
An interna l or external d evice—such as a
printer, a disk drive, or a keyboard—con-
nected to a computer.
3*$
Abbreviation for pin grid array, a type of
microprocessor socket that allows you to
remove the microprocessor chip.
SL[HO
A single point on a video display. Pix els
are arr ang ed i n row s an d co lum ns to cre-
ate an image. A video resolution, such as
640 x 480, is expressed as the number of
pixels acr oss by the number of pixe ls up
and down.
3OXJDQG3OD\
An industry- standa rd sp eci fic ati on tha t
makes it easier to add hardware devices
to personal computers. Plug and Play
provides automatic inst allation and con-
figuration, compatibility with existing
hardware, and dynamic support of mobile
computi ng env iro nme nts .
3267
Acronym for power-on self-test. Before
the operating system loads when you turn
on your computer, the POST tests various
system components such as RAM, the
disk drives, and the keyboard.
SSP
Abbreviation for pages per minute.
34)3
Abbreviation for plastic quad flat pack, a
type of microprocessor socket in which
the microproc essor chip is permanently
mounted.
3URJUDP'LVNHWWH0DNHU
The Program Diskette Maker allows you
to create program diskette sets, or master
copies , of so ftwa r e tha t D ell ins tal led on
your computer system. It is essential that
you create these diskette sets as soon as
possible. You may need a set of master
diskettes if you ever experience problems
with your hard-disk drive and need to re-
install your Dell-installed software. If your
system includes Dell-installed software,
you can select this program from the Dell
Accessories program folder.
SURJUDPGLVNHWWHVHW
The set of disk ette s from whi ch you c an
perform a complete installation of an op-
erating system or application program.
When you re confi gure a program , y ou of-
ten need its program diskette set.
SURWHFWHGPRGH
An operating mode supported by 80286
or higher microprocessors, protected
mode allows operating systems to
implement:
A memory address space of 16 MB
(80286 microprocessor) to 4 GB
(Intel386 or higher microprocessor)
Multitasking
Virtual memory, a method for
increasing addressable memory by
usi ng the hard-disk drive
The Windows NT, OS/2, and UNIX® 32-bit
operating systems run in protected mode.
MS-DOS cannot run in protected mode;
however, some programs that you can
start from MS-DOS, such as the Windows
operating system, are able to put the com-
puter into protected mode.
36
Abbreviation for Personal System/2.
5$,'
Acronym for redundant array of inexpen-
sive dis ks .
5$0
Acronym for random-access memory.
The computer’s primary temporary stor-
age area for program instructions and
data. Each location in RAM is identified by
a number called a

memory addres s

. Any
23186bk0.bk Page 11 Thursday, October 29, 1998 11:07 AM