Monitor

The piece of hardware that contains the screen and displays information.

Monochrome monitor

A monitor that displays in only one color, such as green or amber, as opposed to a color monitor which can display in several colors.

Mouse

A hand-held pointing device with one or more buttons. When you slide the mouse over a flat surface in a certain direction, the cursor moves in the same direction on the screen.

MS-DOS

Microsoft Disk Operating System. The operating system that comes with your computer. See Operating system.

Numeric keypad

The number keys grouped to the right of the keyboard.

Operating speed

The speed at which the central processing unit can execute commands. Also called execution speed. The Apex can run at 8 MHz or 12 MHz.

Operating system

A collection of programs (such as MS-DOS) that manages a computer’s operations. The operating system determines how programs run and supervises all input and output.

Option card

A circuit board you install inside the computer to provide additional capabilities, such as a modem, a hard disk controller, or a mouse.

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