Option card

A circuit board you install inside the computer to provide additional capabilities, such as more memory or a modem.

Parallel

The type of interface that transmits data in groups of bits. See Interface and Serial.

Parameter

A qualifier added to a command that tells MS-DOS what particular conditions to look for and specifies information such as what data you want to process and where to locate or store a file.

Parent directory

The directory immediately above a given directory in the directory tree. In pathnames, the parent directory is represented by the symbol . . (two periods).

Parity

Data signals sent during communications to detect errors in transmitting or receiving data.

Partition

The area defined on a hard disk for use by an operating system; to divide a hard disk into separate sections or logical drives.

Pathname

The list of directories and subdirectories you specify to locate a file. For example, the pathname for the file SALES which is located in the subdirectory BUSINESS of the root directory ( \ ) is \ BUSINESS \ SALES.

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