ASCII

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A standardized numeric coding system for representing characters, such as numbers, letters, and graphic symbols. Each of the 256 ASCII codes occupies one byte of storage. All computers, printers, and programs can use files transmitted in standard ASCII code. Extended ASCII codes can be used only by hardware and software designed to interpret them.

Asynchronous

A method of data transmission in which one machine sends data, one character at a time, to another machine at variable intervals that do not need to be synchronized to a timing device, such as a system clock.

AUTOEXEC.BAT file

The batch file your computer runs automatically whenever you load MS-DOS. It configures the installed system devices and sets various user preferences. See also Bach file.

Automatic speed

The processor speed setting that allows the computer to switch automatically from high speed to low speed when it accesses a diskette drive. See also Copy-protected program and Key disk.

Backup

An extra copy of a program, data file, or disk, that is created in case your working copy is damaged or lost.

Base memory

see Conventional Memory.

2 Glossary