Glossary

protective plug

In a fiber-optic environment, a type of duplex connector (or cover) that provides physical protection (D). Contrast with loopback plug.

protocol

(1)Set of semantic and syntactic rules that determines the behavior of functional units in achieving communication. (2) In systems network architecture, the meanings of and sequencing rules for requests and responses for managing the network, transferring data, and synchronizing network component states. (3) A specification for the format and relative timing of data exchanged between communicating devices (D, I).

.public device

A loop device that can transmit a fabric login command (FLOGI) to a switch, receive acknowledgement from the switch’s login server, register with the switch’s name server, and communicate with fabric-attached devices. Public devices communicate with fabric-attached devices through the switch’s bridge port (B_Port) connection to a director or switch. Contrast with private device.

pull-down menu

See drop-down menu.

PWA

See printed wiring assembly.

R

radio frequency interference

RFI. Electromagnetic radiation which is emitted by electrical circuits carrying rapidly changing signals, as a by-product of the normal operation, and which causes unwanted signals (interference or noise) to be induced in other circuits.

RAM

See random access memory.

random access memory

RAM. A group of computer memory locations that is numerically identified to allow high-speed access by the controlling microprocessor. A memory location is randomly accessed by referring to its numerical identifier (D). Contrast with read-only memory. See also dynamic random access memory; nonvolatile random access memory; static random access memory.

R_A_TOV

See resource allocation time-out value.