Glossary

This glossary defines the special terms,

abbreviations, and acronyms that are used

in this publication. If you do not find the

term you are looking for,refer to the

Dictionary of Computing, New York:

McGraw-Hill, 1994.

A

ABEND. Abnormal end of task.
access method. Atechnique for moving data
between processor storage and input/output
devices.
ACS. Automated Cartridge System.
ADSM. ADSTAR*Distributed Storage Manager.
AL_PA. ArbitratedLoop Physical Address
ANSI. American National Standards Institute.
arbitrated loop. see Fibre Channel arbitrated
loop (FC-AL)
archiving. The storage of backup files and
associated journals, usually for a given period of
time.
archiving application. The retention of records,
in machine-readable form, for historical
purposes.
argument. Any value of an independent
variable.
automatic cartridge facility (ACF). An optional
feature for the 3590 tape drive. It allows both the
automatic loading of premounted tape cartridges
and the manual loading of single tape cartridges.
automatic mode. Amode of operation that can
be selected on the cartridge loader.This mode
allows the automatic feeding and loading of
premounted tape cartridges requiring no
operator action.

B

backup and recovery application. The
short-term retention of records used for restoring
essential business and system files when vital
data has been lost because of program or system
errors or malfunctions.
beginning of tape (BOT). The location on a
magnetic tape that indicates the beginning of the
permissible recording area.
block. Acollection of contiguous records
recorded as a unit. Blocks are separated by
interblock gaps, and each block may contain one
or more records.
BOT. Beginningof tape.
bpi. Bits per inch.
BPI. Bytes per inch.
buffer. Aroutine or storage used to compensate
for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of
occurrence of events, when transferring data
from one device to another.
buffered mode. The buffered mode allows a
number of logical blocks to accumulate in the
control unit buffer before the data is transferred
to the device or channel. This mode is
suppressed automatically,if the record exceeds
the maximum buffered capacity.

C

capacity. Seemedia capacity.
cartridge loader. Astandard function for the
tape drive. It allows the automatic loading of
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