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LifeBook E Series – Section Eight
Disk
A spinning platter of magnetic data storage media. If the
platter is very stiff it is a hard drive, if it is highly flexible
it is a floppy disk, if it is a floppy disk in a hard housing
with a shutter it is commonly called a diskette.
Disk Drive
The hardware which spins the disk and has the heads
and control circuitry for reading and writing the data
on the disk.
Diskette
A floppy disk in a hard housing with a shutter.
DMA
Direct Memory Access. Special circuitry for memory
to memory transfers of data which do not require
CPU action.
DMI
Desktop Management Interface. A standard that
provides PC management applications with a common
method of locally or remotely querying and configuring
PC computer systems, hardware and software compo-
nents, and peripherals.
DOS
Disk Operating System (MS-DOS is a Microsoft Disk
Operating System).
Driver
A computer program which converts application and
operating system commands to external devices into the
exact form required by a specific brand and model of
device in order to produce the desired results from that
particular equipment.
ECP
Extended Capability Port. A set of standards for high
speed data communication and interconnection
between electronic devices.
ESD
Electro-Static Discharge. The sudden discharge of elec-
tricity from a static charge which has built-up slowly.
Example: the shock you get from a doorknob on a dry day
or the sparks you get from brushing hair on a dry day.
Extended Memory
All memory more than the 640KB recognized by
MS-DOS as system memory.
FCC
Federal Communication Commission.
Floppy Disk
A spinning platter of magnetic data storage media which
is highly flexible.
GB
Gigabyte.
Hard drive
A spinning platter of magnetic data storage media where
the platter is very stiff.
Hexadecimal
A decimal notation for the value of a 4 bit binary
number. (0-9, A, B, C, D, E, F) Example: 2F in hexa-
decimal = 00101111 in binary = 47 in decimal.
I/O
Input/Output. Data entering and leaving your notebook
in electronic form.
I/O Port
The connector and associated control circuits for data
entering and leaving your notebook in electronic form.
IDE
Intelligent Drive Electronics. A type of control interface
for a hard drive which is inside the hard drive unit.
Infrared
Light just beyond the red portion of the visible light
spectrum which is invisible to humans.
IR
An abbreviation for infrared.
IrDA
Infrared Data Association. An organization which
produces standards for communication using infrared
as the carrier.
IRQ
Interrupt Request. An acronym for the hardware signal
to the CPU that an external event has occurred which
needs to be processed.
KB
Kilobyte.