Glossary
Glossary
16550 UART - A high speed chip for controlling serial ports. Although un- necessary for a mouse, it is required for modems that are 14,400 baud or faster.
ATX - A system board size measuring approximately 12” x 9.6”.
Asynchronous - Operations that do not require the clocks of communi- cating devices to be coordinated. See Synchronous.
Bidirectional Parallel Port - A type of parallel port that can send and receive information.
BIOS - An Acronym for Basic Input/ Output System. Configures the sys- tem board and provides hardware in- formation to the operating system.
Bit - A contraction of Binary digit. The smallest unit of information in a binary number system. A bit repre- sents a choice between either zero or one.
Boot - To start up the computer and load the operating system software. See cold boot and warm boot.
Bus - A group of electronic paths used to send data between parts of the sys- tem. On a system board, the bus con- nects the peripheral cards with the microprocessor via the expansion slots.
Bus Mastering - The ability of a peripheral card to control the bus without requiring intervention of the CPU.
Byte - A group of adjacent bits treated as a unit. Eight bits are typically con- sidered one byte. Also called a char- acter.
Cache - A process where information is copied from the slower memory (DRAM) to the faster memory (SRAM). Information that is likely to be read or edited is stored in the cache providing significant performance in- creases.
Cache Hit - The percentage of re- quest for data from memory that can be served from the cache.
Cache Miss - A memory access which cannot be supplied from cache.
Cold Boot - Starting the computer by turning on the power or pressing the RESET button. A cold boot makes the processor execute all of the diagnos- tics. See boot and warm boot.
CPU - An acronym for Central Pro- cessing Unit. A CPU performs arith- metic calculations, makes logical decisions, and directs the operation of the computer in conjunction with the operating system.
DIMM - An acronym for Dual Inline Memory Module. A small printed cir- cuit board containing memory chips.
Disk Drive - A hardware device which provides for the storage of data on diskettes or hard metal disks that have a magnetic coating. A disk drive functions by spinning at high speed while moving a device called the
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