MSI ms-6382 manual Glossary PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect

Glossary

PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)

A local bus standard developed by Intel that first appeared on PCs in late 1993. PCI provides “plug and play” capability and allows IRQs to be shared. The PCI controller can exchange data with the system's CPU either 32 bits or 64 bits at a time.

PnP (Plug and Play)

A set of specifications that allows a PC to configure itself automatically to work with peripherals. The user can "plug" in a peripheral device and "play" it without configur- ing the system manually. To implement this useful feature, both the BIOS that sup- ports PnP and a PnP expansion card are required.

POST (Power On Self Test)

During booting up your system, the BIOS executes a series of diagnostic tests, include checking the RAM, the keyboard, the disk drives, etc., to see if they are properly connected and operating.

PS/2 Port

A type of port developed by IBM for connecting a mouse or keyboard to a PC. The PS/2 port supports a mini DIN plug containing just 6 pins. Most modern PCs equipped with PS/2 ports so that the special port can be used by another device, such as a modem.

USB (universal serial bus)

A hardware interface for low-speed peripherals such as the keyboard, mouse, joystick, etc. USB provides a maximum bandwidth of 12 Mbit/sec (Mbps) for connecting up to 127 peripheral devices to PC. USB features hot swap capability and multiple data streams, allows external devices to be plugged in and unplugged without turning the system off.

Virus

A program or a piece of code that infects computer files by inserting in those files copies of itself. The virus code is buried within an existing program, and is activated when that program is executed. All the viruses are man-made, and often have damaging side effects.

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