Panasonic U500D user manual Glossary

Glossary

alternating current (AC): Electric current that reverses its direction of flow at regular intervals.

analog signal: A signal whose characteristics such as amplitude and frequency vary in proportion to (are an analog of) the value to be transmitted. Voice communications are analog signals.

application: A group of programs that together are used for a specific task such as accounting, financial planning, spreadsheets, word processing and games.

ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII code is a set of 256 binary codes that represent the most commonly used letters, numbers, and symbols.

B

backup: A copy of a file, usually on a removable disk, kept in case the original file is lost or damaged.

binary: The base two number system composed of zeros and ones (off or on), used by most digital computers. The right-most digit of a binary number has a value of 1, the next a value of 2, then 4, 8, 16, and so on. For example, the binary number 101 has a value of 5. See also ASCII.

BIOS: Basic Input/Output System. The firmware that controls data flow within the computer. See also firmware.

bit: Derived from “binary digit”, the basic unit of information used by the computer. It is either zero or one. Eight bits is one byte. See also byte.

Bluetooth: A short-range radio technology designed to simplify wireless communication among computers, communication devices and the Internet.

board: A circuit board. An internal card containing electronic components, called chips, which perform a specific function or increase the capabilities of the system.

boot: Short for bootstrap. A program that starts or restarts the computer. The program reads instructions from a storage device into the computer’s memory.

boot disk: See system disk.

bootable disk: See system disk.

bps: Bits per second. Typically used to describe the data transmission speed of a modem.

buffer: The portion of the computer’s memory where data is temporarily stored. Buffers often compensate for differences in the rate of flow from one device to another.

User’s Manual Glossary-