SuperTrak66™ User's ManualAppendix G
| Glossary of Terms |
API | Application Programming Interface: A software layer which provides a |
| common method of accessing several types of hardware or other |
| software that it supports. APIs reduce the technical expertise needed |
| for applications to be able to support a wide array of hardware devices |
| and software packages directly. |
array | As used in RAID, an array consists of one or more hard drives which |
| are logically combined to form a single storage drive. Arrays are |
| categorized by the method in which they are accessed to logically |
| organize data on them for purposes of performance enhancement, |
| capacity augmentation, and/or data redundancy protection. |
ATA | AT Attachment: A standard for interfacing peripheral devices to |
| “PC/AT compatible” machines. |
BIOS | Basic Input/Output Set: Typically a set of system instructions stored |
| in ROM or NVRAM that contain a rudimentary foundation for system |
| initialization and operation. These programs provide just enough |
| support to allow an O/S to load and take over the PC operations, or to |
| provide a |
| devices to a system otherwise unsuited to handle such devices. |
bit | The fundamental representation of a numeric digit in the binary (base 2) |
| numbering system. A bit consists of the value 1 or 0 (also referenced |
| as “ON/OFF” and “TRUE/FALSE”, respectively). By grouping bits |
| together, the combinations of values that the bit groups represent |
| increase exponentially, forming the basis of binary numbering. The |
| most basic access to a collection of bits is a byte. |
boot | A term describing the process of a computer system initializing itself |
| and loading an O/S from a disk drive, network connection, or other |
| source. |
bootstrap | The first sector of a partition containing executable machine code |
| information. The machine code contained here provides enough |
| instruction to tell the system how to begin loading the rest of the O/S |
| from disk to memory. If there is no O/S installed on a drive, this sector |
| usually contains code which prints a message “Insert system disk..” |
| or similar. Often, a program called a “boot manager” may be installed |
| onto a drive which installs itself to give the operator further O/S loading |
| options from various drive partitions in the system. |
byte | The most basic data chunk that is directly accessible to i80x86 |
| microprocessors (and many others). A byte consists of exactly 8 bits. |
