Glossary

AC￿adapter

The￿AC￿(or￿alternating￿current)￿adapter￿regulates￿current￿coming￿ into￿your￿computer￿from￿the￿wall￿outlet.￿The￿current￿at￿the￿wall￿ outlet￿is￿alternating￿current￿and￿needs￿to￿be￿changed￿by￿the￿adapter￿ to￿DC￿(direct￿current)￿before￿your￿computer￿can￿use￿it￿for￿power.

BIOS

BIOS￿stands￿for￿basic￿input/output￿system.￿The￿BIOS￿is￿software￿ (often￿called￿firmware)￿that￿is￿independent￿of￿any￿operating￿ system.￿It￿enables￿the￿computer￿to￿communicate￿with￿the￿screen,￿ keyboard,￿and￿other￿peripheral￿devices￿without￿using￿programs￿on￿ the￿hard￿disk.￿

The￿BIOS￿on￿your￿computer￿is￿flash￿BIOS,￿which￿means￿that￿it￿has￿ been￿recorded￿on￿a￿flash￿memory￿chip￿that￿can￿be￿updated￿if￿ needed.￿

Boot

To￿start￿your￿computer.￿A￿cold￿boot￿resets￿the￿entire￿computer￿and￿ runs￿through￿all￿computer￿self-tests.￿A￿warm￿boot￿clears￿out￿computer￿memory￿only.

Boot￿disk

A￿disk￿containing￿operating￿system￿programs￿required￿to￿start￿ your￿computer.￿A￿boot￿disk￿can￿be￿a￿floppy￿disk,￿hard￿drive,￿or￿ compact￿disc.

Byte

The￿basic￿unit￿of￿measure￿for￿computer￿memory.￿A￿character— such￿as￿a￿letter￿of￿the￿alphabet—uses￿one￿byte￿of￿memory.￿Computer￿memory￿is￿often￿measured￿in￿kilobytes￿(1,024￿bytes)￿or￿ megabytes￿(1,048,576￿bytes).

Each￿byte￿is￿made￿up￿of￿eight￿bits.￿For￿more￿information￿on￿bytes￿ and￿bits,￿see￿an￿introductory￿book￿on￿computers.

Cache￿memory

Cache￿is￿very￿fast,￿zero-wait-state￿memory￿located￿between￿the￿microprocessor￿and￿main￿memory.￿Cache￿reduces￿the￿average￿

Samsung￿M6000￿User’s￿Manual

Glossary￿￿￿103