Glossary

Sony Notebook User Guide

 

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108

Term

Definition

 

 

PCMCIA

PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) is the name of the

 

group that produced the specification for the credit card-sized plug-in boards for laptop

 

computers. The cards used to be called PCMCIA cards, but as this was rather

 

unpronounceable, these cards are now termed PC cards. An example of a PC card is a credit

 

card-sized modem.

 

 

Pixel

A pixel (Picture Element) is a part of your screen. Your screen is made up of thousands of

 

pixels, enabling you to see colours and pictures on it. The more pixels, the higher the

 

resolution and the better the image quality.

 

 

Port replicator

An additional device that you can connect to your notebook. The port replicator contains

 

ports that enable you to connect additional peripherals (such as a printer or a monitor) to

 

your VAIO. A port replicator is similar to a docking station, but does not include additional

 

slots for adding expansion boards or storage devices.

 

 

Processor

The processor is the brains of the computer; it processes the instructions of your system’s

 

programs. The processor is also known as the CPU or microprocessor and can be found on

 

the motherboard (see this word) of your computer.

 

 

Product recovery CD-ROM

The product recovery CD-ROMs include the application recovery CD-ROM and the system

 

recovery CD-ROM(s)

 

 

PS/2

A type of mouse or keyboard port.

 

 

PSTN

PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) refers to the plain old telephone service, the

 

national telecommunication networks implementing voice transmission by using analog

 

signals.

 

 

RAM

Short for Random Access Memory, the memory used to run programs and store data in

 

current use. RAM is the fastest kind of memory to read from and write to. Information stored

 

in RAM is lost when you turn off the computer. The higher the RAM capacity, the faster your

 

current data can be processed.