Sony Notebook User Guide
Glossary
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nN
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, thes e cards are now termed PC cards. An example o f 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 th ousands of
pixels, enabling you to see colou rs and pictures on it. The more pix els, the higher the
resolution and the better the image quality.
Port replicator An additional device that you ca n connect to your notebook. The po rt replicator contains
ports that enable you to connect additional peripherals (such as a printer or a monitor) to
your VAIO. A port replicator is simila r 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 kn own 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 netw orks implementing voice transmiss ion 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.
Term Definition