Glossary

Sony VAIO Desktop User Guide

 

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Term

Definition

 

 

MPEG

MPEG or Moving Pictures Experts Group is a standard for audio-visual compression of video

 

sequences. MPEG achieves high compression rates by storing only the changes from one

 

frame to another. The decrease in data is generally imperceptible to the human eye.

 

MPEG-1 was developed for digital storage of video and audio data on CD-ROM. MPEG-2

 

achieves better image and audio quality and is more targeted to TV broadcasting and DVD.

 

 

Operating system

The operating system is software that manages all the other programs in a computer. It

 

defines how the computer reads and writes information to its disks (and other hardware).

 

Windows 2000, Windows Millennium Edition, Windows XP Professional and Windows XP

 

Home Edition are examples of operating systems found on VAIOs.

 

 

Optical mouse

An optical mouse is an advanced computer pointing device that uses a light-emitting diode

 

(LED), an optical sensor, and digital signal processing (DSP) in place of the traditional mouse

 

ball and electromechanical transducer. Movement is detected by sensing changes in

 

reflected light, rather than by interpreting the motion of a rolling sphere. The optical mouse

 

takes microscopic snapshots of the working surface at a rate of more than 1,000 images per

 

second.

 

 

Partition

A partition is a logical division of a computer’s hard disk. A two-partition hard drive would

 

typically contain C: and D: drives. Partitioning is particularly useful if you run more than one

 

operating system or to clearly separate your data files from your installed software.

 

 

PBX

A PBX (Private Branch Exchange) is a private telephone network within an enterprise. Under

 

this system, the calls between the enterprise members are local and the phone numbers are

 

made up of 3 or 4 digits. Companies generally choose this phone system for internal

 

communication because it is less expensive than the regular network. The users can still

 

share a number of outside lines for making calls external to the PBX.

 

 

PC Card

A PCMCIA card. The term PC Card is more widely used than PCMCIA. See PCMCIA.