Glossary
Terms
in this
Glossary are provided
for
informational
purposes only and may
or
may
not
describe features included
with
your
particular
computer.
A
AC —
alternating current
— The form of electricity
that
powers your computer when you
plug the AC adapter
power cable
in to
an electrical
outlet.
AC
P
I
—
advanced
configuration and power interface
—
A
power management specification
that enables
which
a portable computer battery is able
to
be
depleted
and r
e
char
ge
d.
battery operating
time — The
length
of time
(minutes
or
hours)
that
a portable computer battery powers
the
computer.
BIO
S
—
basic
input/output
system
— A
program
(or
utility) that
serves as
an interface between
the computer
hardware and
the
operating system. Unless
you
understand what effect these settings have
on the
computer,
do not
change
them.
Also referred
to
as system
set
u
p.
bit — The
smallest
unit of
data interpreted by
your
Mic
r
o
s
®
®
ndows
operating systems
to put
a
computer.
®
computer
in
standby
or
hibernate mode
to
conserve
the
Bluetooth
wireless technology
— A
wireless
technology
amount
of
electrical power allocated
to
each
device
attached
to the computer.
AGP
—
accelerated graphics
por
t
— A
dedicated graphics
port that
allows system memory
to
be used
for video-
related tasks. AGP delivers a smooth, true-color
video
image because
of the
faster interface between
the video
circuitry
and
the
computer
memory.
AHCI —
Advanced
Host Controller
Interface
— An
interface
for
a SATA hard drive
Host Controller which
allows
the
storage driver
to
enable technologies such as
Native Command Queuing
(NCQ)
and
hot plug.
ALS
—
ambient
light
sensor
— A
feature
that
helps
to
control
display
brightness.
antivirus
software
— A
program designed
to identify,
quarantine, and/or delete viruses
from
your
computer.
ASF
—
alert
standar
d
s
format — A
standard
to
define a
mechanism
for
reporting hardware and software alerts
to
a
management
conso
l
e.
ASF
i
s
designed
to
be
platform-
and
operating
system-independent.
B
battery
life
span
— The length of time
(years)
during
standard
for
short-range
(9 m [29 feet]) networking
devices
that
allows
for
enabled devices
to automatically
recognize each
other.
boot
sequence
—
Specifies
the
order
of the
devices
from
which the
computer attempts
to boot.
bootable
CD — A CD that
you can use
to
start
your
computer.
In
case your hard drive is damaged
or your
computer has a virus, ensure
that
you always have a
bootable
CD or floppy
disk available. Your Drivers
and
Utilities (or
ResourceCD
)
is a bootable
CD.
bootable disk
— A
disk
that
you can use
to
start
your
computer.
In
case your hard drive is damaged
or your
computer has a virus, ensure
that
you always have a
bootable
CD or floppy
disk
available.
bps
— bits
per second
—
The standard
unit for
measuring
data transmission
speed.
BTU — British
thermal
unit — A
measurement
of heat
output.
bus
— A
communication
pathway between
the
components
in
your
computer.
bus speed
—
The speed, given
in MHz, that
indicates
how
fast a bus can transfer
information.
Glossary
149
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