Glossary 299
Glossary
A
AC — alternating current — The form of electricity that powers your computer
when you plug the AC adapter power cable into an electrical outlet.
ACPI — advanced configuration and power interface — A power management
specification that enables Microsoft
®
Windows
®
operating systems to put a
computer in standby or hibernate mode to conserve the amount of electrical power
allocated to each device attached to the computer.
AGP — accelerated graphics port — 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.
A
NTIVIRUS SOFTWARE — A program designed to identify, quarantine, and/or
delete viruses from your computer.
ASF — alert standards format — A standard to define a mechanism for reporting
hardware and software alerts to a management console. ASF is designed to be
platform- and operating system-independent.
B
BACKUP — A copy of a program or data file on a floppy disk, CD, or hard drive. As
a precaution, back up the data files from your hard drive regularly.
BIOS — 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 the settings have on the computer, do not change the
settings for this program. Also referred to as the system setup program.
B
IT — The smallest unit of data interpreted by your computer.
B
OOT SEQUENCE — Specifies the order of the devices from which the computer
attempts to boot.
B
OOTABLE 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 bootable disk available. Your Drivers and Utilities CD is a bootable
CD.
B
OOTABLE 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 disk or bootable CD available.
BPS — bits per second — The standard unit for measuring data transmission
To Next Page
Loading...
