Glossary 201
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.
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.
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 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.
book.book  Page 201  Tuesday, November 27, 2007  10:29 AM