Option card
A circuit board you can install inside the computer to provide
additional capabilities, such as a modem or an additional I/O
port. Option cards plug directly into the special option slots so
you do not have to alter a computer’s circuitry to enhance your
system. See also Bus.
OS/2
Operating System/2. The enhanced operating system
developed jointly by Microsoft and IBM that provides
protected mode processing and multitasking capabilities. See
also DOS, MS-DOS, and Operating system.
Over Drive processor
An optional microprocessor chip that doubles the internal
processing speed of the microprocessor and includes a built-in
math coprocessor.
Parallel
The type of interface that transmits all the bits in a byte of data
simultaneously over separate wires in a cable. See also
Interface
and
Serial.
Parameter
A qualifier added to a command that tells your operating
system what data to process, where it should locate or store a
file, or how it should operate.
See
also
Switch.
Parity
A method used to verify the accuracy of data transmissions by
making the total of the number of l’s in a group of bits odd
(odd parity), even (even parity), or none (no parity).
16 Glossary
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