Terms from the PC and Computer World
Some terms or jargon related to computer hardware. Even if it still means nothing to you, it may wipe the smirk off some one who thinks they know everything.
ACPI - an advanced power and configuration interface. Latest standards allows the pc or laptop to manage its power needs efficiently. Such benefits can be powering devices fully on a need to know basis, and lowering sore power until needed.
ADSL - stands for Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a broadband connection used over ISDN and dial up connections, similar to cable modems.
AGP - stands for accelerated graphics port. A expansion slot on the motherboard usually brown and used to provide high performance graphics via AGP cards, standard is 2x newer 4x standard allows peak transfer speeds of 512MBps for 2x, and 1.1GBps for the 4x.
AIT - Advanced Intelligent Tape, this a Sony magnetic tape using the 8mm cassette standard, these cassettes can hold up to 100GB.
ATA - means AT Attachment, this term is the signal and protocol for IDE devices. Newer hard drives run at ATA 100, or ATA 66, ATA 33 has been phased out, also known as Ultra66 & 100. This describes the bandwidth of the disc.
ATAPI - a packet attachment interface which is used to extend the EIDE interface used with CD-ROMS and similar devices.
BIOS - meaning basic input/output system. This software is stored on board and is used to boot the system and carry out memory tests and what devices are attached.
BIT - the smallest unit of data possible, it's values are 1 & 0 (binary) they are stored in capacitors on memory chips using electrical currents. These are often abbreviated ie 5kbps = 5,000 bits per second.
BURN-PROOF / UNDERUN - This technology is included with some cd writers, the technology controls the data stream going to the writer and avoids errors and underun problems which on writers with out BURN- PROOF will be useless and wont read in other drives basically another coaster. Very good if you can afford the extra do it, it will save you discs and time in the long run. Also depending on the size of the buffer you can to a task or two at the same time as burning.
BYTE - 8 bits used to make up one byte, this is where it can be 'tricky' as the binary system is used which makes a kilobyte = 1,024 byte. A Megabyte (MB) is 1,048,576 bytes. This mistake is often noted by newer users when more ram or hard drives are added as 128mb of ram will be 131, kilobytes as 1mb is 1,048,576. It doesn't make a real difference to us the users but is worth knowing.
CACHE - this is a temporary area used to speed up processes. A good example is web browsers they will keep a log of recently used pages so that when you re-visit, they will load quicker.
CLUSTER - The smallest amount of space that a file can occupy on a disc, with hard discs, the larger the size of the disc the larger the cluster will be.
CMOS - stands for complementary metal oxide semiconductor. Although more well known for the battery powered chip on motherboards which stores the system and clock configurations.
COMPRESSION - This is reducing the size of a file so it can be stored in a smaller space. A common compression utility in Winzip.
CPU - central processing unit, a microprocessor which is basically the brains of the computer performing many instructions a second to carry, fetch and compute.
