Glossary 1 Synonym for Conventional Memory
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The following list defines or identifies technical terms, abbreviations, and acro- Acronym for American Standard Code for nyms used in Dell user documents. Information Interchange. A text file con- taining only characters from the ASCII character set (usually created with a text Abbreviation for ampere(s). editor, such as MS-DOS Editor or Notepad in Microsoft Windows operating system) is called an ASCII file. Abbreviation for alternating current. Acronym for application-specific integrat- An expansion card that plugs into an ed circuit. expansion-card connector on the computer's system board. An adapter card adds some specialized function to Acronym for Advanced SCSI program- the computer by providing an interface ming interface. between the expansion bus and a periph- eral device. Examples of adapter cards include network cards, sound boards, and When you boot your computer, MS-DOS SCSI adapters. runs any commands contained in the text file, autoexec.bat (after running any com- mands in the config.sys file). An Abbreviation for Autodesk Device autoexec.bat file is not required to boot Interface. MS-DOS, but provides a convenient place to run commands that are essential for setting up a consistent computing envi- Abbreviation for artificial intelligence. ronment—such as loading mouse or network software. Acronym for American National Standards Institute. A copy of a program or data file. As a pre- caution, you should back up your computer's hard-disk drive on a regular Software designed to help you perform a basis. Before making a change to the con- specific task, such as a spreadsheet or figuration of your computer, you should word processor. Application programs are back up important start-up files, such as distinct from operating system and utility autoexec.bat and config.sys for software. MS-DOS or win.ini and system.ini for Microsoft Windows. support.dell.com Glossary 1 Synonym for conventional memory. The smallest unit of information interpret- ed by your computer. Acronym for Beginner's All-Purpose Sym- bolic Instruction Code, a programming A typical unit of disk storage consisting of language. MS-DOS includes a version of a small number of sectors. This term usu- BASIC. ally refers to the fundamental unit of storage provided by an operating system. See also block size and striping. An ASCII text file containing a list of com- mands that run in sequence. Batch files ! must have a filename extension of .bat. The size of a block. See also block and striping. Data transmission speed. For example, modems are designed to transmit data at When you start your computer, it clears one or more specified baud rate(s) all memory, initializes devices, and loads through the COM (serial) port of a the operating system. Unless the operat- computer. ing system fails to respond, you can reboot (also called warm boot) your com- puter by pressing <Ctrl><Alt><Del>; Abbreviation for bulletin board service. A otherwise, you must perform a cold boot computer system that serves as a central by pressing the reset button (if your com- location for accessing data or relaying puter has one) or by turning the computer messages by modem. For example, Dell's off and then back on. TechConnect BBS contains the latest ver- sion of software such as video drivers and the Dell Directory. If your system has a You can start your computer from a dis- modem, you can access the BBS and kette in drive A. To make a bootable download the most recent version of this diskette, insert a diskette in drive A, type- software. sys a: at the command line prompt and then press <Enter>. Use this bootable diskette if your computer will not boot A diagnostic system message in the form from the hard-disk drive. of a series of beeps from your computer's speaker. See your Installation and Trou- bleshooting Guide for a complete Abbreviation for bits per inch. discussion of system beep codes. Abbreviation for bits per second. Acronym for basic input/output system. Your computer's BIOS contains programs "# stored on a ROM chip. The BIOS controls Abbreviation for British thermal unit. the following functions: Communications between the A bus forms an information pathway be- microprocessor and peripheral tween the components of a computer. devices such as the keyboard and Your computer contains an expansion bus the video adapter that allows the microprocessor to com- municate with controllers for all the Miscellaneous functions, such as various peripheral devices connected to system messages the computer. Your computer also con- tains an address bus and a data bus for 2 User’s Guide communications between the micro- ( processor and RAM. Acronym for complementary metal-oxide semiconductor. In computers, CMOS memory chips are often used for NVRAM Eight contiguous bits of information; the storage. basic data unit used by your computer. ( $" The MS-DOS device names for the first Abbreviation for Bundesamt fur Zulassun- through fourth serial ports on your com- gen in deer Telecommunication. puter are COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4. MS-DOS supports up to four serial ports. However, the default interrupt for Abbreviation for Celsius. COM1 and COM3 is IRQ4, and the default interrupt for COM2 and COM4 is IRQ3. Therefore, you must be careful when you To facilitate quicker data retrieval, a stor- configure software that runs a serial de- age area for keeping a copy of data or vice so that you do not create an interrupt instructions. For example, your comput- conflict. er's BIOS may cache ROM code in faster RAM. Or a disk-cache utility may reserve RAM in which to store frequently access- The MS-DOS device name for the con- ed information from your computer's disk sole, which includes your computer's drives; when a program makes a request keyboard and text displayed on the to a disk drive for data that is in the cache, screen. the disk-cache utility can retrieve the data from RAM faster than from the disk drive. When you boot your computer, MS-DOS % runs any commands contained in the text On the bottom of an expansion card, the file config.sys (before running any com- metal-contact section that plugs into an mands in the autoexec.bat file). A expansion-card connector. config.sys file is not required to boot MS-DOS, but provides a convenient place &" to run commands that are essential for Abbreviation for cold cathode fluorescent setting up a consistent computing envi- tube. ronment—such as loading device drivers with a device= statement. %' ( Abbreviation for compact disc read-only memory. CD-ROM drives use optical A chip or expansion card that controls the technology to read data from compact transfer of data between the micro- discs. CDs are read-only storage devices; processor and a peripheral such as a you cannot write new data to a CD with diskette drive or the keyboard. standard CD-ROM drives. * ) The first 640 KB of RAM. Unless they are Abbreviation for color graphics adapter. specially designed, MS-DOS programs are limited to running in conventional memory. See also EMM, expanded mem- Abbreviation for comprehensive input/ ory, extended memory, HMA, memory output. manager, upper memory area, and XMM. Abbreviation for centimeter(s). A coprocessor relieves the computer's microprocessor of specific processing tasks. A math coprocessor, for example, support.dell.com Glossary 3 handles numeric processing. A graphics + coprocessor handles video rendering. The Acronym for Dynamic Host Configuration Intel Pentium microprocessor includes an Protocol. integrated math coprocessor. See diskette-based diagnostics. Abbreviation for characters per inch. (( # Acronym for dual in-line memory module. Abbreviation for central processing unit. See also microprocessor. Acronym for Deutsche Industrie Norm. In character-based MS-DOS programs, the cursor is usually a block or an under- Acronym for dual in-line package. A circuit score (possibly blinking) that represents board, such as a system board or expan- the position at which the next character sion card, may contain DIP switches for typed will appear. Windows programs can configuring the circuit board. DIP switch- design their own cursors—common cur- es are always toggle switches, with an sor symbols include the pointer arrow and ON position and an OFF position. the text-insertion I-beam. " Acronym for digital audio tape. Abbreviation for decibel(s). Abbreviation for adjusted decibel(s). Directories help keep related files orga- nized in a hierarchical, "inverted tree" structure. Each disk has a "root" directory; Abbreviation for direct current. for example, a C:\> prompt normally indi- cates that you are at the root directory of hard-disk drive C. Additional directories Acronym for display data channel. A that branch off of the root directory are VESA® standard mechanism that allows called subdirectories. Subdirectories may the system to communicate with the contain additional directories branching monitor and retrieve information about its off of them. capabilities. * * A device driver allows the operating sys- tem or a program to interface correctly with a peripheral such as a printer or net- work card. Some device drivers—such as network drivers—must be loaded from the config.sys file (with a device= state- ment) or as memory-resident programs (usually, from the autoexec.bat file). Oth- ers—such as video drivers—must load when you start the program for which they were designed. 4 User’s Guide ' Acronym for Dell OpenManage Remote Assistant Card. '( Abbreviation for dynamic random-access memory. A computer's RAM is usually made up entirely of DRAM chips. Be- cause DRAM chips cannot store an electrical charge indefinitely, your com- puter continually refreshes each DRAM chip in the computer. *% % Your computer can recognize a number of A comprehensive set of diagnostic tests specific hard-disk drives.