Specifications

AlphaServer 1000A Owner's Guide Glossary of Terms • 3
bus
A collection of many transmission lines or wires. The bus interconnects computer
system components, providing a communications path for addresses, data, and
control information or external terminals and systems in a communications network.
byte
A group of eight contiguous bits starting on an addressable byte boundary. The bits
are numbered right to left, 0 through 7.
cache memory
A small, high-speed memory placed between slower main memory and the processor.
A cache increases effective memory transfer rates and processor speed. It contains
copies of data recently used by the processor and fetches several bytes of data from
memory in anticipation that the processor will access the next sequential series of
bytes.
CDROM
A read-only compact disc. The optical removable media used in a compact disc
reader.
central processing unit (CPU)
The unit of the computer that is responsible for interpreting and executing
instructions.
client-server computing
An approach to computing whereby a computer
−
the "server"
−
provides a set of
services across a network to a group of computers requesting those services
−
the
"clients."
command line interface
One of two interfaces in the AlphaServer operator interface. The command line
interface supports the OpenVMS and Digital UNIX operating systems. Using this
interface you can configure and test the system, examine and alter system state, and
boot the operating system.