User`s guide
Table Of Contents
46
Artifacts
Blurred or "blocky" portions of degraded image quality in a digital video.
ASCII
American Standards Committee on Information Interchange. A standard used by IBM
and compatible computers to represent numbers and characters in binary form.
Bandwidth
Required capacity for the data volume and transmission rate.
BIOS
Stands for Basic Input-Output System. Code in your computer's ROM (Read Only
Memory) that provides the power-on self-test and other operating functions.
Bits per pixel
Number of bits used to represent the color information of a pixel.
Blitter
Fast memory transfer in the graphics board without using the CPU e.g. used for
moving parts of the invisible screen.
BMP (Windows Bitmap)
This format enables Microsoft Windows to display images on devices with similar
capabilities in a consistent way. Save pictures in this format if you wish to continue to
process them later under Windows.
BNC connector
Standardized connector with a bayonet socket, used for connecting a graphics board
to a monitor with separate R(ed), G(reen) and B(lue) inputs.
Booting/Booting Up
Starting the computer. There are two types. Warm booting is accomplished by
simultaneously pressing the CTRL/ALT/DEL keys and can occur only when the
computer is running. A cold boot requires activation of the ON/OFF switch.
Brightness
Brightness of an image is determined by the amount of light emitted by it. No light
(black) therefore means 'no brightness', whereas pure white light means 'maximum
brightness'.
Burst mode
Fastest data transfer mode in which a large burst of pure data is transferred in one
block.
Bus master
PCI bus slots must have bus master capability. This means PCI extension boards may
move data very fast via the PCI bus without using the CPU (similar to Direct
Memory Access).
Bus system
System of parallel data lines to transfer information between individual system
components, especially to expansion boards (e.g. PCI bus).