Users Guide

102 Glossary
partition
You can divide a hard drive into multiple physical
sections called partitions with the fdisk command.
Each partition can contain multiple logical drives.
After partitioning the hard drive, you must format each
logical drive with the format command.
PCI
Abbreviation for Peripheral Component Interconnect.
The predominant 32-bit or 64-bit local-bus standard
developed by Intel Corporation.
PCMCIA
Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association. An international trade association that has
developed standards for devices, such as modems and
external hard drives, that can be plugged into
portable computers.
PERC
Acronym for Expandable RAID controller.
peripheral device
An internal or external device—such as a printer, a disk
drive, or a keyboard—connected to a system.
Plug and Play
An industry-standard specification that makes it easier
to add hardware devices to personal computers. Plug
and Play provides automatic installation and
configuration, compatibility with existing hardware,
and dynamic support of mobile computing
environments.
POST
Acronym for power-on self-test. Before the operating
system loads when you turn on your system, the POST
tests various system components such as RAM, the disk
drives, and the keyboard.
pre-operating system environment
A shell environment, such as DOS, used to configure
system hardware before a major operating system, such
as Microsoft Windows or Red Hat
®
Enterprise Linux,
is installed.
program diskette set
The set of diskettes from which you can perform a
complete installation of an operating system or
application program. When you reconfigure a program,
you often need its program diskette set.
PXE
Abbreviation for Pre-boot eXecution Environment.
RAC
Acronym for remote access controller.
RAID
Acronym for redundant array of independent drives.
RAM
Acronym for random-access memory. A system's
primary temporary storage area for program
instructions and data. Each location in RAM is
identified by a number called a memory address. Any
information stored in RAM is lost when you turn off
your system.
RAM disk
A memory-resident program that emulates a hard
drive.
read-only file
A read-only file is one that you are prohibited from
editing or deleting. A file can have read-only status if:
• Its read-only attribute is enabled.
• It resides on a physically write-protected diskette or
on a diskette in a write-protected drive.
• It is located on a network in a directory to which the
system administrator has assigned read-only
rights to you.
readme file
A text file included with a software package or hardware
product that contains information supplementing or