Quick Reference Guide

Glossary 289
EMM
Abbreviation for expanded memory manager. A utility
that uses extended memory to emulate expanded
memory.
EMS
Abbreviation for Expanded Memory Specification.
EPP
Abbreviation for Enhanced Parallel Port which
provides improved bidirectional data transmission.
Many devices are designed to take advantage of the
EPP standard, especially devices, such as network or
SCSI adapters that connect to the parallel port of a
portable computer.
EPROM
Acronym for erasable programmable read-only memory.
ESD
Abbreviation for electrostatic discharge.
ESM
Abbreviation for embedded systems management,
which is a set of instruction coding in system software
and firmware that notifies a user about potential
hardware problems on a system.
expanded memory
A technique for accessing RAM above 1 MB. To enable
expanded memory on your system, you must use an
EMM. You should configure your system to support
expanded memory only if you run application programs
that can use (or require) expanded memory.
expansion bus
Your system contains an expansion bus that allows the
microprocessor to communicate with controllers for
peripheral devices, such as a network card or an
internal modem.
expansion-card connector
A connector on the system's system board or riser board
for plugging in an expansion card.
extended memory
RAM above 1 MB. Most software that can use it, such
as the Windows operating system, requires that
extended memory be under the control of an XMM.
external cache memory
A RAM cache using SRAM chips. Because SRAM chips
operate at several times the speed of DRAM chips, the
microprocessor can retrieve data and instructions faster
from external cache memory than from RAM.
FAT
Acronym for file allocation table. FAT and FAT32 are
file systems that are defined as follows:
• FAT — A file system used by MS-DOS,
Windows 3.x, Windows 95, and Windows 98.
Windows NT
®
and Windows 2000 also can use the
FAT file system. The operating system maintains a
table to keep track of the status of various segments
of disk space used for file storage.
• FAT32 — A derivative of the FAT file system. FAT32
supports smaller cluster sizes than FAT, thus providing
more efficient space allocation on FAT32 drives.
• FAT16 — A derivative of the FAT file system.
A volume using FAT16 can hold a maximum of
65,526 clusters. FAT16 is used for hard disk volumes
ranging in size from 16 MB to 2,048 MB.
FEPROM
Acronym for flash erasable programmable read-only
memory. Flash memory is a kind of nonvolatile storage
device similar to EEPROM, but the erasing is done only
in blocks or the entire chip.
Fibre Channel
A data transfer interface technology that allows for
high-speed I/O and networking functionality in a single
connectivity technology. The Fibre Channel Standard
supports several topologies, including Fibre Channel
Point-to-Point, Fibre Channel Fabric (generic