Users Guide

Glossary 127
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.
ERA
Abbreviation for embedded remote access.
ERA/MC
Abbreviation for embedded remote access modular
computer. See modular system.
ERA/O
Abbreviation for embedded remote access option.
ESD
Abbreviation for electrostatic discharge.
ESM
Abbreviation for embedded systems management.
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.
F
Abbreviation for Fahrenheit.
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.
FCC
Abbreviation for Federal Communications
Commission.
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 switching
topology), and Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop (FC_AL).