Compatibility Guide

Glossary 101
PQFP
Abbreviation for plastic quad flat pack, a type of
microprocessor socket in which the microprocessor
chip is permanently mounted.
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.
protected mode
An operating mode supported by 80286 or higher
microprocessors, protected mode allows operating
systems to implement:
• A memory address space of 16 MB (80286
microprocessor) to 4 GB (x86 or higher
microprocessor)
• Multitasking
• Virtual memory, a method for increasing addressable
memory by using the hard drive
The Windows NT, OS/2
®
, and UNIX
®
32-bit
operating systems run in protected mode. MS-DOS
cannot run in protected mode; however, some
programs that you can start from MS-DOS, such as the
Windows operating system, are able to put the system
into protected mode.
provider
A provider is an extension of a CIM schema that
communicates with managed objects and accesses data
and event notifications from a variety of sources.
Providers forward this information to the CIM Object
Manager for integration and interpretation.
PS
Abbreviation for power supply.
PS/2
Abbreviation for Personal System/2.
PXE
Abbreviation for Pre-boot eXecution Environment.
QFP
Abbreviation for quad flat pack.
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.
RAMDAC
Acronym for random-access memory
digital-to-analog converter.
RAW
Unprocessed. The term refers to data that is passed
along to an I/O device without being interpreted. In
contrast, cooked refers to data that is processed before
being passed to the I/O device. It often refers to
uncompressed text that is not stored in any proprietary
format. The term comes from UNIX, which supports
cooked and raw modes for data output to a terminal.
RBAC
Abbreviation for role-based access control.
RDRAM
Acronym for Rambus DRAM. A dynamic RAM chip
technology from Rambus, Inc. Direct RDRAMs are
used in systems. Direct RDRAM chips are housed in
RIMM modules, which are similar to DIMMs but have
different pin settings. The chips can be built with dual
channels, doubling the transfer rate to 3.2 GB/sec.