Users Guide

Glossary 133
mouse
A pointing device that controls the movement of the
cursor on a screen. Mouse-aware software allows you to
activate commands by clicking a mouse button while
pointing at objects displayed on the screen.
MPEG
Acronym for Motion Picture Experts Group. MPEG is
a digital video file format.
ms
Abbreviation for millisecond(s).
MS-DOS
Acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System.
MTBF
Abbreviation for mean time between failures.
multifrequency monitor
A monitor that supports several video standards. A
multifrequency monitor can adjust to the frequency
range of the signal from a variety of video adapters.
mV
Abbreviation for millivolt(s).
name
The name of an object or variable is the exact string
that identifies it in an SNMP Management
Information Base (MIB) file or in a CIM Management
Object File (MOF).
NDIS
Abbreviation for Network Driver Interface
Specification.
NIC
Acronym for network interface controller.
NIF
Acronym for network interface function. This term is
equivalent to NIC.
NIS
Abbreviation for network information system. NIS is a
network naming and administration system for smaller
networks. A user at any host can get access to files or
applications on any host in the network with a single
user identification and password.
NMI
Abbreviation for nonmaskable interrupt. A device
sends an NMI to signal the microprocessor about
hardware errors, such as a parity error.
noninterlaced
A technique for decreasing screen flicker by
sequentially refreshing each horizontal line on the
screen.
ns
Abbreviation for nanosecond(s), one billionth of a
second.
NTFS
Abbreviation for the Windows NT File System option
in the Windows NT operating system. NTFS is an
advanced file system designed for use specifically
within the Windows NT operating system. It supports
file system recovery, extremely large storage media, and
long file names. It also supports object-oriented
applications by treating all files as objects with user-
defined and system-defined attributes. See also FAT
and FAT32.
NTLM
Abbreviation for Windows NT LAN Manager. NTLM
is the security protocol for the Windows NT operating
system.
NuBus
Proprietary expansion bus used on Apple Macintosh
personal computers.
NVRAM
Acronym for nonvolatile random-access memory.
Memory that does not lose its contents when you turn