Users Guide

Glossary 173
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).
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