Specifications

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Appendix A Glossary
gender When describing connectors for PCs,
connectors are described as male if they have pins
or female if they have receptacles designed to
accept the pins of a male connector.
genlocking The process of aligning the data rate
of a video image with that of a digital device to dig-
itize the image and enter it into computer memory.
The machine that performs this function is known
as a genlock.
Ghost Popular utility program sold by Symantec
that can be used to create a compressed version of a
drive’s contents, which is then cloned to one or
more PCs over a network or via CD storage.
gibi A multiplier equal to 1,073,741,824.
gibibyte (Gi) A unit of information storage
equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes (1,024×1,024×1,024
equals a Gi). Formerly known as a binary gigabyte.
See also gigabyte and kilobyte.
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) A popu-
lar raster graphics file format developed by
CompuServe that handles 8-bit color (256 colors)
and uses the LZW method to achieve compression
ratios of approximately 1.5:1 to 2:1. You can reduce
the size of a GIF file even more by dropping unused
colors from the file.
giga A multiplier indicating one billion
(1,000,000,000) of some unit. Abbreviated as g or
G. The binary giga (1,073,741,824) is now referred
to as a gibi. See also gibi.
gigabit (Gb) A unit of information storage equal
to 1,000,000,000 bits. Usually used in relation to
data transmission speeds, as in gigabit Ethernet,
which transmits one gigabit per second.
gigabyte (GB) A unit of information storage
equal to 1,000,000,000 bytes. The value formerly
called a binary GB (1,073,741,824 bytes) is now
called a gibibyte. See also gibibyte.
gigahertz GHz is used to measure the clock fre-
quency of high-performance processors. The first
1GHz desktop processor was introduced by AMD
(a 1GHz Athlon) in March 2000.
Global Positioning System (GPS) A network
of satellites used by earthbound receivers to pre-
cisely determine geographical location.
Global System for Mobile communications
(GSM) A popular digital cellular voice and data
transmission system.
GPU (graphics processing unit) A 3D graph-
ics chip that contains advanced 3D rendering fea-
tures such as hardware, vertex, and pixel shaders.
NVIDIA’s GeForce 3 and GeForce 4 Ti series; the ATI
Radeon 7xxx, 8xxx, and 9xxx series; and the
Matrox Parhelia series are typical GPUs. See also
hardware shader, pixel shader, and vertex shader.
graphics accelerator A video processor or
chipset specially designed to speed the display and
rendering of graphical objects onscreen. Originally,
accelerators were optimized for 2D or 3D opera-
tions, but all current graphics accelerators, such as
NVIDIA’s GeForce and ATI’s RADEON series, accel-
erate both types of data.
graphics adapter See video adapter.
Green Book The standard for Compact Disc-
Interactive (CD-I). Philips developed CD-I technol-
ogy for the consumer market to be connected to a
television instead of a computer monitor. CD-I is
not a computer system but a consumer device that
made a small splash in the market and disappeared.
CD-I discs require special code and are not compat-
ible with standard CD-ROMs. A CD-ROM can’t be
played on the CD-I machine, but Red Book audio
can be played on it.
GUI (graphical user interface) A type of pro-
gram interface that enables users to choose com-
mands and functions by pointing to a graphical
icon using either a keyboard or pointing device,
such as a mouse. Windows is the most popular GUI
available for PC systems.
half duplex Signal flow in both directions but
only one way at a time. In microcomputer commu-
nications, half duplex can refer to activation of the
online local echo, which causes the modem to send
a copy of the transmitted data to the screen of the
sending computer.
half-height drive A drive unit that is 1.625"
high, 5 1/4" wide, and 8" deep.
halftoning A process that uses dithering to sim-
ulate a continuous tone image, such as a photo-
graph or shaded drawing, using various sizes of
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