Specifications

17 January 1997 – Subject to Change
Glossary and Acronyms E–1
E
Glossary and Acronyms
This glossary provides definitions for terms and acronyms associated with the
AlphaPC 164 motherboard and chips, specifically as applied to Alpha architecture.
AlphaPC 164
An evaluation board. A hardware/software application development platform for the
Digital Semiconductor 21164 microprocessor and Digital Semiconductor 21172 core
logic chipset program.
ASIC
Application-specific integrated circuit.
Bcache
Backup cache. On the AlphaPC 164, a board-level L3 cache with a size of between
2MB and 8MB.
BGA
Ball grid array.
BIOS
Basic input/output system. A set of programs encoded in read-only memory (ROM).
These programs facilitate the transfer of data, and control instructions between the
computer and peripherals, such as, ISA devices and the keyboard.
bridge
The circuitry that connects one computer bus to another computer bus and allows an
agent on one bus to access an agent on the other bus.