Specifications

G-3
Glossary
Plug and Play - A standard developed to ensure
easy installation of peripherals. Theoretically, a
newly installed card automatically configures
itself and works properly without requiring
jumper configuration or device drivers.
POST - An acronym for Power On Self Test. A
diagnostic program which is run whenever the
system is cold booted.
RAM - An acronym for Random Access Memory.
A type of memory used as the “working memory”
of a computer system. See DRAM and SRAM.
ROM - An acronym for Read Only Memory. A
type of memory that retains its data without
requiring power. Once written, it cannot be
modified. See EPROM and Flash ROM.
SCSI - An acronym for Small Computer Systems
Interface. An interface standard used to interface
hard disk drives, removable cartridge drives, tape
drives, and CD-ROMs to the computer system.
SCSI allows multiple, high-performance
peripheral devices to be connected in a chain.
Each has its own address. Data and control signals
are sent along the chain and only the specifically
addressed device responds.
SCSI II - An interface standard that adds features
to the SCSI standard. These include 32-bit data
transfer, command queuing, Fast SCSI, and
support for a wider variety of peripherals.
SCSI III - A proposed standard which supports
transfer rates of up to 40MB/sec.
Serial - A type of data transmission in which the
data is sent one bit at a time over a single wire.
See parallel.
Serial Port - A communications port used to
connect peripherals such as modems and mice.
Setup - A program which allows you to make
changes to the system configuration.
Shadow RAM - A technique used to load a
duplicate copy of BIOS from slower ROM into
faster RAM. This enhances system performance
providing higher access speed to the BIOS.
SIMM - An acronym for Standard Inline Memory
Module. A small printed circuit board containing
memory chips.
SRAM - An acronym for Static Random Access
Memory. A type of memory that can retain data
without requiring a regular clock signal.
Although they are faster than DRAM, they hold
less data and are more expensive.
Synchronous - Protocols that require the clocks
of communicating machines or devices to be
coordinated.
Synchronous Cache - A type of cache that uses a
clock signal to latch the inputs and the data
output. This structure spreads the cache access
across two or three cycles while maintaining a
bandwidth of one access per cycle. Improves
performance by 5-10%.
Terabyte - A measurement for very, very large
storage capacity. One Terabyte is equivalent
one-thousand gigabytes, one-million megabytes,
or 1,099,511,627,766 bytes.
VESA - An acronym for Video Electronics and
Standards Association.
VESA Localbus (VL-Bus) - A high performance
bus designed by VESA. A 32-bit version of the
ISA bus which operates at the speed of the
computer’s CPU. See PCI, EISA, and ISA.
VGA - An acronym for Video Graphics Array. A
standard for monitor displays.
VR - Pentium CPU voltage ranging from 3.300 -
3.465 Volts.
VRE - Pentium CPU voltage ranging from 3.400
- 3.600 Volts.
Warm Boot - Restarting the system by
simultaneously pressing the <Ctrl>, <Alt>, and
<Delete> keys.
Write-Back Cache - Upon a cache hit, the cache
is updated and the main memory is not affected.
Upon a cache miss, only the main memory is
updated.
Write-Through Cache - Upon a cache hit, the
cache and the main memory are updated. Upon a
cache miss, only the main memory is updated.