User's Manual

Glossary
File format
A specification of how texts, images, etc. are stored in a file.
Depending on the file format, images can also be stored with
alpha channels. Some formats also compress image or music
contents.
File name
The complete designation of a file, consisting of the name of
the file itself and a file extension after the dot.
File type association
A logical connection in Windows between a file extension
and an application. This makes it possible for the associated
program to start automatically when opening a file (by double
clicking it).
Fragmentation
Normally, all data in a file is saved in consecutive clusters on
the disk. But this is only possible when there is sufficient
contiguous free space on the disk. If this is not the case,
individual files are broken up and written to the disk in
individual clusters. Files saved in this manner are called
fragmented files. As the disk’s read head requires more time
to seek all of the individual fragments, the loading of such
files takes longer. For this reason, it is sensible to defragment
your hard disk from time to time so that each individual file is
saved at a single location. This is called defragmenting and
should be completed at least once per month if the computer
is used on a daily basis.
Frequency / clock rate
The frequency of a processor indicates at how many
processing cycles per second it performs its work. The
processor frequency is an important factor in the overall
speed of the computer. The industry has differentiated
between internal and external clock rates since the
introduction of the Intel 486DX2.
The internal frequency, also called the CPU frequency,
designates the speed at which commands are executed within
the CPU. The more megahertz, the faster the CPU.
118 TuneUp Utilities 2004