31. Glossary

AGP

Accelerated Graphics Port. A bus interconnect mechanism designed to improve performance of 3D graphics applications. AGP is a dedicated bus from the graphics subsystem to the core-logic chipset. here

ATAPI

AT Attachment Packet Interface. A new protocol for controlling mass storage devices similar to SCSI protocols. It builds on the ATA (AT Attachment) interface, the official ANSI Standard name for the IDE interface developed for hard disk drives. ATAPI is commonly used for hard disks, CD-ROM drives, tape drives, and other devices.

ATM

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

CDDA

Compact Disk Digital Audio. Capability of CD-ROM/Writer to read out audio tracks.

DMA

Direct Memory Access

EGA

Enhanced Graphics Adapter

EIDE

Enhanced IDE

EISA

Extended Industry System Architecture

FDDI

Fiber Distributed Data Interface. High-speed ring local area network.

IDE

Integrated Drive Electronics. Each drive has a built-in controller.

ISA

Industry System Architecture

ISDN

Integrated Services Digital Network

MCA

MicroChannel Architecture

MFM

Modified Frequency Modulation

MMX

Multimedia Extensions. Extra instructions meant to speed multimedia.

PCI

Pheripheral Component Interconnect. 32-bit bus designed by Intel. Information can be found here.

RAID

Redudant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks. The basic idea of RAID is to combine multiple small, inexpensive disk drives into an array of disk drives which yields performance exceeding that of a single large expensive drive. There are five types of redundant array Architectures; RAID-1 through RAID-5. A non-redudant array of disk drives is referred to as RAID-0. Some RAID systems can mix formats. (more info)

PPA

Printing Performance Architecture. Protocol developed by Hewlett Packard for their series of Deskjet printers. In essence, the protocol moves the low-level processing of the data to the host computer rather than the printer. This allows for a low-cost printer with a small amount of memory and computing power and a flexible driver. However, this comes at the price of compatibility. HP's decision was to develop drivers only for Windows 95 for this printer.

RLL

Run Length Limited

SATA

Serial ATA. Basically IDE over a much smaller cable. See SerialATA.Org for more information.

SCSI

Small Computer Systems Interface. A standerd interface defined for all devices in a computer. It make it possible to use a single adapter for all devices. (more info)

SVGA

Super Video Graphics Adapter

UART

Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter

USB

Universal Serial Bus.

VGA

Video Graphics Adapter

VLB

VESA Local Bus. Used in some 486 PC's.

WORM

Write Once Read Many

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