Dell Precision 620 User Manual page 49

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Glossary: Dell Precision™ WorkStation 620 Systems User's Guide
A • B • C • D • E • F • G • H • I • J • K • L • M • N • O • P • Q • R • S • T • U • V • W • X • Y • Z
A
A
ampere(s)
AC
alternating current
ACPI
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface. ACPI enables operating-system-directed power management rather than system BIOS-directed
power management. In addition, it provides a generic system event mechanism for Plug and Play and an interface for configuration control.
adapter card
An expansion card that plugs into an expansion-card connector on the computer's system board. An adapter card adds some specialized function
to the computer by providing an interface between the expansion bus and a peripheral device. Examples of adapter cards include network cards
and sound cards.
ADI
Autodesk Device Interface
AGP
accelerated graphics port. AGP is a dedicated graphics port that provides a faster interface between the video subsystem and system memory
than a PCI graphics device and allows conventional memory to be used for video-related tasks. The improved interface enables AGP to deliver a
smooth, true-color video image.
application program
Software, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, designed to help you perform a specific task or series of tasks. Application programs
run from the operating system.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A text file containing only characters from the ASCII character set (usually created with a text
® ®
editor, such as Notepad in Microsoft Windows ) is called an ASCII file.
ASIC
application-specific integrated circuit
asset tag code
An individual code assigned to a computer, usually by a system administrator, for security or tracking purposes.
attribute
As it relates to DMI, an attribute is a piece of information related to a component. Attributes can be combined to form groups. If an attribute is
defined as read-write, it may be defined by a management application.
autoexec.bat file
®
The autoexec.bat file (Windows 98 and MS-DOS only) is executed when you boot your computer (after executing any commands in the
config.sys file). That start-up file contains commands that define the characteristics of each device connected to your computer, and it finds and
executes programs stored in locations other than the active directory.
B
backup