Appendix B Glossary; Appendix B - Glossary; Glossary - Fujitsu 985Tx User Manual

APPENDIX B GLOSSARY

AC Adapter
A device which converts the AC voltage from a
wall outlet to the DC voltage ne eded to power
your computer.
AC-3
A standard for digital surround sound.
Active-Matrix Display
A type of technology for making flat-panel dis-
plays which has a transistor or similar device
for every pixel on the screen.
Auto/Airline Adapter
A device which converts the DC voltage from
an automobile cigarette lighter or aircraft DC
power outlet to the DC voltage ne eded to power
your notebook.
A p p e n d i c e s
BIOS
Basic Input-Output System.A computer pro-
gram and set of default parameters stored in
ROM which tests and operates your computer
when you turn it on until it lo ads your installed
operating system from disk. Information from
the BIOS is transferred to the installed operat-
ing system to provide it with information on
the configuration and status of the hardware.
Bit
An abbreviation for binary digit.A single piece
of information which is either a one (1)
or a zero (0).
bps
An abbreviation for bits per second. Used to
describe data transfer rates.
Boot
To start-up a computer and load its operating
system from disk, ROM or other storage media
into RAM.
L i f e B o o k 9 0 0 S e r i e s f r o m F u j i t s u
Bus
An electrical circuit with at least as many wires
as there are bits in your words which passes
data between the CPU and the sub-assemblies
inside your computer.
Byte
8 bits of parallel binary information.
Cache Memory
A bl ock of m em ory built into the microproce s s or
wh i ch is very mu ch faster to access than your sys-
tem RAM and is used in spec i a lly stru ctu red ways
to make your overa ll data handling time faster.
CardBus
A faster, 32-bit version of the PC Card interface
which offers performance similar to the 32-bit
PCI architecture.
161