Toshiba a500 Series User Manual page 220

A500/A500D series
boot: Short for bootstrap. A program that starts or restarts the computer.
boot disk: See system disk.
bootable disk: See system disk.
bps: Bits per second. Typically used to describe the data transmission
buffer: The portion of the computer's memory where data is temporarily
bus: An interface for transmission of signals, data or electric power.
byte: The representation of a single character. A sequence of eight bits
C
cache memory: A section of very fast memory in which frequently used
capacity: The amount of data that can be stored on a magnetic storage
CD: An individual compact disc. See also CD-ROM.
CD-R: A Compact Disc-Recordable disc can be written once and read
CD-ROM: A Compact Disc Read-Only Memory is a high capacity disc that
CD-RW: A Compact Disc-ReWritable disc can be rewritten many times.
character: Any letter, number, punctuation mark, or symbol used by the
chassis: The frame containing the computer.
chip: A small semiconductor containing computer logic and circuitry for
click: To press and release the pointing device's primary button without
CMOS: Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor. An electronic circuit
Glossary-4
The program reads instructions from a storage device into the
computer's memory.
speed of a modem.
stored. Buffers often compensate for differences in the rate of flow
from one device to another.
treated as a single unit; also the smallest addressable unit within the
system.
information is duplicated for quick access. Accessing data from
cache is faster than accessing it from the computer's main memory.
See also L1 cache, L2 cache.
device such as a floppy diskette or hard disk drive. It is usually
described in terms of kilobytes (KB), where one KB = 1024 bytes,
megabytes (MB), where one MB = 1024 KB and gigabytes (GB),
where one GB = 1024 MB.
many times. See also CD-ROM.
can be read from but not written to. The CD-ROM drive uses a laser,
rather than magnetic heads, to read data from the disc.
See also CD-ROM.
computer. Also synonymous with byte.
processing, memory, input/output functions and controlling other
chips.
moving the pointing device. In the Windows
refers to the pointing device's left button, unless otherwise stated.
See also double-click.
fabricated on a silicon wafer that requires very little power.
Integrated circuits implemented in CMOS technology can be tightly
packaged and are highly reliable.
®
operating system, this
User's Manual