DEC VAXstation 3100 Owner's Manual page 198

local area network (LAN)
A high-speed communications network that covers a limited geographical area,
such as a section of a bnilding, an entire building, or a cluster of buildings. It is a
privately owned communication network whose speed is upward of 1 megabit per
second.
local area VAXcluster
A group of two or more computers connected by an Ethernet cable or computer-
interconnect. In a LAVc, one computer (the VAXstation 3100 Model 48) serves the
otha: VAXstation 3100 Model 38 systems, starts them, and manages the resources
that they share.
local device
A disk drive, tape drive, or other device that is only available to the computer to
which it is directly connected.
logical link
Two nodes that are able to communicate by means of software regardless of whether
they have a direct ph3rsical link.
magnetic tape
A tape made of plastic and coated with magnetic oxide, used to store data. Also
called magtape.
megabyte (MB)
A unit of measure equal to 1,000 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes.
memory
The area of the system that electrically stores instructions and data, often
temporarily.
memory module
A printed circuit board that contains additional memory for the system.
MIPS
Millions of instructions per second (a measure of processor performance).
Glossary-12