Appendix B Glossary - Fujitsu FI-6750S 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.
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.
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.
A p p e n d i c e s
Bit
An abbrevi a ti on for bi n a ry digi t . A single piece of
i n form a ti on wh i ch is ei t h er 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.
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 block of memory built into the micro-
processor which is very much faster to access
than your system RAM and is used in specially
structured ways to make your overall data
handling time faster.
L i f e B o o k 6 0 0 S e r i e s f r o m F u j i t s u
CardBus
A faster, 32-bit version of the PC Card interface
which offers performance similar to the 32-bit
PCI architecture.
CD-ROM
Compact disc read only memory. This is a form
of digital data storage which is read optically
with a laser rather than with a magnetic head. A
typical CD-ROM can contain about 600MB of
data and is not subject to heads crashing into
the surface and destroying the data when there
is a failure nor to wear from reading.
CHS Translation
Cylinder, head and sector translation.
Conversion of hard disk access addressing to
the cylinder, head and sector form. The termi-
nology is historical left from the days when data
was stored on a series of cylindrical drums. The
head designates the reading device, similar to
the head on your cassette recorder only mount-
ed on a movable arm. Another addressing
method is LBA.
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