HP Vectra Technical Reference Manual page 506

MICKlES: The number of physical coordinates per inch reported by a mouse or other relative
GID device.
Mouse: A GID device that reports relative motion coordinates based on its motion. A mouse
will also report the state of its buttons.
MS-DOS: See DOS.
Multi-Tasking: The ability of a CPU to perform multiple jobs or tasks simultaneously. Multi-
tasking is accomplished by dividing CPU execution time between the different tasks. If this task-
switching is performed quickly enough, the illusion of simultaneous execution occurs.
Numeric Keypad: The keypad containing numeric and modifier keys.
NMI: Non-Maskable Interrupt. This is an 80286 interrupt line used to report system error
conditions. This interrupt is mapped by the 80286 to Interrupt vector 02H.
Operating System: The system software that provides access to system resources for
application programs. The operating system manages input and output, data and program files,
and system memory.
Palette: The set of all possible colors the Video Display Adapter can produce. The Multimode
Video Display Adapter has a palette of 16 colors.
Parallel Port: An I/O port that transmits and receives data a byte at a time. The parallel ports
are typically used to interface to printers.
Parent Driver: A parent driver is called by another driver when the second is unable to perform
a function requested of it. Parent drivers perform higher level or more system software oriented
tasks than their calling drivers.
Physical Driver: A driver responsible for interfacing with the physical hardware.
Pixel: A dot on the screen in the graphics modes.
Polling: The process of periodically determining the status of a device. Polling is used to
determine if peripheral devices have data or are ready to accept data in non-interrupt driven
systems.
Post: Power On Self Test. The POST process is executed each time the system is powered on or
a hard reset occurs.
Processor Interrupts: Interrupts generated by the 80286 processor in response to error
conditions or processor exceptions.
Protected Mode: One of the two modes that the 80286 can operate in. The Protected mode
provides virtual memory addressing, on-board memory management and protection, and task
switching to support multi-user, multi-tasking system software.
RAM
BIOS: The interface between DOS and the ROM BIOS. It is dynamically loaded at system
boot with DOS.
Glossary 497