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7. APPENDIX
PCI Bus (Peripheral Component Interconnect Local Bus)
PCI bus is a specification that defines a 32-bit data bus interface. PCI is a standard
widely used by expansion card manufacturers.
Peripherals
Peripherals are devices attached to the computer via I/O ports. Peripheral devices
allow your computer to perform an almost limitless variety of specialized tasks.
POST (Power On Self Test)
When you turn on the computer, it will first run through the POST, a series of soft-
ware-controlled diagnostic tests. The POST checks system memory, the mother-
board circuitry, the display, the keyboard, the diskette drive, and other I/O devices.
PS/2 Port
PS/2 ports are based on IBM Micro Channel Architecture. This type of architecture
transfers data through a 16-bit or 32-bit bus. A PS/2 mouse and/or keyboard may be
used on ATX motherboards.
RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks)
RAID can be set up to provide mirroring (for fault tolerance), parity (for data guard-
ing), or striping (for data distribution over several drives for increased performance).
A RAID card is required to setup a RAID system.
RAM (Random Access Memory)
There are several different types of RAM such as DRAM (Dynamic RAM), EDO
DRAM (Extended Data Output DRAM), SDRAM (Synchronous DRAM).
ROM (Read Only Memory)
ROM is nonvolatile memory used to store permanent programs (called firmware)
used in certain computer components. Flash ROM (or EEPROM) can be repro-
grammed with new programs (or BIOS).
SCSI (Small Computer System Interface)
High speed parallel interface defined by the X3T9.2 committee of the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) for connecting many peripheral devices.
System Disk
A system disk contains the core file of an operating system and is used to boot up the
operating system.
UltraDMA/33
UltraDMA/33 is a new specification to improve IDE transfer rates. Unlike tradi-
tional PIO mode, which only uses the rising edge of IDE command signal to transfer
data, UltraDMA/33 uses both rising edge and falling edge. Hence, the data transfer
rate is double of the PIO mode 4 or DMA mode 2. (16.6MB/s x2 = 33MB/s).
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